Five Weeks

That's all the time we have left in Kan'onji, five weeks.

Has it almost been a year already? It seems so. I'm not ready to think about packing and moving yet. Yes, I am a bit homesick and want to go back to the States, but at the same time, there's still stuff that I would like to do here. We haven't made it to Kyoto yet, or the Naruto whirlpool. I have yet to experience an onsen (pregnant ladies aren't allowed, and neither are kids under six years old) or kabuki or karaoke. We have also wanted to explore Kobe with some friends of ours. We've been trying to get together almost since we arrived. It still hasn't happened yet either.

And we don't have a job to go back to, which is kind of scary. I've been looking since September too, when half of Mark's co-workers had to leave Japan because of visa problems and we thought the school was going to financially crash and burn. Mark's been looking since December. There is a Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) job that he may be up for near Osaka, and if we were going to stay, it would be for an ALT because they work in the public school system and have normal 8-5 hours and weekends off. So there is that possibility, but we're not sure how much of a possibility it is. Either way, it still means moving.

Immigration Update

We have a date for Emma's hearing. February 14th. Great day for a hearing, eh?

Mark's boss will be coming with us, so we will have an interpreter with us this time. Cross your fingers that all goes well.

. . . and then we were deported.

No, we haven't been deported, but it seemed like we were going to be for a little while.

What Happened:

Right before Christmas, Mark got a phone call from the Immigration office in Takamatsu. He had no idea what they wanted because the person who called didn't speak English and Mark couldn't figure out what he was saying with his limited Japanese. So Mark's boss contacts them and they tell her that there's a new procedure that we need to go through for Emma. They say that we just need to go down to their office with some documents so they can update their files, or something like that. They there's no rush on it, take on your time. So we do. We have a lot of little day trips planned for after Christmas and New Year's, so we figure we'll stop by on our way somewhere else.

We made it to the Immigration office on the last day of Mark's vacation. But things are not what we expected when we arrive. Instead of waiting in the nice, bright main Immigration office, we're sent to wait in a dark, gloomy corridor by an electronically locked door. There's another family there, so we don't feel that anything is wrong. An immigration officer takes our documents to make photocopies and when he comes back, he leads us to a cold vacant room, with only a table and a couple of chairs in it. We still think things are okay, until he pulls out the "Flowchart for Deportation Procedures."

Wait, what?

Yep. The real reason they wanted us to come in was to inform us that Emma has overstayed her visa and they are starting an investigation against her.

When babies are born to foreigners in Japan, they automatically get a two month visa (which we didn't know)and Emma's expired in August (which we didn't know). We should have gotten her a new one then (which we also didn't know)but we didn't. We weren't able to get all her US documents until September, and you've got to have a passport before you can have a visa. Besides, we spent a lot of time at the city office in Kanonji making sure she had all her documents in order. They told us she was fine, that she didn't need anything else, and we believed them.

Oh, and the officer who is telling us all this, doesn't speak enough English to explain what is going on. The only fluent English speaking officer is out at the airport manning the customs desk. So we've got this guy trying to get us to sign a bunch of forms (all in Japanese) who can't tell us what they're for, and all we know is that its about deportation and Emma.

I had visions of being escorted to a bus with her and made to get on a plane that evening. But, after a few phone calls to Mark's boss, we learned that she was not being deported, only that she is being "investigated". My six and a half month old is being investigated by the Japanese government.

This is only the start of the craziness. We have to go back in about a month for a hearing. They didn't have a date for us, but they will let us know when they schedule it.

We may be able to drag this process out until our contract ends in March, or if we get a new job in the states, we could leave early and avoid it all together. I can't help thinking that this could have been avoided if they had just sent a note in the mail or something. They know she was born. They know what sort of documents she needs and by when. Couldn't that have come in a welcome packet? A sort of "congratulations on being born, here's what you need to stay legal" thing? I would have found that more useful then all the nursing they gave me.

It's not just in the States

Shortly before Halloween I went to the local dollar store to look for some face paint. I didn't find the face paint, but I did find Santa hats and tinsel. There are Christmas lights up in the downtown shopping area, and they've been there for at least two weeks. I haven't heard any Christmas music yet though, but that could be because I don't know what I'm listening to. And for the majority of the Japanese, Christmas is not a big deal. UPDATE: The lights are on and Christmas music is playing.

They're Creeping me Out

They're everywhere.

I knew they were here, but their numbers seem to increased over the past few weeks.

They like to hang out in alleys and gutters and the spaces between the trees. If you're not careful, you could walk straight into one.

