Hospital Visit

We recently visited our hospital in Tokyo and found that we will have the good fortune to be the parents of a baby girl this year. We're very excited and are in the process of thinking of suitable names!!

The Hospital

The Hospital we visit is Eiju General Hospital, located about 5 minutes away from our home in Nihonbashi by car, and about 5 minutes on foot from Ueno Staionhttp://wikitravel.org/en/Tokyo/Ueno in eastern Tokyo. http://www.eijuhp.com/. When my parents first came to visit me in Japan when I lived in Yamagata after graduation from college, we stayed at a hotel near Ueno, and visited the area quite a bit. It's interesting that fate has led me back to Ueno for a purpose such as this!

Dr. Visits

Our physician is Dr. Takahashi, and was recommended to us by Dr. Yamashita, one of my customers at the Tokyo Medical Center, where I sell medical devices. Dr. Takahashi was the former boss and educator of Dr. Yamashita at Keio University in Tokyo. Dr. Takahashi always gives us very careful explanations, and is a very nice doctor. Usually I accompany Shinachan on her visits, and Im called in at the very end to look at the ultrasound. Its pretty incredible to see the image of the baby moving on the screen. You can very clearly see her moving her arms and legs, rubbing her eyes, sucking her thumbs, etc. Dr. Takahashi takes a video of the ultrasound each time we visit, so we will have a nice keepsake for the future, showing the growth of our little girl.

Here's a short video of Eiju General Hospital:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqGDNoSsh4E

Until next time!

Cold in Tokyo

It's been a little while since I updated the blog... Since I last updated, Shinachan and I have both returned to work, and Tokyo has gotten pretty chilly. Usually, it starts snowing in Tokyo at the end of December, and continues on an off throughout March. This year has been unusually warm, however, and we've yet to have any snow. Yokohama (next to the Tokyo Metropolis) had its first snow today, so ours is probably not far off. Check out the weather forecast if you have a chance! http://weather.yahoo.com/forecast/JAXX0085_f.html

We usually go out to eat several times a week, but because Ive been unusually late coming home from work during the past few weeks, this evening was the first time we've been out in a while. The restaurant we went to this evening is "Sekai no Yamachan http" (http://www.yamachan.co.jp/menu.html). This restaurant began in the major Japanese city of Nagoya, and is an Izakaya (here is a so-so description of "izakaya": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Izakaya) that specializes in Nagoya foods such as chicken wings. The chicken wings are covered in salt and pepper, and are delicious (check out the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PibCXTGjgAw ) and cheap!! Make sure to try Sekai no Yamachan (Yamachan of the World!) next time you're in Japan!

Until next time...

Last Vacation Weekend of New Years 2007

This weekend is a three-day weekend in Japan (Monday is Coming of Age day, a celebration for those who have turned 20 years old over the past year http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seijin_shiki).

Apparently, in the Edo period (the period from the early 1600's until the late 1800's, when the Shogun was in power and present-day Tokyo was the center of government), coming of age day for boys meant that their forelocks were cut off. For girls, it meant that their teeth were died black. I dont think they do that anymore, but I'll check on that.

This weekend, Shinachan tried out the bread-cooking function on the rice-cooker for the first time. She made an apple-raisin pastry that was absolutely fantastic. I came home from my office's beginning-of-the-year party to find this delicious, freshly made pastry, and ate about 1/3 of it before I realized I wanted to take a picture for this blog (picture included). For those interested, please buy an Induction Heating (IH) Japanese rice maker for your bread or pastry making.

Anyway, its a new year and our vacation is, sadly, almost over. But we're looking forward to the great year of 2007!!

Shinako's stomach starting to show a little bit (picture included), and she's even started to feel some kicking.

The night here is very clear and bright this evening(picture included--both of the view to Akihabara and toward the Sumida river). The moon is so bright tonight it looks like a star!

Until next time!

John and Shinachan

Last day before (John's) New Year's Vacation Ends

Today is the last day of my New Years vacation. Like all long vacations, it seemed like a really long time off before it started, and now I can hardly believe it's over! My condolence is that tomorrow is Friday, and Monday is another national holiday, meaning that I have a three-day weekend coming up. Yeah!!! Shinachan is taking tomorrow off, so her vacation continues... I, on the other hand, will be attending a 2007 Kick-off Meeting for J&J...Yuck!

Anyway, today was spent relaxing and tending to business in the neighborhood (banks and many businesses started today).

