The Talandis Family in Japan

Talandis Family News Update (February 2012)

February was a busy month for our family. Lots of stuff has been going on lately with all of us, so instead of multiple posts, I’ll just put everything here together. 

Bionic Mama Gets an Upgrade

My wife Shinobu had a heart attack about six years ago. She was given an ICD (Implantable Cardio Defibrillator) to jump-start her heart in case it when hay-wire. This month it came time to replace the device, so Shinobu spent 10 days in Toyama University Hospital (where Max was born) getting her upgrade. Check out this photo collage: 

1: Shinobu and I just before her surgery. It was a simple 1 hour procedure. She received a local anesthetic and was awake during the change. The new device was put into the same spot as before, just below her left solar bone. It is a bit smaller than the old one, but a bit fatter, so her techno-bulge is a bit more pronounced. Oh well! 2: A nurse takes care of Shinobu just after her surgery. 3: It was all thumbs up- everything went very smoothly. She had to stay in bed for only about an hour, then she was able to move about. 4: The next day I took the kids to visit. Of course Shinobu really enjoyed this time; most of the time she was lying around watching TV or the movies I put on her iPad. 5: The kids enjoyed hanging out and relaxing on her bed. Luke usually played with her iPad, and Max liked to watch TV. 6: Papa, on the other hand, did some video editing on his Macbook. I was working on creating a highlight reel of Shinobu’s swim team’s recent meet. I also put movies on her iPad for her to watch. 

Now my wife is safe and sound at home. This is something she’ll have to do every 5 to 7 years. Our hope is that the technology will continue to evolve, and this will get easier as the years go by. She’ll have to go in for checkups regularly to make sure everything is okay, then eventually will be back to her regular schedule of one check-up every two months.

Max Sings, Dances, and Acts on a Big Stage

Yesterday Max participated in her first ever school recital. It was a big production- her nursery school/kindergarten rented out a big hall in the neighboring town for a big three hour extravaganza. Each class had to perform four numbers: a choir-style song, a musical performance (with harmoniums, drums, and xylophones), a short play, and a gymnastics demonstration. Check out the collage: 

1: All the students from Max’s kindergarten gathered on a big stage at the Osawano Bunka Hall. The sign says, “Sugihara Kindergarten School Recital”. 2: During the musical performance, Max’s role was to wave some pom poms. Cute! 3: Max did some bridge-walking during the gymnastics demo. She has been practicing a lot for this at home. It’s amazing what she can do! 4: Max acts on stage as a wolf in her class’s short play. They acted out a traditional Japanese folktale. 

What a great time! Max’s school really pulled out all the stops. The auditorium was packed with family- parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and lots of crying brothers and sisters. The kids were nervous, but they did a great job, especially with the music and gymnastics. 

Luke trains with an Olympic swimmer

Recently Shinobu took Luke and two other of her YBG team members to a nearby town for a swimming workshop held by a member of Japan’s Olympic team in the recent Beijing games. 

Shibata Ryuichi, who swam in the 200m butterfly in a lane next to Michael Phelps, was the main attraction. He talked about how to swim the butterfly more efficiently and then practiced with over 100 local swimmers in the pool. Luke got to meet him and got a high-five when he showed off his stuff. That must have been cool! Go Luke! Here’s a photo of Luke with Shibata-san and fellow YBG team mate, Chiaki. 

Papa’s new job

My big news is that I got a new job! I’ll be teaching English speaking and writing at Toyama University starting in April. This job came up very suddenly; I heard about it at the JALT conference this past November, applied in December, then waited and waited and waited… It became way past time when most schools decide on their staff for the following year, so I convinced myself they had passed me by. I was all set to keep on with my current routine (which I was happy to do, actually), when suddenly, on my birthday (January 18th), I received an invitation to interview for the Tomidai (Toyama University’s nickname) position. I did, it went swimmingly well, and I was offered the job an hour later. Amazing. I was floored. It all went so smooth, like destiny clicking into place. 

Last week I had a meeting with my predecessor, Bill Holden. I checked out his (my) office. It’s a good space, with a view of the tennis courts behind the Humanities building and near a side entrance which I can use to escape easily if need be. Bill was in the midst of packing up his stuff, so the place was covered with stacked boxes and books. It was great to envision working there. There is a sink, so I’ll be able to ride my bike to work and take a sponge bath, like I did when I worked at TCFL. We also walked around campus, with Bill showing me where I’ll be teaching. He answered all my prepared questions and was very kind and helpful. Here are some shots from that day: 

1: A shot of the Humanities Faculty building, where my office will be and where I’ll teach the bulk of my courses. It was a cold, snowy day. You can see the tennis courts in front of the building. Bill says they are quite noisy once the weather picks up. 2: My office. Besides a desk and shelves, there are two soft chairs and a sofa. I’ll use this as a meeting area in case colleagues or students come by for a chat. 3, 5: A couple of the classrooms where I may be teaching. Rooms haven’t been set yet, but this is where Bill taught. I have requested computer labs, so we’ll see if that pans out. 4: The entrance to the Human Development Faculty building, where I’ll be teaching two classes. 

