New Furniture and Explorations

Hi all! We got some furniture last week and the apartment is looking much homier now! The sofa and table came as is, but the kitchen cabinet, a bookshelf, and a TV stand came in flat boxes and I put them together myself while Braden was at work. I was pretty proud of myself for managing it, but boy was my right arm tired when I was done.

I got a small oven from a yard sale page on Facebook, so I can bake now. It's also a microwave (those Japanese sure are inventive when it comes to space saving devices). A couple days ago I bought a washing machine and it's coming tomorrow (yay for not having to walk uphill with a bag full of laundry). All we have left to get for now is a TV and a car. The car is going to be a lifesaver around here. The buses only run once an hour most of the day, and they're often late... or early. 

The kids and I have done a lot of exploring recently, mostly in the big Urasoe Park behind our apartment complex. The park is huge, and we still haven't seen all of it. Last week while we were walking we saw some wooden steps going up a small cliff with some stone masonry set into the hill, so we went up to investigate. 

Google called it the 'Iso High Tomb'. There was an explanatory placard nearby but it was all in Japanese. I found an English explanation on a sign elsewhere in the park.

It says: "This tomb was made from a cave in the middle of a cliff and the front of which was sealed with stone masonry. The entrance to the tomb is large and of an old style, and it is said that Esonoyononushi, the father of King Eiso and three Aji (local rulers) are entombed here." The kids thought it was pretty cool and asked me if a zombie or ghosts would appear haha. 

Speaking of ghosts, Urasoe park surrounds a pretty massive cemetery. We walked by it today on our way through a different part of the park. Okinawan cemeteries are really different from the ones on the Japanese mainland, which are all concrete and consist of many small monuments all crammed together in a tight space. The cemetery in Urasoe was full of small stone buildings with monuments out front, all lined up in rows like quaint ghostly houses. 

We saw one that was particularly large and even had its own stone courtyard of sorts. Taran bravely went in to investigate.

Another interesting thing we did today was walk down a cobblestone road that is more than 300 years old. I was following the Google maps navi trying to find a nearby shopping center, and it took us to a really rough, stony road that went very steeply down into a ravine, over a small stone bridge that traversed a narrow river, and then very steeply up out of the ravine (apparently the King who had it built did not believe in switch backs. Only the shortest route was good enough for him XD).

We found an explanatory placard at the bottom of the ravine giving a little history of the road and the King who was known to traverse it frequently. The final paragraph says: "In the valley where the Makiminato River flows, an approximately 200m long and 3m wide stone paved road remains. The road in this area was called 'umadukerashi' (umakorobashi) as the slope was so steep that horses often collapsed from exhaustion. The bridge over the river was rebuilt in the Taisho and Showa periods."

All in all it's been a pretty interesting last couple of weeks. I found a couple of Japanese tutors for the kids, and we made some new friends at the local LDS church. One of the families had us over for dinner a couple nights ago. They have five kids and Clara and Taran had a lot of fun playing with them. Their little girl Noa, who's four, wanted to follow Clara everywhere, and Taran was in awe of their eleven year old son Riku and his set of battling tops. I'm going to try and find some for Taran's birthday next week. 

Well, that's all for now. We're hopefully going car shopping this weekend or sometime next week, and I hope we'll have one by the time I make my next post. 'Till then!

Urasoe Shi

 We made it to Okinawa!

Sorry for the wait, we've been pretty busy the last few days trying to set up house and such. Okinawa is beautiful, and the weather right now is great, warm but not stifling, and it feels like there's always a breeze coming from the ocean. 

On Monday we met in the lobby of the hotel where we did our quarantine with the other JETS, and then we were ushered onto a shuttle and to the Haneda airport. The flight to Naha was fairly smooth, no problems, and then the nice people from Urasoe City Hall met us at the airport with a cute banner that said "Welcome Braden, Melissa, Clara, and Taran." They asked if we were hungry (we were very hungry, as we had not had much to eat at the airport or on the flight) and Clara was craving McDonalds, so our first stop was Mcdonalds haha. After two weeks of cold meals the hot burgers and fries were amazing. 

