Going to America today

At last starting my journey to meet our little granddaughter Kyla. I'm leaving today, Monday, at 5pm and arriving in San Francisco Monday at 9:00am - just in time for the start of a new business week. I'll keep my fingers crossed for good weather so I can get a tennis game in on Tuesday. Then on Wednesday, I'll fly to Carlsbad to hold Kyla for the first time, and enjoy her (and of course Gina and David) for the rest of the week, as well as to help where I can. I'll also see Steve and Valerie and be able to attend their engagement party on Saturday, and to meet Valerie's children Jacob and Kalia - to be our next grandchildren in August. Whow, what a week. I'll return to Los Altos Sunday night, and depending upon the sun (to play tennis) or rain (not to play tennis) return to Tokyo on February 28 or March 1 and reunite with Bill. It's a great life!

Found a Garbage Can

At last I finally spotted a garbage recepticle in this very clean city. Once I noticed the first, then I saw a few more. But they're only at 7-11 type stores, at which people buy a quick drink or bite. No one eats while walking along the street, so anyone who buys something to eat in a 7-11 stands in front of the store, sips and eats quickly, and drops their garbage into the appropriate container for bottles, burnables, etc. There are many 7-11's as well as Lawsons, Family Marts - all similar to 7-11. (A piece of information - 7-11 is owned and franchised by the Japanese.) It's difficult not to munch on something tasty I've just bought from a delicious bread bakery while walking back home, but again I am to conform.

I had a problem yesterday in trying to get cash from an ATM. After I entered all the data, the machine said something like - unidentifiable account (I think a generic response it's not giving out money). So I spent some time on the phone with my bank at home and then customer service, both of which informed me there wasn't anything wrong with our account. I had had some problems when we first got here, so I was a little worried in having to go without getting cash for a few days. Japanese are not credit card enthusiastic, so many stores and restaurants take payment in cash only. So, today I ventured again armed with both my ATM card as well as Bill's to try once more. The moment I started entering the amount of Yen I wanted I realized what I had done yesterday. Instead of 50000 (about $450), I entered 500000 (almost $5K) - a wee bit more than my daily limit to withdraw! Such is life in another currency!

Excursion to Nikko

On Saturday, we made an excursion to Nikko, a small town north of Tokyo, a Buddhist-Shinto religious center from the 17th century. Marnie, Bill's sister and brother-in-law's friend from North Carolina, recommended we go there. It was a short Shinkansen (bullet) train ride with a local transfer and took us about 2 hours to get there. The Shinkansen train was very fast, very smooth, very quiet, and a great way to travel.

On the local train, a young girl touched my arm and shyly excused herself, asking if I spoke English. The Japanese are usually very reserved, so for her to approach me was being quite bold, but she desperately wanted to use her English skills, which were quite primitive. We had to use a bit of sign language and word substitutions to understand one another, but what she knows about America is Los Angeles and the glamous movie life there. She never heard of San Francisco. She is 20 years old and on a two-month break from college spending her time in a judo group. On her way off the train, she gave me a little Snoopy on a chain, which I hung on my carry bag.

We spent the time in Nikko at two shrines, both within lovely park areas. It was one amazing beautifully carved and decorated shrine after another. We even came across a wedding taking place in one of the shrines. After several hours walking around and seeing the shrines, we found a great steak house for a late lunch.
The alcoholic menu really tickled Bill, especially the price for a "glass" of wine (note the listing on the photo). Even my young friend on the train really didn't say "los angeles." She asked me about "ros angeres." It took a few trys on her part to make me understand she was saying Los Angeles.

Kyla Kangna Watt

Miss Kyla Kangna Watt is at home now with Mommy and Daddy - who aren't getting much sleep, but they're all getting the hang of this parent/child stuff, and loving every minute. Kyla's middle name has been chosen - Kangna - in Chinese means lovely and beautiful, as does Kyla in Gaelic. She's not tooooo cute - she even smiles already!

I'm planning to go home February 19, de-jetlag for a couple of days, and then go to Carlsbad for a few days to love our sweet little granddaughter - and help out where I can.

I'll return to Tokyo the next week after also attending an engagement party for Steve and Valerie in Carlsbad, and getting in a tennis game or two in Los Altos.

No rain in Spain!

Bill and I are still so high thinking about our new granddaughter - it's wonderful to think of our future pampering her - as is what grandparents should do! Kyla has a middle name now, but we'll "publish" it when we get another photo of that sweet beauty.

We went out tonight to a little - and I mean little neighborhood restaurant (about 200 sq. ft. max including toilet and kitchen) that has been intriguing us. Everything outside or in the restaurant is written in Japanese, but we knew it was a little different. Turned out to be Spanish, so with our non-Japanese and the waiter's little English we had four delicious Tapas dishes, very much worth going to again. We discovered they have paella and sangria, so that's what we'll have our next trip there. The place is so cozy - obviously small, only 10 seats at tables and 8 at the bar - tightly decorated with wine/liquor bottles, wooden artifacts, and charm.