Again, it was great to be able to check out my new digs. I’m currently working on filling out syllabus forms, planning on what I’ll be teaching. Next week (on March 7th) I’m heading back to Togaku for my final day of work. I have a short 45 minute class during the annual Open Campus event. There will also be a ceremony to say good-bye to outgoing teachers (Clair and I) and welcome our successors. It’s going to be a bitter-sweet day! 

Winter break is over; time to get back to work

I’m back in Nagareyama and after a very nice winter break. Work starts again for me tomorrow. My main job will be to wrap up my classes for this school year, which ends on January 16th. Then I’ll be free to work at home until April. I’ll be very busy with several projects, but I’ll have time to look ahead to that later on.

Looking back, I really enjoyed my time off with family. I was off from December 20th until today. Some of my highlights you can see in the photo above: 

• A big road trip to Tokyo and Osaka with the family, including camping out in our small Nagareyama apartment, a day at Disney Sea, a long drive to Osaka, and then a fun day at Universal Studios. 
• When we returned to Toyama, winter was in full force. We had a few big storms, and it was winter-wonderland time again. 
• Luke & I went snowboarding only once, but it was an awesome day with perfect conditions. I’ll take one perfect day to five mediocre ones any time.
• Our neighbor’s daughter, who is in Max’s class at kindergarten, came over a lot to play. 
• Lot’s of swimming. Lots!!! With long, exhausting sessions like this one. I trained with Luke for five days straight after we got back to Toyama, and by the last day I could barely move. I was smashed. Then we took six days off for Christmas and New Years. After that we did another 4 days. I felt tired but not smashed tired after the 2nd cycle. I’m encouraged by this progress.
• Christmas was very white and peaceful. It’s not the big deal here as it is in the States, but we had a nice time going to church on Christmas Eve (with Luke altar-boying and acting in a play at the party afterwards) and opening presents in the morning. We also went shopping at a Toys-R-Us later in the day, and the kids enjoyed that. Surprisingly they didn’t want anything big. That was interesting…
• Most days were spent at home doing year-end cleaning and working on updating this blog. We got the back storage room cleaned and organized, a new bookshelf for the kids made, and rearranged the living room to make space for Shinobu’s beloved kotatsu. We also all got haircuts at Shinobu’s parent’s barbershop, which was nice!
• Getting this blog moved from Wordpress over to Tumblr was a MAJOR job, but it was a total blast. I’ve really enjoyed the hard work and now look forward to staying in touch all the more this year with this new & improved set-up. I won’t go into details, but it’s safe to say I had fun geeking out!
• New Years was also peaceful. We did the typical routine, which I wrote about here. 
• Finally, as if to cap things off, we had a lovely afternoon with my colleague and friend Theron and his family yesterday. Now I have the secret to awesome pizza and look forward to making it more! I’m especially excited that his six year old son Jonah has hit it off with my kids. I hope they will continue to be friends.

So that’s about it for winter break 2011-12. Time now to focus on wrapping up this school year. I’ve got a lot of work ahead in the next 10 days, but I’m also looking forward to it. 

TFiJ40: Hikiyama Festival 2011

On May 3rd, one of the “Golden Week” national holidays in Japan, the annual Hikiyama festival was held in our town. This festival consists of elaborately decorated floats being pulled around town all day. I read this tradition began in the mid-18th century, when Yatsuo was flush with cash from the booming local silk worm industry. Each of the core six neighborhoods have constructed a float.

They are works of master craftsmanship, overflowing with intricate wood carvings, dolls, metal work, golden leaves, and embroidery. The men of each neighborhood work in teams to pull these things around, which is no mean feat- they are huge and heavy. Musicians ride inside, playing traditional Japanese instruments such as the shamisen, flutes, and drums. It’s quite a nice day, as the community becomes transformed back in time to an earlier, more traditional era. It’s a big tourist draw, naturally, so the town really comes to life. This festival, along with its larger and more famous fall counterpart (the Owara Kaze no Bon), are pillars of the local economy and serve to maintain a connection to the local cultural heritage.

Shinobu’s home (and where her parents currently live) are in one of the six core neighborhoods. Her brother Takuya is part of his neighborhood’s float-pulling team. This year he had wheel duty, and was responsible for rotating one of the four huge wooden wheels. Tough job! Luke, because of his family connection to the neighborhood, also participated. He got to help pull the ropes a bit and also enjoyed riding in the top with other children. It was a long day for him, but he seemed to have a good time. In the evening, the floats transformed from day to night mode. Each of the decorative elements were carefully removed and replaced with lanterns. The effect is quite magical.

In this our 40th episode, I used a borrowed camera from work, one that shoots in high-definition. It shows our experiences from the day, including Max and I watching the floats, Luke riding in the top, uncle Takuya rolling the wheel, and having dinner at the grandparent’s house. I hope you like it!