After that, Braden was taken to the real estate agent's office while the kids and I were taken to a big park containing the ruins of Urasoe Castle. It was really interesting.

The views were AMAZING. The ruins were cool too, you can see them on the right of the picture where Taran and Clara are running up the path. I'll have to take a better picture of them next time. After Braden finished at the real estate agent's office, we all met up at the apartment and the real estate agent showed us the apartment and gave us the keys. It's a really nice little place, clean and well maintained, though the exterior is not very attractive.

For the last few days we've been doing a lot of shopping and exploring. The people at City Hall have been really great, taking us shopping and showing us where we can get good deals. We ordered some furniture from an outlet store, delivery on Wednesday, and then we were able to buy a stove and food. I'm glad I can finally cook again. Despite not being a very adventurous cook, and despite regarding cooking as a chore, I love eating home cooked food. 

We live very close to Urasoe Park, which is BIG, and contains not only castle ruins but a big playground and slide as well. The play area is on the other side of the park, so it's a bit of a walk, but totally worth it.

The kids really enjoyed playing around in the park, even though the big playground was closed due to Covid concerns. They still got to ride the big slide though. There were so many butterflies and birds, and it was so sunny and warm. It's easy to forget that it's November!

Braden is getting settled into his new job at Urasoe City Hall, and today he got to interpret for a couple of Marines who called City Hall with questions. 

The kids liked the big tree outside City Hall. It had a lot of vines on it and the kids told me it was the tree's beard. The building itself is pretty large, and Braden works in the International Relations Division on the 4th floor. It's only a ten minute walk away from our apartment, which is very convenient. 

Yesterday we got to visit Urasoe Elementary School, where the kids will start school in April (the Japanese school year begins in April, and we decided to homeschool until then so that the kids can learn a little more Japanese before they start). City Hall told us that all the kids starting first grade next year are required to have a health exam, and it happened to be yesterday. So we went, along with a bunch of other Japanese parents and their five year olds. We were the only foreigners that I saw, but the staff were very helpful and patient with us as we tried to navigate from one room to another. It was a fairly basic health exam, with quick checks of vision, hearing, teeth, speech and development, and then a doctor checked his heart and lungs. Taran was very sweet and told everyone ever 'konnichiwa!' and was greeted with smiles every time. Clara had fun tagging along and watching the proceedings. When it was over, we took the kids to the local convenience store for an ice cream.

Today, the kids and I rode an Urasoe City Bus for the first time. We don't live super close to any grocery stores (very different from when we lived in Nagoya and there were THREE within easy walking distance). We went to the nearest department store called San-A (in Japan, a large department store is like a small mall, with lots of stores and even a food court). We had fun exploring and then we ate some food and had ice cream at the food court. I filled a backpack and a big bag with stuff and managed to get it home, though I was sure tired by the time we got off the bus and trekked up the hill to our apartment (we live nearly at the top of a big hill). 

Anywho, that's all for today. Tomorrow we're going to a JET meetup near Okinawa City. Next week, our furniture is coming and I'll take another pic of our apartment when it's more filled up. The big appliances will come later, when we can get to a second hand shop. In the meantime, someone at City Hall gave us a medium sized fridge and we have a coin laundry nearby, so we haven't gotten a washing machine yet.

Until then!

Last day of quarantine! We are so excited to get out of here!

Here's some pics of what we've been doing to stay entertained during quarantine and the view from our hotel room:

As you can see, we've all had a lot of screen time, hehe. Taran made those little drawings on paper coasters that came in the room, and we also had some origami paper that we got in our bag of instructions when we arrived. I also had my embroidery and my e-reader, both of which have helped to pass the time. The view of the city from our window has been nice to have. A couple times the kids saw window washers cleaning the building next to us and they thought that was pretty cool. 

Tonight for Halloween we're going to eat some little ice cream cups and pocky (chocolate covered cookie sticks) and watch Halloween movies. And then tomorrow, we're off to Naha! We meet in the hotel lobby at 8:30am with about five other JETs who are also headed to Okinawa, and then a shuttle will take us to the airport. Our flight is ANA471, leaving Haneda airport at 11:15am and arriving in Naha at 2:15, so about a three hour flight.

