A Fish Out of Water

Nengajo sneak preview

After 11 years of making childish nengajo (new year's postcards) with stamps and ink, I finally have myself a real live model to make picture postcards with. Naturally I went all out and dressed Shuma up as next year's zodiac animal, the  rabbit (with big thanks to Mila's Daydreams for the inspiration). But what exactly is going on with the yellow circle, mallet and bucket-like thing?

The yellow circle is the moon and the mallet and bucket are a kine and usu, which are a large mortar and pestle used for making mochi (sticky rice paste). And what does a rabbit have to do with the moon and mochi-making? Well, a mochi-making rabbit is what the Japanese see when they look at the moon, that's what.

For most of the photo session Shuma refused to hold the kine, which is only fair considering he's only just learned how to hold things.

Or he just wanted to eat it.

But I got enough snaps of him holding it to make choosing just one a tough decision. Stay tuned to see the finished product!

Bestest Christmas Ever

We just finished celebrating Shuma's best Christmas ever (ours too), and before Shuma and I head off the in-laws in Osaka to begin New Year's celebrations I thought I'd share some holiday pictures.

Hideaki was working the night shift in the week before Christmas, so we got off to a late start. And to compensate we stretched the holiday out over the weekend, with our Christmas dinner and traditional opening of a single Christmas Eve present on the 25th, and the opening of the rest of the presents on the 26th. Chrismtas dinner was a lovely chicken (people don't really do turkey here) that I bought already cooked (a basic roast chicken is a dish that I still can't get right, and I know better than to try again with a baby around) followed by a beautiful cake. Also store bought, of course, at our local patteserie. Actually my parents bought it when they were here earlier this month, as Christmas cakes are usually pre-ordered in Japan.

I couldn't tell you what was inside, because I'm not much of a cake person, except that it involved layers and layers of chocolatey goodness. It was very nice, and I could become a cake person just for this. Thanks Mom and Dad!

The next morning we awoke to full stockings- and one more than usual! Yes, Santa remembered that it was Shuma's first Christmas, and went all out.

Most of the presents are from my parents and other family and friends, which we're very grateful for. Hopefully next year we'll be better able to shower Shuma with the material goods he so deserves (and he'll hopefully be old enough to appreciate it more).

Did you know that it's very hard to post for family pictures with a baby? Yes, you probably did, and now we do too.

Shuma was quite interested in the wrapping paper and packaging, as babies are supposed to be, and was also impressed with all most his presents.

He didn't particularly care for this clementine though.

But this tasty wrapping paper made up for it. As did this onesie:

Now Shuma and I are off to Osaka. I'm wishing all of you a Happy New Year!

Christmas Elf

Meet Santa's newest elf. His main jobs are cooing and being cute, but he also manages to get in a lot of drooling and burping. 

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He also likes to ride around town trying to spread Christmas cheer, but the folks in my neighborhood are becoming increasingly hard to impress and he failed to cheer anybody up today. No kawaiis, no old ladies slowing down to take a peek, no shopclerks fussing. No smiles, not a single head turned. Jeez, what do I have to do to impress these people- have him ride around on a reindeer? (Note to self: order reindeer for next year.)

Sweet Potato Rice

Satsuma imo gohan (sweet potato rice); chicken wings simmered with daikon; hiyayakko (cold tofu) and cherry tomatoes dressed with long onion, soy sauce and sesame oil; miso soup with wakame seaweed and kabocha squash.

Recipe for the chicken wings and daikon here, recipe for the sweet potato rice follows. Note that it uses the Japanese go to measure the rice: 1 go equals 180 ml.

 

Sweet Potato Rice (さつまいもご飯)

1 satsuma imo (Japanese sweet potato), about 300 grams
1 Tbsp salt
2 go (Japanese rice cups)/360 ml uncooked Japanese rice
2 Tbsp sake
1 Tbsp mirin
1 tsp salt
1 tsp soy sauce
400 ml water
Gomashio (black sesame with salt) for serving

Peel sweet potato, cut into 1 cm (1/2") cubes. Dissolve 1 Tbsp salt in hot water, add sweet potato cubes and enough cold water to cover, let soak 10 minutes, drain. Wash rice, drain, and add to rice cooker.

Add the sake, mirin, salt and soy sauce to rice, then fill with water to 2 go mark (about 400 ml water). Add sweet potatoes, cook as usual. When finished, stir gently and spoon into bowls, topping with a sprinkling of gomashio.

Dining with Shuma

Shuma went to his first sushi restaurant yesterday (his three month birthday!) and let us eat our entire meal without crying, fussing, or needing to be fed. Definitely his best restaurant behaviour so far, which is saying something because he's usually pretty good when we eat out. This wasn't a fancy kind of sushi place- it was Kurazushi, a cheap kaitenzushi (conveyer belt sushi) place- about as un-fancy as you get. It will be many, many years before he can go to a real sushi restaurant (and probably many more before we can afford to bring him).

