Oh, baby baby.

Little Luca is now in the process of becoming Little Luca the American. We are a little tardy on all of the official paperwork. Next week I have to go all the way to Immigration to apologize and tell them that I don't have a passport yet. In Japan, unless you are Japanese you are always a foreigner so Immigration demands that babies have a visa in their passport by 6 weeks old.
Mathematically, we were doomed. A week spent in the hospital after the birth, then Golden Week, then my injury, then chicken pox, and chicken pox, AND chicken pox... nope, it just didn't add up to equal bureaucratic success.
Hopefully the presence of this lovely boy will melt the hearts of the worn-out paper pushers. I don't want a repeat of last year's deportation scare.


Hope you are all well. Take care.
xoxo

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I've had a cold.
And I came up with the brilliant idea of waking up before 5 to write and study instead of staying up late.
Not in that order.

To make up for my lapse, I offer these blurred pictures of my growing belly. This little guy sits super high, making it impossible to eat things like curry or onions. I don't have many cravings other than a winter-related one for incessant cups of hot tea. Non-caffienated for the most part.

I have an idea about his name but it isn't 100 percent confirmed yet. The middle name will be Japanese and has a bit of Colette's name plus the season in which he is going to be born. The first name is popular in Europe (#1 in Switzerland). In katakana translates as a girl's name but is also a character in an anime that seems very popular here which sports one of my best friend's names in the title. If you are a nerd like me, I expect you to figure the name out and post it in the comments.


And whatever you do, do not tell me that I look huge. I am really not that big. For an American. It isn't fair to compare me to my Japanese counterparts who usually don't show until 9 months. Though I have seen some waddling mamas around here so I am not that uncommon.

Hope you are all well and warm. Take care.

Hello from the Osoji Trenches

Welcome to Day Three of Osoji.
Day One went like this: washed curtains, took the thousands of books (okay, maybe about a hundred or so) off the bookshelf, dusted bookshelves and moved them to mop under bookshelves. Rearranged bookshelves and replaced books in more orderly system. Beat living room rug, washed many loads of laundry and folded them, washed living room windows. Hand washed living room floor. Put everything Christmasy away. Cleaned sofa and depilled it with little depiller device. Ate some oden. Had a yuzu bath. Finished my first Christmas gift.
Day Two: Washed more curtains and laundry. Went to bank to withdraw fund before they close for New Year's (about four days). Went to Osu branch of bank. Ate mediocre Mexican food. Wandered through a flea market outside the temple. Bought ichigo daifuku mochi (my favorite). Returned home. Pulled all my fabric from the closet. Felt exhausted just looking at the pile of fabric. Finished my second Christmas gift.


Day Three (so far): Last gomi day before the holiday so I had to stuff the dead kiddie pools and the nasty rug into a trash bag along with some gross forgotten pizza boxes and long deceased ajisai and geraniums. All of these vile things had been put out of sight on the balcony for too long. Quickly cleaned out the fridge. Took everything downstairs before the gomishushusha rolled around the neighborhood at 8:30. Took a shower. Ate last omochi. Sat down with some tea to procrastinate by writing a blog post.


[Sigh] Okay, now my list:
-organize fabric
-finish cleaning out closet
-clean out desk drawers
-wash bedding
-beat and hang futons outside
-beat and hang bedroom rugs
-wash floors
-scrub bathroom
-clean toilet room
-scrub drains, especially washing machine drain
-use magic eraser to get all pencil and marker creations off the doors and walls and floors
-take a short break to buy supplies
-avoid looking at third Christmas gift