Dancing (with Dad)

Hannah has been practicing her dancing moves

Another good peroration.

She has also been practicing crawling. A long way still to go...

Public Speaking

Hanna has been hard at work today practicing public speaking:



I like her 'peroration'.

Look who's talking

In the last week or so Hanna has started practicing talking, especially when she is sttting down with Rika.

One of the first words Hana has said to Rika was 'gyu' （ぎゅう） which is japanese for 'cow'　(牛).


And of course 'Gaaa' (hic)


We took this video of conversation with Hanna. (For best results, rotate your monitor or head by 90 degrees!).

Walks around Yoyogi

In the weekends we have been going for walks around our neighbourhood. Hanna really enjoys being carried around and looking out at the world.

One nearby place we finaly checked-out was the National Olympic Memorial Centre which is 5 minutes walk to the east, on the edge of Yoyogi Park. This is a public institution with a gym, tennis courts , a 25m pool, and lots of practice and meeting rooms. It also a good vantage point to look west over our neighbourhood.

Our apartment block is somewhere in the picture above (facing due west). The picture below looks further north (ie north west) over Sangubashi . In the middle you can see the 'Opera City' Tower at Hatsudai, which is the base for the national opera and ballet company. To the right is the pointy Shinjuku Park Hayatt Tower, and in the far-right the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Tower. These mark the western edge of the Shinjuku skyscraper district.


This is the same view from down on the road outside the Olympic centre on a sunnier day. Sangubashi station is in a cutting just behind these trees.


Just north of the Olympic centre is the west entrance of the grounds of Meiji Shrine. The shrines grounds are extensive - even larger than the adjacent Yoyogi park. On the west side nearest us, they contain an English style parkland with lawn and pond, as well a museum and center for traditional martial arts like Kendo and archery. So at Sanugbashi station we often see people carrying bows and arrows - including a surprising number of old ladies. This is Rika in the park looking north towards the pond, with south Shinjuku in the distance.



If we walk south-east through the forest park for another 10 minutes or so, we arrive at Meiji shrine itsself. This is a very attractive place with beautifully elegant shinto architecture. It can also very popular for weddings, especially on days that are asuspicious.

Click play to see the videos below.

This is a wedding party crossing she courtyard in front of the main shrine, at the end of their formal wedding ceremony. After the procession each wedding party poses for official photos, and then informal photos with their guests.

This is another wedding party. The day we took these photos was an especially lucky day in traditional fortune telling so wedding parties were coming through every 15 minutes. So it was bit like watching planes coming in to land at Narita airport

Another common sight is to see parents and grandparents taking their children to be blessed at the shrine. This should be done when the child is 1 month or 3, 5 and 7 years old. It is an opportunity for girls to dress up, and for grandparents to enjoy an occasion with their grand-children.

This little 3-year-old girl is also called Hana. She and her mother are posing for photos with Korean tourists. Below is me with our Hanna in her favourite 'Baby Bjorn' carrier. (Surprisingly no tourists asked to have their photos taken with us).

Walking through Meijii shrine, we normally exit at the main, south-west gate, which is right by Harajuku Station, and a focal point for 'youth culture'. These young ladies are dressing up in the currently popular 'lolita' style, and having photos taken with tourists.

As you can see, this style is a sweeter and cuter direction from the 'gosu-roli' (gothic lolita) style that has been around for a while. This seems to be influenced by the popularity of 'maid' style, which is based on victorian maid costumes. So the look involves big lacy skirts, bonnets and a special 'cute' expression, which you can see in the close-up below. (ロリータの特別の顔)

This is Hanna practicing the look after we got home.　（はなちゃんロリータの顔の練習中）

Hanna at 3 months old

Hanna was three months old last week. She seems like a completely different baby now, compared with even 2 weeks ago.

Firstly her colic has cleared up. So she is much happier lying on her back, and doesn't demand to be carried all the time. So we can now put her down and enjoy talking to her face-to-face.

Also, she can go to sleep herself, or go back to sleep in the night straight after being fed.

Hanna still likes to be carried when she is upset but now she usually she demands to be carried facing out, instead of just facing my chest, so she can see what's going on.

She has also outgrown her old cot already so we have hired a bigger one.

Another change is that Hannah is now happier to be carried in a sling as well as the Baby Bjorn carrier. I think she feels more secure now she can control over her head.