Kanonji Matsuri

This past weekend was Kanonji's autumn festival. Almost every weekend in October there is a festival somewhere. The first weekend was Toyohama's. Kanonji's and Siajo's were this past weekend. I'm not sure who's coming up next, but there are still a lot of cities to go. Instead of having a carnival or a fest or Halloween, the Japanese make these large wooden vehicles, with drums, to drive the neighborhood gods around to the city shrine. These vehicles are called chosa, and they are huge! There are several poles that people pull and push them with while others ride in the top, and someone else sits in the middle, drumming. At the shrine there are vendors, with food and toys, and events. Kids get to dress up in kimonos and there have some sort of pageant. We couldn't get a good enough look to figure out what excatly they were doing, but we were more interested in the food anyway. There were candied apples, crepes, corn on the cob, yakitori, taiyaki, squid on a stick, and some other mystery foods. I was not brave enough to try them, but Mark did.

Everybody Loves Her

The Japanese are all about the group. If you're not part of their group, it's possible that they will ignore you. They don't mean to be rude or callous, its just that they don't know how to deal with your foreignness -- unless you're a four month old baby.

Every time we go out, there's at least one person who stops us to chat at Emma, and many more who openly stare. They make clicking noises and call her "Kawaii" (cute). Mostly its the older woman/grandmother type who do this, but tween girls are also likely culprits. One time it was a middle-aged business man. The only age group I've not had any reaction from is the teenage boy.

Last night another grandmother type cornered me in the grocery store while I was looking for a bento for dinner. Is this a common occurrence for people with infants in the States too? Have I not noticed this before because I haven't had an infant before?

But, because I agree that Emma is kawaii, here is some video:

Doctor Frustrations

Last week Emma had her 2 month check up.

We saw a new doctor at a different hospital because our old hospital didn't have a pediatrician who spoke English. When we arrived, we discovered that the specific doctor we were referred to wasn't in, so they found us the next best thing: an older gentleman who knew a few English phrases. She's gotten longer, 57 cm, and appears to be doing well in that category. Her weight is a little on the low side.

During the appointment, I was told to go feed Emma so they could measure how much food she was getting while being breastfed. It took me a while to understand what they wanted me to do too. There were four people in the room, 2 doctors and 2 nurses and they were all talking among themselves, while one nurse held Emma and Mark tried to translate. I image their conversation went something like this:

Doctor 1: We've got the baby's current weight, now we need her mother to feed her so we can get another reading.

Nurse 1: Yes, I agree. Her mother should go feed her now.

Doctor 2: There is a room we have for breastfeeding, she should go there now.

Nurse 1: I know where that room is. If she would stand up and take her baby back, I could show her where it is.

Doctor 1: We really need her to go. We cannot get another weight reading if she doesn't go feed her baby.

The whole time I'm sitting there wondering what the heck is going on and if its really important because not a one of them actually looked at me. Eventually Mark caught enough words to figure out what we needed to do and I left to feed Emma. When I came back and they weighed her again, the doctor concluded that the breastfeeding wasn't working because she had only gained 30 grams after being fed.

What he didn't know, and I wasn't able to tell him, was that she had only fed off of one breast, and that she probably wasn't done with that side either. We were able to tell him that she falls asleep while eating. She was very sleepy at that time too. She gets hungry, eats a bit, falls asleep (even while I'm poking and slapping her), wakes up 10-15 minutes later, and eats again. But we don't know how to explain all of this in Japanese.

The thing that really bothered me though was his advice. "When baby cries, feed her."

Yeah, that's really helpful. Thanks.

My hospital experience

Attitudes about labor are very different in Japan. Before we came to Japan, we took some childbirth classes at a local San Antonio hospital. In it we learned that a woman in labor would have a nurse assigned to her to help her during labor, different labor and delivery positions, and different pain management options. After we arrived, we found another labor and delivery video course online and watched it, so we had some preconceived notions about how we would be treated.

My water broke in the middle of the night. We arrived at the hospital around 6:00 am and the first thing they asked us was if I wanted breakfast. We were surprised because in America, we knew I wouldn't be given anything to eat, only ice chips or water. I declined breakfast because I wasn't sure how long the labor would last, or if I would have to have a C-section or not. Although by the time lunch and dinner came around, I accepted the food.