Clara says that the first thing she wants to eat when she gets out of here is McDonalds, haha. I told her that the airport might not have a McDonalds, but we'll be sure to get her something tasty. 

I'll be sure to put some photos of our new apartment in my next post!

 Welcome back to the blog everyone!

It's been a while since I last wrote an entry here. We moved from Nagoya, Japan to Federal Way, Washington in the summer of 2017 and now, fall of 2021, we're back in Japan! Braden applied for the JET program again, the same program he was in while working in Nagoya, and once again he was accepted! This time, he has been assigned to work in Urasoe City Hall in Okinawa, Japan. 

It's been a wild ride getting here. We're currently in our 11th day of our 14 day quarantine at a hotel in Shinjuku, Tokyo. We flew to Tokyo on the 16th (arrived on the 17th) and after a long and grueling walk through the airport presenting our negative covid tests, getting another covid test, and navigating various checkpoints (I have since dubbed this journey 'the trek through the nine circles of bureaucratic hell'), we finally made it to Immigration. The kids were real troopers, but we were all very tired by the time we got there. Thankfully, since we had kids with us, we were permitted to skip the regular line and use the Priority line (thank goodness for small favors). After getting through immigration, then getting our bags and getting through customs, we were ushered onto a shuttle to the hotel. The Japanese Consulate in Seattle, the Nippon Travel Agency, and representatives from JET and CLAIR (Council of Local Authorities for International Relations) were all extremely helpful when it came to helping us get the right paperwork ready and arranging everything, it all would've been much more difficult without them.

Life in quarantine is pretty boring, but we've got a schedule figured out and we haven't gone crazy yet. The kids do school work in the morning, we exercise, call family, watch music videos, and then in the afternoon/evenings we play video games or watch TV. Braden has been doing online orientations and classes in the morning while I help the kids with their school work, and it helps the time go by.

The room we've got is nice, and very spacious (by Japanese standards). Probably the most unpleasant thing we've had to put up with is the food...

We aren't getting hotel room service. Instead, CLAIR has arranged for meals to be brought to all the JETS three times a day. The meals are typical convenience store style bentos. They aren't completely awful, and honestly I think that Japanese convenience store food is better than your average American convenience store meal, but the meals they bring us are cold, and there is not a microwave in the room to heat the food up. So yeah, stuff like cold fish and rice with cold cooked vegetables gets REALLY old after a couple days. There is a small store in an upstairs lounge that was set up especially for the JETS in quarantine and we can buy small pastries and instant ramen there to supplement the meals they bring us, but the kids complain a lot about being hungry (unlike us adults, they haven't quite honed the skill of eating something when you're hungry even if it's not that tasty). Good thing they like instant ramen.

But it's only for a few more days! On Monday we'll be boarding another plane, this one bound for Naha, Okinawa. We already have an apartment picked out and should be able to move in that day. The good people working at the Urasoe City Hall have arranged to take us to the Real Estate Agent's office as soon as we get off the plane to sign the necessary paperwork. We're very excited and can't wait to show you all pictures of our new home!

Here's some pics of the kids eating so you don't feel TOO sorry for them. But we're all very excited to get out of here and eat fresh food again. 

Check back in next week for my next installment. Goodnight!

3 Year Old Health Check in Japan

My little girl turned three this month (goodbye terrible twos, hello terrible threes!) and that meant that it was time for another trip to the local health office for a well-child visit. Here in Nagoya, as far as I can tell, it is required to bring your child to the municipal health office for their 3 month, 18 month, and 3 year well-child appointments.

It's generally expected for all people in Japan, children and adults, to get a health check done once a year. My husband had one done recently at his office (most offices and schools hold mandatory health checks once a year for their employees or students). His blood pressure was high and so he was required to take a couple hours off to go to a meeting about how to manage one's blood pressure through a healthy diet and exercise. I've been asked by friends if I've had MY yearly health check done yet (I haven't), but I just tell them I'm not accustomed to going to the doctor unless I'm sick. In America it's just too expensive to visit the doctor unless you have a problem or are at risk for something :P.

