Day befor the Autumn Equinox

Here is a picture of Ren about a year ago. It has been getting colder lately so the autumn equinox has not snuck* up on us here but if the weather tomorrow is anything like today there will be no way to tell when the sun is up or down. It's 10am here now and the sky is dark enough to be 8pm. Ren has taken a pronounced interest in walking. he is up to four step lounges. It's fun when he's walking from one of us to the other but last night he went from me to the low, hard coffee table giving Aya and I a good scare.

*USAGE NOTE Snuck is an Americanism first introduced in the
19th century as a nonstandard regional variant of sneaked. Widespread use of
snuck has become more common with every generation. It is now used by educated
speakers in all regions. Formal written English is more conservative than other
varieties, of course, and here snuck still meets with much resistance. Many
writers and editors have a lingering unease about the form, particularly if they
recall its nonstandard origins. And 67 percent of the Usage Panel disapproved of
snuck in our 1988 survey. Nevertheless, an examination of recent sources shows
that snuck is sneaking up on sneaked. Snuck was almost 20 percent more common in
newspaper articles published in 1995 than it was in 1985. Snuck also appears in
the work of many respected columnists and authors: “He ran up huge hotel bills
and then snuck out without paying” (George Stade). “He had snuck away from camp
with a cabinmate” (Anne Tyler). “I ducked down behind the paperbacks and snuck
out” (Garrison Keillor).

Happy Birthday Ren

Ren eating his birthday okonomiyaki.
He didn't go for the banana custard pie.
He is now fairly consistant with signing that he wants to eat. He's started cutting the two teeth to the side of his front and the sleep is... pretty much the usual wake up 3 0r4 times a night pattern that we have lived with for the last year.

As we had to go to Louisville to renew Aya permanent resident visa (now good for ten years!) we took Ren to the Louisville Zoo the day as a birthday trip.

Changumu's Oath or チャングムの誓い

So we've been watching Changumu (or チャングムの誓い) based on a minor historical figure, Jang Geum 長今, the first and last female royal physician to the Korean Joseon Dynasty. I am now pathetcally hooked. This will be the third Korean Drama series I've seen including the sensational (in Asia) Winter Sonata and Hotelier dramas. Unlike the other two, Changumu does not include Bae Yong Joon but is still apperently popular enough anyway. After watching I can see why.

The only thing is that the Korean is dubbed into Japanese instead of subtitled into Japanese and I feel this adds to or complicates the not so perfect acting with standard Japanese exagerated tones and personalities. We watched Winter Sonata and Hotelier with Japanese subtitles which at first I thought would be painful but it turns out my Japanese subtitle reading is better than I thought. Since they don't get into too many quantum theory level discussions in these dramas it was no big surprise but still a relief.

Anyhow, listening to the Korean, which I can't understand, and reading the Japanese was one of my favorite parts of watching them. However Changumu is complicated by the fact that what's spoken is a mix of standard Keigo and foreign (to Japan) period language which includes several cases where someone's title or office is not translated into Japanese but rather prounounced in katakana. For example a word that is not Japanese that you would learn right away is Surakkan (スラッカンmeaning Royal Kitchen- 宮中の台所、Korean Ateji =水剌間?) The Surakkan and it's often currupt bureaucracy is the primary stage for the story.

We have watched 30 0f the 54 episodes now.

Sign Study

Ren has really started taking this baby sign thing seriously. Well okay, this is actually him pictured on the verge of destroying the book by ingestion but he has been making progress. He has learnt to make the sign for "up"or "Dakko" (hold me) which he might be voicing soon. This is pretty simple though, not much more than an index finger pointed up. But still it's impressive to
see him producing sign. We have the SIGN with your BABY kit and it seems okay. The writing style seems pretty simplified and not what you would expect from a Doctor. we picked that one after reading reviews that said it was better than the alternative we were considering because it actually showed you lots of signs and spent more time explaining when to use them to get the most out of the baby's powers of association. It does have lots of signs to work from but now I'm wanting all the study and background research that is probably in the other book.

Almost 1

We have less than a week till Ren is one year old. Today we went to the
doctors for the round of immunization shots. There were four! Two nurses with two syringes each gave him the shots in his thighs. He was needless to say not happy with this but a little sip of barely tea and he was all better.

Previously I had written that Ren's favorite food was Bread but he seems to have found something he yet more fond of than bread, Okonomiyaki. His doesn't have all those ingredients or the sauce so it ends up more like a pancake with shredded cabbage and chives. Looks like we will be having birthday Okonomiyaki next week.

No War Shirt

NO WAR
THE NEW SOLDIERS WERE
DRILLED VERY HARD
ARMED FORCES WERE SENT
TO CONTROL THE RIOT
MUNITIONS FACTORY
THE WAR INDUSTRY
MILITARY ACTIVITIES
WAR EXPENDITURE
DISARMAMENT CONFERENCE
NO WAR





Maybe this is not Engrish at all but rather a deep poem set in a meter far too complex for me to recognize. The feeling it leaves me with is...
Thirsty for verbs.

Anyhow this shirt is also primarily sleep wear for some reason

Adventure of the brave boy

This requires no comment. Just another bib. This one has a nice tie around the middle straps to keep it in place.

Sleepwear for your hip hop baby

Actually this is just a shirt and not pajamas but unfortunately living in small town Kentucky, we can't dress Ren in this when going out so they are only used as sleepwear. I can see the woman behind us at the grocery store now,"Cute baby! And that's a really nice fuckin' shirt he's got isn't it?" maybe it would be more acceptable if it were a tattoo. Or maybe I'm looking at this wrong. Maybe I should see this as a golden opportunity to peak the locals' interest in all things Japanese.

Okay so this is not incoherent and neither are most of the rest of the Engrish discoveries to follow but it doees have that -only something they would make in Japan- smack to it.

Japanese Baby Bibs

Aya just got another care package from home. Because Ren is a champion drooler (teething or not) and needs to constantly have something to catch it before it soaks his shirt we have lots of stylish bibs. After looking at the baby bibs Aya's mom sent us I was convinced (my suspicions confirmed) that what Babies r us in Lexington has to offer are no more than rags compared to what babies in Japan get to wear. Not only do they have designs on both sides, but they even come in the ubiquitous incoherent English variety. Example below:
*Status*
The traditional beauty beyond age

The Tradition is now being reconsidered

Let the incoherent-English-on-Japanese-baby-apparel posting begin...

Two Front Teeth

And here they are, the long awaited upper teeth. Look out shoulder those are sharp! They've actually been there for a bout a week now but getting this picture was not easy. We were tipped off by the strange grinding sound he was making with his mouth. He still does this and it drives me crazy, like finger nails on a chalk board or Styrofoam squeaky crazy. Hopefully the novelty will wear off soon.