My labor was long and slow. We were mostly left along in our hospital room, with few visits from different nurses throughout the day. Although we spent a lot of time walking the halls and climbing the stairs, after 8 hours I was only dilated at 1.5. At this point a nurse came to our room to show us some things we could do to help speed up the labor. I expected something involving gravity, more walking or squats or something. Instead, I was told to lay down and the nurse put a large wedge-shaped pillow under my hips and proceeded to show me various stretches and relaxation techniques. In my opinion, this did not help me at all. Every time I laid down, my contractions would slow down and this was no exception. But the Japanese seem to be into relaxation techniques more than drugs. In the delivery room they had a big, flat-screen TV that switched between dolphins or clouds with soothing music. They also did aroma therapy and I got to choose which scents they used. But I was never asked if I wanted pain medications. We practically had to beg for it, which we did around 8:00 pm. After that, things get blurry.

Sometime later that night we finally made it to the delivery room and were allowed to stay. We had gone there a couple of other times but not allowed to stay. This time I was in a wheelchair and my mouth was chattering uncontrollably. Mark had to pick me up and put me in the delivery bed too. I have no idea how long we were there. I know sometime around 1:00 am, Mark called a sister in our ward who knew English to help us with the nurses. We weren't sure what was going on or what their plan for me was. We couldn't get any information out of anyone. What we knew was that we were on time limit. My water had broken around 3:30 am on Thursday morning and if Emma hadn't been born within 24 hours of that, then the risk of infection went way up and it was now 1:00 am on Friday. We didn't know what the doctor had planned if we hit the 24 hour deadline and no one would tell us either. Luckily, by the time Sister T arrived, I was pushing and Emma was born shortly afterwards at 2:26 am.

Now if we had been in the States, we would have stayed for 2 days and been sent home. In Japan, for a normal birth, you stay for 5 days, not counting the birth day. So we arrived there on Thursday, she was born on Friday, and they wanted to keep us there until Wednesday. We managed to get out on Tuesday though.

We did get a lot more attention from the staff after Emma was born though. Every day we had nurses come in to check my vitals and ask me questions and check on Emma too. Mark was able to stay with me at night and we were allowed to keep Emma with us too. They took her away for a couple of hours each day for her vital checks and baths, and then brought her right back.

The oddest thing though was the facial. It was nice and completely unexpected, but a little odd. Have a baby, get a facial.

Sightseeing

The day Emma was born, my mother arrived from the States. She came primarily to help out with the baby, but when you visit a foreign country for the first time, some sightseeing must be done. After I got out of the hospital, we made our plans. (By the way, hospital policies in Japan require that mother's stay for 5 days for a normal birth; 7 if a C-section was required. Given how long I was in labor, and the way they count days, we ended up staying for 6, but more about that later.)


The first place we went was Ritsurin Gardens in Takamatsu. Its a park that had been established by a feudal lord in the 1600s. There are many winding paths, ponds, a tea house, and a folk museum. The fish and turtles love people and will come up to the edge of the ponds to beg for bread. To our surprise, there were a couple of soft shelled turtles in the mix too. I hope you can see him in this picture, his head is more yellow-green and oval shaped then the other turtles.

One soft shell among a bunch of hardbacks.

Marugame Castle is not very far from our church building, so after church ended, we stopped by. The castle is at the top of a very steep hill. At the bottom of the hill is a moat, two large gates, and a courtyard. On the way up the hill are stone walls. At the top are a couple of open courtyards and the castle. Its not very large, but it has a great view. From the top you can see the harbor, the surrounding city, and the mountains. Its a great outpost for spotting incoming raiders.

Mark, Emma, and I in front of the castle.

The last place we went was Shikoku-Mura, an architectural open air museum. Many historic buildings were transferred to Shikoku-Mura for preservation. There are old houses, bridges, storage facilities, lighthouses, boats and more. They also have gardens and an indoor museum (essential to visit because of the air-conditioning, if nothing else).

Because of things like this, we were unable to take our stroller.

We only traveled on days that Mark had off or had a late shift; but, because the Japanese don't think a new mother should do anything for a month after her baby is born, we believe that Emma is the most widely traveled two-week-old on the island.

Adventures in Cooking

What can one do with just a hot plate and a rice cooker? This is a question that been I've been faced with since we've moved to Japan. (Not that I've been doing a lot in the kitchen - Mark loves to cook and I'm not one to tell him he can't; I'm more for baking anyway.) Apparently you can do a lot.

Saturday night was game night with some friends, and game night means goodies. We made a quick stove-top fudge. Marshmallows work just as well as marshmallow cream.

Sunday we had a potluck and we brought BLT pasta salad, which was fabulous.

Monday we made onigiri, which at its most basic, is a rice ball. You can put other things in it, bits of fish or chicken, or veggies, or whatever else you can think of, and wrap it seaweed to make it more exciting.


