Why we love G.

As Mariko pointed out, Gwyn is a good explainer. The other morning when her oatmeal overflowed in the microwave she said,
"I hate when this happens. This is why we have to move."

M the Mermaid

So, on Miriam's penultimate day of school, they had a little water safety drill that involved getting into the pool wearing all of your clothes. The pool is not that deep, so I think it was about not panicking. But with Miriam, they needn't have worried.
She came home, we were talking about her day and Bekah, trying to have a teaching moment, asks, "So if you fell in deep water with all of your clothes, what would you do?"
"Well, first I would look down at my feet and see if I was a mermaid. If I was, then I would just swim down deep to where the mermaids are."

Valleys, Islands

This is a post from Dec. I never posted, since I think I wanted to find a picture. But I totally forgot about it, so here it is before I forget about it again.

So we finally were able to go out to pay back our friends for babysitting earlier for us. They live in Takao, which is at the far western edge of the Kanto basin, up against some smaller mountains. Anyway, they have three boys, 4, 7, and 9. They can be pretty wild, but they are good kids and were good for us. I took them hiking yesterday up to Jinba san, which is the tallest mountain nearby.
Although we didn't end up hiking as much as I'd liked, since we got kind lost at the beginning, it was very cool just to drive around the mountains. I really love these little houses and farms nestled in the valleys. There were lots of older, traditionally built houses, even a few with thatched roofs. Also, rock walls, stone stairs, terraced gardens. The persimmon trees were all loaded with fruit, but no leaves.
I think what I like about these valleys is similar to how I feel about islands. The natural constraints on space create a more intimate scale of interaction. Walking or bike rather than driving. Wendell Berry talks about how smaller scale, local farming and communities are essential because there is a natural limit to how much we can really care for, truly understand, work for, etc. Valleys and islands are nice because they force you to interact with the land on a more intimate scale. Driving around Oahu is obviously much more pointless than in California, or even Japan. You run out of places to go. But when you get out and walk you realize there is way more than you could ever experience on that scale. Even very close by.
It's like Laie falls. It isn't a spectacular hike, but I've been there so many times I realize how different it can be each time. I've been there before 7 in the morning, at 10, at 3, 5, right before it gets dark. I've even slept there. On bright clear days, drizzly, pouring rain, on cloudy still days when there was mist in the valley and over the pool. And it's always different. And so you realize that every place you've only been to once, to check off your list, you don't really know at all. But if you didn't know one place really well, you might never realize that.
Not that long ago, almost everyone had this kind of close relationship to a place. Now, many people don't and don't even realize what they've lost.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Okay, I know this is lame. But I actually had a really long post about this, that I was halfway through with and I somehow lost. I may rewrite it as another post, but the gist of it is this. Very few of us actually choose what we want to do. To some extent, this is impossible, because to make a real choice you'd have to know about all the options and we just don't have that kind of time. If anything, there is too much freedom. So although I am mostly happy about my life so far, I wonder about some other possibilities, some roads not taken, or even seriously explored. As a kid I imagined myself doing something more active, outdoors, engaged. Although being a professor is not just desk work, research is. Although I have been much more successful lately, staying happily engaged by yourself for all day every day for weeks on end is a bit of a challenge. I am much more productive with more human interaction than I have been getting lately. Also, I want to be more directly engaged in current problems of the world. I firmly believe in the importance of literature and history, or understanding the past and other cultures. But I am not sure that I have to be the one laboriously searching out this esoteric knowledge. The main thing that has changed since I started graduate school is my concern for the environment has become much more concrete and urgent, since I have learned more about global warming and the crucial moment we are at now as a planet and civilization. So lately, my list of possibilities have been, not in any particular order, environmental architect, or designer, or builder, remodeler, environmental lifestyle consultant (like a cross between a general contractor and personal trainer), or some sort of environmental business, maybe even a bed and breakfast in a tropical location, environmental lawyer, or even if I were teaching I would almost want to be teaching a general education class which doesn't exist at most schools, like Applied Environmentalism 101, or something like that. I have also thought about being a politician, except ever since I lost the election for class treasurer in 3rd grade, that I thought I had in the bag, I have wondered about my electability. A lot of jobs that seem perfect are more science jobs, like Ephraim's or Christian's possible future job, but as much as the ideas of science interest me, I always enjoyed my humanities courses a lot more. Besides, I can't really see myself back in undergraduate science courses. So any suggestions? I am also very interested in hearing everyones thoughts. So if you read this, please post a response.

