Junya has developed a few new skills over the last weeks. For instance, he has started to grab one hand with the other, in particular he grabs the fingers on the other hand. He also studies his fingers intensely sometimes. He also often picks up a toy (when it is placed in front of him) and bangs it into the other hand. Sometimes even into his own head! This is an interesting new development which I have decided shows that he is learning to use things as tools!

He now weighs at least 8 kg. We weighed him with clothes on and he wighed about 8.3 kg, but we will soon get the exact figures because he is going to measured again soon when we go to the lovel health center.

He still gets some exterme laughing fits, when he is in a good mood and is being tickled or just spoken to in an especially funny voice! When in a bad mood, it often helps to sing for him, but not every song works. In particular he likes (when I sing) the Dansih alphabet song, which goes like “A, B, C, D…” to the melody of either Twinkle Twinkle Little Star or Tordenskjold!

Finally, he has started “talking” a lot now. It seems that whenever he is awake, and is not too tired, he tries to talk to us. Of course we don’t understand what he is saying, and it probably doesn’t mean anything except: Hey, I am here, don’t forget me!

Anyway here is a little video clip where you can see and hear him talk!

http://nafai.org/media/video/junya/dv20090105-talking.avi

I finally found time to sort the few photos I took at the kanetsuki ceremony we attended late 31 December/1 January. In Japan it is a tradition that you go to either a shrine or a temple on the last day of the year, and wait for midnight. You then wish everyone a happy new year (akemashite omedetou) and often add a “kotoshi mo yoroshiku” which translates to something like “thank you in advance (for your services) also in this year” - expressing your gratitude for whatever favours you may receive from the other party in the new year.

Last year we went to Suwa jinja, a shrine close to where we live, but this year instead we decided to visit the 西光寺 Saikoji temple, the one which is managed by the Iwakura’s, Saeko-chan’s parents! We went there about 15 minutes before midnight and I had plenty of time to take photos.

The bell which is mounted in a small wooden bell tower according to tradition has to be rung exactly 108 times. The visitors are encouraged to go up in the tower and ring the bell, and both kids and adults vigorously took part in that. Takako and I photographed each other rining the bell, and then went down again to heat up near the fire in front of the temple.

It is beautiful little ceremony and you get a chance to meet some of the other people in your neighborhood, a little like the Danish Sct. Hans Aften. We met Jun, a friend of Takako’s brother, and also talked to Atsuko and her husband.

It was quite cold so we didn’t stay that long after midnight. Also, Junya was waiting for us at home (sleeping) but when we came home he woke up and we took him downstairs where he was sitting in his favorite chair wondering what happened to 2008!

Junya er begyndt at sige nye lyde. For en par uger siden begyndte han at graede paa en ny maade. Hvor hans graad foer var typisk et hoejt pludseligt vrael efterfulgt af kortere hulk og snoeft, er hans nye vrael et meget laengere typisk barnevrael, saadan som man forestiller sig en 2-aarig siger hvis den ikke faar sin ret og bliver sur!

Det er det ene, det andet er et pludselig meget hoejt skrig/piv, typisk naar der sker noget spaendende. Det er det sidste nye som han begyndte at sige for faa dage siden. Sjovt nok staar der i vores japanske babybog at han netop begynder paa den slags skrig naar han er fire maaneder, saa det passer helt perfekt. Junya fylder nemlig fire maaneder i morgen!

Og som tiden dog gaar. Det er ikke meget vi har faaet naaet paa de maaneder. Men vi har faaet vaeret sammen med ham meget mere end mange andre foraeldre har kunnet haft mulighed for, og det er skoent. Alle de billeder vi begge har faaet taget vidner om det.

I dag har vi ogsaa haft hovedrengoering - dog kun i eet af vaerelserne: stuen. Jeg tog mig af de hoeje steder (lofter, lister, hoeje vinduer og den slags) og de ikke saa stoevbefaengte omraader saa som vinduer. Det var ganske sjovt men stoppede lidt pludseligt da Takakos foraeldre skulle ud til noget familie. Det er typisk japansk at lave hovedrengoering en af de sidste dage i det gamle aar. Jeg tror det har lidt religioes betydning, det med at man gaar rene ind i det nye aar. Vi saa ellers en udsendelse i fjernsynet der sagde at det bedste tidspunkt for hovedrengoering er om foraaret. Det har noget med mug og sporer at goere.

Vi har ogsaa lavet jordbaeris igen i dag, og den staar nu i fryseren. Jeg viste Takakos mor hvordan man gjorde. Hun er vist ret imponeret over at jeg er saa god til at lave kager og desserter.

I morgen er det shogatsu og saa kommer familien paa besoeg og der skal spises og drikkes og besoeges tempel. Det skriver jeg meget mere om i morgen.

