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.

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 received my developer G1 mobile phone today, and am currently checking out a Wordpress utility for it. If you see this post it means I can now update my blog from my mobile phone!

Soon it is Christmas and what better then, than to make some Danish cookies!

The cookies are real easy. It is the good old 2:1:1 recipe I have used so many times before. But anywho, here it is again for those who want to try:

100 g butter
100 g sugar
200 g flour (soft wheat flour is best; 薄力粉)
2 tsp. vanilla sugar
1 egg yolk
Chopped almonds or pearl sugar (nib sugar) for decoration and some milk for finishing

Mix butter, egg yolk (can be left out) and sugar in a bowl till it becomes a uniform yellow dough. You may want to heat the butter up in the microwave for 10-20 seconds if it is too hard.

Mix flower and vanilla sugar and sift it into the above dough. Mix it all, and knead it gently with your hands. The dough should not be sticky if it is, add more flour.

Roll the dough on a clean table surface so it becomes a long “sausage” approximately 4 cm in diamter. Cut 3-4 mm thick circular slices off and place them on baking paper ready to be put in the oven. Alternatively roll the dough out with a rolling pin till it is about 3-4 mm thick. Use small cake forms to cut out shapes (see pictures above) and place on the baking paper.

Apply a little milk to the cookies with a brush or a finger and decorate with chopped almonds if desired. Pearl sugar can also be used.

Bake the cookies in a pre-heated oven at about 170-180 degrees celsius for about 10 minutes, or till they have a nice sun brown color!

Cool off before eating!

Weee, the flowers smell so nice!!

Today was Junya’s first time outside if you don’t count the few minutes he was outside when we transported him home from the hospital. The weather was great and Junya totally enjoyed the experience. The warm air with the nice smell of plants and soil, the slow breeze, the birds.. Although he probably cannot make any sense of it, it was obvious that he was interested in all the new input.

As you can see on the photo I tried to keep him out of the sun. His eyes are not ready for direct sunlight yet, and he tends to “misse med oejnene” (squint his eyes) whenever we take him near a window.

Today was also the second day to play music for him. Although it seems like he is listening, it doesn’t really make him stop crying. If he is hungry then nothing can make him forget about it, not even Debussy. Only daddy’s index finger knuckle can serve as a temporary substitution for the real thing

Around lunch time I went down to the yakuba (the local city office) to hand in the shussho todoke the paper where we declare what we want his name to be. This has to be done within two weeks of the baby being born, so there is no time to waste. In Denmark it is 6 months, which seems a bit more sensible. But since we were certain of what we wanted to call him, it was ok. At the same time I got a lot of information about various types of services we can apply for, including a monthly allowance of 10,000 yen for the first three years (as long as we stay in Japan).

We can also choose whether we want the local TV station to mention his name in their evening news program. It is free so I thought, why not? If we do it I will see if I can record it and put it online. We can also get the local newspaper (more like a small weekly or so magazine) to show his name and birth date. And it is all free. Sugooi.

Finally a peaceful photo of mum and baby in an intimate situation

I checked my Google Analytics account to see where visitors to my website came from this month. Here are the results:

Not surprisingly Denmark is Number One, and Japan, number two (probably hits made by myself). The US always end up in the top three no matter what chart you make, so no surprise there. But a newcomer is Greenland, as number 4! Wonder who has been monitoring my site up there? Gert perhaps? Former colleagues must be the cause for Australia being number 5, and Ilaria in Italy shows her face as number 6. 7 could be Jonas, 8.. no clue, 9 is Chun and 10… Santa Claus??

Jeg har fundet ud af at man ikke behoever at skrive den fulde adresse naar man skriver til os her i Fukushima. Faktisk kan man udelade ret meget. Vi har derfor besluttet at aendre vores officielle adresse, saa man nu blot skal skrive til:

Please write to us on this address (much shorter than the previous one):

Thor & Takako Muto Asmund
2656-33 Kaminojiri, Nishiaizu
Fukushima 969-4512
JAPAN

Saa er Anita og Gert ankommet til Tokyo! De kom i fredags, og den foerste dag lavede vi ikke saa meget andet end at gaa rundt og se Asakusa og saa koebe god aftensma i Kita Senju som vi tog med hjem.

Idag loerdag har vi vaeret paa det meget store loppemarked i Ooi, det der bliver afholdt paa parkeringspladsen ved hestevaeddeloebsbanen! I morgen skal vi vist ogsaa paa loppemarke. Selvom Anita allerede har koebt en masse bliver vi aldrig traette af loppemarkeder!