Yet another advantage of bikes

So, my bike has been making funny noises when I pedal for the last few months. At first, it was only when I went up really big hills, but then it got more and more common. So I checked Sheldon Brown's website and it looked like something might be loose. So, three weeks ago, I went to Shibuya and bought some tools and tightened everything down by the pedals, but it didn't help. So finally, I tried again with the bike in the living room, online looking at Sheldon Brown's site and checking up all the terms I didn't know. So it turns out it is probably the bottom bracket and I need yet a bunch more tools I don't have and maybe to replace something. So I decide just to take it to a shop. There is one kind of close by. Even though I am only going to be here two more months, I would feel bad selling a bike I knew had a problem. So I finally make it over there as they're closing. Anyway, long story short. He has to replace the bottom bracket and it cost $60. At first, I was thinking this was a lot. Then I thought about it in relation to a car. It costs $60 just to have them open the hood. If they pick up a screw driver, then add $20. I mean the bike only cost $400. Eventually, I plan on having all these tools and knowing how to do this, but for now, this is fine. And long term, I feel much more confident about the possibility of becoming a competent bike mechanic than ever knowing enough about cars. Especially since cars keep getting more complicated and the internal combustion engine will soon be obsolete. I hope.

Our Local Library

One way that Tokyo is different from Taiwan is the plentiful English language reading material. Initially, I bought books from Amazon or the occasional bookstore here and there, but then 4-5 months ago a Book Off opened down the street. They are a Japanese used book chain, but since our neighborhood is full of foreigners, it wasn't long before they had a sizeable English language section. Not as big as the English only bookstores, but generally newer books, more turnover, and much cheaper. Especially, for some reason, the English books, which I think the staff is not quite sure what to do with. Also, we soon discovered that one weekend a month the English books are half-off, (although the signs that advertise this are all in Japanese), which means that a lot of the paperbacks and kids books are only a dollar. So, for the first time, I started buying books as a consumption item. Anything you want to do in Tokyo costs. With transportation, food, admission fees, you're lucky if you can leave the house as a family for less than $30-$50. Movies cost $2o per person, or so I hear. Even hiking or going to the beach, usually considered free, will put you out $30 just getting there and back. So books seem like a great deal in comparison. Even if you are only going to read them once and then sell them back. It sort of feels like a pay library. Once I got a whole stack of kids books, so Miriam would have something to practice with. Although I have been the one who gets most of the practice. This is also how we have kept up with books to read Miriam at night. After all, we finish something every week or so, and so I have probably already read her 15-20 books. Anyway, so I went yesterday and here is my haul. The first four Harry Potter books, The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman, and By the Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I also go Tipping Point and Blink by Malcolm Gladwell, who writes for the New Yorker, which look interesting. All for $14. Last time I got Flow by Mihaly Czisentmihalyi, which I am now reading and enjoying. Other previous finds include Hiking and Hot Springs in the Pacific Northwest, Surfing Indonesia, and Fundamentals of Kayak Navigation for future adventures.

The Hobbit

I wasn't planning on reading it to her for a while, but then we read everything else. So I let her choose if she wanted to read The Hobbit or something else, and she chose The Hobbit. Although some of it is scary, like the Gollum part, and the Warg part we are coming up to, but she will love Beorn and his ponies. And for some one who has read it often as I have, I read all four books once a year or so from the end of elementary school through middle school, or so, I am really enjoying it. I am finding I am getting some stuff I probably missed, like the inter-personal dynamics and more subtle characterization. I am already several chapters ahead of Miriam, but have forced myself to stop, so we can enjoy it together.