Aya loves watching cartoons on tv. Powerpuff Girls is one of her favorite shows on Cartoon Network. When we were in Cebu, she insisted on buying a pink backpack with a Powerpuff Girls design. At the daycare, she has formed a sort of alliance with two other girls and called themselves the Powerpuff Girls of the Yuri class. Aya is Bubbles, Natsumi-chan is Blossom, and Niku-chan is Buttercup. I myself grew up watching Scooby-Doo and other Hanna-Barbera cartoons, and while the storylines aren’t probably not any different from the cartoons of today, but in my opinion, they are at least better drawn. The Powerpuff Girls are outrageously eerie-looking. Consider this: They have saucer-shaped eyes, which occupy at least half their faces, and get this, they DON’T have any fingers or toes! Gaaah!

If only we could have a little bit of Chemical X to perk up our boring personalities.

Aya loves those weird-looking gals nonetheless. Actually, come to think of it, once you get used to the weirdness, the plots are actually quite engaging. Even the dialogues contain enough sarcasm to appease the more mature audience. Anyway, one day Aya brought home one of her doodles from the daycare. It was a bottle with an “X” on it. When I asked her about it, she shrugged and said a matter-of-factly, “Chemical X.” Of course. What else could it be? 😛

For those who are worried that maybe all that Aya has learned of late are just cartoons and tv, no – there is absolutely no reason for concern. For your information, Aya is steadily working on developing her writing skills. She has already learned to write many letters of the alphabet. And she can already read three-letter words like “car,” “mat,” etc. For the past few weeks we have been making progress with the workbook for preschoolers. On every task she finishes, she insists on getting a 100% mark – and don’t you dare not give it to her because she knows that she deserves it for a job well done! Now that’s our Ayapuffgirl! 😀

A, B, C?, D?, E, F, H – ok she missed G there. But what the heck is PbE “(heart) loves” AYA? Aya said that the block thing at the bottom is chocolate. Mmm. Makes you wonder what a four-year old is thinking about hearts and chocolates.

Aya came home one day and excitedly recited to us the following:

Jugemu-jugemu
Gokōnosurikire
Kaijarisuigyo-no Suigyōmatsu
Unraimatsu Fūraimatsu
Kūnerutokoroni-sumutokoro
Yaburakōjino-burakōji
Paipopaipo-paiponoshūringan
Shūringanno-gūrindai :Gūrindaino-ponpokopīno-ponpokonāno
Chōkyūmeino-chōsuke
寿限無寿限無
五劫の擦り切れ
海砂利水魚の　水行末
雲来末　風来末
食う寝る処に住む処
やぶら小路のぶら小路
パイポパイポ　パイポのシューリンガン
シューリンガンのグーリンダイ
グーリンダイのポンポコピーのポンポコナーの
長久命の長助

I’ve heard of the “Jugemu” being chanted on NHK’s program, “Nihonggo de Asobo,” a children-oriented program that aims to introduce the young viewers to the rich (ok, exotic) world of the Japanese language. The chant is so long and usually spoken very fast, that I find it rather difficult to memorize. Well, maybe except for the “ponpokopino, ponpokonano” bit. It sort of glides on the mouth. The weird thing is that the whole chant doesn’t really make any sense. Aya just memorized the words without paying any attention to the meaning. Does “supercalifragilistic expialidocious” mean anything? But then, it’s not even that long compared to “Jugemu.”

According to the story, Jugemu blah-blah-blah was actually a name given to a boy by a father who consulted a priest about names. The father ended up combining all the names in the list given to him by the priest. By the way, aren’t Thais also famous for using rather long names?

The thing is, Aya has already mastered this seemingly tongue-twister and would happily demonstrate it to anyone who cared to listen. Man, she’s only four years old, and she’s spewing Japanese at us like it was her mother tongue. Well, she actually started talking at a relatively early age. Oh, did I forget to mention that she also speaks Tagalog fluently? We are currently teaching her to speak English, and thanks to her Tita Lai (who takes care of exposing her to American twang), Aya is now also speaking English, with an American twang to boot :). No, she is not confused about these languages at all. Children are much more flexible, and arguably better at learning languages than adults!

On a fun note, in the meantime I’m trying to memorize the whole Jugemu bit so I can show off that I can chant as fast as the kids do. Gambarimasu.

One of Dad’s favorite quotes from the Bible is this: Teach a child on the way that he should go, so that when he grows up he will not depart from it (this is paraphrased; this is probably from Proverbs, but I forgot the actual passage.). When we were children, he taught us zealously and often reminded us that when it’s finally our turn to be parents, we should teach the same to our children. Here are a few things that I learned from this great man.

