Brad loves this photo, for obvious reasons. This and other photos are now available from my jukai ceremony.
There is also a video. But this is just the end of the ceremony, it doesn't show the part where Brad goes "Do not live by selling liquor...didn't even know her!"
Also note that we are so amazingly serene, holy, enlightened beings we had to...use the script. Because Brad had never done the ceremony before and I'd only seen it once.
Had to teach at honbu in the afternoon, so went with the ladies to Mitsukoshi to do some shopping in the am. We had lunch in the lobby of the Manadarin Oriental next door. A truly inspiring buffet, and we even saw a famous Japanese dude.
There is an overflow tank underneath the bathtub, in case anything starts leaking. Well, the overflow tank (which holds several hundred liters) overflowed, thus the wet carpet. The water also leaked out into the other two rooms, soaking the tatami floor and parts of the closets.
They have now ripped out all the carpet, removed all the tatami, cut a whole under the sink and smashed a hole in the bathroom, drained out all the water, and set fans and dehumidifiers all over the apartment.
They now have to call in the marble specialist to remove the entire bathroom wall, pull out the bathtub itself, completely drain the overflow tank, remove and replace all the piping, and rebuild the apartment.
Suffice to say that for the time being we are living in a furnished apartment conveniently located between the Tokyo American Club, the USA Embassy and the Russian Embassy, in a lovely 3 bedroom in a tower from the seventies call The Mansions.
So not sure if I'll be making it to the retreat at all this year...
| Runny Nose Snot Matrix | ||
|---|---|---|
| Color of Snot | → | Diagnosis |
| clear | → | allergies |
| yellow | → | cold |
| any other color | → | alien implant in brain has ruptured |
This is how we kills two birds with one stone: gotta defrost the frozen sausage for dinner, and gotta keep Tonchan cool to fight her fever. So: we strap the frozen sausage onto the baby!
So this little monster is all grumpy and fidgety, not really eating, crying alot more than usual. About midnight she just won't sleep and she's warm. Really warm. P took her temp and it was 39C!
So this morning we took her to the hospital and the doctor said she's got a cold! It could turn into something slightly more serious but even then it's no big deal. Good timing to get sick on a three-day weekend; we're all gonna just hang out and stay cool.
Schedule in NYC went something like this:
wake up, breakfast, office, lunch, meetings, dinner, tv.
Managed to have greasy Chinese food, killer Italian, 4 slices of Two Boots Mr. Pink, and a lobster at Black Pearl with Lee and Chaziness. The lobster was aggressive and fought valiantly, but in the end it died in gastronomical peace.
And now I'm in the lounge in JFK waiting to go home!
Riding the lady bugs in the park with Corr and Maia.
Took the girls to the park and waited for Jenn and Peter (and dog Teddy.)
At the park not only did they have the new super-safe squishy floor and lots of cool jungle jim equipment, but they also supplied these most excellent heavy duty earth moving shovels. I quickly mastered the complex manual operations and proceeded to dig so effectively I managed to relocate the entire park 37 meters to the southwest.
After such hard labor we had lunch and then goofed off for a bit. When I came back, the ladies was sliding down the stairs nekkid, so Jorge and I went up the street for some take out Chinese. Ah, the magical joy that is sweet and sour pork!
I think I've blogged this before, but I miss my daughter and I love this photo because it really shows how much she appreciated me.
The Tonchabeast when hungry cannot be easily sated! Combine a months-old habit of eating paper with the ability to sort of crawl and add a low bookshelf of kids books. The results are books all over the floor and a mouthful of soggy paper.
And of course the book is her favorite and mine: Where the Wild Things Are. Wild Things indeed!
Happy birthday to me! Mama sent me this awesome t-shirt. And P got me some great books including Oh Daughter! and Crazy Festivals of Japan.
Parenting is War. One of the many battles I lose: feeding. The Tonchabeast will not be sated. The Tonchasaurus will not be pacified. The Tonchalizer will not be satisfied.
I am entirely unclear as to how she managed to get food onto her eyebrows. Nevertheless, she ate everything (excluding the bits spread all over her face, arms, clothes, table, high chair, and floor.)
Many nefarious dealings with The Shady in town, so after multiple debauchery nights, we required some quality seafood and fried chicken. A final bowl of salty sea slug finished off the evening meal before several bottles of champagne down the road.
A good time was had by all.
The taikai was a raging success. 250 competitors and the foreigners put in a strong showing. There was a big Italian/Belgian showing this year, and the son of the sensei in Rome won the 2dan division, Brian took the 3dan division, and Elvis took it home for 4dan. Considering I seriously have not trained for a year, I did okay. Won my first two rounds, then lost to Tominaga, whom I beat last year for the championship. But he ended up losing to Hoshina who took the top spot. That makes two for her, one for me, and two for him. So I better get back into shape for next year!
After the taikai we devolved into the standard debauchery.
P was at her junior high school reunion in Ginza, so the Tonchabeast and I took the bus back to Azabujyuban, had some chili at Cravings, and then walked home. As we passed Zenpukuji, there were little kids everywhere dressed for the summer. Must have been some elementary school kids' Tanabata special or something, because all the local teachers were dressed up in yukata as well and the kids were writing their wishes on colored paper and tying them to the tree set up just for that purpose.
Took Eimisho out for sushi to thank her for writing my mu. We went to Rokuroku on the 6th floor of the Grand Hyatt in Roppongi Hills. Confusing building; when we got off the elevator we were in the Oak Door restaurant and had to walk past the bar and across the balcony seating to get to the sushi place. And of course no signs. I seriously think Roppongi Hills was specifically designed to confuse the hell out of you. But damn the sushi was fine!
A proper photo of the mu displayed in the tokonoma at home. All bow down to Boba Fett!
Tonchan had some friends over to celebrate their collective 6 month birthdays. Actually it was more an excuse for moms to congratulate themselves on surviving, and for the dads to congratulate moms for surviving.
Went to Dorobushi for lunch and had the madly delicious pork, pork, and natto. P got the veggie special. Then we walked up to Omotesando to check out Suruga Isho, which was having a sale. Chatted with the architects about possibly building a custom TV stand book shelf thingie...mmm, custom furniture...
Eimi-chan, whom I work with, has been doing Shodo (calligraphy) for 20 years. When I told her I had a tokonoma (display area) in my new place that needed a kakejuku (hanging scroll), she wrote this mu for me.
Mu is the first character in Mugairyu, and it means nothingness. Ooooh, deep...
