Daily Life in Japan

Maximilian showing off his two "choppers" (teeth)

It has been a while since we have updated our blog. We are settled into our home and are developing our routine and social network. So, you are probably wondering how life is treating us in Japan? A typical weekday for Tony is quite ordinary. Bettina's weekdays are much more exciting and challenging since she is caring for Maximilian. On the weekends we take occassional excursions to the beach, different parks, or shopping malls.

On a typical day Tony gets up early in the morning and jogs along the cherry tree lined Yamazaki river/waterway. He jogs to the Mizuho sports stadium and back. He will have a quick breakfast with Bettina (if Maxi is not already nursing with her) before dashing off to work. Tony will stop for breakfast at McDonalds from time to time (An Egg McMuffin meal combo costs about 420 Japanese yen. Anyone know what the price is back in the States? We want to do the "Egg McMuffin" test to compare cost of living). Tony has been working decent hours, as compared to the Japanese standard, so he can enjoy dinner with the family. Since last week Bettina managed to walk to the local sports club with the stroller twice a week. Tony meets Bettina at the club where she hands Maximilian over to him. He will take Maximilian shopping at the local grocery market, or may take him back home, while Bettina is working out.

We like the "Japanese" freshly baked "French" pastries and sweets sold at the many small bakeries which are located inside the grocery stores. Bettina was pleasantly surprised when she was able to find many German and French products at the stores. Bettina was happy to even find the good Swiss-German Weleda creams for the baby (although three times more expensive than in Germany). She was also able to find some German Nutella, French Chestnut Cream, German salad dressing and soup seasonings, Italian Pasta and Swiss Gruyere cheese. If we are lucky, we can usually find someone who speaks some broken English to help us read labels on the Japanese products. Maxi keeps us so busy that we have hardly time to study Japanese and have made very little progress so far in our Japanese communication skills.



Tina shopping at the local market. She is happy to be able to purchase German "Klare Gemuesebruehe", German Rittersport Chocolate and Swiss Roesti (hash browns), ....


Tony and Maxi shopping for fish (魚 "sakana"). There are way too many unfamiliar types of fish to choose from.

We love the bread and pastries. There is also a pretty decent but overpriced wine selection at the local markets.

When one of Bettina's new friends has time for lunch she will be at the local French or Italian restaurants for a "real Japanese" cuisine lunch experience. Twice a month Bettina will travel by subway to the Nagoya Foreign Mother's group and to events or Playgroups of the Cross-Cultural Exchange Association. Bettina started taking Japanese lessons at home with Kumi-san. She is learning very quickly but has little time to study since Maximilian demands so much of her time.

Last weekend we traveled to a local beach. It was quite nice but nothing like our California beaches. The beach is located about 45 min away by car.

There are also some nice local parks that we take Maximilian to. Maxi accepts being in the stroller but we always have our baby carrier (bjoern) handy just in case he gets too fussy. Rainy season is upon us and so Maxi's stroller is now equipped with a rain cover.

Here are some photos of us with a Canadian-Japanese on stilts at the local Tsurumai park where we participated in a walk-a-thon charity event. It seems like Maxi was not very impressed with him or the little bunny balloon he made for him.

Here we are at the Beer Garden located on the rooftop of a city high rise building. We had an all you can eat buffet ("Viking") along with all the beer (including Munich style Asahi and Loewenbraeu) you can drink. The time passed by quickly, especially since we met a nice Japanese family that volunteered to watch Maximilian while we cooked our food.

Here is the family that insisted on watching Maximilian while we ate and drank. It was a pleasant surprise to meet this nice lady from Nagoya along with her two sons, daughter in-laws, and grandchildren.

Here is Kenji-san (aka "Johnny") entertaining Maximilian.

Here is a shot of the Nagoya Marriott towers as we head home for the evening...

Perhaps the most unique thing about Japan is the Onsen (温泉; hot spring or spa). We enjoyed the Onsen at a local adventure park hotel. There are thousands of onsens in Japan. The baths, unlike the baths in Europe, are not Coed. Tony took Maximilian to the men's hot bath. Maximilian really the hot bath. For obvious reasons we do not have pictutres of the Onsen :)

Bettina posing in front of the intimidating roller coster on her first mother's day at the Nagashima Spaland Resort (http://www.nagashima-onsen.co.jp/resort/download.html/). The onsen is located next to the amusement park.

We also spent a weekend at a traditional japanese luxury hotel in the beach town of Gamagori. Gamagori is located just south of Nagoya and even a real French Thalasso-Center.

Here we are waiting to check into our room.

We decided to be a bit adventurous and we stayed in a Japanese style room where we slept on a Tatami floor with a thin layered futon. A Japanese dinner and breakfast was served in the room. Tony thought that the mini octopus was a bit tough but he especially liked the raw fish that was served for breakast. Maxi laughed at the funny faces we made while trying to consume the food which was not too familiar to our taste buds.

For father's day Tony took Maximilian to his first baby swim lesson at a nice sports club where Daddy and son enjoyed playing in the water.

Wherever we go the locals are very nice to us and love talking to the "Gaijins" (foreigners) with their limited English skills. We always apologize for not knowing how to speak Japanese. They always greet Maxi with "kawai" (cute) and they pinch him in his cheeks which we do not like too much (who wants strangers touching their baby in the face?) but they make him smile. Tony enjoys carrying Maxi in the Baby Bjoern carrier, especially since Maxi is such a great "chick magnet."

Maxi is now 70 cm long and weighs over 8 kgs. He has a much smaller head and is much thinner than his new friends from the Music Together class and the Japanese babies of same age but he is taller. He enjoys Music Together with friends from Nagoya, Belgium, Australia, Japan and the US. He has already two teeth and grabs everything he can reach and puts it in his mouth. He likes to laugh out loud and says "ah-gooo", "rrrrrr", "hey" and "hmmmmm". He is also now doing pilates style situps and rolls over in all directions.

Maximilian has achieved high honors in his music class. He is the lead percussionist.

Maximilian celebrated Kodomo no hi (Children's day) on May 5, 2008 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodomo_no_hi.

The Koinobori (carp shaped flags) are raised on Children's day. There is a flag for Mama, Papa, and Maximilian.

Well, it is getting unbearably hot and humid here in Nagoya and therefore Bettina will escape to Germany for the 5 weeks right after the 4th of July to introduce Maxi to her family. Tony will enjoy this bachelor time with working out at the sports club, salsa dancing and nomikais (Japanese after-work drinking parties).

We will be back in touch at the end of summer. We wish you all the best and would love to hear/read your news.