I have turned so completely into a baby blogger that I didn't take even a single food picture, although our chawan mushi (savoury egg custard) is visible above. It's got a crab claw on top!

Shuma liked watching the plates of sushi go by on the conveyer belt. He almost looks ready to grab one, but I guess it will be a little while before he's capable of that. Can't wait!

Shuma has been to plenty of restaurants so far. He started at six weeks old, and has so far been to the local Japanese style family restaurant twice, a fairly nice Italian restaurant, a curry rice place, the Costco cafeteria (above- someone tell my husband to clean his phone),

and Mosburger (a Japanese burger chain) twice (above). These visits were all with Hideaki or other folks, so it was easy to eat while passing Shuma around.

For this visit to the Ikea cafeteria we were alone, but luckily he stayed asleep in his carrier while I ate. I thought I was clever ordering cold food but the crackers were tricky and he ended up with quite a few crumbs on his head. I also noticed his right ear stunk of pickled herring when we got home, and I have no idea how that happened as I was very careful with the stuff. He's one-eigth Swedish so I'll consider it a christening of sorts.

The fanciest place he's been at has been the New York Grill (it was their weekend brunch, where it's OK to take babies). This was, unfortunately, his fussiest restaurant experience yet, and while he didn't do any full-on crying or attract any dirty looks, I had to bring him out a few times as well as feed him at the table.

Where next? Japan is full of "family restaurants" where it's perfectly OK to bring little ones. This is also a very breastfeeding-friendly country, and although I haven't yet seen a Japanese woman nurse in a restaurant here, I have never had a problem doing so myself. So we have lots and lots of choices. If we had the budget for it we'd go out a lot more, because it sure is easier to eat out with a baby than to cook with a baby.

What kind of baby-related restuarant experiences have you had?

The Visit

My mom and dad came to meet Shuma earlier this month. It was their second visit here and quite different from their first, which was two weeks of fancy hotels and sightseeing. This time they were here for a week, stayed at a local budget hotel, and hardly went anywhere. Yet they left happy. Apparently brand-new grandchildren are pretty neat.

So how did Shuma react to the visit? First he was surprised at all the commotion.

Then he was a bit frightened.

At times he found the whole thing rather upsetting.

At other times he was overcome with exhaustion (baby exhaustion is contagious, apparently).

But he soon warmed up to his grandparents.

He spent most of the visit being happy.

And jolly.

And sweet.

Although we didn't get out and do much, we did have an eventful trip. We had some nice meals out, and I was relieved to see that he's pretty well-behaved when eating in a restaurant. Of course we had to choose the places carefully, and I did get a crash course in public nursing, but there were no major problems. I think that Japan is an especially baby (and breastfeeding) friendly place though, and he wouldn't be so portable back home.

We also had some nice meals in, and with extra people around to look after Shuma I did more cooking than I've done in months. We had some outrageously expensive wagyu (Japanese beef) steaks that I did a nice job on (a meat thermometre is my new best friend), and I also did a very traditional Japanese meal featuring homemade aji no tempiboshi (sun-dried horse mackerel), which my mom shocked me by finishing down to the bone.

There were a few baby baths. He'd only just started bathing in the big bath, so I had to show my parents (don't worry, I wore a bathing suit) because he's extremely cute when he bathes. He also got to have a bath with his grandpa, who was impressed not only with Shuma but with the deep Japanese-style tub.

I got some relief from diaper duty as well, which was nice. And I learned a thing or two about babies, such us new burping techniques. Now I realize that at least some of Shuma's unexplained crying is due to burps that won't come out.

Our one big trip out was to Shinjuku, where my parents stayed last time. Things had already changed since their last visit, and the Cocoon tower was new to them. And finally someone agreed with me about the phallic nature of the building (the tower has a lower spherical building attached to it, unfortunately not visible in this picture).

We all dressed up for the day. Shuma wore his silliest hat.

Hideaki wore Shuma. I looked pretty good too, but nobody thought to take my picture. I guess I'm 37 years too old to be worthy of a picture.

We went to the Park Hyatt for brunch, and once up at the top took the obligatory pictures. We know the view never looks as good in amateur snapshots as it does in real life, but we tried all the same.

We had a pretty good view of Tokyo Sky Tree, which seems to be nearly finished.

We could also faintly make out Mount Fuji. It's completely invisible in this picture, but I swear it was there. I was greatly relieved, as my parents thought Fuji was a mythical mountain. On their last trip they never saw it, despite visits to this very same building and a few others in Tokyo, a car trip to Kawaguchi and Hakone (near the foot of the mountain), and a bullet train trip right past it.

We had brunch at the New York grill. My quail was nice but I had to eat it cold as Shuma decided he was hungry just as it arrived. The hotel doesn't have a dedicated nursing room (although their bathrooms are more than nice enough) but I was escorted to a small meeting room in the business area. This room also had a view of Mount Fuji, and is (so far) the coolest place we've nursed.

