Click image to enlargeEmails from Kirsten and Naoto
March 2005
Date: Fri, 11 Mar 2005 22:16:14 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Dentistry
Dear Friends and Family
I've been sending out resumes to places on the West Coast to test the waters, so to speak, for our chances of finding Naoto a job in order to move back to the States.
Last time we tried this- granted we were under severe time restrictions due to pregnancy and my job end date- we got almost no response.
This time, after a week, Naoto was offered a job in Seattle. He turned it down. They wanted him to start like....now. We still want to stay here for a while for Mia to go to school and for his parents.
Still, for a while there I had moved back to the States in my mind.
Dentistry
So here's my Japanese Dentistry rant. Not to be all U.S. centric and stuff, but its DEFINITELY better in the States.
First of all, for some insurance billing reason I haven't figured out yet, a procedure that takes like one visit to the dentist in the states takes like 2 or 3 visits here.
Yes, like going to the dentist isn't terrible enough (and I have the authority to say this as I underwent 5 years of braces, talk of having my jaw broken to correct my underbite, operations, and metal palate devices and retainers, thank you) but to be made to go more than you truly have to is unbearable.
And then on top of that having to find babysitters for my kids. You'd think the housewives here would have curtailed that. But on the other hand, maybe they like having a legitimate reason to be let off the 24/7 childcare Japanese housewives are expected to do......
I've never been to a U.S. dentist where each little chair sat in it's own room. Or, maybe there was a room with a few chairs in it and maybe one or two other little rooms. In other words, where you had privacy as you sat, drooling, mouth open, wincing as the doctor probes with miniature spiked devices.
Not so here in Japan. You get a long row of chairs with minisclue partitions between them. You get to hear every whimper and exhalation.
Can I also complain about the lack of decoration? There's nothing more uncomfortable then sitting on one of those dentist chairs, waiting for the dentist, with nothing to occupy your thoughts or hands but tormented expectations of what's to come.
At least in the States, all the dentists I've gone to have over decorated wall spaces and cute, dentistry-themed knick knacks to look at.
The dentist I went to two days ago had ONE framed print on the wall, then frosted glass over the windows. There was nothing to look at. Nothing to keep my attention from my primal fear of dentistry in Japanese.
Because truly, after having scuba dived, climbed rocks, driven over 85 miles an hour (sorry parents) on highways, and survived a storm on Lake Baikal that broke all the windows on the boat, I don't have that much I'm afriad of anymore, BUT I still fear having to discuss dentistry in Japanese.
With the whole "doctor knows best" attitude here, you're likely to get a quickly mumbled "I'm going to drill the tooth now" before the light swings down and you're feeling the buzz then a explanation and lengthy admonis
And my Japanese dentistry vocabulary isn't so hot.
But despite the lack of distract
ions, everything went okay. I just
have to go back again next week!
love and light,
Kirsten
P.S. the girls indulge their musical tendencies at a children's center in Shibuya
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Date: Mon, 28 Mar 2005 23:06:30 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Difficult things about laundry
Dear Friends and Family
Spring is in the air. We have false magnolia trees in bloom, plum blossoms, and the first murmurings of the hanami plans. (hanami are picnics under groves of cherry blossoms, ostensibly for aesthetic appreciation, but in reality are excuses for daytime drinking and karaoke-ing.)
Mia's starting school in 2 weeks. Maika had Roseola but is now fine. The Suzuki-Lincoln family attended Church for the first time (as a family) on Easter Sunday. Maika had to be taken out, but by coincidence another little girl named Mia sat next to us and kept our Mia entertained.
I got to eat strange Lutheran casseroles at the brunch afterwards. It was great.
Difficult Things about laundry
So there are just some little things about being a housewife in Tokyo that are annoying. Not terrible, horrible, unfair things that I could legitimately complain about really. They are just some things that I never really appreciated back in the States until I moved here. #1 Laundry
So laundry in the states takes all of, what, 10 minutes of actual time you need to pay attention? Twist some dials, push some buttons? Maybe shake out some clothes or spray stains? Yes?
So Japan doesn't "do" dryers. I've complained about that before. But have any of you really lived for any length of time without dryers? Have you had to go through the early morning calculations based on arcane algorithms composed of weather, necessary clothing for that day, and relative distance of errands to chance of rain? But the most annoying part is when you get frugal with water. In Japan, many households take baths (actually not clean themselves in the tub mind you, just soak in hot water) in these deep, large Japanese bathtubs every night. So they have invented these little hoses with small pumps built in so that you can pump water from the bath into the washer.
Of course it's precarious to run a hose from your bathtub to your washer. Sometimes the end of the hose flips out of the washer due to water pressure and starts flinging water willy nilly. That's fun.
Not that its all that terrible, but its yet another step to go through in the laundry when I've been spoiled by the whole "just push a button" version before.
I guess compared to pioneer women rubbbing shirts on washing boards in the river I've got it good.
Yep, that's why I tell myself.
#2 Sleeping on Futons
I love sleeping on futons. Don't get me wrong. But there's two things that are difficult about it. One thing is the whole "bed without sides" thing. Children are free to come and go from the futon as they please since its on the floor. I can't tell you how many times I've woken up with Mia sleeping on the tatami and nice little marks all over her cheeks when she wakes up.
The other thing is that here in Japan's humid climate, molds and stuff grow very easy. So you have to air them out.
Well there's nothing more fun then trying to manuever your heavy, cumbersome mattress onto your tiny balcony and then affix it with large clamps to keep them from blowing over. Of course you can't go far if you are airing out your futons unless you're absolutely sure it won't rain. And then your balcony is so small that you can only air out one set of futons per day and do any kind of laundry at the same time.
I tell you its very complex.
Then, just before you bring the futons in you have to wack them mightily with a big rug beater type thing. And of course it seems like all the housewives in our building are wacking at their futons right when Maika finally goes down for a nap.
love and light,
kirsten
P.S. Here's Maika standing with the help of our hinamatsuri dolls. (girl's festival in Japan). We didn't put the dolls away by the day after the festival, however, so apparently Mia and Maika are doomed to never marry.
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Take a stroll through THE MOSSY GLEN the fiction page of K. Bird Lincoln at http://www.geocities.com/kblincoln/mossyglen.html