Back to work and MJ’s b-day and… (mega post)

Gonna try to get most of this writing done while I’m on break or riding home tonight because Homefront arrived this morning and I’d like to get a bit into that tonight after I get home. Feels super cold today, almost feels like it could snow and I shoulda worn long johns…

Anyway, I went back to work on Friday finally and only had a few classes. I was only one of two teachers at the school (Shinjuku) that didn’t decide to escape Tokyo/Japan in a panic. It was kinda nice and when I got home I actually felt a bit like things had finally gotten back to normal. Saturday was a nearly full day. After work I headed not home, but to Ikebukuro to stay at the folks’ house because we’d decided (because of train situation) to have MJ’s birthday party there (even after the parade out front was canceled) and mornin thought it would be easier to do all the preparations if we stayed over. The evening was uneventful if I remember correctly except that when our futons were brought out, along with their dust, I started to have allergy attacks. No good. I ended waking up around three because I couldn’t breathe and had to get out of the house. I ended up never going back to sleep. I stayed outside the rest of the morning walking around and taking pictures:

I came back in after the wife got up and hung out, took a couple pictures of MJ sleeping:

but still had to leave the house every so often because my allergies would come raging back. Finally the boy woke up:

He was looking good! Everyone else got up (or at least came down) and everyone got down to business, cleaning and cooking and playing and such:

Eventually I had to leave to meet Melvis at the station and to pick up the cakes. When we got back to the house everyone was there and the living room was packed:

K-chan was there too! I’d been looking forward to seeing her very much since I missed her birthday party last month and hadn’t seen her since new year’s but she’d forgotten me so it wasn’t until much later that I could get close to her and get a picture:

Next was lunch maybe and here’s a picture of the boy with avocado on his nose and a whole strawberry crammed in his mouth:

After lunch it was time for 一升もち and MJ did pretty well. He’s had a lot of walking practice and I think it helped because he already knows how to maintain his balance fairly well. He was able to take several steps and even get up after falling but it was a struggle, 1.8kg (about 4lbs) strapped to his back! He did well but I didn’t get any good pictures because I was trying to take a video (which wasn’t very good either) so I hope we can get some from the others there:

After that it was time for presents and MJ got a sweet music set and a bunch of great clothes, thanks everyone!

After presents we busted out the cake and tried to recreate the wife’s and my first birthday pictures (which we didn’t bring so had to try from memory). They turned out pretty decent (thanks melvis for the second one):

We hurried through the cake because MJ was ready for a nap, his cousin patted his head:

That was mostly it, I had to leave the house several times throughout the day to get some fresh air (especially after the windows were shut) and finally we took a group picture:

We headed home and Melvis came over, I was so beat after having been up since 3am but we played a couple games, had dinner and then it was time to crash. I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t breath again (last night too) because of allergy-residue I think. We’ll see how tonight goes.

Woke up and spent most of Monday walking around with Melvis, doing a bit of shopping, had lunch and I spent a long time trying to go through pictures and videos (like I said last night). That was mostly it. Also took maybe my favorite picture of the boy ever:

Sweet, think I’m mostly done, just had a no-show and a cancel so I had some time to write this, should be able to add the pictures fairly quickly tonight so games are a go!

Still having something  PTSD-like happening, feel like earthquakes are happening all the time and it sucks. I’m sure there are tons of people around here that feel the same thing. It sucks and I wish it would stop. It’s definitely reduced in frequency lately but every aftershock seems to kick it back into gear. Wish it would stop.

Anyway, I wanna wish a happy birthday to my baby boy, he’s come a long way in the past 12 months! It’s been a long year for we first time parents, learning new lessons through trial and error every day.  It’s been a fast year watching home much a little baby can change from day to day…

The wife had made a display of pictures in the living room covering those 12 months for the party but because of the earthquake and still somewhat uncertainty of the trains we had the party in Ikebukuro so no one got to see it. So I made a quick video of the pictures she chose, here it is:

Happy birthday boy!

3/11 earthquake and on.

edit: my office is closed again today. also, the morning blackout didn’t happen but the second scheduled one is coming up in about 35 minutes.

It’s been a long three days.  And I’m one of the fortunate.  We didn’t experience any loss in out family or property. One of our friend’s lost his 自家 in 仙台 but his family, luckily, were safe.  Going back to work tomorrow is the plan so far (although I have yet to confirm if my train will be running at all times tomorrow, 検討中 now). We are scheduled for two periods of blackouts here in 朝霞 tomorrow: 6:20-10:00 and 12:20-16:00.  I’ll be home and probably asleep for most of the first one but the second one is scheduled right for when I’ll be heading in to 池袋 (which isn’t scheduled for a blackout tomorrow).  Hope it all goes smoothly and the wife doesn’t have any trouble here with the boy while I’m gone.

