Tenderhooks

So we've made the move. From Takayama (that's the red star in the map above over at the top left) to Tsujido (the red star down at the lower right). Tsujido is about an hour outside Tokyo by train. It's more properly a suburb of Yokohama which is closer, but Tokyo is really the star around which all of Japan rotates. Tsujido is a nice beach town, being a part of an area called Kanagawa which includes the much more famous and scenic Kamakura.


Which is home to the Amida Buddha. Really impressive in it's own right and more so because it's where me and Miyuki had our first date, although we didn't realize it was a date at the time.

Tsujido is a beach town and has a nice relaxed vibe. The beach itself is kinda sad, though, a long strip of grey sand fronting a sluggish expanse of brown sporting runty little waves. The lack of waves though doesn't stop hordes of surfers from trying to squeeze a ride out of the little curls. The roads to the beaches are always full of surfer boys and girls with their boards strapped to the side's of their bikes. The surfer boys in particular are an interesting breed, completely hairless and deeply tanned with chapatsu (dyed brown) hair, the overall impression being one of beige. All visual contrast has been baked out of them. It's a little like watching ferrets walk upright. I might sound harsh, but some of the Japanese conceptions of male beauty leave me wondering, particularily the male counterparts of the kogaru's. Their fashion bible is Men's Egg:



But that's a whole 'NOTHER post. The real reason we moved to Tsujido is not so I could make snide observations of the beach culture, we've come here for a few months to stay with Miyuki's folks so they can help out when the baby comes. Which should be in about a month now, September 18th, give or take a few days as these things go. So far everything is going fine, but it seems as though our baby might be as stubborn as her parents... she has yet to turn into the proper heads down position. We're not panicking yet, but getting close. Next Monday we're going to the hospital where they'll attempt to do a "baby turning". There's a 1% chance that the baby might decide enough is enough and demand to be born right then and there, so next monday we could be parents. I know Miyuki's ready to get on with it already. The heat here is stifling and being preggers and all it's doubly bad for her. The summer here is really harsh. I thought NYC was bad, but here the humidity is so high that at the end of the day I feel like my whole body's been sprayed down with some PAM. Sticky, sticky, sticky.

So the freight train of parenthood is bearing down on us. Time to strap on our crash helmets.

Oh, by the way, while I was writing this a fairly sizable earthquake happened. Nothing fell, but that was weird.