Mihoko -kampai!

Arigatou. Thank you. Namaste. Che-che.

Glad you and Haruka are back, safe and sound.

Mata ne...

Montessori Natsu Matsuri

Yesterday evening there was a Summer Festival at Miki & Sami's school. The girls (including Ericka) had to wear a traditional summer ensemble called, "yukata". There was music, dancing demonstrations by students (and mothers!) and watermelon.

Summer Festivals in Japan are ubiquitous and this was the first of many we will attend. Stay tuned...

More photos from the actual event to come later.

Sam's first day of school!

Sami started her first day at Montessori school this morning! She was very excited. She is in the "Pink Class" 2 days per/week, about 2.5-3 hours each time. Beginning in September she will increase to 3 days per/week.

And beginning next week both girls will be speaking Japanese far more fluently than mama & papa!

Zelvia Soccer Game

We went to a soccer match yesterday afternoon. The team in question, Zelvia, is a local (Machida city) team sponsored by my school and Saturday's game was designated a "Tamagawa match". Recently, the founder's son of my school, Mr. Tetsuro Obara, passed away and the game was played in his memory. Needless to say, there were hundreds of Tamagawa staff and employees present (my colleagues!).

It was a great game, the weather cooperated and Zelvia won! Whoo hoo!

Ice pops

This last week of June here in Tokyo has really started to heat up. I don't even want to imagine what the middle of August is going to be like. Ugghh. At least the ice pops are bringing the girls some temporary relief.

Blonde Monkeys

Hanging around at the local park.

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all the dads and papas we know out there.

Spent a fantastic day with my girls, had lunch at a Mexican restaurant, rode the trains, played and laughed. The fact that we were all in the same country again was the best thing I could (and did) wish for (many times).

iPhone photos

Just playing around with the camera feature and some photo editing apps.

Run Sami, run

Trying to prolong their jet-lag before dinner. The rain stopped, albeit briefly, for a quick play outside.

Weee'reee baaaack!

My girls and lady returned to our life in Tokyo after 3 months of being apart. All is well in the world again...

Thank you from the bottom of my heart to the grandparents for taking good care of these loved ones.

How do you eat an elephant?

One bite at a time.

That was the mantra I kept repeating over and over again in my head last Sunday during my first-ever century ride. 105km. total in about 6 hours.

A colleague and I had been planning this for about a month and I was "training" for it, well, at least until rainy season here in Tokyo decided to arrive 3 weeks early. As the appointed day approached, and I was losing precious afternoons to get my legs and lungs ready due to downpours, I began to have a few doubts. However, rainy days are very good for reading. So I picked up a story (true) about a middle-aged father who decides to hike all 54 of the Colorado mountains over 14,000 feet. On one hike the author's hiking partner is a man from South Africa, where, according to the story, the above mentioned riddle about an elephant is a popular proverb often quoted when confronted with a challenge.

So, last Sunday, as I began the dreaded, long, 10km. uphill grunt, the pachyderm proverb popped into my head.

And I did it. Very good ride, traffic a bit annoying in places, but otherwise something I would happily consider doing again.

Thank you, Brad and Yamamoto-san, otsukaresamadeshita!

Alcide F. Cote

My grandfather's name (on my father's side).

I was having a lovely mid-afternoon Spanish-style lunch yesterday afternoon with a wonderful Spanish-Japanese family we know, when my grandfather "entered" the conversation.

In between the olive oil-drenched tomatoes, green olives, sauted clams, prociutto & cream pasta and grilled prawns (did I mention the chilled white Spanish wine?), the conversation turned to finding a "foothold" in the world. One of the lunch guests, now stationed in Japan for the U.S. Navy, remarked that after his tour was finished his plan was to enroll in a culinary school. And that's when beloved Grampa sprang to mind. I told my hosts and other attendees, that my grandfather used to always say, "Everyone's gotta' eat and everyone needs to have a ditch dug, so you might as well learn to cook". I am paraphrasing, of course, but you get the idea. He would always imply, when given the opportunity, that the 1 constant in this world is the fact that everyone has to eat, and it sure as hell beats digging ditches! He and his wife, my grandmother, were die-hard, Vermont bakers for 50+ years.

