Mobile Phone Photos from 2007

Here are some photos from last year that we took with our mobile phones.

The view from our room at the Ana Hotel when we first arrived in Tokyo. Looking east across the Okura Hotel, to the old DB building and the new Atago Towers.



Looking south to Tokyo Tower and Roppongi.


This is me asleep with Minimi on the couch at Rika's mums house.


Rika when she was 8 months pregnant.


This is Minimi and me traveling on the train, when we relocated to Tokyo from Rika's Mum's place. This is my favourite cat photo from 2007. We had confined Minimi to his blue travel bag, but he still manages to sit there like he owns the train.


This is Sasuke in his cage on the same journey. Both of them didn't like being locked-up in their cages/bags - but is long as the doors were open slightly and they could look out, they were both very relaxed traveling on the train.


Rika with 2-day-old Hanna


Hanna at 4 days old.



Kyoko, and Rika's Mum at the Red Cross Hospital.





Minimi sleeping on the table at home.


Hannah sleeping on my tummy and Minimi attention-seeking (successfully).


Hannah on the futon at home


The view south from my office on a clear winter evening. The large building on the left is Roppongi Midtown. You can clearly see Mt Fuji on the horizon to the right.

Evening Routine

I have a very pleasant routine in the evenings when I get home from work.

First thing is to playing with Hannah and the cats while Rika cooks dinner.





Helping Rika feed Hanna a bit of solid food. At the moment her favorite solids to eat are spoons, cups, binbs, tissues, sandals then rice porridge.





Then having dinner with Rika and Hannah. Hannah often likes to sit in our laps during meals and try to play with things on the table. She is teething and likes to mouth my beer can because it is nice and cold.



A bit more play after Dinner. This is Hanna's 'lesbian' outfit.



Then bath time. My job is to get Hanna ready for her bath with Rika and then dry her off afterwards. And somehow get a nappy and pajamas onto Hannah as she moves around the futon.





And a bit more play before putting on the pajamas and going to bed

Evening playtime

This evening we had a really nice session playing on the floor with Hannah and the cats. Here are some videos.

This is Hanna doing crawling time trials. She really wants to 'play with' (or rather 'eat') the camera.


And again!


Minimi being friendly.


In the vid below, Hannah is determined to crawl over to where Mum is cleaning up a little 'present' left by Sasuke, even after I drag her back out of the way. You can see how strong Hanna's toes have become to push her along so quickly.



She also enjoys practicing standing and bouncing like this.

6 months old

Hanna became 6 months old this week and there have been lots of changes. She really seemed to grow up in the last few weeks and become more of a little person



Hannah now has 2 crawling motions. Paddling across the floor with a kind of 'butterfly' stroke, or just sliding forward pushing with her big toes. She now happily cruises around the living-room floor for hours, piling up crumbs and fluff in front of her like a bow wave.



With the mobility she is can make decisions about what she wants to do, and she has started to communicate her intentions in various ways. When she wants to be picked up she crawls over to our feet. When she wants to be put down she leans out of our grasp towards the floor. When she wants to be with Rika she says "ba-ba!" (coincidentally Japanese for 'old woman!'), and when she is frustrated and hungry she says "MMm-BA!". And she now makes eye-contact a lot more and exchanges smiled or laughs.



Since Hannah is mobile now she often just wants to move around and entertain herself, and this gives us more time to ourselves. Instead of having to entertain Hanna at mealtimes we can now enjoy a few minutes together while she crawls around below, looking for choking hazards and unprotected wiring. And of course she is beginning to have slips and falls.



Hannah's manual dexterity has really improved and she is surprisingly strong. At mealtimes she can now hold a cup by herself.

Hanging-out with the cats

Right now Hanna's favorite game is playing with the cats. I'm not sure the cats enjoy it quite as much but since Hanna is so slow the don't seem to mind too much.


In this shot you can see Hanna and Minimi say 'hello' in cat language by sniffing each others noses. Actually I have seen Minimi enter the the room and then go straight to Hannah and say 'hello' like this before carrying on with his business. Just normal cat manners really.


Minimi has become a bit more wary of Hannah after she got hold of his ear and tried to pull it off.


This is Hannah harassing Sasuke in his Ninja house.


Playing 'whos the king of the castle?'

To-cho

Today we had to visit the Tokyo City Hall (To-cho) to pick up Rika and Hannahs' passports. Tocho is an impressive complex in the West Shinjiku district with 2 distinctive towers that are among the tallest buildings in Tokyo. Both towers have a public observation gallery on the 45th floor which provides a famous (and free) view of Tokyo from 200m up.

It was a beautiful day and Mt Fuji was clearly visible, huge and snow-covered to the south-west. Unfortunately due to the afternoon sun I couldn't get a photo of Mt Fuji but please enjoy the rest of the panorama. (double-click on the photos to enlarge them).


Looking north-East past a skyscraper under construction.


Looking east over Shinjuku station, with Shinjuku park to the right. The tall buildings in the far right is the Otemachi area around Tokyo station. The line of green in front of them is the Imperial Palace.


Looking east-south-east over Shinjuku station south exit. The pointy building tis Time Square which we often see from our neighborhood.


Looking south-east over south Shinjuku and Yoyogi station. The park to the right is the north part of Meiji shrine.


The same view with more zoom towards Roppongi. The large brown buildings in the left is Roppongi Midtown, and just to the left of it is the red and white needle of Tokyo Tower. The enormous silver building in the middle is Roppongi Hills. Just below the horizon you can see the blue of Tokyo Bay, with some white buildings visible on the far shore of the bay. To the left of Roppongi Hills is one of the towers of Tokyo Bay Bridge.


Looking south-south-east over Meiji shrine and Yoyogi park. The clumps of tall builings behind the park are Shibuya and Ebisu. The complex of builidings taking-up a chunk of the bottom-right of the park is the National Olympic Memorial Centre. Our apartment block is just to the right of that between the park and the edge of the photo.



This is a close-up of Sangubashi area (yoyogi 4-chome) and our neighborhood, Yoyogi 5-chome. Sanugbashi station is in the middle left, below the Olympic centre. (Just between the row of trees and the white chimney things on top of the rear skyscraper). Our apartment is in the middle right (about 75% to the right and 60% up). The small green area visible in the right-edge is part of Yoyogi Hachiman shrine.


Looking south with less zoom. The tall building is the Park Hayatt tower of 'Lost in Translation' fame. Just beneath it is a motorway junction where 7 layers of roadway cross each-other (2 levels under-ground, one at ground level and 4 levels of elevated expressway)


Looking south-south-west into the afternoon sun. The building to the right of the Park Hayatt is the 50-story Opera City in the Hatsudai area.


Looking west across the Kanto plain towards the mountains.


Looking north-west across the Kanto plain. The blue building is a 35-story apartment block, but it still looks like a toy from up here at 200m.


Looking north-north-west. The building in the right is the north tower of To-cho. The top two floors visible in the photo are the north-tower 45th floor observation deck.

The same panorama in video.