Lesson No. 1: Learn to trust in God
Dad made me remember Proverbs 3:5-6 – “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not unto your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and he shall direct your paths.” I never forgot that verse. Whenever we found ourselves in dire times (and there was a lot of those times indeed), Dad would always remind us that the things that happen to us happen for a reason. We may not see God’s purpose immediately, but trusting Him is a far easier than tossing and turning in the night in anxiety.

Lesson No. 2: Never let failure make you give up
Dad was a jack of all trades. He experimented with a lot of businesses, and many of them failed. For some reason, failure never made him give up; he kept trying and trying. As I grew older I began to understand why he failed in most of those endeavors; sometimes he aimed too high and failed to sustain interest in one thing for a long time. But I admired his perseverance. I’ve never met anyone more stubborn.

Lesson No. 3: Always do your best
I know, this oft-repeated phrase is nothing new. But there’s an interesting anecdote about this, something that I still vividly remember after all these years. Dad pushed me hard to excel in school, and I tried every way I could to meet his expectations. He encouraged me to aim for the top in every competition, and that any other place below that was simply unacceptable. No other place was good enough except for the first place. Anyway, one day I came home from school feeling so low and depressed because I didn’t win in a contest (if I remember right, it was a science quiz in elementary). Hearing about my sad report, Dad lovingly embraced me and asked, “Did you do your best?” As I nodded, he told me that it was the only thing that matters. To this day I can never forget that incident.

We can’t always win all our battles, but we can always do our best. In the end the only person we have to compete with is ourselves.

Lesson No. 4: Learn to fight alone
Dad loved boxing, and he often likened his life to being a fighter on the ring. The crowds on the side may cheer, the manager can holler his instructions, but the fighter will be alone to meet his opponent on the ring. When I was in Yamagata trying to fight boredom and depression wrought about by the winter season and loneliness, he wrote me to remind me that being alone is everyone’s business. Learn to fight on your own, and never depend on anyone else to fight for you.

In the end, Dad fought his own battles against his own body, and remained defiant until his very last breath.

Everytime I reflect on Dad’s life, I feel refreshed and seemingly renewed with a second wind (like a boxer, haha). I can only hope and pray, that when it is Aya’s turn to reflect on my life, that she will likewise find the same inspiration and strength.

I love singing. For those who didn’t know, I earned the nickname “Material (Science) Girl” because I like singing Madonna’s songs on the karaoke. I don’t know if I had an uncanny similarity to M’s singing, but for some reason people loved it when I sing “La Isla Bonita.” Well, the Material Girl became a Material Mom, and my trips to the karaoke room became fewer as my motherly duties increased. And besides, Baggy does not like karaokes very much; it’s just no fun singing alone, d’oh!

Ooh la la. They’ve upgraded the system, and I didn’t even know it. This song’s for Aya.

And so it’s been a while since I’ve been inside a karaoke room. Fortunately, though, my li’l sister Lai is now staying with us – and ever since she arrived, she has been insisting on going to karaoke. Well, we finally had our chance last Monday, which happened to be a holiday here in Japan. We took Aya along, of course, because we might as well train her to love singing this early if we ever want to go karaokeing with her when she grows up. Baggy had to tag along too, para naman may audience kami hahaha. 😛

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the making of a diva.

When the staff ushered us to our room, she asked us if we need some help with the controls. Hello? This is like the nth time for me to go karaokeing in this establishment. Confident that I was already familiar with the controls, I politely declined. Much to my surprise, though, the remote controller was not working. I tried the usual keys, but no dice. I flipped through the printed volume but found out that the arrangements are entirely different. I couldn’t even locate where the English songs are. Defeated, I called the staff and asked her to come back. As it turned out, they are now using new controllers for the karaoke system. Instead of the usual remote controls (like the ones used for tvs), they are now using these digital touch-pads controls where you can search songs and singers in a zap! Songs are reserved through these controls, and one can even surprise others by reserving a song in “secret!” Has it been that long since I’ve gone to karaoke? How long has it been since they’ve upgraded their system? At any rate, it was a happy surprise. Thanks to technology, our karaoke experience is much more stress-free and we can enjoy those extra minutes afforded by the ease of control.

Karaoke fees are much higher during nighttime, where most of the customers flock. But since we went there in the afternoon, the fees were lower. We only had to pay 200 yen per person per hour. We booked the room for two hours, so that’s only 400 yen per person. As expected, we ended up with hoarse voices (after all that screaming, what do you expect?). Others get to unload by doing sports, shopping, or eating. We get to do that by singing our hearts out.

Can’t wait for the next karaoke trip. Even Material Moms have to unload every once in a while, you know. 🙂

October is one of my favorite months of the year – every year on a personal basis I “celebrate” the very first day I came to Tsukuba (October 3, 1999). Why? It’s because so many wonderful things happened to my life ever since I came to Tsukuba. I love it here. I can’t imagine living elsewhere (except for my beloved Pinas, of course). Seven years whizzed by so quickly. This is home.

