A Merry Christmas

To one and all. 
This is a poor substitute for being able to sit down beside you in front of a warm, crackling fire, glass of something black and smooth in hand, and a long night of gentle chat stretching ahead of us, but the sentiment is the same.
Some day my family and friends, some day...

Birthday Boy II

Somewhere further along times arrow than Cian. Though I think you'll agree that the numbers on the cake* could easily be reversed. 
(Though it is amazing what you can do these days with photoshop).
And yes, I know the picture is dated the 23rd but that is when the cake was baked and there was nobody in the Gaynor-Takahashi household - not man, woman, child or miniature shark - willing to wait for two days to eat it.

 
 * "The Chocolate Puddle" © Sanae. Ingredients are 20 parts chocolate to 1 part everything else. It is banned for being 'deliriously decadent' in pretty much all of the countries between here and Europe.

Birthday Boy

"The big 6...where has the time gone?"

Cian celebrated his 6th birthday earlier this month. He marked the occasion by losing his two front teeth, so had to gum his way through his birthday cake. As is typical here in Japan it was a low key affair; only myself, Sanae and Sanae's mother were present (though, yes, you were all there in spirit).

Families here don't do birthday parties - it is not an established custom and even presents are usually given in the singular. To be honest (and Scrooge like), I quite like this. The time and energy put into birthday parties always strikes me as being disproportionate to the enjoyment derived. And yes, I do conceive of birthday parties as a type of mathematical formula. To wit:

E = PxHxPB(WtI)
                  T

E - Enjoyment
P - Preparation
H - Hassle 
PB - Present Buying
WtI - Who to Invite
T - Time

To make another one of those sweeping generalizations about my adopted country, I think the Japanese tend to avoid birthday celebrations for fear of the offense given should you not invite someone. It is, relatively speaking, fine to invite Cian's 10 classmates from the nursery school...actually, it's not. Ten 6 year olds gathered in our home, sugared out of their young minds, whizzing around like fizzy drink powered small hadrons in our kitchen's version of CERN, sweet Jesus...but should you mad enough to contemplate such a scenario (hello Eimear), then matters only escalate when Cian gets into primary school. Then he'll have 30 classmates and the fundamental laws of physics require that some kids be left uninvited or a giant black hole with be created and the world will cease to exist as we know it.
So who do you spurn? How do you tell those undesirables that they are unworthy of what passes for high society in Muroran? And why would you put yourself in such a position when it is so much easier to maintain social harmony and keep our continuing existence in this world safe?
Which was the course we took with Cian. Plus it meant he didn't have to share his birthday cake with anyone.

Whuuuhhh!!!

Yesterday we got one of those phone calls all parents dread: "Your son is vomiting and has a fever. Can you please come to the school immediately". Panic sets in and mindless of the icy roads we speed to the nursery school. Or at least Sanae did. Despite being literally a three minute quick jog away, Mammy rather than Daddy is the default contact for any Cian related emergencies as (a) she speaks Japanese so understands better than I what is going on; and (b) does panic much better than me. This is important as it is perversely reassuring to the nursery school teachers as it indicates that things are being taken seriously. Daddy, on the other hand, tends to be a little too laid back for local tastes with my 'Arrrah, sure he'll be fine" approach to everything bar a full blown outbreak of ebola virus.
According to Sanae her panic was magnified several times over at the school where a rampant gastroenteritis bug was laying, spectacular, multi-hued rice-and-vegetable waste to a fair share of the kids. Apparently throughout the day the bug had been claiming victim after up-chucking victim. I could write that "the sickly stench of vomit hung heavy over the classrooms", but thankfully I wasn't there, and it's the weekend before Christmas and turkeys need to be stuffed, so I won't write it.
Thankfully Cian woke up this morning a couple of pounds lighter but looking and feeling much better. We have him on a diet of dry toast and bananas for the day and he seems to be responding well, so hopefully by tomorrow he will be back to his usual meals of yoghurt, fruit, jelly beans, cereal, rice and more fruit.

After the hiatus

My apologies: I think three weeks is the longest I have ever gone without posting something and it is a record I am in no rush to break. The past 21 days have been a tad busy in the same way that the Titanic is a tad submerged. We have had Cian's birthday, his school play, a trip to Hong King, a national election, snowstorms and, well, just 'stuff to do'. This blog was part of that 'stuff' but unfortunately it fell into the 'undone' category. However, I am still determined to at least reach 80 posts before the year is out - I was gunning for the ton, but I'm afraid that landmark will just have to wait until next year. Along with the above topics, I will also be regaling you with my as of yet not-very-together-thoughts on:
Our Christmas tree
Japan's demographics (again)
The year in film
The year in books
The year in music
The year in haberdashery
Cram schools (Juku)
When golfers go bad
Japanese pensions - the country for old men
And some other stuff.
The above is a kind of ongoing checklist of potential blog topics. These usually occur to me when I am walking up to the university in the morning and the combination of breakfast fruits and fresh air stimulate all sorts of insightful thinking about all sorts of interesting things. By mid morning my blood sugars plunge and the morning's insights have been dissipated, to be replaced for the rest of the day by an overpowering need to stay warm. 
It was -5 today with a biting wind. That sort of cold seeps into your bones and withers your will to stay conscious. Should this cold spell continue (and it looks like it will last right through the festive season - we may yet have to burn the Christmas tree), then the 80 target may well be cast aside in favour of hibernation.