Half-remembered

For the past couple of weeks I've had lots of stories and rhymes from my childhood pop into my head, but I'm having trouble remembering the complete stories. Things like Are you sleeping? and Where is Thumbkin? are no problem. But there's this book that I used to read, and have my mom read to me, all the time that I can't completely remember and I don't have a copy of it. It's called Hand, hand, fingers, thumb. It is a Dr. Seuss book about monkeys who bang on drums (dum ditti dum ditti dum dum dum) with their thumbs. Its got a great rhythm and fun pictures.


We also had a lot of records when I was a kid. We had things like Tina the Ballerina, Peter Pan, The Care Bears and a lot of read a-longs like The Hobbit and The Empire Strikes Back. One of the records had Tom Thumb on it. Near the end, after Tom makes friends with the local king, he gets in an epic fight with a spider. Tom fought the spider with his sewing needle sword, but alas, although he defeated the spider, he was mortally wounded and died soon after. The best part of the story was the narration of the battle. It went something like this:
'Ug,' said the spider and 'Ah,' said Tom.
'Ug,' said the spider and 'Ah,' said Tom.
'Ug,' said the spider and 'Ah,' said Tom.



I wish I still had these, but they were probably given away to DI (Deseret Industries) a long time ago. Does anyone else remember these stories?

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.

Introductions

This is Emma Katara. She was born on June 17, 2011.



Some of her favorite things to do are eat, sleep, and make funny faces. She is still getting used to the world, but her parents are helping her with that.

Shoes

Does anyone else remember when they could take their laced-up shoes on and off without undoing the laces? I know I did that when I was a child, and it would annoy my mother. I'm not sure when I stopped doing this, but the ability has apparently left me, and I would love to have it back.

One of the most well known traditions in Japan is the taking off of shoes whenever you enter a building. Thankfully, this is not done everywhere - many businesses don't ask you to do this - but it something you do when you visit someone's house or enter a school. There are some places in the hospital where you cannot wear shoes and some places where you can.

My casual, outdoor shoes are a pair of sneakers, with laces. I can still see my feet, but bending over to tie up my shoes is not an easy thing. As most pregnant women will tell you, bending over to get/do anything off the ground becomes a task of epic proportions. Which is why I wish I could still take my shoes on and off without undoing the laces.

What I've been reading

As you might imagine, there are not a lot of English language books here in Japan. We did get library cards, and the library has maybe 30 books in English, most of which are criticisms on Shakespeare or D.H. Lawrence, but I have been picking up some children's picture books to help me with my Japanese. I'm starting to be able read simple words in katakana, but I don't know what all the words mean.

But I'm not completely cut off my regular supply. My Texas library card is still good and I've been using it to download ebooks and audiobooks. The selection is not as vast as it is in print, but I'll take what I can get. So here's a few titles that I've been reading:

The Temeraire Series by Naomi Novik. Read by Simon Vance. This is a historical fantasy series that takes place during the Napoleonic Wars. There's no magic or elves or anything like that, but there are dragons. In addition to land and sea troops, there are also air troops that ride dragons. The dragons are intelligent and bond to their captains when they hatch. The series follows Temeraire, a rare Chinese Celestial dragon who was captured by the British when he was an egg, and his captain, William Laurence. Simon Vance's voice enhances the story perfectly. He puts just enough emotion in his narration to keep you listening, but doesn't betray the sober, duty-bound British officer persona of the time period.

A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin. This series has gotten a lot of attention lately because of HBO's adaption, but its been on my to-read list for about a year. I'm about halfway through. Each chapter is from another character's point of view, and I think that http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifthehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gify are "good guys". The reader is not allowed to see what the real villains are doing or thinking. At least, that's my theory at the moment. We'll see if that's the same when I finish.

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater. Read by David LeDoux and Jenna Lamia. This is another one that I'm in the middle of. There are wolves in the forest that appear every winter and disappear every summer. Grace has been fascinated by them since she was 11 years old. Sam is a wolf every winter and a human every summer. He has also been fascinated with Grace. Now in high school, tragedy has allowed them to finally meet, but has also brought anger and fear to the wolves that threatens to destroy them all. The chapters alternate between Grace and Sam, and I'm enjoying Jenna Lamia's narration, but David LeDoux does not sound like a teenage boy to me, so I'm having a harder time paying attention to his chapters.