Until now she always complained when we put her in my sling. But now she obviously enjoys it...

I think she looks very different now that she can hold her head steady. She is sometimes happy to be put into a bouncy seat and watch whats going on.


Also she is now holding things and beginning to try putting them in her mouth.

Hanna's face seems to change by the week. At her 3 month checkup she was 5.5 kg which is about 1 stand deviation below average for Japanese girls. Nevertheless she is now overtaken Sasuke as the third largest member of the family.

Hanna has much better control of her hands, and in particular she can now sooth herself by sticking her hand into her mouth.

This photos and video below was taken today.

Hanna is now strong enough to stand up with a little help. She can even support most of her bodyweight.

Sometimes she looks more like a little person than a baby.

Matsuri !

The matsuri (festival) for the local shrine was held over 2 days last weekend. This is Rika, Danyl and Sonoko outside the shrine.

An important ritual in the festival is for people from each of the 'chome' (wards) related to the shrine to carry a 'mikoshi' (portable shrine) around their neighbourhood to bless it. Each ward has their own shrine, which houses their neighbourhood god. There are apparently 8 million shinto gods in Japan so there are enough to go round.

This is a close-up of the Yoyogi 5-chome (5th ward) mikoshi. It is constructed like a house or temple for the god to live in. On the top of the roof is a golden phoenix (which is also an aerial for the god's TV).

The Mikoshi is mounted on poles so it can be carried around the neighbourhood. This is done by team of local boys, with help from the dads. Here they are getting organised. The boy in the yellow shirt is Hiromi (or Hiroshi) who lives 2 floors above us in our apartment block.

The bambo slats behind record the names of the people and companies who have contributed to the festival. The writing on the happi coats says 'festival' on the back and 'Yoyogi 5th ward' or 'Yoyogi Hachiman shrine' on the front.

The boys shout 'washoi' as they carry the shrine. The Mikoshi is accompanied by a Taiko (drum). This is the neighbourhood Taiko, which has been in use since 1953.

The drum is on a cart which is pulled through the street by ropes.

Here is the procession moving north towards Shinjuku with the Park Hayatt tower in the background.

Still heading north, this time with the South Shinjuku's Times Square tower in the background. We went up to the supermarket at the north border to the ward then circled back.

The mikoshi is quite heavy so they had several stops for rest and refreshment.

This video shows the procession near where we live.

The main festival was held in the grounds of the Yoyogi Hachiman shrine throughout the weekend. This is Rika and Sonoko in front of the shrine.

Yoyogi Hachiman is a shinto shrine dedicated to the god 'Hachiman' (literally 'eight banners'). Hachiman is one of the most popular shinto deities being the shinto god or war and the protector of Japan. Hachiman is also the god of agriculture, so its festivals are held each autumn to celebrate the conclusion of the harvest. Rika tells me that Hachiman originally came form Korea and so the gates of all Hachiman schrines face west towards Korea.

Shinto shrines often have a stage, for the purposes of entertaining the gods. The gods clearly have very specialised taste in music.

The grounds of trhe shrine were filled with' yatai' (stalls) with food or entertainments.

Matsuri are a good opportunity for girls to enjoy dressing up in yukata (summer kimono).

There were lots of entertainments for children. Like fishing for goldfish, or shooting for prizes.

Soft toys.


More fishing for goldfish and toys.

Or raffles where you can win an air-gun.

It was all very relaxed, orderly and well organised. Boy scouts were on duty to clean up the rubbish. I am sure Sir Robert Baden-Powell would have been surprised and proud to see this.

And of course plenty of bogans to chat-up the groups of schoolgirls.

Japanese schoolgirls often wear uniforms called 'sara-fuku' which are modelled on 18th century sailors uniforms. So I wonder what Japanese sailors wear - do they have to dress like schoolgirls? (perhaps just in their free-time).

This is a stall for iced drinks. There were also plenty of places where you could sit down and enjoy some nice food.

This yatai is selling Yaki-tori (char-grilled chirken on skewers). Other options were oden (fish cakes in broth), takoyaki (octapus pieces in batter) and okonomiyaki (fried pankakes of meat and vegetables with egg and batter). This is yakisoba (fried noodles).

This is the mikoshi for the main Yoyogi Hachiman god.

During the evening there was a steady que of people lining up to pray at the shrine, and presumably say thank-you for the successful harvest.