Travels With Baby: Day Break
"It it morning yet?" the kid asked. And it actually was!
by Greg Allen
January 25, 2007
Day 5: Happy night, happy meal
Finally, the kid slept a full night. At 6:00, she came over to the bed, tapped my wife on the face, and asked, "It it morning yet?" And it was. Or close enough. We were so stoked, we all piled out of the hotel and had breakfast at McDonald's on the back side of the train station, the one place we knew from painful experience opened at 6 a.m, not 7 (like Starbucks) or 8 (like Vie de France, the bagel store). Hotcakes, Sausage McMuffin. The day's carb count was screwed before the sun came up, but it felt worth it.
The kid and I hung out in the hotel watching Japanese TV for a couple of hours until the rest of the city was up and running. We had some shopping to do. In addition to cleaning up on more sweet wooden toys, I sat the kid down to stamp out some more tote bags. It's such a great activity for her,
Everyone watched this determined blonde toddler in a red dress try to chopstick an endless string of noodles into her mouth.and the end products, customized for each gift recipient, are a lot cooler and more useful than, say, clay ashtrays.
For lunch, we headed out for soba noodles. The kid's been using chopstick tweezers for months now, the kind you whip up with the wrapper and a rubber band. But after discussing it on Daddytypes recently, I found out most Asian parents skip any special kiddie chopstick solutions and just let the kids figure it out for themselves at around two or three. So we've tried following suit, and so far, the kid hasn't done too bad.
We were definitely the entertainment at the soba-ya, though, as everyone watched this determined blonde toddler in a red dress try to chopstick an endless string of noodles into her mouth. I thought we'd celebrate her success — and fill her stomach — with some ice cream, but she only wanted a cone. Go figure.
Tonight was the big banquet for my wife's conference, 400 astrophysicists, about fifty guests/spouses/partners, and two kids. The Japanese banquet model — long intro and beer toast, followed by voracious pouncing on a buffet — turned out to be woefully unsuited to feeding either a hungry adult or a slightly picky, very tired toddler. We cut out early and filled up in the hotel, trying to finish the stash of apples, crackers, and tofu we'd accumulated before leaving for Hong Kong in the morning.
Day 5: Shopping & Packing
Okay, I'll be the first to admit I have a shopping-at-Muji problem. In a fit of impulsive exuberance, I bought an ironing board. As far as ironing boards go, it seemed almost perfect; plus, it was on sale; plus, I figured it'd be easy enough to find a way to pack it and schlep it from Kyoto back to Kansai airport — a ninety-minute train ride — and on to Hong Kong. And back, then back to the U.S., where our Muji ironing board would quietly dominate all other ironing boards in the country. Never mind that we already had a box stuffed full of (mostly Muji) gifts, or that we'd have to get the car seat out of storage as well. For ground travel, the stroller usually doubles as a luggage cart. The carseat drops in first, followed by our two carefully packed check-in bags, and in this case, the box. It's a pretty tight system, one that tragically doesn't allow for ironing boards. At my wife's suggestion, I agreed to leave it in Kyoto. I hope it found a good home.
©2007 Greg Allen and Nerve Media
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Greg Allen's films have screened at MoMA's Documentary Fortnight, and at the DoubleTake, Berlinale, and Palm Springs film festivals. Greg began publishing Daddy Types, the weblog for new dads in early 2004, right before his daughter was born. He lives in New York City and Washington, DC. |
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