Here's to your morning doughnut Grampa and Grammy Cote.

Wash yer' money

A good friend (and colleague) lives in a beautiful, very historic part of Japan called, Kamakura. And for as long as either of us can remember, we've been promising to meet up in his home town to hang out. Well, since recently I have no family, no life, I decided to make good on our promises this Golden Week holiday.

Yesterday I took a very scenic train to Kamakura where I met Mr. Kat and Mr. Ryoji. We had a nice Italian lunch and then Mr. Kat toured us around some of the sights. The highlight was visiting a temple/shrine where tradition holds that you wash your money in a sacred spring, in a sacred cave no less and the reward being that once you spend it, it will be returned to you many times over. I'm all for that. Cheap investment.

Then we purused a small but beautiful pottery shop, checked out a bike store and even found a few minutes to toast Mr. Ryoji's birthday on a side street at a "stand-up bar".

Happy Birthday, and cheers gentleman!

80 clicks

Logged my longest single-day ride today. 80 kilometers round-trip from my apartment to the ocean at Enoshima beach. I really wasn't actually planning on going the whole way. When I finally stopped for an onigiri and realized that I was really quite close, I figured why not. Fitting as today is Friday, Golden Week is coming to a close this weekend and I have to work tomorrow anyway.

sorry, no photos.

Tutor

So the saying at Tower Records goes like this: "No music, no life." I, being newly single, have another: "No family, no life."

With this in mind I recently took a job as a private tutor. Turns out the guy I'm tutoring is the head coach of the Japanese National Soccer Team. I met him for the first time today, nice guy actually, and yes he's famous. As we were getting ready to leave our table at the Prince Hotel in Shin Yokohama (ooh la la), he donned a pair of dark shades and allergy face-mask, "my disguise", he said. And sure enough, the few other patrons in the cafe dropped their jaw and stared as we left.

Nonetheless, I would vastly prefer to have my family back...

Earthquake, Tsunami & Nuke Refugees

Well, in a manner of speaking, yes. Of course, not even a smidgen of the pain, misery and upheaval that the poor souls of Tohoku have gone thru and are still going thru, but at least I've got your attention.

"Ganbare Nihon!"

Most of the "audience" for this blog is family and everyone in that category is pretty aware of our situation at the moment. However, there are lots of friends who may be wondering what the hell happened. So, I am here to update you.

On March 11th, at 2:45pm, Japan was hit by one of the largest earthquakes in history. The tsunami that resulted and the on-going nuke crisis has made enough headlines so that I doubt there's anyone in the dark about that. On that particular day, I was in my office at the jr. high school. Ericka and the girls were (luckily) outdoors at a park. Ericka had just picked Miki up from school and they were "having a play" when you know what rattled the globe.

Back in my office, it took a few seconds for me to realize that we were experiencing an earthquake. For those of you familiar with earthquakes, you hear them almost always before you feel them and the same was true for me on this day. When the various rattlings in the office didn't stop after 30 seconds or so (a loooong time when talking about earthquakes, believe me) I decided to stop what I was doing and reach for our standard-issue emergency hard-hats. By the time it took for me to make that decision and actually grab the helmet and put it on my head, the shaking intensified tremendously. By now, a bit more than a minute had passed and the large, concrete building in which I worked literally "groaned". I don't know how else to describe it. At that moment only one other colleague was in the office with me and we looked at each other and ran for the door.

The jr. high school where I used to work (I've since been promoted to a University position, but that's another story) is actually 2 buildings connected by an enclosed, steel & glass "sky bridge". The exit I came out of (my office was on the ground floor) was immediately beneath said sky bridge and I will never forget how it "convulsed" and rattled. I remember watching it for a few brief seconds and thinking, 'Wow, that thing is not the least bit flexible'. Unfortunately at that moment, passing beneath the rigid, clanking structure was the quickest path to safety, clear of the bricks, glass and any other debris that might decide to come down. I took a breath and bolted under it and beyond into our school courtyard. Not the brightest thing to have done in hindsight, but it's pretty amazing how fast you can run in certain situations. Even for someone like me who only runs if chased.