Anywho, so I put Taran in his trusty baby carrier, buckled Clara into her bike seat, and off we went. It went fairly smoothly, even though it was 1 pm in the afternoon (Clara's nap time). We biked to the North Ward Office (Basically the branch of City Hall that serves North Nagoya) and took the elevator up to the Public Health Office. The office was full of feisty three year olds and their moms, a couple dads were there too, and since it was, as I said, prime nap time, not all the children were happy to be there. We got a number, and then I handed over the paperwork I had received in the mail a couple weeks ago. It was all in Japanese, but I got the gist of it, and was able to fill out the health surveys with only a little help from my husband (he's way better at Japanese than me, but I'm getting better :P). I then got a cup for Clara to pee in. I was surprised that they expected three year olds to pee in a cup, and was even more surprised at the number of moms who came out of the bathroom with those little cups full. As for me, I couldn't even get Clara into the bathroom stall, let alone get her to pee in that cup... But the staff said it was okay if I couldn't get a sample. They said if I wanted a sample done (I don't), I could get her to pee in a cup at home and bring it in at a later date (no thanks..). Once that was done we waited for our turn in the waiting area. It was a pretty big room so Clara was able to run around a bit with the other kids, so waiting wasn't so bad.

First up was the dentist. Clara screamed while he looked in her mouth, but he said that her teeth looked fine and she was free (I was a little worried about her teeth because even though she brushes everyday she doesn't let me help her, but it turns out they were ok, phew!). I had the option of getting a flouride treatment done but I had forgotten to bring the payment with me (it was about 800 yen), so we had to skip it for now (I can always take her in at a later date for that if I want). Up next was the developmental specialist. She showed Clara some books and pictures, asked for her name (which she did in English when I told her we only speak English at home), to which Clara replied, "No!" (typical three year old...) and then asked her age, also met with an emphatic "No!". The specialist just chuckled and when I said it was her nap time she said she understood, and asked if she knows her name and age and can say it at home (she can). She said everything seemed fine and we were off again, this time to the examination room. They asked me to strip her down to her underwear, which made Clara think it was bath time (unfortunately, no...) and once she saw the doctor she recognized that he was a doctor and started bawling. He checked her heart, looked in her mouth while she screamed, and then said she looked fine and told her bye bye. Once she heard bye bye she knew it was over and happily said bye bye through her little tears, and then we were off to our final destination, the nutritionist. By the way, all of these professionals were in the same area, but in separate rooms. The nutritionist asked me if she regularly gets protein and calcium in her diet (she does) and noted that I had written on her survey her reluctance to eat vegetables. She said that it was normal at that age for kids to be a bit picky but encouraged me to try harder to incorporate veggies into her food. Nothing like a health check to make one feel like a bad parent, eh?

After all was said and done I took Clara for an ice cream cone which she happily and sleepily ate (she seriously almost nodded off mid lick. It was funny to watch).

So that's what a health check is like for a three year old. Clara did well, I thought, aside from a couple short screaming episodes, but they were over quickly, and the staff seemed pretty used to it.

Clara is getting to be such a big girl now, and next month she's starting preschool! I'm going to write about that in my next post. Until then!

Visit to the US Consulate in Osaka and more

Sorry for the long wait (Again). I can't believe Taran is over four months old now. He's a big, healthy boy, and he loves to smile and roll over. His big sister Clara is a sweetheart who loves to give him hugs and kisses (though mommy often has to remind her to be more gentle since her hugs can be a bit, well, enthusiastic).