Her lige et billede af Junya lige efter han har vaeret i bad hvor han ligger paa en pude paa gulvet og faar toej paa. Junya er begyndt at blive meget mere klar over sine egne haender og fingre. Specielt roerer han nu ofte sin hoejre haand med sin venstre eller omvendt. Eller som paa billedet, holder haenderne op foran sig og beundrer dem.

En ganske normal, men meget hyggelig jule-nytaars-dag. Stod lidt sent op og legede med Junya om morgenen ind til han skulle have sin morgenlur. Jeg fik ogsaa arbejdet lidt ved PCen, men ved frokost tid koerte jeg ned og handlede i Lion D’Or. Vi skulle bla. have fyldt lageret af bageingredienser op, for vi bager en del for tiden! Broed og kager, sandkager, smaakager, roulader osv. Rigtig sjovt, og der er jo et utal af mulige varianter. Specielt sjovt er det at bruge japanske ingedienser, som fx soed groen boennemasse i rouladen!

Paa vejen tilbage koerte jeg forbi Ooyama Drive-In og hentede vores frokost som vi havde bestilt. Sauce-katsu til mig og friturestegte kyllingeklumper til Takako! Jeg legede lidt mere med Junya, men om eftermiddagen kom Yuuta paa besoeg. Dvs. han var blevet “jaget ud” hjemmefra, sikkert fordi hans far havde syntes han var blevet lidt for irriterende!

Yuuta og jeg lavede smaa kryds-og-tvaerser til hinanden, og senere gik vi ovenpaa og lavede jordbaeris. Takakos mor fik jo en ismaskine i julegave af os, men lige nu er det mig der bruger den. Lavede bananis den anden dag (stor succes) og idag ville vi saa lave jordbaeris med frosne jordbaer fra i sommers.

[Rest in English...]

Before dinner and before Junya’s bath, Takako, Yuuta and I went to the Lotas Inn hot spa close to where we live and had a nice warm bath for about 45 minutes. We then hurried home where Junya was waiting for us with his grandparents acting as babysitters! He had been a good boy and had only started crying a few minutes before we arrived.

After dinner (which Yuuta cooked), we went up to the office where I have set up the karaoke system and Yuuta and I practiced our favorite songs. His were きせき by GReeen and 羞恥心 the theme song for the Japanese comedy troupe by the same name.

Takako finished her first t-shirt for Junya. She made it from an adult-size t-shirt which she disassembled and then pieced together again in Junya’s size. It is SO cute and very well made!! Here is a photo:

If Junya wears it tomorrow I will post a photo of him again!

Endnu ikke i jule- eller nytårshumør?

Så prøv Babblobotten - nu med jule news!

http://web.nafai.org/babblobot?base=julen

A couple of new albums with photos of Junya! This time we took him out in the garden and took some photos of him wearing his new smart clothes

• http://photos.nafai.org/album/780
• http://photos.nafai.org/album/779

En hektisk juleaften der startede med spisning kl 17:30 og endte brat kl. 20:00 da alle gaesterne skulle hjem, er nu forbi! Det lykkedes mig at faa lavet en rigtig god ris a l’amande som alle synes var rigtig god. Lavet i mikroboelgeovn naturligvis. Der var ogsaa julegaver til alle, og naturligvis mandelgave. Mandelgaven fik Takakos tante, Miyane, og det var en laekker pose Dumle karameller. Da en af boernene saa den proklamerede han resolut at, “Den skulle han i hvert fald ikke smage, for han spiste ikke ting hvor der stod noget paa engelsk paa”. Han ved ikke hvad han gaar glip af!

Julegaverne var et kaempe hit, og det lykkedes mig faktisk naesten at faa folk til at aabne de rigtige pakker. Jeg behoever vel ikke naevne at julegaver med navnekort paa ikke er en tradition man normalt bruger her

De billeder jeg naaede at tage mellem at jeg skulle varme kirsebaersauce til ris a l’amanden og lege med lego med boernene, kan ses her:

http://photos.nafai.org/album/769

Today we had a visit by Takako’s university friend Eriko and her husband and their 2 year old (and very cute!!) boy, Shin-chan! Today was also the day where our new 42 inch flastscreen TV was supposed to arrive, so the house was very messy this morning as we had been re-arranging the furniture yesterday evening.

So in the morning we cleaned up in the living room and upstairs, and around lunch time Takako and I and Junya went to Nozawa to meet Eriko and her family. We wanted to have ramen at Echigo, but it was too crowded so we drove down to Douki, which is also one of our favorite places.

Junya was really happy today but Shin-chan was at that time still a little bit shy. He eventually ate a little bit of ramen and seaweed, but the onions he meticulously picked out one by one! So cute!

After lunch we drove back to Kaminojiri and had coffee and cake. Shin-chan was becoming more comfortable with us, and was happily playing with our Thomas the Train Engine toys and building blocks. He also found time to go and see the chickens, and it wasn’t until he was about to have his diaper changed that he started crying.