So now, I would guess about 2 - 2.5 minutes had passed and here I stood in the brick courtyard, trying to calm down and focus. It was only after I stopped running and came to a stop did I realize that the intensity had increased further so that it was actually hard to stand up. The ground and everything in my immediate line of sight undulated. A few cars were parked in the courtyard where I stood and the rear of the smaller ones bounced. With all the movement, shaking and noise, it was easy to visualize the "ripples" charging thru the earth I stood on. Absolutely surreal. I will never forget the sights nor the sensations.

Anyway, our school evacuation protocol taught us to gather on the large sports field for just such emergencies so that's where I and dozens of others started to run to. I should note that on March 11th there were, relative to a "normal" school day, very few students on campus. There were in fact no classes at the elementary school, the jr. high or the high school that day. Thank you for small favors. By the time I reached the sports ground and found groups of colleagues and friends wandering around in disbelief, a full 4 - 4.5 minutes had passed and only then did that initial quake beging to subside. Not only was it massively severe, but it had a frightening duration. All cellphone reception was down. It was quite chilly that day and for a while nobody knew what to do.

At any rate, about 2.5 hours after the earthquake hit, I told my supervisor I was riding my bike home to check on my family. ALL train lines in Tokyo and beyond that day came to a screeching halt and did not resume service until the next day. Chalk-up another benefit to living close to your place of employment.

When I got home I found Ericka and girls in their bicycle helmets locking the apartment door and heading downstairs. Nobody wanted to be inside that night. Thankfully, all of us were safe. We walked to the corner grocery store, got some food (and beer) and then returned to our apartment to check on friends. It was only later that night that we heard about the tsunami and the horrific video footage that accompanied it. As for the nuclear crisis, that didn't become apparent until the next morning. That night we all stayed dressed in our street clothes. I think Ericka and I got about 3 hours sleep.

So, the conclusion: As the nuclear nightmare began to grow and feed off the frenzy over the next couple of days, we bought plane tickets for San Francisco and flew out of Tokyo at midnight on March 17th. We spent about a week with relatives and friends in San Francisco, watching the situation from afar, waiting and pondering. When it didn't look like promising the decision was made to fly Ericka and the girls to Vermont to stay with the grandparents. I stayed behind in California for a few more days and mulled my options. As I mentioned above, I was recently promoted, and since my University was sticking to their original Spring Semester schedule, I had a tough choice to make. On March 30th I flew out of San Francisco back to Tokyo. I arrived on the afternoon of March 31st and began work the next day on April 1st.

And here I am now. The family are still in Vermont, all is well with them. My job is going great and the nuclear situation has not worsened for residents of Tokyo. It is lonely, to be sure, but Ericka and I both know that, for now, this is the best arrangement. I have the month of August off and I will fly back east to see them. At that time Ericka and I will reassess the situation and make another decision for the fall. I am obligated to serve out my academic year and if I must return alone in September, I am prepared to.

I can't thank my mom and dad, Mel and Greg, Uncle Junior and George, Liz and Jan enough for their support, love and gracious hospitality to my family and I at this time in our lives. It has been traumatic for all of us and without our families it would have been near impossible to come thru unscathed. Thank you all, we love you.

I will keep you posted...

Fleeing Tokyo

As explained above ("Earthquake...Refugees" post), we fled Tokyo on March 17th at midnight. That previous posting explains the situation and events that led to these photos. Basically, a quick look at our 12 hours waiting for our flight in Haneda Airport.

Despite the laughs and cheery nature of the faces in the photos that follow this entry, for the adults in the group at least, this was a difficult time. Ericka and I had recently decided to flee Tokyo because of the nuclear situation in Fukushima and these photos are of that time, while staying with my Uncle Junior and Sir George in downtown San Francisco, California.