The Talandis Family in Japan

Max rides a bike for the first time

Last weekend, on June 9th, we bought our daughter Max a new bicycle. She is now four years old and growing fast, so we thought it was finally time to get her her own bike. Wearing her brother’s old helmet, she gave her new bike a spin. She really had a great time and picked it up pretty well. Our neighbors, the Omori family, also have a four year old daughter, Miharu. Max enjoyed riding around with her. Now taking her out for riding is part of my weekend routine. Of course I took a lot of high-def video of Max’s first ride, but since I’m very busy these days, I won’t have time to edit it soon. So my first ever fotobabble will have to suffice! Check this out. Click the play arrow at the bottom left and you can here me talk about this picture. I created this recording in my Photography & the Internet class at Chukyo University, as a demonstration to my students on how to use this free service.

TFiJ38: Winter 2011 (Driving Max to School)

Here is the 2nd in a series of videos on our experiences from the amazing winter of 2011. This is a simple tale, of my daily duty of taking our daughter Max to nursery school each morning. On this particular morning (January 31st), the snow was at its peak. Please come along for the 2 km ride to school through the winter wonderland that was our neighborhood.

For all of you living outside Japan, you’ll notice some Japanese customs and things in this clip. One is that all kids walk to school after reaching 1st grade, no matter the weather. No school buses here! The route we took is the one Luke walks on every day. There is quite a system set up to facilitate this, with neighborhood groups, group leaders, appointed meeting times, and parents volunteering to stand guard at busy intersections. It’s quite a production. Kids still in nursery school and kindergarten (like Max) get driving to school by a parent. This makes for quite the traffic jam in the mornings! I was fortunate to get a parking spot in front of the school that morning… usually I park illegally in front of the school gate! Another Japanese thing is not wearing outdoor shoes indoors. You can see that Max had to change in the entrance area, called a genkan. All schools have shelves to keep shoes in this place. Again, it can be quite busy when everyone arrives at about the same time. At Max’s school, they have all the kids exercise first thing in the morning. They run around the large hall to get their energy warmed up. It’s pretty cool and a lot of fun to walk through. We were a bit late that morning, so Max missed this part.

Oh, you’ll also notice that Max was wearing what looked like a surgical mask upon entering the school. What’s up with that? Well, here in Japan, when someone catches a cold or has the sniffles, they wear a mask out of consideration of others. It’s quite normal to see people of all ages wearing these masks in public. I’ve never gotten used to this and never bother, but the kids don’t mind. Finally, it’s a Japanese thing for parents to help put all their kid’s stuff in the right place. It’s quite an elaborate set of tasks that need to be done. It took me a LONG TIME to figure this routine out! There are so many things to remember, and everything needs to be just right. Don’t know if it’s this way in American nursery school as well… If there is anything else you can pick up in this video that you’d like to know more about, please let me know! There’s a story behind every little thing… this is part of what makes living here so interesting.

Happy birthday, Max!

We celebrated our daughter Max’s 4th birthday on Sunday night at our favorite Italian restaurant in Toyama, “Erbaccia.” Our friends Chiaki and Chikano came along. We had a nice time! Tomorrow we are going to the photo studio to for the annual birthday photo shoot. If I can make some time I’ll update this post with a short video of that experience.

Here Max is pondering a wish. Better hurry up or your rambunctious big brother will blow out the candles before you!

Hey! What did you wish for, I wonder?

TFiJ37: Max’s 1st time sledding & skiing

Here is the 2nd in a promised series of videos on our experiences from the legendary winter of 2011. Of all our family members, Max especially had a great time this year. For the first time in her life, she was able to go sledding and skiing. Shinobu and I really enjoyed introducing these staple winter activities to her and watching her play.

TFiJ29: Fountain Fun

Wow! It’s been a dog’s age since my last blog post. Well, you know the routine- life is busy, blah blah blah. Good news- summer break is in two weeks, and then I’ll be off for two solid months! Wooo hooo! I’ll be making up for lost time then, what with all the good material I have for video clips. We’ve really been enjoying our weekends since I started this new job at Togaku. Time is precious, and for the most part we’ve been making good use of it. So look for a flurry of fun clips in the coming months as I strive to get caught up. To get things started, here is an example of what I’m talking about, a clip entitled “Fountain Fun.” Here in Toyama it’s starting to get real hot and humid. On the way back from Luke’s soccer game this past Saturday (June 27th, 2009), Luke spotted a fountain in a park as we drove past. There were many children playing there. He immediately said, “papa, let’s go!”, and I spun the car quickly around. We were totally unprepared, but it didn’t matter- Luke had no qualms about going in his skivvies, like most of the other kids. We had such a great time. Later that day, I took Luke and Max to another park, one near our home, one with a really big fountain designed for kids to play in. Again, total blast!

TFiJ28: Max’s 2nd birthday photo shoot

Wow, it sure has been a long time since my last post!!! Chalk the delay up to one busy life these days, what with starting a new job and all. I’ll be getting to that shortly, but first I want to catch up on my video clips. Here is a nice one- short and very very cute! It’s Max on her 2nd birthday (March 7th, 2009), getting her portrait taken at Studio Alice here in Toyama City, the same place we always go on our kids’ birthdays. It’s this little tradition we have going- take a professional photo on the very day of their birthday. We’re starting to build up a nice collection, and it’s great to see the kids growing up year by year. Anyway, Max was very cute this time. We dressed her up in a “Beauty and the Beast” costume, in the role of “Belle”. The photographers were great- they gave her the real treatment- gown, gloves, wig, earrings, and a nice set. Wow, was she even more beautiful than usual! I really thought that our little baby was not a baby anymore! We had a real fun day.

TFiJ11: Max takes a bath

Winter break is winding down, and since both Luke and Max have colds, we’re just basically hanging out at home these days. This gives me a chance to catch up on some video editing. Here’s a short one, of Max taking a bath. Here in Japan, people usually take baths in the evenings, before going to bed. We have a nice system down pat: Shinobu gives Max a bath (in a cute little plastic tub), then when she’s finished, pushes a special buzzer button on a control panel that sends a loud beep-beep-beep signal sounding. I come running with towel in hand, take Max, and then dry her off and get her dressed into her pajamas. Luke then usually takes his turn (in a larger tub). Anyway, Max is cute, so check her out!

TFiJ09: Max eats a banana

Hey, I know I said that I didn’t have time to do any more new videos due to my need to study, but what do you know- I managed to find a spare 20 minutes to put this one together for you. Max has been eating “hard” food for the past 6 weeks or so, but most of that is processed heavily for babies. We’re trying to introduce “real” food bit by bit, as this clip shows. Here we feed Max a banana, but we’ve also been giving her ground up apples or other fruit. Anyway, no big deal; I just want to show you all Max’s progress. She’s doing real well overall, apart from some chronic sniffles and runny nose that seem to come and go daily.