Adventures in the Emergency Room

Friday night we were heading to the store to get birthday party supplies because, well, we were having a birthday party. Above the local grocery store is where are the good party supplies lie so that is where we were going. Kaori energetically ran off to lead the way however just before she got to the stairs she tripped. Nightmares all over again because Cole did the exact same thing when he was 1 or 2 years old. Fortunately, at that time he had his head turned so when he fell against the first step he just got a bruise (albeit nasty and long lasting) on the cheek. Kaori fell directly mouth first into the first step. Lots of bleeding and crying ensued.

We took a taxi to the nearest hospital but the doctor on site said they had no facilities to do plastic surgery. What? Plastic surgery? Maybe that would be useful down the road but right now we just want to get our girl stitched up. No, they couldn't/wouldn't do it. They gave us a phone number to call to find a more suitable hospital. Well, in talking to us they knew our Japanese was verrrry limited and indicated that the hotline was Japanese only. That didn't exactly fit. I asked if he would call for us. Luckily he did. A few minutes later we were back in a taxi headed to another hospital where evidently they did have "plastic surgery" capabilities. Turns out plastic surgery just means stitches(?). Near as I can tell that is what it means because that is what they did. Kaori also had to have a dentist push her teeth back into place and bond them there. Shots in your mouth are a bad deal. Shots in your little girl's mouth are even worse. By about 100 times.

Today the swelling has gone down and the coloration is good. Kaori looks much better. She has been such a trooper throughout this whole thing. She doesn't like taking her medicine but still does. Time heals all wounds.

All Set

The kids are all farmed out to friends for playdates next week. All my travel arrangements have been made. Robyn is all set to takeover the household until I get back. All systems are go. Well, not really. I'm woefully undertrained for this marathon. Good thing I'm only planning to run it for fun and not to race it. Imagine that, running 26.2 miles for fun. For all my U.S. and Canada readers (I'm sure there are so many) you can watch the marathon live online at www.wcsn.com. Since I'm expecting even less face time there than in the Japanese movie I'm going to be in, it might be a little boring for you.

Until next week!

Minor Musings from an Expat

Australia and New Zealand have stopped using pennies. I for one think this is a good move. I think they are too expensive for what they are worth and would much rather that prices got rounded to the nearest nickel (or even dime). At the end of the day I think retailers and consumers alike would come out even and even if I lost a couple pennies with each transaction I wouldn't mind.

The U.S. is moving to an all digital television network next February. I'm sure electronics companies and retailers are thrilled by this news because all analog TV's will have to be replaced by digital ones or have a converter attached. I don't especially mind this happening, I guess it's progress. I suppose it's a good thing that our TV went belly up last year.

These countries have not have not officially adopted the International System of Units (metric system) as their primary or sole system of measurement: Liberia, Myanmar and the United States. To me it seems like the U.S. should join the bandwagon and convert to the metric system. What is holding it back? I think either laziness and/or arrogance. Neither of which are good qualities. I mean really, every other meaningful country in the world uses it, why should Americans/American companies and those working with them have to go through a system of conversions in order to function. I think a cold turkey move to the metric system is the only way to go.

We received an letter from the IRS yesterday announcing an economic stimulus payment to up to 130 million households. Households will be eligible for up to $600 or $1,200 if couples file together and another $300 for children. Let's say $1,000 for 100 million households and that is $100 billion. That's a lot of cha-ching. I'm not an economist so I have no answers but I do have questions, like will enough of that get spent to stimulate the economy out of recession? If all of it is spent would that even be enough? Since people weren't expecting to receive this anyway, is there a better use for the money? Like it could be used to pay off a portion of the national debt for example. I don't know and I don't know.

Just a few items that are filling my head on this day.

Sydney and the Cherry Blossoms

Actually the cherry blossoms are blooming here in Tokyo. I figured I better mention them now because they'll be gone in a few days time. When I was out running at 7AM today, people were already out at the parks, on the riverbanks and in the cemeteries claiming the prime spots under the cherry trees. Yes, that's correct, in the cemeteries. Actually only Aoyama cemetery is where I know people have cherry blossom viewing parties but it wouldn't surprise me if it happened at others. It is a chance to get outside and enjoy a bite and a drink with friends. It is raining now so I wonder how that is working out for them.

