Spooning on trains

There have been two instances in the last month where the subway I've traveled on is so crowded and so many people feel it necessary to pack themselves into this train that I've literally felt like I've spooned or been spooned by two other passengers. With one, at least I could swing my work bag to give me some space. You know, for those of you who have attended an LDS dance and had to be "Book of Mormon" distance from your dance partner. The other time, however, no such luck. And when you're packed in there like that, there's no concentrating on your book - there's hardly room to lift your hands to read it!

All I can say is that I'm glad I'm not in any other city in the world...because there would certainly be more violence on the trains. Can you imagine people in New York packed into trains like this? There would be civil unrest. I guess Japan's not all sunshine and puppy dogs when it comes to their packed trains. Japan suffers from serial gropers - people who take advantage of the tight quarters to cop feels of other unsuspecting passengers. Groping has become such a problem that most trains now set aside one train car solely for women during the morning commute. I've not seen these train cars, but I imagine there's tea, soft music and pedicures between each stop. And how are us guys treated? Well, we're in the rest of the train cars forced to spoon one another on busy days. But I guess in the grand scheme of things, I would rather be spooned than groped.

Visitors

In a really odd way, living the expat life can be like living on the frontier. Certainly it's much easier now that technology and globalization has shrunk the world and made almost every product available. Regardless, living in a place so removed from US-life, like Tokyo, can lead to a frontier mentality. Case in point, we've had family come and visit us twice in the last two months. And in a way we've used our visiting family members as our own Pony Express, carrying to us needed provisions, such as sourdough bread, Chex mix and other frivolous creature comforts of home that we absolutely can't get ourselves to live without.

And gosh, since our family has come all this way to deliver us this food, why not stick around for a while. Shelley's sister Pam, and her youngest son Gary Jr. visited us in March. This last week we hosted Shelley's parents and her newly minted MD younger sister Katie.

As is often the case, our visitors seem to stay only long enough to acclimated to the time change before heading home to suffer yet another week of jetlag reacclimating to the home time. Then there's the sadness of having to say goodbye. It was appropriate that the day Shelley's family left it rained from morning till night. We were reminded that while living in Tokyo does have its advantages, one of them certainly isn't "easy access to family." Summer time seems to be when we get to gorge ourselves with family time.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the Daetwylers trip through Tokyo. Most of these photos were taken by Ed...I can't take credit for any of them. Lots of good pictures of our kids, too.

Why I run for trains

They joke in Los Angeles that the one benefit of a recession is that it reduces traffic. I wish that were the case here in Tokyo as well...but it's not.

The train station nearest my house is the terminus for the Chiyoda subway line - a busy subway line that runs through most business districts in the city. It's also the transfer point for the Odakyu train line, that connects Tokyo's western suburbs to the city. During rush hour these lines, and this station in particular, serve as a major transportation artery.

Consequently, the tiny station is always packed with people. The Odakyu train will come and go at least twice, dumping off its transferring passengers, before an empty Chiyoda subway train arrives.

This subway platform is more than 200 meters long. There are 10 cars per subway. Each car has 4 doors. Standing before each door are three rows of people about 12 deep. That's 144 people per car, or 1,440 per train. Standing next to the three orderly lines in front of each subway car door is ANOTHER three lines of passengers some waiting for the next train, some waiting to make the existing 1,440 existing passengers pack in line sardines. That means at any one time on the platform, there are over close to 3,000 people waiting for a train. Let's say every 10 minutes for two hours this station turns over close to 40,000 travelers. And we're talking about a relatively small station. Can you see what I'm getting at? This place is crowded.


That's why I run. I used to make fun of those businessmen who would burst into a full sprint as they got closer to the train. Oh, how I mocked what I didn't understand! They weren't running to catch a train, they were running to beat another trains' passengers in line! That's exactly what I'm doing. As soon as I hit the train station, I'm using my long legs to propel myself up two flights of stairs, briskly walking through the turnstiles and up another flight of stairs to the platform. If I hear an Odakyu train coming with thousands of other passengers that want my place in line, then I'm running hard and I'm not afraid to push people out of the way. The result is that I'm WAY out of breath and sound like a panting dog by the time I finally get in line. If I can beat the other train's passengers, then I usually can either find a seat or at least stand in a place where I'm protected from the crowds. But if I can't, then it's like being packed in a can of sardines. But more on that in another post.

