Quinn's smile

I snapped this shot of Quinn as he slept. The smile was fleeting, but in that moment I wondered what he was dreaming about. Milk?

Our girl sleeps in the closet

These are the instructions Shelley left for the babysitter last night. Brush teeth, say prayers...and don't forget to put Ella in the closet! There's part of me that feels guilty about putting our daughter to sleep in the closet. I mean, what loving parent puts their children in the closet for 10-12 hours at a time? Ella isn't the deepest sleeper and the slightest noise seems to wake her. To exacerbate matters, we don't have blinds in Ella's room and with Tokyo getting light at 4:00 AM, we've had a spat of days where Ella is up at 5:00 or 5:30 AM. Not good. So we've resorted to putting her in the closet. It's at least a walk-in, and we have a crib there for her. But we do feel bad, because we are putting her in a closet. In the movies, only unloved kids with mean parents put their kids in closets. I mean, is she going to develop some complex that will take years of therapy to unwind because her heartless parents put her in a closet at night, turned out the lights and closed the door? We're willing to risk it to give us a few extra minutes of sleep. Well, there goes parents-of-the-year honors for 2009. Better luck next year I guess.

Sleeping on Trains

Allow me to paint with broad cultural strokes - the Japanese, especially those in Tokyo, are world class sleepers. This isn't to say they get a lot of sleep, quite the contrary. I believe many in Tokyo suffer from a chronic lack of sleep. But when opportunities for sleep arise, the speed at which people fall asleep is impressive. It's as if there is a latent genetic narcolepsy that takes hold across society at the opportune times. There is no better example of this than on Tokyo's trains. Long work hours and insufferable commute times make trains a fertile ground for sleeping.

You may be thinking that I should leave these people alone. But sleeping on trains is not a victimless crime, mind you. Many sleepers are looking for places to rest their weary heads, and that usually means encroaching upon the space of the person sitting next to them. It's at those times when you have to develop a quick response elbow to keep people from resting their head on your shoulders - something that's happened many a time. A quick jab to the ribs, however, is only a temporary solution as most train sleepers will fall right back to their sleepy ways within moments.



As you can see from the guy above, others sleep on trains because they introduce immense levels of alcohol into their system and it causes them to lose their sense of Japaneseness. This guy uses his man purse as a pillow. He stretches out across four seats and even keeps his shoes on! I've never seen such a brazen display. I have seen, and come to expect, this from mass transit in the U.S. **cough** LA's Metro Gold Line **cough**, not Japan.

Other train sleepers are more advanced - they have mastered the art of sleeping while standing. They jam themselves into a corner of the train and sleep, or they use handlebars as make shift pillows. Some brave souls just stand like cows and let the crowded trains be their protection against the buffeting from the train. Still

The worst of all train sleepers are the fake train sleepers. These are people who fake being asleep so they don't have to give up their seat to the elderly, pregnant or disabled - usually in areas of the train designated for such people. You see them everyone once in a while peeking out to see if the coast is clear.

There a whole host of varieties of sleepers, including the massive snorers. For a non train sleeper like me, this brings nonstop amusement.

Ella hums...

Shelley and Ella share something in common - they both hum when they breathe in their sleep. This isn't an everyday occurence with Shelley, but Ella seems to be a noisy sleeper and hums quite a bit.

It's 4:30 AM

Some people look forward to the weekend because they get to sleep in. That thrill doesn't exist for me anymore. Not because we have two kids and they wake up early...though I think that would be a factor if it wasn't already bright at 4 o'clock in the freaking morning. That's why I can't sleep. Japan doesn't have a daylight savings time, which is super smart for a country that is full of people who aren't morning people! So let's waste some sunlight so that when it's time to go home, it's already dark. That's good for the psyche.

Japan used to have daylight savings time after WWII and it was jettisoned soon after Japan regained its sovereignty in 1952. I say, bad move, Japan, bad move indeed.

In case you don't believe me, here is a picture I took after waking up at 4:30 AM one morning. It's cloudy, but it's bright.

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.

The First of Our Lasts...

Today was our last home football game before graduation and before our move to Japan. In a way, this marks the beginning of a lot of "lasts" for us. These games have been fun because we've been able to do it as a family and I think Anthon loves it more than Shelley and I do. This morning, as Anthon was waking up, he called out from his crib, "Hey guys, I'm reeeady!" When we went in there to ask what he was ready for, he replied, "SC Game...eat nachos." Yes, he was ready...and yes we did eat nachos. He was giving bones to the kids around us and showing off his two finger "fight on" skills.

Anthon also has impressive skills at listening and repeating - much to our dismay sometimes. Upset at a certain call that went against USC, the student section began to yell in unison, "b***s***" - many times over. Anthon, ever the student of things that come out of my mouth that I say in haste, starts saying, "ullshi, ullshi, ullshi!" Though he doesn't know what those words mean, for the most part people are actually pretty respectful when Anthon's around. He's pretty interactive and animated at the games so people tend to watch what they say a bit more...so that has made the environment around us a bit better.

Poor UCLA, they couldn't even put up enough of a showing to keep my son awake, however. UCLA's 12 yards of total rushing offense lulled my boy into a good 45 minute nap from the second quarter into half time. The USC win means another Rose Bowl game and maybe one last game before we hit the road. Shelley and I thought that maybe our second child would be a bit disadvantaged because he/she wouldn't be in on all the fun we had at USC's football games. Maybe we have to become Tokyo Giants fans.