When Taran was about two months old we decided to make an appointment at the consulate to apply for his passport, report of birth abroad, and social security number. The consulate website was very organized and told us basically everything we needed to know and had all the links to the applications on one page for easy access. We printed and filled out the three applications, and then checked the list of necessary ID's, documents, etc. that we needed to bring. We brought our passports, the three applications (passport, report of birth, social security number) with copies of each, a certified copy of our marriage certificate that we had brought with us from the US, along with a copy (if you're not married but want dad's name on the birth certificate the consulate asks you to bring some kind of proof of relationship, like emails or something), a certified copy of the birth certificate (which Braden requested from the local ward office, I think it cost him a couple hundred yen), and a translation of the birth certificate. The consulate website had a simple English template you could fill out with information from the birth certificate. It didn't need to be done professionally and didn't require much Japanese skill at all, since it basically required information you would already know, like the birth date, time, place, parent's names, etc. The website also said to bring a large envelope (the specific type and dimensions are on the site) which we actually forgot. The staff at the consulate seemed used to that oversight though, because they just asked Braden to go to a convenience store next door to buy it and come back. Security seemed used to it to. Braden said that when he approached security to leave the building they were like, "Going to buy an envelope?" They let Braden leave and come back in without waiting in line and we got the envelope to the secretary without much trouble.

But let me back up a little. So our appointment was in the morning, and I was reluctant to wake up super early to catch the shinkansen (Both Clara and I are not morning people) so I booked a hotel near the consulate for the night before. So the day before the appointment we took the shinkansen to Osaka and checked into our hotel. (We live in Nagoya, and although there is a US consulate here, it is very small and no longer provides citizenship services. Darn it all.) The next morning we checked out and walked about ten minutes to the consulate. We waited in a short line in front of the building and had our ID's checked and left our water bottles in a little bin they had by the door (apparently the same no liquid rule when going through airport security applies to the consulate as well). After that we entered the building and had our bags and electronics checked (including cell phones) and walked through a metal detector. Then we showed our IDs again and got badges and were directed to take the elevator up a few flights.

We got off the elevator and entered a small office area with a counter and customer windows. There was a big sign directing people to window three but there was no one on the other side. We waited a few minutes before we started noticing people getting helped a few windows down so we got in line behind them and asked if we were in the right window. We were. (They really should've covered up the other sign. It was a tad confusing.) The secretary was Japanese (actually all the staff and security up to this point seemed Japanese. The security guards didn't speak English very well. The secretary did well enough, though it was a bit hard to understand her through the glass...). She asked for our paperwork and we handed it all over. There was one part of the application of report of birth abroad that we had not filled out completely (it wanted to know all the states we had ever lived in and what months, but I honestly couldn't remember what months I had moved in or out in some instances). The secretary said we had to put something there, so I made as good a guess as I could and finished the application. There was also a section that asked about previous marriages and included a field that said: "If you have never been married, write 'none'", or something to that affect. Well, seeing as how I am currently married (and thus I can't really say I've never been married) I decided that 'no' wasn't the right answer and left that field blank, but then the secretary said that it was referring to marriages before my current one, and told me to write 'none'. A little confusing, but oh well. Then she asked for our envelope, which we had forgotten, but like I wrote above, that was resolved quickly. Lastly, we had to pay. At first I was worried that they wouldn't accept a credit card and I had forgotten to bring cash with us, but as it turned out credit cards were okay. There was a list of prices on the wall, and online too, I think, and at first we thought it would amount to almost $300 for everything (the social security application is free, but the sign said that a report of birth was about $200 and it was another $100 or so for passport) but in the end we were only charged about $200. Maybe they waive the passport fee if you're also getting a report of birth? I actually don't know. I should've asked.

So after that we had to wait. Clara, unfortunately, had a cold. She had a bad runny nose, a slight fever, and was REALLY cranky. We tried as hard as we could to comfort her and entertain her but it was really hard. There was even a bin of toys in the room but Clara didn't want to play with them since there were a couple other kids playing with them and she was feeling shy. After about a half hour of waiting (which feels a lot longer when you've got a cranky toddler. Taran, thankfully, was asleep in his baby carrier) we were called over to another window where an American asked us to raise our right hand and we swore that everything we had written was true (Okay, so technically I guessed on some of the months we moved from one state to another when I was younger, but don't tell on me, k? Haha). The woman who witnessed our oath then checked our papers one last time, looked at Taran to make sure he wasn't a doll and we weren't trying to create a false identity for some future mischief, (At least I think that's what she was doing when she looked at him XD), then she said everything looked good and we should receive Taran's documents in the mail in a few weeks.

