Otoshidama

Otoshidama, a japanese tradition to give money as new year present to your own and relative's children. In fact we did not remember this until Kai received this present from his grand parents yesterday. As with everything else right now Kai tried to eat it.

Back in Nagano

For the third year in a row we are back in Togari, Nagano, for a weekend skiing with friends. We have had two days of sunshine and a lot of snow, luckely it was snowing on friday evening and saturday night so timing was perfect. It has been too warm for perfect powder snow but still more than decent off pist skiing with loads of snow allowing you to go down anywhere in the forest. And of course we have enjoyed onsen as well. Kai-kun enjoyed first contact with snow even if too early to try skiing.

Australia

Now we are back from our 2 week holiday in Australia. It was a fantastic trip and the small worries we had beforehand for going on an across the globe holiday with Kai turned out to be no problem. Both 10 hours flight and 1100 kilometer car drive just went like a breeze. I guess the advantage with having a baby that requires a lot of carrying around to fall a sleep or not cry is that it likes to be moved and enjoy being on flight, train, car whatever.















In Melbourne we stayed with Maki's cousin Akiko and her lovely family, here with children Shin and Hana. For 3 days we winded down and enjoyed walking around the city and their neighbourhood, going to cafées and simply relax around the house.















They live close to the sea in Melbourne so we got several chances of going to the beach.















Kai wasn't very impressed by the country down under but often took the chance for a good sleep in the warm weather.















But sometime it was Maki who was sleeping when Kai wanted to play. Sleeping family.















After strolling around Melbourne city for 7 hours one day we finished off by having dinner and watching the sunset in st Kilda. Well watching and watching, the sun set when we were trying to take photo of it.















After 3 days in Melbourne we spent 3 days driving the 1100 kilometers from Melbourne along the coast up to Sydney. Here on the amazingly long 90 mile beach on the morning of second day after spending the night in Lake Entrance, a touristic but very nice city along the coast. The place we stayed at had a garden with a grill free to use so we got some kangaroo meat and cooked us a well tasting BBQ dinner.















In Sydney we met up with Paul and his nice parents who we got to stay with while we were in town. Here in their garden just after arrival in Sydney. Notice the västerbotten cheese on the table that has made it all the way from Skellefteå to Sydney.















Maki dancing in front of the opera house.















On a warm and beautiful day Paul's father took us out with their 35 foot boat to cruise around Sydney harbour. An amazing experience and good way to see the city. When we stopped in a small bay for a swim we could see the Harbour bridge and opera house across the water. Must admit I had difficulties to completely forget about the sharks.














Relaxing in the botanic gardens in Sydney.















The last days before returning to Tokyo we took a rental car and drove out from Sydney and had a relaxing time in Blue mountains. We did some easy hiking around in the forest got to see some beautiful views.















Maki pointing out the famous Three sisters in Katoomba.















As a last thing before going to the airport we stopped by a wildlife park and I could finally see some koalas, kangaroos, crocodiles and other fun animals. Koalas are fun in the way to look so tired all the time and can sleep in all various positions. Similar to members in our family.



















Say hi to this guy, the Tasmanian devil.

More photos from australia on picasaweb in albums from Melbourne, roadtrip from Melbourne to Sydney, Sydney and Blue mountains.

Back in Tokyo it's cold, Kai is getting frustrated that he still haven't learnt to turn around when laying on his back (bottom arm get stuck preventing upper body from falling over) and tomorrow we are going to Nagano for skiing. Possibly only time this winter so it will be fun.

A new year...

has begun. It is the year of the tiger and a year that will mean a lot of change for us. We have six months left on the contract here in Tokyo and after that we will be moving back to Stockholm. Not only have we sold the apartment in Stockholm but also I will be out of job as my office in Kista will be closed shortly after we return. So we basically move back to no house and no job. We are not too worried about that situation but instead it feels like we have an opportunity to try something new, both when it comes to what to do for work as well as where to live. And I hope it will result in some time off from the working part of life and spend some time with Maki and Kai.

We will start the new year in a good way. On Monday we leave for almost two weeks holiday in Australia. As normal we have not made much detailed planning but on a high level we will fly to Melbourne and stay there for a couple of days with Maki's cousin and her family. After that we will take a few days and drive a rental car 1000km up to Sydney and spend a week in the Sydney area, partly with a friend and his family. So it will be quite an adventure to bring Kai on this trip but we have a lot of time and no need to stress so think it will be very nice trip.













This is how big little Kai grew in 2009. On the 3rd month's checkup he measured 64cm and 6,8kg (a 134% increase).


















In japan it is tradition to go to the temple on new year's day. This is a small temple close to our friend's house where we spent new year's eve and stayed over night.