Yesterday we tried a special regional dish called okonomiyaki. Its sort of like a pancake with cabbage and meat or noodles in it, topped with a BBQ-like sauce and mayonnaise. People put mayonnaise on a lot of things here. Its a very popular condiment. I forgot to take a picture of this, but here's what its suppose to look like. Ours were not that nice looking.


And because Mexican food is extremely hard to come by here, I made tortillas.
Not bad for my first time, eh? I'm sure I'll be making this again, and possibly turning them into chips.

On the ground

Well, here I am at almost 36 weeks; just over 32 days to go until my due date. If I'm anything like the rest of the women in my family, I'll be early though.

All in all, I'd say this has been a pretty easy pregnancy. I haven't had any morning sickness and only some lightheaded-ness and occasional swelling in my feet. Most people haven't even noticed that I am pregnant, until now. Now I'm getting people patting my belly, asking if I'm tired and need to rest, and giving me extra pillows to sit on. Its all very strange, especially the pats on my belly.

The only major difficulty I'm having is getting up and down out of our couch. Japanese furniture is all very low to the ground. The couch is probably 8 inches off the floor, and I either fall into it or kneel down on the floor and roll myself up into it. I feel huge and awkward and ungainly whenever I do this. If we had carpet, I probably would probably just stay on the floor.

What we've been doing

The Internet is alive and well again in our apartment, so I thought I would take a moment and tell you all what we've been for the past few weeks.

We had our first doctor's appointment and we have an English speaking doctor (yeah!). None of the nurses speak English, but with a lot of gestures, we can figure out what they mean. Besides, they do pretty much the same thing that the nurses in the US did. They take my blood pressure, weigh me, and have me pee in a cup, then tell me to wait for the doctor.

The hospital is pretty nice. Everything and everyone is in white though. It makes it think it must be hard to keep clean. In the room with the ultrasound machine, there is a big, flat-screen TV hanging from ceiling for mothers to watch the scan and see their baby's vitals. Its much nicer then the little 4"x4" screen that our doctor in Texas had.

We've also been traveling and seeing some of the sights. In Kan'onji there is a giant coin made out of sand. We don't know why its there, but it seems to be the town symbol. Every year the community gets together to clean it up. They weed it and shovel and rake the sand back into nice sharp lines. We found when they were doing it and went and helped.





There are shrines and temples everywhere. The island we live on, Shikoku, is famous for the 88 temple pilgrimage. There was a Buddhist monk named Kūkai who founded them and if you visit all of them in a year something good is suppose to happen to you. So far, we have visited one, Zentsu-ji; but, it has sand imported from all the other temples, so if you visit it, you can say you have visited all of them. Its also Kūkai's birthplace and there are statues of all 500 of his reincarnations surrounding the grounds.





We've seen a couple of other Shinto shrines in parks too. They don't have big stories surrounding them though. Shrines get built in places where something is considered holy, or invokes awe. There seems to be a lot of them on the mountains.


I love the little carvings and ornaments on the shrines.




And finally, I've finished knitting a baby blanket for Emma.

Anpanman

We went to Takamastu this week to visit the Immigration office so Mark can officially work and we can get our health insurance. We took the train, and on the way we saw the Anpanman train.

Anpanman is apparently a very BIG deal. He is bigger than Pokemon. The train has been on a sort of country tour and we were very lucky to see it.

First Impressions

I've been in Japan for 3 days now (I think, my days are a bit muddled) and so far things are good. We are in a little town call Toyohama, which is not where we expected to be, but it won't be for long. Our apartment was not ready, so we are staying in a part of Mark's boss's family house. Its an old farmhouse that has been added onto for many years. We are in the part that was converted to GEM School when she first started her business. The location has moved, but it is still used as emergency housing for her teachers. There is a bedroom, a kitchen unit, laundry, bathroom, and toilet, just not all in the same section. To get to the toilet or the bathroom - which is literally a bathing room - you have to go through the old school room. The kitchen is just outside our bedroom.

One thing I'm really liking is how all the houses have landscaping. They don't have lawns. Instead, they have trees, flowers and statuary. This is one yard that we pass on the way to the grocery store:

This is a little Buddhist temple that is also on our way. (Its also the weekly garbage drop off.)


Yes, those are little Buddha's wearing capes. This seems to be a common practice.

We are also really close to the sea. I don't think there are any beaches but there is a port. We should still be close when we get to our apartment. I like the idea of being able to walk to the sea every day if I want.