Japanblog 2004 July-September

2004 September 25 Saturday.
The working week just gone was punctuated by a couple of national holidays, these being Monday and Thursday. And, even though I was kept very busy looking after baby Cornucopia, I managed to find the time to finish off a couple of short stories

2004 September 18 Saturday.
Baby Cornucopia is developing steadily and is now, I think, almost on the point of talking. In fact, she said two very distinct words recently, "E boo!"

2004 September 17 Friday.
Today I had some business which took me to Shinjuku Station, a huge three-dimensional maze in one of the busiest parts of Tokyo

2004 September 15 Wednesday.
Today baby Cornucopia, now almost five months of age, took a big step forward when, for the first time, she ate food in the form of kayu

2004 September 09 Thursday.
Another hot day yesterday, temperatures rising to 34 degrees celsius.

2004 September 07 Tuesday.
Tonight I'll get home about 9.30 pm and baby Cornucopia, now in her fifth month and weighing close to seven kilograms, will be waiting for me to give her her bath. I always keep up a running commentary

2004 September 03 Friday.
Today I took advantage of the gap between an early morning work assignment and an evening work assignment to go and see the Michael Moore Osama Bin Laden / Iraq war documentary Fahrenheit 9/11.

2004 September 02 Thursday.
A few cool days and then the heat of summer was back, adding to the pressures of existence

2004 August 17 Tuesday.
The small banana was lying on its own in the wooden dish. It was lying like a boat sitting on its keel when I came along and

2004 August 12 Thursday.
And this week baby Cornucopia managed to roll right over, to get both her arms out from under her body, and to get up on her knees and elbows

2004 August 07 Saturday.
Was walking home the other day thinking (for some reason) of my story "A Gorilla in Vietnam"

2004 August 03 Tuesday.
Have been reading some superhero fiction

2004 July 30 Friday.
At about the age of one hundred days, baby Cornucopia finally succeeded in turning right over

2004 July 22 Thursday.
Really hot days. The air has a chemical smell. Sometimes paint, sometimes exhaust fumes, sometimes an indefinable otherness. At a guess, photochemical smog levels are high

2004 July 21 Wednesday.
Had to go to four different locations yesterday in the course of my long and busy day, which involved a certain amount of walking. Boy, it was hot! By the end of the day I felt depleted, drained. I found out afterwards that temperatures in Tokyo

2004 July 20 Tuesday.
Over the long weekend, spent some time reading picture books to baby Cornucopia, including one Japanese book (for which I supplied an English-language text) called "Akai Ringo," meaning "Red Apple." I really didn't like this book at all, because I didn't like the author's handling of the strong-guys-bully-weak-guys hierarchical setup.

2004 July 19 Monday.
Yesterday, the perfect family day. Everyone rested from Saturday, and Sunday buffered by the fact that today, Monday, is a public holiday.

2004 July 17 Saturday.
I was home along with baby Cornucopia, and was busy doing online research into the mystery of America's 17-year cicadas

2004 July 17 Saturday.
Found a few spare moments to click through some of my poetry pages and review some of the stuff I've put online

2004 July 16 Friday.
A couple of days ago I read an article in a newspaper about Japanese women (allegedly this is a trend) drying their hands on their hair

2004 July 15 Thursday.
Baby Cornucopia is now over six kilos in weight and it won't be all that long before she's three months of age.

2004 July 14 Wednesday.
An account of writing a story. A science fiction story. Or, rather, of not writing a science fiction story

2004 July 13 Tuesday.
It seems our humble lives here in Japan may be menaced by a terrifying monster known as a mogura

2004 July 12 Monday.
The very first cicada of summer started up on Sunday morning, "Bzzt, bzzt, BZZT!" - then abruptly fell silent and was heard no more. Maybe something ate it. Or maybe the cicada realized it had made a terrible mistake

2004 July 09 Friday.
I often go for days without meeting other Westerners, days without having so much as a word of conversation with a native speaker of English. So I don't often talk about life in Japan

2004 July 08 Thursday.
Up at 0500 this morning and out of the door at 0615, already sweating in the torrid oppressively tropical heat of the Tokyo-Yokohama area, which is now definitely in summer mode. There followed a long journey, during which my head was busy with thoughts of UFOs, alien invasions and flesh-eating bacteria.

2004 July 03 Saturday.
Home alone burping baby Cornucopia, to whom I've just given milk. Into the third month of fatherhood now, and I feel

2004 July 02 Friday.
Pretty tired at the end of a long, demanding week, but, on the train going home, found some time to do some spellchecking for my working draft of the novel BAMBOO HORSES.

2004 July 01 Thursday.
Yesterday I had one of the more nerveracking experiences of my life when I cut my baby daughter's fingernails.