We had a great time in Sydney in spite of the cost of things. I think it is now Robyn's favorite city. Our hotel was right by Sydney harbour and so we took the ferries from the wharf there and went all over. We were basically situated right between the harbour bridge and the Sydney opera house. I must say the opera house is more impressive in person than in photos. There is a path that goes along the waterfront and around the opera house that Robyn and I walked and ran on in the mornings.

The first day there was some hoopla festival at nearby Darling Harbour so we went to watch musicians, acrobats, street performers etc. there. The next day we took the ferry across the harbour to Manly. Although you might think it was named after me, you'd be incorrect. Anyway there is a beach and little shopping area there. The kids played at the beach a little but that afternoon we swam at Bondi beach, Australia's most famous. The water was way too cold though. On Wednesday we took in the zoo and the Imax theater. The zoo was fun, it is nice and big and has great views of Sydney harbor. We went to the top of the Sydney tower to get a view of the city on Thursday and then went back to Darling Harbour to see the aquarium. We were go, go, go all the time and the kids were troopers about walking so much.

I'm not sure which city is more expensive, Tokyo or Sydney. We couldn't even have a casual breakfast in Sydney without the bill ballooning up to $50 or $60. Our first eating establishment was, any guesses? Yes, it was Krispy Kreme. Unfortunately they were selling donuts for $2.30 apiece. Good thing we didn't have any more than 19 dozen of those. Actually just a half dozen. We couldn't afford any more. Maybe it was just because we were in the prime restaurant/real estate area. If you are planning a visit, bring an extra suitcase full of cash.

Here are our pictures.

Baseball Game at the Tokyo Dome

We went to the Boston Red Sox vs. Hanshin Tigers baseball game yesterday and had a lot of fun. Boston won 6-5 and hit a couple home runs. You can see we were all decked out in the proper colors.

Today we are off for Sydney. I'll let you know how that goes in a week or so.

And the winner is...

Sydney. Yes we are headed to Sydney for 4-5 days next week. From what I've seen it is as expensive as, or moreso than Tokyo. We couldn't find a hotel room for less than $200 per night. Also, most all the hotels limit rooms to three people; meaning a family of four like ours is required to get two rooms. Is that not crazy? Luckily one hotel that originally was going to require us to have two rooms is letting us stay in just one.

On the other hand there seems to be a lot of things for us to do. This weekend is some sort of Darling Harbour Hoopla festival, then there's the aquarium, zoo, IMAX theatre, ferry boats and more and more. We are looking forward to it; should be fun. When we are there I'll have to see which way water goes down the drain. Did I say that about when I went to Africa too? I can't remember.

Spring Break!

Okay, so it's not exactly spring break yet but it is coming up in a few weeks. So we are planning on a trip but not quite sure where we want to go yet. Of course it does depend on how full some flights are but currently here are our options:

Australia: Kind of a long flight to Sydney, about nine hours but it is in the same time zone as Tokyo so It wouldn't be a huge adjustment. We could fly at night and sleep on the plane and be ready to go the next day. It is definitely easier to get to Australia from Japan than the U.S. so if we are going to make a family trip there, this is the time to do it. Haven't really looked at activities there yet but many of our friends here have been to Australia and highly recommend it.

Bali or Phuket: Both of these are resort areas, Bali in Indonesia and Phuket in Thailand and are also highly recommended by friends. Much closer to Japan than the long flight to Australia and only an hour or so time difference. These two places are also ones I'm sure we wouldn't visit from the U.S. so we must get there from Japan. Beach, sand, ocean in a tropical climate; sounds pretty good doesn't it? The shorter flight makes this a potential for a long weekend trip too.

So, what do you think?

Movie et al.

First things first. A cold seems to have invaded our home since early January and is here for the long term. Last week it seems each one of us missed a day of school or work or something. This week we are a little better but coughing, sneezing and sniffling are still the order of the day. On top of that, Robyn is in Beijing for the week. Already looking forward to the weekend.

Getting to the movie now, after just wrapping up a three day stint on set. We filmed two courtroom scenes. I was slated to be an MP that escorted the prisoners (including the star of the movie) out of the courtroom. Talk about face time! However the other guy and I were in those roles for about 1 minute before the director replaced us with two other fellows. Curse the director! Can't he just trust his casting people? So I became a courtroom person sitting in uniform behind the prosecutors. I believe I'll be in quite a few shots though.

