Bruce Lee

June 25, 2006 / Sunday / 8:50 a.m.

First, the good news.

The bag that I left on the train on June 3 arrived home yesterday. The digital camera that I thought was lost forever finally came back.

Japan is widely known for her honest citizens, and we have experienced it firsthand. On the day that our bag was lost, somebody actually brought it to the police station in Fuchu, which is around an hour and half from Tokyo station. This was recorded in the database of the Japan Railway Co., so when we called a week later to make a follow up, we found out that there was still hope.

On June 17 (Saturday), we went to Fuchu to recover the bag, only to find out that the office was closed. We were able to obtain the contact numbers of the office, however. Mommy D called the following Monday and they sent us some documents (in English) to fill up. We sent back the accomplished documents by mail on Wednesday, and by Saturday morning, our lost bag was on our doorstep. If that isn't honesty and efficiency, then I don't know what is. The camera that could have been lost is a Nikon Coolpix 5400 with a 512 MB CF card and 3 lithium batteries.

No culture is perfect; each has its own weak and strong points. One thing certain, however, is that Japan's strength lies not only in her people's honesty but also on their clockwork efficiency. A few years back I joined a national essay writing contest on my own personal views of Japanese culture, sponsored by the Kyoto International Culture Association (KICA). (If you do read the essay, please note that my job when I wrote that essay is different now.) In this essay, I highlighted Japan's cultural strengths, and I am glad that until now, I can reaffirm what I had written.

Now, the bad news.

Theo has a slight fever as I am writing this. We were supposed to go to Sunday mass this morning but decided to cancel after noting that his temperature has reached 38.1 degrees C. It's probably not too high, but certainly high enough to keep us from leaving home. We went to the park yesterday and he spent much time running around and climbing small hills. Since it's already early summer (and it was warm and sunny yesterday), he easily worked up a sweat. It was his first time, though, to really run around for such a long time.

Last week, Mommy D brought Theo to the dentist because his teeth started to show some decay. Good thing we brought him early and literally had some of his teeth patched up. The dentist strongly encouraged us to brush his teeth even if he finds this very uncomfortable. It has become a struggle to do this but sometimes we need to be “cruel” to be kind, otherwise, many of his teeth would fall off by the time he turns 3.

For this week, I have uploaded a few more of Theo's photos, some of which were taken last week. The next two photos were taken recently in the park.





Theo's favorite Disney character is Mickey Mouse. Oh, it's unbelievable how much he has become attached to Mickey. He just goes wild whenever he sees a photo or stuffed replica of him. He also likes Winnie the Pooh, and in the two photos below, he's wearing a Pooh outfit from his Aunt Tippi.





This photo was taken on June 2 using the Nikon Coolpix 5400, which I left on the train the next day. If the camera did not return to us, this shot could have been lost forever.

The Disc Jockey

June 18, 2006 / Sunday / 6:00 p.m.

It’s one of those typical bummer Sundays when the weather totally spoils what could have been a nice long day in the park.

Theo enjoys running around in the grass, picking up leaves, stones and twigs along the way and giggling with amusement at crawling insects. Because of his keen "scientific" examination of the terrain, akin to an archaeologist searching for fossils (yeah, right!), it would often take us more than 10 minutes just to cover a few square feet of space. But his mind is growing and working as the world unfolds before him, and we just let him be.

Today, however, is not one of those days. We just stayed home as the rains kept coming and going. Mommy D was just surfing the Net, I was configuring another PC with Linux software, while Theo was doing what he does best: mess up the entire place.

Recently, Theo has shown the ability to recognize pictures in some of the picture books that his Aunt Tippi had given him. It was quite surprising for us when he readily pointed out the things that we asked for. And more than ever, he can follow our simple instructions very easily.

For this week’s post, I have uploaded a few of his recent photos. Three of which are just cute shots of him in different moods while the one showing him sitting inside the train was taken yesterday when we went to Tokyo for some shopping and to meet with Ian and Tippi.