Ella loves the washing machine

I've not actually seen this in person - I had to steal this video off of Shelley's camera - but evidently Ella really loves the washing machine. When it's on and she's awake, she loves to stand up and look inside at the clothes, water and bubbles sloshing around.

Kill the Wabbit

Shelley has brought many things into our marriage, and I think one of the funniest things is the traditional Easter bunny cake that she makes. It's a carrot cake with a cream cheese frosting and coconut shavings that shaped into a bunny. Chocolate chips for the eyes and a red gummy bear for the nose. She also dyes coconut shavings green to make the grass and to top it all off, even lays out raisins to represent the bunny poop.

Anthon helped Shelley make the traditional Easter bunny cake and evidently developed a close bond with the bunny because when it came time to eat the cake, Anthon got very protective of his friend. He wouldn't even eat the Peeps, no doubt part of the bunny-cake's entourage. Being the loving,sensitive and caring parents that we are, we broke out into Elmer Fudd's "Kill the Wabbit," which only got Anthon more riled up...of course we thought it was funny.


This was a nice Easter. Anthon has caught the vision of the Easter egg hunt and cleaned house. Ella, sensing the presence of food and candy seemed to have a knack for crawling after the occasional forgotten egg. Though I think she was more interested in eating the plastic egg than she was with finding the goodies inside. Click on any of the pictures to see a small gallery of Easter-season shots.

Ella and her walker

Anthon likes to climb up on the counter in the kitchen to help Shelley with the cooking. He's quite a good mixer. He uses one of our kitchen table chairs to climb up. Ella, who freely crawls around and pulls herself up on things, especially the kitchen chairs, realized one day when Anthon was on the counter, that the chair is light enough to push it around while standing, yet strong enough to support her.

She can't quite steer the chair, so she'll walk until she runs it into something. Then she does these little leg squats to complete the work out. She is quite pleased with herself, as you can see in the video below.

Ella and the donut

I haven't posted anything new on the family for a while. I captured this little video of Ella showing off the other morning during breakfast.



Ella is 11 months old now and becoming this total character. she seems less and less like our tiny baby and more and more like our little girl. She can clap her hands to "Patty Cakes" and will 'throw it in the oven' by raising her arms up high. She's waving hello and goodbye. She's really good at feeding herself with her hands and is showing interest in using spoons and forks. She loves food and can't get enough. If she's sitting on your lap and you're eating food, she will reach for the arm holding the utensil, grab the arm with both hands, pull it towards her and forcefully guide the utensil with the food into her mouth. She's very determined. Ella is pulling herself up on almost anything and enjoys standing. She's crawling everywhere and just has a lot of confidence in herself.

Pet parents strike again

Tokyo is the land of pet parents - people who treat their pets less like animals and more like their own offspring. Meet Leon the dog. We saw Leon this weekend being held by his pet parent. Leon was sporting pretty cool goggles to shade his eyes, because we all know dogs hate the sunlight.

Leon's owner told me somewhat defensively that the glasses were from the States - as if to tell me 'back off American, these are from YOUR country.' I was then informed that Leon has some allergies. Yeah, poor Leon, surrounded all day by pet dander. If true, where is the doggie surgical face mask?

Look it might be entirely plausible that Leon has allergies, but come on, what's with the Lilo & Stitch hoodie? Leon is sooo EMO. This screams raving pet parent trying to make a fashion statement.

Cherry blossoms

It's that wonderful time of year when for 10 days the endless concrete of Tokyo is consumed by these soft pink and white blossoms. Despite their extremely short life, their beauty invigorates a country emerging from a cold winter.

This year, my birthday fell on a Saturday and we joined the many thousands of other like-minded locals along Meguro river. It's an especially urban and narrow canal where clusters of sakura trees line both sides of the river creating a beautiful canopy of cherry blossoms. It's quite the sight to behold.

On a day like this where literally thousands of people were cramming into these small streets to view the sakura, it gave occasion for many photography enthusiasts to get out and practice their craft. Now, I like to make fun of Japanese people because it seems to me that they are in love with standing in lines...any line. If there's a line of people there MUST be a reason that people are standing there - so they'll stand there to find out. That's the stereotype, anyway. Well, Shelley served it right back to me saying that if there was a group of people taking a picture someplace, then I would HAVE to go over to where they were and see what they were taking and take a picture myself. Sometimes the truth hurts.

Anyway, sakura viewing, picture taking, family time, wonderful pizza in the park - all in all a great birthday.

I took a few pictures from that day - click on the picture above to see a small gallery of pictures of the sakura and the family.