After brunch we made a stop at Tokyu Hands, which has really done a great job at capturing the essence of the holiday.

Other activities included this attempt at a holiday baby picture (no, you can't see my hands straightening out his sleeper at all, can you?).

And several attempts at a family portrait, which were either foiled by the camera's failure to focus properly,

Or by Shuma's failure to not cry.

The week flew by, and before I knew it we were making saying sayonara. Shuma won't remember it, but for all of the adults involved it was a memorable visit.

Dinostar

I'm hoping that this sleeper will help to instill a dinosaur obsession similar to the one I had as a child. And hopefully that obsession won't eventually be replaced with a guinea pig obsession, then a Duran Duran obsession, then a boy obsession (not that there's anything wrong with that) and that he grows up to be a paleontologist. An arceologist or evolutionary biologist will also be acceptable.

Little Aristocrat

This is Shuma being dried off with his special towel, which is monogrammed with しゅうま, his name in hiragana (the Japanese alphabet). It is probably the fanciest thing he owns and he insists on it when he's in an aristocratic mood (which is pretty much all the time, as for some reason he expects to be waited on hand and foot).

Ho Ho Ho

My parents flew back home yesterday after a great, but too short, visit, so Blue Lotus is back to its regular programming. Today Shuma is modelling his new (guess who gave it to him?) onesie that is probably going to get a lot of wear over the next few weeks.

Be Back Next Week

Shuma's grandparents are visiting from Canada for the next week and I won't have time for blogging. So until regular posts resume, I'll leave you with a big pile of baby pictures.

 

Autumn outfit

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The layered look may be poplar these days, but rather than be burried in layers Shuma prefers this warm fleece jumper. I'm rather falling for it myself.

(Don't worry, I didn't leaf him there for very long. I'm no beech.)

Tiger Beat

Shuma was born in the year of the Tiger. While Hideaki considers this to be a sign that he will grow up to play baseball for the Hanshin Tigers, I just think it's a good excuse to buy a cool outfit.

Falling

Ever have that dream where you're falling helplessly into a deep black pit? Where you try to scream but your voice is lost in the darkness? Where just as you crash to the bottom you awaken with a jerk, your body drenched in sweat, your heart pounding and your mind racing to figure out where you are and if you are alive or dead? Yeah. Shuma does too.

Chicken wings simmered with daikon

From bottom left: steamed rice topped with daikon no happa to chirimenjako no itame (daikon leaves sauteed with baby sardines); daikon to tebasaki ni (daikon braised with chicken wings); hiyayakko (cold tofu) topped with leftover abura-age to negi no nibitashi (fried tofu simmered with long onion- recipe here); miso soup with enoki mushrooms and wakame seaweed.

The chicken wings with daikon dish is one of the many simmered foods that make use of daikon. I love them because they're easy, adaptable, and can be cooked in huge batches to make lots of leftovers (in fact they usually taste better the next day).

The following recipe is based on this one (Japanese) and can be fiddled with endlessly. You can use more or less of anything you like. chicken can be in the form of chopped boneless thighs or chicken meatballs. Or use pork belly, sliced thinly or in chunks, instead of chicken. Or try ika (squid) or buri (yellowtail). Vegetarian? Use atsu-age (tick fried tofu) for the protein. On a budget? Use konyaku (devil's tongue jelly) or chikuawa (steamed fish paste). Add another vegetable, like carrot or potato, and leave out the eggs if you can't be bothered. And if you don't have all the seasonings you can just replace them all with bottled mentsuyu (noodle broth) to taste. In the meal above, for example, I've used a whole daikon and skipped the eggs (and doubled the recipe to make leftovers). Just make sure to use enough liquid- the solid ingredients should almost be covered.

 

Daikon Simmered with Chicken Wings (大根の手羽先煮)

2/3 large daikon
12 drumettes and/or wing tips, or 6 chicken wings cut in two
4 eggs, boiled and peeled
3 Tbsp soy sauce
3Tbsp sake
2Tbsp mirin (sweet cooking sake)

Peel daikon, cut in half widthwise, cut in half again lengthwise, then cut into half-moons about 1cm (1/2 inch) thick. Add to pot, fill with water to almost covering the daikon.

Bring to boil over high heat, add chicken wings. Bring to a simmer, then cover pot with lid and cook on medium about 15 minutes, until daikon can be easily pierced with a skewer.

Add eggs and seasonings, return to simmer. Cook uncovered, stirring occasionally while taking care not to break daikon, for about half an hour, or until liquid is reduced by half.

Serve in shallow bowl with a bit of the broth.

Serves 4, takes about 1 hour

Sleeping Bag

I love this wearable sleeping bag. All that space in the bottom means there's lots of room to grow, and also lots of room for those very full diapers. Yup, with this baby I can go all night- or several days- without a diaper change. Very convenient!