Here's Ella...

It's been a fast few days. Shelley checked out of the hospital today after a very U.S.-like stay of only two nights. Usually they like to keep you for 5 days. But I think she was ready to go. We are glad to have her back.

I've leave the details of the delivery to Shelley. But I can tell already that you're a different parent with number two than you are with number one. After Anthon was born we strapped him into the car seat we had purchased months before and Shelley was wheelchaired out of the hospital and we drove a good ten miles under the speed limit for the two mile drive. We were very careful. With Ella, we couldn't get out of the hospital soon enough and we hailed a cab, no car seat, and just hoped for a safe ride home. I'm sure Ella will be juggling knives in no time.

But she is certainly a sweet baby. She's a good sleeper and eater and best of all she's a snuggler...which Shelley really likes. (Who am I kidding, no one is reading this...you've already clicked on the links below to pictures and a two-minute video).

Pictures

Video

Ella Nadine Cannon is here

Ella Nadine Cannon was born Saturday, May 3rd at 4:45 PM. Both Shelley and
Ella are doing great. She weighed in at 6 lbs 14 ounces and was 49 cms...if
someone wants to convert that for us, go ahead! She came out with lots of
dark hair, cute round head and big eyes. We think we'll keep her.

I will provide more information, including pictures, when I can.

--sent from my blackberry

Golden Week

I always felt that in the U.S. I got ripped off for not having enough national holidays...real national holidays...not like Columbus Day. We don't even get one a month there. It seems as if everyone else in the developed world gets far more days off. And it's true. In Japan, on top of getting about one national holiday a month, there are two times a year when there is basically a week's worth of holidays right in a row. One happens over the new year and one happens in the last week of April / first week of May. It's called Golden Week. This isn't to imply I don't like working. But I just like having time off more.

Our Golden Week was a bit early and a bit short, since our baby girl is hopefully due any day now. Shelley's Mom is en route and we have a backstop date to induce Shelley in case it gets to that point. So the end is near. Stay tuned, we'll post pictures and let everyone know when Ella arrives.

Anyway, we spent the time off doing things locally - zoo's and parks. In retrospect, a very animal-centric long weekend. You can see pictures by clicking here. My favorite of these pictures is of Anthon trying to feed the goat and the goat getting too hungry and nipping at Anthon's fingers. The look on Anthon's face is priceless.



In other updates...
I've uploaded a few more videos from recent outings - mostly of Anthon during cherry blossom season.

Pet Parents

There are studies that show the Japanese population could be cut in half by the end of the century. While I could get into a serious discussion behind the reasons for the lower birth rate and its socio-economic end game, I won't. I want to talk about something infinitely more trivial - a frivolous outgrowth of a latent need to parent something, anything - pet parenting.

To set the stage, here are some statistics: there are more than 23 million pet dogs and cats in Japan. That's 5 million pets MORE than there are children under 15 in all of Japan (18 million kids). Pets are the new millenium's children.

There is plenty of anecdotal evidence. I am hard pressed to find pictures of people's families or kids at the office, but there sure are tons of pictures of people's cats.

Small dogs and older dogs are usually carried around town in baby strollers.

We've seen dogs dressed up in hats, sunglasses, sweaters, long-johns with the button-flap over the bottom, etc.

Then there are articles from MSNBC.com and Nikkei Weekly that outline a variety of services that pet parents spend on their pets, including: accupuncture and physical therapy for aging dogs, spa treatments and aromatherapy, funeral services including joint pet/master gravesites, matchmaking parties and doggie wedding services that can cost upwards to $3,000. I wish I were making this up. But I am not.

The video, while all in Japanese, shows one of these wedding ceremonies, including the ceremony, cutting the cake, photo session, throwing flowers at the happy couple and an interview with a girl who is throwing this party in hopes that her future wedding will be this, uh, nice.

Japanese Dog Wedding

Brother, can you spare some...butter?

Japan is going through a weird butter shortage. I kid you not. For a country that has the second largest economy in the world, with one of the largest per capita GDPs, and is on the leading edge of most technological innovations, it's hard to imagine that it would have a hard time making something as simple as butter.

But it's true. The supermarket in our local area will get butter a few times a week and if you're not there within an hour or two after its restocked, you're evidently out of luck. This is reminiscent of Soviety-era bread lines or the 70's gasoline shortages in the U.S. In response, I've been turned into a butter mule, smuggling in butter at the request of my wife. Luckily, it's not an illicit trade...yet...and I've been spared having to ingest small balloons of butter to evade authorities.

The problem is that demand for milk is falling, which has forced milk producers to cut back their "supply" of cows and milk products, or redirect them into higher margin business like cheese. For you economics buffs out there, you're probably thinking that retailers should just import butter. And would you believe that the domestic butter market is highly protected? There's roughly a 30% tarrif that's levied on all butter imports, along with a 1,000 yen ($10) per kilogram tax placed on all butter imports. Basically, that leads to an 800% increase in the price of imported butter. That's why you NEVER see imported butter in Japan. Now we rarely get to see any butter at all.

If you're interested in a little butter-arbitrage scheme, maybe we can work something out. We can probably make a tiny fortune selling butter to the poor expats in our area! :)

Links:
Japan Today article
Asahi Shinbun

Business Trips and a Pregnant Wife

In yet another strong showing in my bid to become "husband of the year", I spent last week in San Francisco attending a global sales conference with my company, while Shelley was only weeks away from giving birth to our second child. Nothing like cutting it too close. Needless to say I kept the Blackberry close at hand...while Shelley made contingency plans with various friends from our church congregation just in case. I knew that if I missed this birth I would never live it down. Luckily everything worked out fine. No baby was born while I was gone.

The decision to go was made at the last minute, only after the doctor seemed pretty sure that our baby wasn't about to be born. But sometimes doctors can be wrong. My brother-in-law left for a medical school interview after receiving such assurances and his wife had the baby with him listening in on the phone.

Business trips are much more difficult now than they were when we lived in LA. First of all, Shelley would always say that she would miss me whenever I would leave for a trip. But now she's also envious - and I don't blame her one bit. I've been back to the U.S. twice since our move in January. I've tried to make it up to her, though. I have a "honey-buy" list and I lug Sure-Jell, canned pumpkin filling and corn masa, etc., in an extra bag back to Japan for the family. Secondly, it's harder on Anthon. He had to be pried from my arms so I could board my train. I could hear him crying all the way onto the train platform. That makes me feel good to know I'm giving my son abandonment issues! And it's harder on me. For a variety of reasons, it's just harder to be away from family now. Business travel can be fun, but it is lonely and I'm missing my family much more.

On the bright side, I have to say that I was glad to get to come to this conference. I saw my 90 year old Grandmother, my parents, my sister from New York and her new little baby girl, and I had a ton of opportunities to shoot pictures...a rarity. The meetings were productive.

You know the cheesy cliche, 'home is where the heart is'? I think it's true. Though we've been in Japan only three months, it feels like home to me. Having been in LA twice now since the move, I felt myself that home was with my family back in Tokyo. And that I couldn't wait to get back there to see them.

I took some pictures of my time there. Click on any of the pictures to take you there.

Sleeping Very Well, Thank You Very Much

I am not what you call a great sleeper. By about 4:00 AM, I'm pretty much tossing and turning, falling in and out of sleep until the alarm goes off. I miss not being able to sleep like I did when I was younger. I envy my son, sometimes.

I walked into Anthon's room to check up on him before heading to work one day and I found him dangling off the side of his bed, totally asleep. How in the world could you ever stay asleep lying like this, I don't know.