TFiJ35: Setting up the tree 2010

Merry Christmas, everyone! Hope you’re all having a good holiday season. This little clip attempts to capture some of the fun we had last weekend setting up our fake Christmas tree. We have this dancing Santa toy that sings “Jingle Bells” ad infinitum, and the kids started to dance and dance along with it. Things began to escalate, and before you know it, we were all dancing around the room. It was a scream. Hope you like it!

Final Fall Fun

Today the weather was awesome, and we made the most of it. With December ready to roll in next Tuesday, I can’t imagine we’ll have many (if any) more chances to enjoy this sort of day. It was my first day back home after two weeks at work, and I’ve got to return tomorrow for another two week stint. So today was a “carpe diem” moment for me.

In the morning everyone went to Luke’s elementary school to watch him participate in an annual community event to honor and support the elderly. Each year the school puts on a show for the senior citizens of our area, with each class doing some song and/or dance number. Luke’s 3rd grade class did this old Japanese disco sort of thing. It was really cool! Luke was front and center on the stage, and he really did a great job. He looked like he was in his element. I could tell he has some of his mama’s dancing ability, for sure. Shinobu was really psyched to see him nail all his moves. I had Max on my shoulders, and we danced along to the music. In five or so minutes it was done, and then we left! This was how it went- there was a lot of audience turnover before/after each number, with family members coming just to see their child. Pretty funny.

In the afternoon we went to Tenkomori park, which is about 15 minutes drive south of our home. Shinobu hadn’t been there before, and I wanted her to go up on their big tower-like observation deck. It’s up on a mountainside, and the view is killer. The leaves are pretty much past peak, but there are still a lot of nice colors to see. We had a nice walk around the park, went to the top of the tower, then walked for a bit on this rope-way thing. That was fun but a little scary. Then Luke and I played some aerobie while Mama and Max had ice cream. Of course we took lots of photos and really soaked up the nice weather. It was a real nice time!

I’ll be back in two weeks, and I imagine by then we may even get some snow! We shall see. Gotta get those leaves raked before I leave tomorrow…

TFiJ32: Shredding Cow Mountain

Here’s a video clip that shows a family doing something they really love- carving tracks in pure powder snow! Known in snowboarding lingo as “shredding”, this clip features rock and roll highlights of Luke, Mama, and me tearing it up. I hope you can get a sense of the thrill this sport can provide! We live only 25 minutes from Ushidake ski area. “Ushi” means cow, and “dake” means mountain in Japanese, hence the title of this video. I think it used to be an old cow pasture… Anyway, it’s a great place for snowboarding because of the very wide slopes. They leave lots of un-groomed snow on the sides, which makes it great for snowboarding. This video is dedicated to an old colleague of mine at TCFL, Stephen Davies, who passed away recently. Stephen and I really bonded over snowboarding. He was the person who taught me how to ride on the soft powder. I really got hooked and have been crazy about it ever since. I’ll miss Steve, but I’ll always think and be grateful for meeting him when I’m on my board riding down a mountain.

TFiJ31: Moments of Gratitude 2009

Hey! Long time no video. Winter vacation has started, and I FINALLY feel free to make time for video editing. Since 2009 is about to end, it’s time to take a look back at all the fun stuff and memorable family moments. The clip is roughly chronological, starting back in January and progressing through the year, up until last week when we had our first big dump of snow. Some of the big highlights from 2009 include:

• Papa starting a new job at Toyo Gakuen University, in Chiba (east of Tokyo, nearish Tokyo Disney Land).

• Relatedly, beginning our “tanshin funin” lifestyle. This means that during the week I lived in a tiny apartment and commuted back to Toyama on Thursday nights, only to return on Sunday nights. Long story short, this was a big change for our family!

• Family “camping” trips to our Chiba apartment (March, May, September, December). We all packed into our little shoebox and enjoyed the sites of Tokyo and surrounding area.

• Luke’s continued swimming success. He competed in several meets and earned his 2nd medal (a bronze in the 25m backstroke). Since he was often the youngest swimmer in the pool, we were very happy about his results (although you’ll likely get a different story from Coach Mama!) :-)

• Luke climbing Mt. Tateyama (in Toyama) this summer with me and grandpa Mase.

• Visiting the Noto Peninsula in September. The occasion was a swim meet for Luke and Mama, but our friend Kaoru came along to help take care of Max, so we were able to visit the beach and go hiking. Very nice place!

• Luke dancing on the big stage in Yatsuo during the Owara festival. This was shown live on local TV, so Max watched and danced along. Fun!

• The summer visit of Shinobu’s friend Yumi and her three awesome kids, Ikuma, Kazuma, and Nao. We had a total blast with them.

• Luke and Max going crazy about Michael Jackson- I’ve been listening to him practically every day since he passed away!

So besides all these “events”, there were numerous quiet and subtle joys, some of which you’ll see in the video. When I look at all the smiles and good times, I feel this glorious overwhelming gratitude for everything. I hope when you watch this clip you’ll think about all that is good in your life and feel likewise. Take care, everyone, and have a great 2010!