By the time we were leaving Clara was crying in earnest and I really wanted to get out of there. As we were getting into the elevator another mom in the office who was getting her kids' passports renewed stopped me and told us that we were doing a great job and that it gets easier. I thought it was a really nice gesture on her part and it really cheered me up after a stressful morning.

So we left the embassy and were getting ready to go to the station to take the shinkansen home when a fellow American walks out, complaining and cursing about his difficulties in renewing something or other, and then he gestured at the long line of Japanese people waiting to get into the consulate to apply for visas and loudly told us that he hoped America would stop letting f***ing immigrants in. I almost pointed out to him that the five of us standing there (the four in my family and him) were currently immigrants in another country, but decided it wasn't worth it. He walked with us a ways to the station, complaining all the while, before finally bidding us farewell to stop at a convenience store. I wasn't sad to see him go. I, for one, think it's great to live in a world where people are able to travel and visit, or even live, in other countries relatively easily (compared to, you know, the days when going to another country meant risking your life on the open seas and probably never seeing your homeland again). I really love Japan, and I love my home country too, and the people that are in both places. It seems like a lot of people these days have a very 'us vs them' attitude when it comes to immigration, and while I do consider myself an American, I consider myself a human being first and foremost. Anywho, sorry for the short political blurb...

We got all of Taran's documents, as promised, with the passport and report of birth coming first and the Social Security card coming a little later. The report of birth form sure is fancy, I gotta say. They reaaally don't wanna make it easy to forge one of those things. Just looking at it is like looking at one of those "Magic Eye" stereogram images that look 3-D if you stare at them long enough.

Well, I'm gonna finish this up for now, since Clara just woke up from her nap. I only have free time on those lucky days when she and Taran nap at the same time, but most of the time I end up taking a nap too! Oh well :P.

Postnatal care and 1 month baby check up in Japan

Hello all! Sorry for the long absence from the blog. Having a newborn and a toddler is busy work. Thankfully I have a very supportive husband who is a really good daddy. Clara loves it when her daddy comes home from work and gives her piggyback rides around the house and reads to her while mommy feeds the baby. I know a lot of Japanese moms whose husbands work until very late almost every day and they only get to play with their kids on weekends or holidays, and I'm really glad that Braden gets off work relatively early every day and can help me out at home.

So little Taran is almost two months old now! He had his one month appointment at Kaseki hospital (the same one I gave birth in) the day after Christmas. But before I talk about the actual appointment I want to talk a little bit about how that first month went.

The day I was released from the hospital Braden went to the local Ward office (Nagoya is a big city, so it is split up into  "wards" and each ward has its own ward office. It's basically city hall for that part of the city). At the ward office Braden turned in the baby's birth form from the hospital and registered the baby as a resident of the city of Nagoya. He also applied for more child allowance from the government and enrolled the baby in the national health insurance program (Basic health care for children in Japan is free. The national health insurance pays 75% of health cost for all individuals, and then children get a special card that entitles them to coverage for the other 25%). Someone at our church had also given us a brochure from the city of Nagoya about a program for new moms that lets you hire a housekeeper from the city to help you with chores for up to 80 hours worth of work, which can be used until the baby is 6 months old. Braden inquired about the service while at the ward office, and they told him that he should have applied two weeks in advance (the English brochure had not mentioned this) and that they would not be able to send any helpers for a couple of weeks. Braden then explained that in two weeks his mother was coming and I wouldn't need helpers then, I needed help NOW, since I was still in pain from the surgery and had no one at home to help me (not for two more weeks anyway). They told Braden they would see what they could do, and, bless their hearts, they pulled some strings and got someone to come the VERY NEXT DAY. I gotta hand it to this city, they know how to treat new moms. The helpers were all very nice, though they were all older ladies who did seem to feel the need to offer me "advice" on occasion (I suppose that was to be expected...). Just little things like, "don't you have a blanket for his crib?" (which, nowadays, at least in the US, is very much discouraged, since it is said to increase the risk of accidental suffocation...), and "is bread all she's gonna eat?" (In reference to me giving Clara a peanut butter sandwich for lunch). Aside from this slight annoyance, I was very happy with my helpers, and they really were lifesavers (I say 'they' because three different ladies alternated days that they came to help. Perhaps because we requested the service last minute). Later that week Braden went to the local immigration office and applied for Taran's resident card and visa. It took several hours total to get all of Taran's paperwork done, and we have yet to do the American side of things, like getting his passport, social security card, and report of birth abroad, but all in all it went smoothly.

