Just Born

One gets you Two

My wife, just back from two months in the hospital and very heavily pregnant. I didn't know how long I would have her at home for, so dashed her outside for a few snaps that I might not be able to get tomorrow.

I was looking for something to complement her nice round belly, and that would also suggest the forthcoming parenthood. I chose this shot because of the natural low light feel, and because she just looks so damn happy.



It could have done with a little more flash if I'm honest. Working to produce an image quickly is difficult, so big up to those who do it well everyday.

eMERGENCY

An interesting article today in the Japanese edition of the Yomiyuri Shinbun (newspaper) about the occasional misuse of the emergency telephone number 110 (U.K 999, USA 911).

The police received 950,000 emergency calls (with a small e) last year. These are some of the examples given:

• My legs hurt too much to move. Could you buy my ticket and bring it to me?
• Could you feed my dog while I'm away on holiday?
• It was raining when I arrived at the station, and I don't have an umbrella. could you give me a lift home?
• Could you tell me the dates for X`s concert?
• I'm in a public toilet, but there's no toilet paper. Could you bring me some?
• My new mobile phone won't charge!

In 2004 there were 9,530,000 emergency calls in Japan. The Yomiyuri article goes on to mention that although the total number of emergency call fell to 8,980,000 last year, the number of calls like those listed above are on the increase.

After the death of a woman in 1999 who was murdered after calling the police to ask for help with a stalker (the police did not intervene because there had been no crime committed up to that point), the police have tried hard to respond to all they can.

This example is given in the article:

• A man calls and says that there is a cockroach in his apartment and it's really horrible, and could the police do something about it. The police told him he should deal with it himself but when he called 110 again about the same cockroach, the police sent an officer over who 'dealt with' the problem forcefully and carried away the offending roach in a plastic bag!

My wife likened this attitude to that of some of the parents that her friend has to deal with as part of her job as a primary school teacher in Japan's state schools:

• My child won't wake up in the morning. Could you do something about it?
• My child won't eat at home. Could you make sure he finishes his school lunch?

The Yomiyuri article and the parental requests are not the norm. Most people do not rely on the police to deal with their infestations or on their school to educate the child in home matters.

Fire Hydrant

The Crow

A photograph I did not take:

A middle aged lady carrying a Pekinese dog and wearing a black sweater, an A-line skirt and a pair of black sandals of the type favoured by nurses in Japan pokes warily with a packet of tissues at the corpse of a fallen crow lying on the sandy ground of the childrens baseball area in the park outside my house. For background audio, the faint hum of traffic, the occasional blast of marshal music from the black vans of the nationalists (today is Showa day, a national holiday) and the laughter of children as they play carefree and oblivious to it all in the sunlit park on the other side of the baseball ground's wire fence.

(visit the original meister of the non-photographic image here)

The Big Move

April is moving time in Japan. It's the time when university graduates are recruited and both new and established employees are re-located all over Japan by companies large and small. In almost all areas of work, new contracts are being signed, old contract reviewed.

The competition for the removal and relocation work is fierce, with the major companies advertising on national television promising 'meister quality', free gifts for the kids and after delivery services which include set up and fixing of the larger household items to secure them in case of earthquakes.

For those not moving, April means new neighbours. In my building I know of at least four appartments being vacated. Having only moved here last year I am still settling in, but with the imminent arrival of my first child due in early June we will be thinking about that extra room we wanted a little more.

Edit:
I wanted to add that Damon Coulter, whose blog site you can read here, is making the move back to the U.K from Japan. It's not so difficult to move to most places when you are single, but as a family of four...!
Good luck and safe journey Damon

St. Patrick's Day Parade, Nagoya

Held this year on Saturday the 22nd.

Caption Request

Pimm's and Cider

An unlikely combination, but it works. Why?

When I first arrived in Japan, perhaps on the second day, I walked out to get a soft drink from the vending machine. Already choosing her drink was a young girl. She was perhaps 8 years old. She chose Mitsuya Cider.

'Ka-chank'. Down came the bottle. She took the bottle and walked off.

... and me with my jaw on the floor. "Perhaps it's for her parents?"

Mitsuya Cider is really a lemonade style drink. Lemonade in the British sense. Seven Up with a different label. For anybody living in Japan it may be the only option when drinking Pimm's at home.

If the photo or these words are a little off, well, those bottles didn't empty themselves.