As always, Theo enjoys travel. He doesn't go into tantrums in public, and when he starts becoming restless, it's just a clear signal to us that he's tired and wants to get some sleep.

It's such a great joy playing with him at his age. This passes only once and we're savoring it.

Theo: Live in Tokyo Disneyland!

June 4, 2006 / Sunday / 10:50 a.m.

First, the bad news.

Excitement and insufficient sleep are certainly a bad mix. Theo was still jumping around in bed at 1:00 a.m. when we were supposed to wake up at 6:00 a.m. for the early trip yesterday to Tokyo Disneyland. But wake up we did, groggy and all, with the aim of arriving at Disneyland as early as we can. Among the things that we brought were Theo’s stroller, Mommy D’s bag and my knapsack.

We arrived at Maihama Station (the station nearest to Disneyland) at around 9:15 a.m., but as soon as we stepped on the platform and saw the train leave, we realized that I had left my knapsack on the train. (Obviously, my fault!) I clearly remember placing it on the overhead rack because the seat was full. We were shocked for a few seconds but there was nothing else to do except proceed to the station’s Lost and Found section and file a report.

We were informed that after reaching Tokyo station, the same train would return to Maihama where it will make a brief stop at 9:42 a.m. The station attendant asked us to check on the train if the knapsack was still there. It wasn’t and no one had given it to the Lost and Found section of Tokyo station (or to any other station for that matter, as we found out later in the evening). In other words, somebody took it home and it was gone forever! Its contents: Theo’s diapers, Theo’s biscuits, and of all things, my digital camera with three lithium batteries and a 512 MB compact flash card. (No documents or valuables were present.)

I will not describe the camera here nor reveal its brand and model. Suffice it to say that I liked that camera so much because it met most of my digital photographic needs. It wasn’t very expensive but it wasn’t cheap either. I purchased it from a second-hand shop here in Tsukuba in mint condition. Auspiciously, I bought it on April Fool’s Day this year.

Losing that camera forced me to count my blessings (apart from teaching me a painful lesson!). There was a time when I did not have that camera and life was perfectly okay. (I also reconfirmed to myself that I can afford to lose any material item or even everything, EXCEPT my family.) The only irony is that while I have more than 5 cameras at home, some much more expensive than the one lost, we had none in hand, particularly on Theo’s first visit to Disneyland. Thanks to disposable cameras, we still had a way out. (All of the photos above were taken with a disposable camera. Not bad, huh?)

Now, the good news.

Our trip to Disneyland was largely shouldered by Tippi as her birthday gift for Theo. (Tippi, by the way, is 5 weeks on the family way! Yehey!) On this day, Theo was visibly pleased with everything that he saw and experienced. He enjoyed the parades and the shows in particular. We also realized that he recognizes Mickey Mouse quite well. While he would only gaze in amusement at the other characters on parade, he would smile and giggle when Mickey was there. He particularly enjoyed Toon Town and the show where Mickey and Minnie performed a very lively dance routine. By 5 p.m., he was already visibly tired, probably from stimulus overload. We were at home before 9:30 p.m.

Theo recognizes Mickey probably because he has a stuffed replica of him (courtesy of his Grandaunt Nalik), one of our towels here has Mickey’s big face on it, and one of the games we have for our Game Cube is that of Mickey on some kind of adventure (the instructions are all in Japanese…duh!).

Clearly, the misfortune early in the day did not deter us from proceeding with our plan for Theo. After all, there was no use crying over spilled milk, or should I say, over a lost camera. It’s gone now and no amount of anger, regret or fidgeting could bring it back. It’s important that we learn from the lesson (I’ll make sure that it never happens again!) and that we (or I) should be more careful, such as by making a quick mental inventory of our hand-carried stuff before leaving the train.

Theo’s first trip to Tokyo Disneyland was filled with mixed emotions -- particularly for me (Mommy D doesn’t care so much about cameras.) But for Theo, it was all fun, fun, fun!

And for me and Mommy D, it’s all about our little Theo!

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PS - We'll visit Disney Sea in autumn, probably September.