But he soon forgot about it, and we tried to put him up on the couch next to Junya. Shin-chan is eagerly trying to mimick people around him, and when little Junya started waving his arms around, Shin-chan copied that while they were both laughing. Oh these kids, they are so irresistably cute!

Click here to see today’s photos.

Later the TV arrived, and I helped the TV guys set up everything. It was surprisinly simple though: There is a Set-top box, which connects to the cable-TV cable. The Set-top box, which is quite advanced, is then connected to a separate harddisk (via an external SATA connection) which you can record programs on using the Set-top box remote. It is a standard harddisk so you can easily upgrade it if you want! The Set-top box can convert the digital signal to a standard analog 4:3 signal and output it to a composite signal either via standard video plugs or an S-VHS plug. It can output the digital signal either to a D3 plug or a standard HDMI plug. I can’t see why anyohne would use the D3 - is that for compatibility with older equipment that do not have HDMI?

We connected the Set-top box to the TV via the HDMI cable, configged the remote to also control the TV, and then hooked up an old analog VTR directly to the TV (it has a few analog inputs as well).

We can now watch both the high quality 1125i ISDB-T programs - Japan’s equivalent of DVB-T. The quality of these programs are outstanding! We can also watch the satellite programs (called BS/CS) which are also mostly transmited in 1125i but in a different compression I think as there are significantly more artefacts here. Finally we can watch the Cable TV programs, which are transmitted in plain old 525i 4:3 format. CATV looks terrible when you have just watched the hi-res ISDB-T signal, but as it is digitally transmitted it is still a lot better than the analog tv stations we used to watch.

We enjoyed watching various programs and I tried out the harddisk recording system and its two tuners, before Junya got tired and wanted to go to bed!

Junya taget med mobilen.

I finally got my new HTC G1 cellphone, the first mobile phone to come with the Android operating system. Here are my impressions so far:

POSITIVES

• GPS combined with information from 3G antennas (to help locate the satellites) works absolutely flawless. I can usually get a GPS fix within 10-20 seconds.
• The built-in rotation sensor also works really well. I have already programmed a simple compass application.
• The web browser (based on WebKit) works really, really well, and can easily compete with the browser on iPhone. Android still lacks the smart finger movements to control zoom, back and forth etc. but some developers have figured out to do it themselves.
• The whole OS is extremely well made. It is very easy to navigate, things just work as they are supposed to, and it is really fast. Flipping out the keyboard changes the screen orientation and it just happens like that, very short delay, and no redrawing artefacts (like my Windows Mobile phone).
• The Android Market, where you can download applications, works really great too. Many apps are still in development or not very well made, but a user-driven rating system makes them sink towards the bottom. Shazam and ShopSavvy are my favorite apps at the moment!
• The design: Many bloggers have commented on the old-fashioned outdated design, but I actually find it both beautiful and quite small. Easily fits in my pocket, easy to hold in the hand, and the sliding keyboard works well. Only minus is the USB cable connector. When a cable is plugged in the phone is awkward to hold, and typing on the keyboard is difficult. A separate plug for earphones would have been a plus too (I can’t charge and listen to music at the same time for instance)
• The camera is actually ok for a 3mbit phone camera.
• Debugging apps on the phone is a cakewalk! Plugin the phone with the USB cable, mark your Eclipse projectas “debug” and Eclipse now sends the output to the phone instead of the emulator! Could it be easier??

NEGATIVES

• No support for non-English input
• Battery life not as good as one could have hoped for (but not as bad as most people say). I was able to run it with 3G on all day, and with WLAN on the whole evening, and it is still running. GPS seems to be the real power consumer though.
• Almost no widgets. No widget SDK yet. (widgets are small programs that run on the main screen of the phone)
• SoftBank still charges me almost 10,000 yen for one month of flatrate 3G. I misread the small print… Damn.
• DoCoMo does not allow me to use their sim cards in my G1 because of some software that needs to be installed for me to use their 3G network (called FOMA) with flatrate. You can make regular phone calls though (tried it today at the DoCoMo store)

Ok, the phone is still a 1. generation product. Many things that are considered almost mandatory on cellphones these days are missing. Video camera? Calendar on the main screen? Answering machine? Etc etc. But the good news is that the SDK, even the whole OS, is open! Free for everyone to download. So, it is up to us, the community, to develop all these missing apps!

Update:

Today I charged the phone all night, then in the morning around 8:00 I unplugged the charger. I had it with me all day, and had the wireless connected for about 3 hours. Now, at 21:30 it is at about 40%. Not bad really.

Photos

The ShopSavvy application scanned the barcode on one of my books, and immediately found it in its database!

The browser can easily handle javascript controlled data intensive applications like this webcam.

Two photos of my own GPS application running on the HTC G1 Dream