We have heard the statistic that Tokyo has more restaurants than New York, London and Paris combined. With a restaurant in every nook and corner of every alley, below-ground restaurants galore, and floors of restaurants below and atop buildings, it's believeable. Interesting also is the fact that no matter the ethnicity of a restaurant, all staff are Japanese - we also understand owned by Japanese as well.

We like this city living more and more - and we're even becoming pretty comfortable with the subway system.

It's a girl! It's a girl!

Gina and David presented the world with a beautiful baby girl - Kyla Watt - at 1:38p PST February 6. She was born at 6.9# and 19-1/2". Gina went through labor and birth naturally and both mother and daughter are doing very well. Gina's so tiny, and where she put that beautiful little thing with those fat little legs I'll never know! The new family is ecstatically happy and thrilled, as are the first-time new Pa and Grammy. We would have been thrilled with either a healthy boy or girl, but David seems to have broken the boy mold and given us a girl!

Kyla's Chinese middle name will be determined before they leave the hospital, so I'll post her full name and another photo of our new granddaughter very soon.

Every new plateau in life is absolutely incredible! I'm so emotionally charged you would have "thunk" that I gave birth - must be the feelings of all new grandparents - how proud and happy we are!

Breakfast at Wimbledon ...

... oops, Breakfast at Superbowl, that is. Yeah, I'm so excited! It's on live, and even in English! I'll have a second and third cup of coffee while y'all have your beer. Bill has to go to work - bummer.

Another night at the symphony

We're enjoying dashing here and there last-minute with all the offerings of living in a city. Mid-week I went to a women's tennis tournament that included Sharapova, Hingis, Hantuchova and Dementieva, among others. I saw most of the big names except Maria Sharapova, and enjoyed my full day at the tournament - good thing because for the price of entry to anything here in Tokyo, one better enjoy oneself! Bill had a business dinner so I stayed right on through the evening to enjoy doubles too. The tournament probably made the sports news in the USA because Hingis defeated Sharapova yesterday - a wolloping, too! So Martina is on her way back, although she got walloped today by Dementieva.

Last night Bill and I ventured over to the symphony hall without advance tickets and discovered the performance was sold out. No problem - I have my friend Mr. Egami there. Even though he wasn't there, I dropped his name and two tickets appeared for us. Interesting seats because they were beside the orchestra and the 120-strong male chorus. The major work (about 1 hour long) was Japanese, Cantata Tengai, for orchestra, chorus and boy solo. It started out as a contemporary piece, but evolved to a lot of a Rutter sound - absolutely mesmerizing and beautiful. The boy solo voice was beautiful - having had a boy singer ourselves and hearing many others, this boy's voice was the best we've ever heard. He looked to be about 9 or 10 in his darling formal shorts and suit jacket, high white socks and patent shoes. But the lady next to us said he was 13. Hopefully his voice will change late so he can use that exquisite instrument for a while.

Three weeks here and four times to the symphony - all of them different orchestras. Much fun.

Morning at the Fish Market

A must do in Tokyo is to experience the enormous fish market between 5:00a and 8:00a for the morning sale of fresh fish. We got there about 6:00a, a little later than planned but in plenty of time to see an incredible amount and variety of fish - a lot of which were still alive - and every stall was busy preparing fish for sale today. A statistic we just read was that Japan consumes 30% of the tuna caught globally - believable when walking through the fish market.

The photo of the room of tuna (and me) was probably wall-to-wall fish at 5:00a, but we got the full impact anyway. The shell fish are huge, as the photo shows. I thought the steaming brass teapot alongside the fish and men in boots was an interesting shot.

No shoes here!

Bill went out to lunch yesterday with a couple of Japanese men from his office, and after entering a restaurant and walking to the rear a staff person had some "words" with them. After these words, they all turned around and walked out. They explained to Bill that the staff were angry at them for not taking their shoes off at the door.

When we moved into our apartment, we were told very sternly that we were not to have shoes on in our apartment either. So, like good little soldiers, we're shoeless in our own apartment. The floors are heated so it's quite comfortable.

I do have a shoe problem upstairs at the spa, though. Having solved the sneaker issue in the gym, I still haven't figured out which colored pair of flipflops (three kinds, black, green and blue) to put on when going from the spa reception area, to the ladies locker room, to the hottub and then the sauna. A woman who spoke English tried to show me, but she was interrupted by the staff who then just motioned what to do - which I didn't understand. One of these days I'm going to get up the courage to take advantage of the sauna and hottub, but I'm sure not I'll succeed before making a mistake and getting chastised!

Earthquake

Just felt our first earthquake at 8:35p JST February 1. Wasn't too bad! A little pre-tremor and a bit of shaking, but thankfully not much. We have an earthquake package in our hall closet - we better check it out. I'm not sure what good it's going to do on the 11th floor, but we'll check it out anyway. I've been told that the upper floors feel quakes less than the lower floors - I'm not sure that's good or bad for us. However, if it's bad for them, it's definitely bad for us!