I breastfed Clara until she was a year old, and I knew I wanted to breastfeed Taran too, so while I was in the hospital I went to the nursing room every couple of hours to feed him. I mentioned this in my last post, but the nurses didn't wake me at night to feed him, and also fed him formula if he cried in the nursery (unless it was close to feeding time, in which case they would just call me down). As a result, my milk supply was rather low when we ended our stay at the hospital. The nurses were generally supportive of breastfeeding, and were always available in the nursing room to help the new moms, but they didn't seem too concerned with my lack of milk. This is probably because I had told them that I breastfed my daughter and so they may have guessed I could figure things out on my own, but I wonder how it would've been if I were a first time mom. I guess I'll never know. When I gave birth to Clara in the US I had also had a problem with a low milk supply (the nursery at the hospital in the US had also given Clara formula to drink) and my Dr. had recommended I use a breast pump to increase my supply and had prescribed one for me, making it free to rent for several weeks. I didn't think Kaseki hospital could rent me a pump, and I couldn't even find double electric pumps on Japan Amazon or Yahoo. There were single electric pumps, but they cost two to three times as much as a double electric pump in the US, so I didn't buy one. But I had seen small breast pumps in the local department store, so I asked Braden to get me one. At first I continued to supplement Taran's feedings with formula and I pumped between feedings to increase my supply. Then I started to cut back on Taran's formula and breastfed him more frequently. Within a couple of weeks Taran was off the formula completely. Around that time I got a call from the city saying they were going to send a midwife over for a home visit (The midwife at the hospital had mentioned this to me, I think it's standard procedure in Japan). The midwife came over, weighed Taran (his weight was great) and then let me know when his next health check would be, gave me info about immunizations, and then gave me a survey about postpartum depression. The visit was short and sweet and she said Taran looked healthy.

Now to the one month health appointment. I was also scheduled to have my post natal appointment the same day. Braden stayed on the 2nd floor with Taran and a room full of other babies and parents, and then I went to the 1st floor and had my cervix checked, got a blood draw, and then a flu shot. The Dr. said my body seemed to be healing nicely and told me I could return to my normal routine. I wasn't in too much pain anymore at this point, though I was still taking ibuprofen fairly regularly (I'm not anymore). After my visit I went upstairs, but the babies were all still waiting for the pediatrician. Taran was hungry and I asked if I could feed him, and for some odd reason the nurses told me to wait, even though it was another hour before the pediatrician finally saw him. I was really frustrated at this point, since Taran had been screaming much of the time and I didn't see any reason why I couldn't feed him. The pediatrician looked over him quickly, said he looked normal, filled out some paperwork, and by that time poor Taran had actually cried himself to sleep. I felt so bad for the poor little guy. In total we were at the hospital for three hours, much longer than I had anticipated. There were quite a few babies there getting checked, I wonder why they didn't stagger the appointments a least a little instead of having us all come in at once. It was one of the few instances where I was unhappy with the staff at Kaseki (in this case I suppose the ones in charge of scheduling should be to blame).

My awesome mother in law came to visit us over the Christmas holiday and it was a joy to have her here. Clara loved the extra attention and I had someone to help with diaper changes and dishes while I continued to recover from the c-section. We did go out with friends a couple of times, and it was the most activity I'd had since the birth, so it was a bit tiring, but still fun.

Taran will be getting his first immunizations soon, and we'll also be taking him to the American Consulate in Osaka for his American paperwork next month sometime. Braden's going to take some time off work so we can visit some friends too. I'll try to remember to take pictures!