New year's holiday equals "lucky bag" season. A lucky bag (fuku bukuro) is a closed bag with mixed clothes or any other things with a total value of 5-10 times more than the bag is sold for, at least this is what the stores claim but I must admit it often seems to be a pretty good deal buying one of these bags. The thing is that you can of course not see what's inside if you like it or not.

There is nothing Maki like more than shopping for lucky bags and here is the first one she bought on the way home yesterday.















And this is the second one she bought today. The clothes she got was so good so there is a great chance that there will be a third one tomorrow!















Have to agree with this tiger. Happy new year 2010!

100 days

Today it has been 100 days after Kai was born and according to japanese tradition we had a small ceremony to celebrate this. This tradition is called okuizome and should help make sure that the baby will not have problem to eat during his lifetime. Maki's parents brought the sticky rice used for ceremonies, osekihan, and we ate together with Kai. For Kai it was only a matter of pretending to eat though. A nice tradition.

Merry christmas!

With only few minutes left of our christmas eve this year we want to take the opportunity to wish all our friends and family a merry christmas! Some of you still have most part of the day left, we hope you will enjoy just as much as we have.















Fortunately santa had not forgot us this year either. The raindeers however could not make it all the way to our house, think it was something with an injury but not sure, santa was not really clear on that subject. Any way he (she?) brought a whole lot of presents to all of us. Sadly Maki was on the toilet just when santa came by so she missed the whole thing.

Tha day before the day...

The day before christmas and also the emperor's birthday and a national holiday here in Japan. Note that tomorrow, the birthday of another famous person, is not a holiday but a normal working day. We have spent most part of the day at a christmas party at a friends place. Except for a lot of good food and a lot of fun Kai got to meet santa for the first time. Too early to say whether he bought the full story with the north pole and raindeers but at least it looks promising for tomorrow.

Christmas preparations

Christmas eve is just a few days away and even if the ground is not white outside it feels just as good as always to be approaching christmas holidays. Here I'm getting some help from Kai to read the recipe for the Christmas ham.













Ham (almost) ready! We cooked the christmas ham on saturday for the traditional christmas party and invited some friends over for the usual swedish christmas food and hot glögg.



















A "tree like" plant from the neighbourhood flower shop serves as a christmas tree. It's quite large and does the job fairly well I must say. The outside door decoration was hung in the tree when we didn't have any other decorations and seem to have gotten stuck there. Anyway, with presents under the tree it looks pretty nice.

Ninjas and skates

Ulf and I took a day outside Tokyo and went to Edo Wonderland outside nikko. It's a kind of outside museum with a whole small village built up with architecture from edo period. One of the highlights was a ninja show with stunts that would have made Jackie Chan himself impressed (well, almost).















Whole family having hot glögg under the christmas decorations outside Tokyo dome. Very nice indeed.











Saturday we spent in Yokohama strolling around bay area and doing some shopping. Around 15 degrees warm outside but that's no reason not to have an ice skating rink in the middle of the bay area in Yokohama.















Yokohama is really nice and well worth a visit if going to Tokyo. Here it's like they make more use of the areas close to the water and prepare parks and walking paths than what they do in Tokyo and you get a lot of nice sceneries along the water.











Bye for this time!

Tokyo donkey

After a while in Tokyo you get use to seeing different things to what you are used to. Still, I must admit I was a little bit surprised walking home today when we met this guy and his donkey in central Tokyo. Apparently the donkey wasn't keen on having his picture taken, according to his owner, but I was allowed to take this one photo.

New clothes

Tack farmor för de fina kläderna! De passade perfekt i storlek och är mycket omtyckta. De kom väl till pass, Kai har gått upp från 2,9kg till 6,2kg på 2,5 månader så de flesta kläder han har börjar redan bli för små!

Shoot out in Kamakura

Took a relaxing day off in Kamakura, one of the favourite places from last time mom and dad came over. Stralling around the old parts of the city we found a play ground like shooting range with toy guns using cork as ammunition. Few words needed and the competition was on. No need to spell out who won, let's just say that many years of hunting did not seem to give an advantage this time.

Warm winter hot spring evening bath

Outside the LaQua hot spring bath in central Tokyo. We've just finished some 4-5 hours relaxing inside and outside bath in hot springs, cold bath and sauna. Well worth a visit, especially when you need to wind down a little. Outside there are light decorations all over the place, very nice in the winter evening.

Kai by the sea

We are back at the west coast for the weekend to visit Maki's relatives. At the age of two months we thought it was time for Kai-kun to see the sea. Also, after last weeks announcement about our office in Kista closing it was good timing to get away for a while and think about the future. Little bit unlucky with the weather, again, but fantastic as always to be back in this small fisherman's village by the japanese sea.