As far as the shooting, it was pretty interesting. I think it would be hard to be an actor though. Each take took 2-3 rehearsals and then 1-2 official takes before it was satisfactory. Each scene might be filmed from 8-10 different camera angles so that means each scene would be created 40-50 times. This would all be for only a few minutes in the actual movie. Add to that a fair bit of time between each take to set up the cameras and lighting and props and each day can become quite long and boring. I've been asked back to be a jailer for a few more days. Not sure if I'll do it though; they'll have to talk to my agent.


A few interesting tidbits about the movie:
*We are shooting at TOHO studios, one of the bigger (the biggest?) studios in Japan. TOHO actually has their own chain of cinemas to distribute their movies. They also made the Godzilla movies, or at least I assume so since the above picture was from the front gate.
*The director, a big bear of a man even by U.S. standards, is from a famous family I hear. One of his forefather's picture is on the Japanese 10,000 yen bill.
*The movie is actually a true story but the main character wasn't executed in the end. He lived to write his memoirs and see them become a movie.

Take Two

Well, not quite yet. For the next three days I'm scheduled to go to the studios for filming. I'm not as much excited about these days though. First of all I found out I'm one of 45 foreigners that will be on set. I'm guessing I'll be more of a face in the crowd for these scenes. Secondly, now that I know it's wait, wait, wait, film, wait, wait, wait...I know that it gets a little boring. It's interesting to see for a couple days, but I think three days in a row will get a little long. Finally, they aren't even providing us lunch this time. The nerve.

I'll be sure to blog on the high/low lights.

Take One

So yesterday was my first day on the job at the studio. I was joined by two other foreigners, a Spainard and a Frenchman and we were to play the American soldiers. Can I say that I'm not surprised that the Frenchman was the complainer of the group? The casting company managers didn't do enough for us, it was too long and boring, the Japanese didn't respect us enough...blah, blah, blah.

They dressed us up in soldier uniforms complete with jackets, coats, gun belts, boots and leggings. I kept thinking that they were going to all this trouble to dress me up and then they were going to find out that I can't act. Either that or what kind of low-budget, fly-by-night outfit would employ me to act in their movie? After we got dressed was makeup. I didn't get any. Evidently I'm beautiful enough without it. Some got it and some got haircuts too. We were then taken to the studio to wait for the filming. Check that, we were taken to the door outside the studio to wait for the filming. We waited outside for much of the day. The "talent" would come in their private vans and be ushered inside the studio. When called into the studio I did the same thing all day: stand in the middle of the prison bus and hold my rifle. Stand up straight, look straight ahead and don't move my eyes (or anything) and don't make a sound. I also held on to a pole to show that the bus was moving (it wasn't).

I think this same scene was shot from 5-6 different camera angles because I did the same thing 5-6 different times. They served us breakfast and lunch and we wrapped up late afternoon. I'll definitely be in the movie if this scene is used; just not sure what part of me. Just some Army-issue-uniformed body part or my face? Not sure. I also had a helmet on which I was instructed to pull down very close to my eyes. Still, I'm sure they recognized the acting talent...

Cut! That's a wrap!

An Early Start

It's 5:10 AM on Friday and I'm off to the movie studios. A rush of late emails and phone calls has gotten me into a couple scenes being filmed today. I'm hoping for a prominent role of maybe 10 seconds and not a "Don't call us, we'll call you." I'll update more later.

My Fifteen Minutes...

...or more likely fifteen seconds of fame. I recieved an email from the casting company saying that the dates of filming on February 23, 24 and 25th are now fixed. I've gone from being a prison guard to being a medical soldier. Also intriguing is this line in the email I received: "I’ll send you an English Script of the scenes, #42 & 50 later." What exactly does this mean? Will I have a line(s)? This is all moving too fast for me. Maybe I better hire an agent and negotiate some better terms. My wife is just aflitter with excitement for me.

You'll see my current countdown is for the Tokyo marathon. Unfortunately due to recent achilles' tendon problems I won't be able to participate in this event. Hopefully I'll be able to do the 10k that is run at the same time. Since it has been posted in my countdown I'll leave it there but you can be sure that I'm going to change that to my acting debut as soon as the marathon is over.

A LITTLE BIT MORE INFORMATION
At first I thought the name of the movie was "I want to be Kai"; Kai being a common boy's name. However I've found out that kai = shellfish. So that's interesting. This movie was first made in 1958 and later adapted for television. Click here for more information.