(Feeling Like) A Baby in Japan

This is a continuation of a previous post talking about my adjustment to life in Japan. The post covered a time period ending somewhere in 2003. At that time, I wondered if I would ever learn Japanese. I was in my thirties, well (if not overly) educated, a husband and father -- but I felt like a child, and I was questioning all my "competencies" (many of which I was having to relearn anyway). I tried some strategies to move forward with Japanese. I started meeting with a couple of language partners (one paid, one free) to practice more conversational Japanese. That was ok, but I didn't see much actual progress. Slowly my kids got bigger, and life became slowly managable again. Our apartment had stairs leading to the entrance, and my wife needed help to get in our out with all three kids. So in the Summer of 2003 we started looking for a house, and then a friend gave us a tip that led to our present location.

When we moved a few things changed. We ended up in a bigger house (not "big" by US standards, but pretty big for Japan). It's much more childproof with space for the kids to move around. We're further from a train station than before, but we live practically alongside a quiet, pretty river. Finally, I was able to connect with a very good professional Japanese tutor. It's hard to belive how much my language has improved in the past six months, and I give lots of credit to her competent teaching. Plus, I met a friend at Starbucks, and we have been meeting once a week for conversation (half in English and half in Japanese). I can't put in words how good it is to connect with a real person and form a friendship in Japanese. Thanks Isao!

I'll stop here for now. A couple of days ago I wrote about going to my wife's "jikka" because my sister-in-law had a baby. You can see a couple of the baby pictures above. My twins were born in the same hospital, and you can read all about their birth here. My wife was also born in the same hospital. The doctor who delivered her founded the hospital, and his son delivered this baby (and ours). I've also included two more pictures from the matsuri: some inflatable manga character toys and the odd looking local "mascots" (I think) who made an appearance in the parade.

Posted by jw at May 21, 2004 11:52 AM