For those of you who have visited our home in Ningyocho, you can see a few new additions to the neighborhood. This is a really growing area with lots of new condominiums and apartments. For that reason there have been a lot of new restaurants coming in recently. Here is a picture of one brand new apartment building (under construction when we moved in last year. You can see the tall buildings of famous electronics district Akihabara in the distance--about a 3 minute train ride away on the Hibiya line) and a new Italian restaurant that opened up at the bottom of our building.

Finally, tonight we're trying the brand new rice cooker we purchased this past week. For some reason, although we eat a lot of rice (this is Japan, after all), we havent had a rice cooker (almost everyone in Japan does). This is a pretty cool one and can aparently even bake bread!

Visit to the Suitengu Shrine

We visited the Suitenguu shrine(http://www.tourism.metro.tokyo.jp/english/topics/051201/3.html) in Tokyo to pay respects during Shinachan's fifth month of pregancy. There are various good days and bad days on the calendar, and "Inu no hi" (Last month it was December 23rd) is considered particularly auspicious (the day is different every month--must be on some kind of lunar calendar or someething). Women who are in their fifth month of pregnancy line come in huge crowds every month on Inu no hi and pay their respects at the shrine. (http://www.jal.com/world/en/guidetojapan/city_information/tyo/see/nihombashi/)

Women also buy special "obi" support wraps that they then wrap around their stomachs for the rest of the pregnancy that are blessed by Shinto priests on the site of the shrine (You can see that in the picture with the yellow awning with red lettering).

Click here for a short video = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1bVEnA_TmE

New Years Lunch 2007

Shinachan and I have a favorite restaurant we like to visit for special occasions--its the New York Grill Restaurant (http://tokyo.park.hyatt.com/hyatt/hotels/entertainment/restaurants/index.jsp) in the Park Hyatt Hotel in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Those of you who have seen the movie Lost in Translation, with comedian Bill Murray, will remember this restaurant as the bar used in the filming of the movie (http://www.lost-in-translation.com/). Murray plays a Hollywood action hero from the 70's who is now filming commercials in Japan to supplement his income. He has jet lag, and ends up meeting Scarlett Johansson in the bar (our restaurant) and developing a friendship with her. If you havent seen the movie, please do. It gives some interesting insights into Japan

Anyway, we like the lunch buffet. Its relatively reasonably priced, and comes with champagne, an all you can eat salad bar (with the best vinaigrette dressing Ive ever had), a great entree, and an all you can eat dessert bar. Delicious!! We spent about 2 1/2 hours there today, and practically had to be wheeled out. Satisfied, and very full!! Please click on the following URL to see a video of lunch...! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KP12CK4xSGE)

New Year's Eve 2006

Shinachan and I decided this year to visit the Sensouji Shrine in Asakusa (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asakusa ) in Tokyo. It's famous as one of the places to visit temples/shrines for the New Year holidays, which are extremely important in Asia. As Asakusa is only about six minutes away from where we live (an historic area called Ningyocho, in Nihonbashi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nihonbashi) by train, we decided to try to brave the crowds and go for the experience.

Not surprisingly, there were thousands of people lined up in front of the shrine as soon as we got there at around 10:30 p.m. on New Years Eve. We lined up with the rest, and before long the line started moving. It was cold, but not snowing (unlike Colorado), so we didnt mind waiting. At midnight, a group of sumo wrestlers (Seriously! About seven of them, of which three or four were wearing kimono's) started yelling out a countdown. At zero, the crowd yelled out in celebration, only to revert to anticlimatic silence shortly after.

We finally reached the temple at around 1:00 a.m., at which point we threw coins into the offering box and got away as quickly as we could from the crowds. There were lots of outdoor stands selling all kinds of foods, so it was fun to walk through them after that and sample various things. Shinachan had oden (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oden ) and I had corn on the cob and a really delicious baked potato from Hokkaido (you can see the steam rising in the picture).

Usually, trains in Tokyo finish running at around midnight and start up again at about 5 a.m, but during the New Year holidays they run all night. We caught a train back to Ningycho, and finally made it back to the apartment at about 3 a.m., at which point we promptly collapsed, exhausted, in bed. A long New Years eve, but fun!

Happy New Year 2007!!!

John and Shinachan

New Blog!

Welcome to the John(shin)ako Blog! We dont really consider ourselves the "Blogging" type, but we've got some pretty big events coming up and we want to keep you all informed! Check back from time to time for updates!