Almost famous

I haven't had my photo on any printed material since 2001 when I was on the front page for a technical weekly paper in Sweden. The other day we got a pamphlet in the post making advertisment for one of the long distance marathon races I ran last year, Fuji five lakes challenge, and it had a photo of me and Ohta-san from last year. I assume it will only be sent to the limited number people that have run the race before, but it was a fun surprise and will be a good memory to keep.


Kai has kept us busy the last couple of weeks. My work is quite busy from time to time so Maki has a tough task at the moment. But time goes fast and already it feels like we have got some competence in the area of childcare. But then again, some days you are completely lost. No problem filling up the days at least, if you get out of the house for a 2h walk with the stroller on a weekend you are more than happy.


Just now on the way to stockholm for a few days work, back to tokyo on thursday already.

Sad goodbye

After one year and many nice trips to the mountains and surroundings of Tokyo we have now taken farewell of the motorcycle a.k.a. "the black". It was a quick process of just calling an agency to come and pick it up right outside the house and getting money directly in the hand. The amount of yen was however a lot less than we expected and even more disappointing when the man in a truly japanese honest manner admitted that the bike was in a very good condition and that he only paid us about 35% of what the price will be when they sell it in the store. However a quick check told us that the price would be roughly the same when selling to any store in Tokyo and selling a motorcycle private in Japan is too much hassle to be worth the effort so we let it go anyway. Kai indicated that he was not happy at all about this decision so I had to promise him that we will get another motorcycle (bigger of course) as soon as he grow up a little.

A little boy came along...

Last week, thursday 17th of September, our baby boy was born. It was 17 days before the expected due date of 4th of October but everything went well and both mother and boy are healthy.

We were off to a bit of a bad start though. When the water broke in the early morning 18 days before the expected due date Maki didn't manage to wake me up. I had hard to believe this later when I heard it but then realised that I am one of the few people that during sleep have fallen out from the top of a bunker bed without waking up so I take it it is close to impossible to wake me up some times. So Maki took off to the hospital together with her Mother.

When I got up 09.00 in the morning to go to work I found this note on the kitchen table, important part circled: "I'm in hospital. Kai is coming".

Just as an extra spice, when I slightly panicked reached for the mobile phone to call Maki, of course, the battery had run flat during the night...

At the hospital I found a happy "soon to be mother" and surprisingly enough not at all angry wife of mine. Still labour had not started so we were up for a long wait.

24 hours wait and some hours of non-pain-killed-labour later: A tired mom, a surprised new born baby and a happy father desperately trying to fit in to the photo.

The hospital has a policy not to give pain killing drugs during the labour or delivery work, this is quite normal in Japan ("natural birth" policy). Partly for this reason Maki wanted to give birth in a pool as the warm water is said by many people to reduce the pain. However due to the water broke so early before labour started the hospital wouldn't allow giving birth in a pool this time so it had to be the normal way. I'm very much impressed with Maki for giving birth to our baby without drugs and without as much as a sound.

A few hours old and sleeping like a baby.

Trying out the vocals. No problem found.

I was born on September 17 in the year 21 of Heisei period at 17:06.

We were happy that many friends came to visit Kai in the hospital. Here some of the "animals" friends who came by on Monday.

Getting ready to go home from the hospital in the nice dress hand made by Maki's mother.

On the way home from the hospital. First tour with the compact bugaboo bee stroller that was hand carried from Sweden by Erik (many thanks for that!). There didn't seem to be any complaints from Kai-kun about the comfort as he was sleeping all the way.

Mmm, after 5 days in hospital finally home in my own bed, feels nice. Here I can sleep for a long time.

Maki's mother brought ice cream and presents and arranged a welcome home party for Kai. As you can see in the background, the swedish flag is up for the celebration. The ice cream was really good, thank you Kimiko-san for the party!

And this is how we see him now most of the time - sleeping. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, does it!

We have now been home for a couple of days and are trying to get use to the new life as a small family. Just some new things to learn and right now all time is used for diaper changing, cooking, eating, sleeping. He is sleeping a lot - is he ok? He is so quiet - is he ok? He is crying - is he ok? It's fantastic!

If you want to see more pictures of Kai-kun, have a look at this web album or click the Picasa link to the right.

Ps. We haven't really decided name yet but always call the boy for Kai so this is the likely name he'll end up with. What does Kai mean?

In Japan: 海 Sea (same kanji character as "umi")

Latin: Earth (from Caius)

China: Victory, triumph, eternal

Burma: Strong, indestructible

Navajo: Willow

Yoruba: Love

In several languages the name Kai can also mean safe harbour or pier. It can also have the meaning the key bearer or great man. Lastly, Kai is s short form of the germanic name Gerrit which means strong spear.