In the past week, first because I couldn’t speak and second because of the earthquake, I’ve been able to spend a lot of time with my wife and son and it’s been great.  I feel like I’ve gotten the chance to get really close to MJ especially and I’m gonna miss that now that I will be going back to work on a regular schedule. I’m just very, very glad they are both OK.

Friday. 3.11

I went back to work for the first time in nearly a week and although I was still not at 100% it was time for me to at least try to get back to normal.  Before my first lesson I learned that my second, a level check student, had canceled and I was a bit relieved.  My schedule was jam-packed and I was going to have 11 students between 1:00 and 9:00. My voice was a little shaky during the first lesson so I was pretty worried that I might not make it through the day. 2nd lesson, same thing. Then, during my third lesson of the day, about a quarter of the way through I noticed we were having an earthquake.  It was pretty small at first and after I mentioned it was an earthquake, my student said she thought it was just a train. However it got stronger and stronger and so after a bit I suggested getting under the table so we did.  I’ve been in many earthquakes in the many years I’ve been in and out of Japan and back home in Washington and California but this was by far the strongest and longest I’d ever experienced.  It just seemed to go on for minutes.  We were on the fourth floor of the building, an old building, so the shaking was pretty strong but nothing came crashing down and once it had finished the only things that had been toppled were the books on my desk.  The student and I fixed them back up and went out into the lobby to talk to the other teachers, student and staff. We decided we should probably head downstairs when we saw that other offices were so I grabbed my bag and we all headed out to the front of the building. I tried to contact the wife. Nothing. Tried to contact MJ at his grandparents’. Nothing.  I tried and tried and tried. Nothing. None of our phones worked and eventually we went back inside when we felt things were maybe finished.  Once we went back we were trying to decide what to do when another quake hit and we grabbed our stuff again and headed out.  This time we went far from the building to an open area (not easy to find in Shinjuku) where we waited for some time.  The whole time I was trying to contact the wife and boy but nothing.  Eventually we headed back towards the office and went by the station to see if we could get any info about trains for us or for our students.  We got the station about an hour and fifteen minutes after the first earthquake and of course, nothing was moving and didn’t seem like it would for some time. Finally we made one last trip to the office so the receptionist could close up properly and we were done for the day. 2.25 lessons for me in a week.  My next priority was to get to Ikebukuro and my son as soon as possible.  I’d continually been trying to reach him and his mom for some time and finally, through Facebook, I was able to reach mornin and find out that she was OK and so was he.  Thank God for Facebook.  And Twitter.  When no phone functions worked, the internet still worked and I could get all kinds of info.  I first learned of the magnitude and location from friends’ posts on Facebook.  Who knew they had real merit?  Anyway, I was off to Ikebukuro.  There were tons of people watching news videos on the big screens of the Labi in Shinjuku as I went by. I walked my ass off and made it in about an hour and a half (didn’t actually take note of the time but I’d guess it was around there) and I passed tons of people out in the streets doing the same thing with the trains all stopped.  I got to the in-laws’ as the sun was coming down and the boy was in good health and good spirits.  Everybody was OK.  I was worried because they live in an old house but it seemed like only a few objects had shifted around up on the 2nd and 3rd floors and that was about it. We spent the rest of the day watching the news until around 9 or so when the wife finally arrived after having walked 13 km and about 5 hours from Gotanda with her sister and two employees from their office. お疲れ様! We put MJ to bed and just watched and watched the news all night.  I learned that my school was going to be closed again on Saturday because the trains were still all stopped and no one could locate the boss either (he was finally reached Saturday night and OK).

Saturday/Sunday.3.12-13

Woke up early after a pretty poor night of sleep at the folks’ place.  MJ slept best of all.  Eventually we made it back home and at our place there was very little that had been disturbed.  Lucky.  We spent the day watching more and more news, as we have today, and trying to prepare everything in case anything else happens. We’ve basically lived in the living room the past two days. Of course soccer was canceled today which is a sad occurrence but not really anything in the bigger picture.  All the numbers and facts and speculations that are flying around about what happened and the many lives lost, the thousands and hundreds of thousand of people homeless and missing and displaced is just too much to even begin trying to talk about.  I’m very thankful that we made it out OK.  All our family is safe.  Don’t know what will happen tomorrow but we are fortunate.

Well, there it is. I’m tired. We’re pretty well prepared for the blackouts tomorrow. Still lots of aftershocks even now… I need sleep. Hope you and yours are safe. Here’s a shot I took tonight at sunset, it was pretty.

池袋

I took my camera to work today in hopes of taking some decent pictures.  I didn’t end up having as much time as I’d like to have had and when I got home I was also pretty underwhelmed by what I had. Not that the pictures themselves were so poor, it was more that they were just not interesting for the most part.  Maybe I’ll go out with the lady tomorrow for a photo walk if we have time.  I gotta get to work on my visa renewal though…

the plum blossoms are coming out…only one from the evening…