Anyway, almost one month of no blog…where have I been hiding lately? Right here at my desk, with piles of paperwork and data crunching work, while juggling experiments in such frenzied pace. Just gave a presentation early this afternoon – and now my mind’s just blank and simply refuses to churn. I need to blog to let off some steam.

Our turbopump’s wheezing like an asthmatic, and the manufacturer has already cautioned us not to put off overhauling any longer. Considering that I’ve been getting really damn good results lately, this is really, really bad news. The overhaul itself will take about 1.5 to 2 months – imagine, they have to send the pump all the way to Germany! Why can’t they do that here in Japan?!! That’s too long a period to spend idly while I’m in the middle of something “hot.” Sometimes filmmaking is really akin to black magic – sometimes it works almost amazingly, you wonder what exactly happened to the concoction of plasma, ablated species, hot temperature and all that oxygen gas you put together to make a wonder film. I wish I could have more of these moments. Heaven knows I’ve been pounding on that PLD system for 5 long years now; I get nice results once in a while, but never have I been on an experimental “high” for an extended period of time. Not like this!!! Why can’t I have more results like this!

Other concerns: patent (oh yeah baby!); papers; conferences (there’s one at the end of this month). Aya’s sportsfest. Aya needs new clothes because she’s outgrown most of her autumn-season clothes. Baggy’s upcoming move to a new work (don’t leave meeee!).

On top of it all, I want a freakin’ new hairdo!

Yesterday we were jolted out of our daily humdrum of activities by a telephone call from one of Baggy’s colleagues. It came sooner than we expected. All of a sudden, we found ourselves staring again at the old familiar problem facing couples who are pursuing dual-careers. Careers, mind you, not work. We consider ourselves very, very lucky to be working in the same institute, practically seeing each other every day and eating lunch together at the cafeteria. Heck, we even take afternoon coffee breaks together – but I digress.

We know it’s too good to last, and we have wisely prepared ourselves for the inevitable. Sacrifices must be made in view of a higher goal, blah blah blah and all that crap. We know, though, that Baggy didn’t come all the way from Osaka to join us here in Tsukuba only to leave us again. We have to set a limit somewhere. Anywhere accessible by train within a two-hour commute is acceptable. That may be ludicrous for some people, but they probably haven’t tried riding the shinkansen from Tsukuba to Tokyo to Osaka, only to head back to Tsukuba within the same day because of a frantic call from an equally frantic wife because their daughter had to be rushed to the doctor. Never again.

I sometimes think of how much easier it would be if there was only one of us pursuing a career. What if I were the regular okaasan at home. Husband changes job and moves elsewhere – no problemo. Just pack up and leave. No ties to severe, no juggling of work duties, no hassles. Get pregnant every other year until menopause and raise a dozen rowdy kids.

Yes, how much easier it would be to just sit idly at home in between household chores and wait for the husband and kids to come home at the end of the day. I can watch tv for a change. I can knit and sew, watch my fat ass grow and bake cookies all day long. I can devote 24/7 attention to all of my children, no exceptions.

In my dreams, sure, but not in “this” lifetime.

As the old adage goes, there’s nothing constant except change, and the only inevitable thing is death. We gotta do what we gotta do while there’s breath left in us.

Life is so damn easy when you know all the answers. If you did, wouldn’t life be so boring?

I’m currently sitting inside the Top of the Hilton restaurant, which is, well, literally at the top of the Hilton hotel (what a no-brainer eh?). But at this height I have a magnificent view of the emerald blue Eliott Bay as well as downtown Seattle. The “full” American breakfast costs 12.95 dollars, but what the heck, I figured that it is only about 1,000 yen or so. For that amount I get three eggs cooked the way I want it, my choice of sausage, ham or bacon, orange juice, coffee, toast, and a piece of fruit. Mmm, hmm. All that grease is gonna get me high through my morning. Plus I get complimentary wireless internet. In Japan the most I could get is probably a piece of salmon, rice and miso soup with twice that amount. And I tell you, the way my tummy is sticking out, I’ve got more than my full share of breakfast for today. Enough to last me until dinner, I hope. I’ve got a poster presentation this afternoon, so I thought it would be a good idea to recharge my batteries while I have the chance.

That’s a full American breakfast indeed! Lots of grease and fat. Yummy.

Yesterday I attended the banquet, which supposedly costs 75 dollars per person. The registration fee (a whopping 695$) covers the banquet for a full conference participant like me, but the way the government system goes nowadays, I will not get the whole amount refunded because the banquet fee will be substracted from it (thanks a lot, bureaucrats!). I thought that it would be such a waste if I didn’t at least get my dinner’s worth. It was a little disappointing, though, that all we got for dinner was a piece of salmon (no pun intended), a piece of cheesecake, and lots of booze (which I didn’t really enjoy). I did my conversion again, and was aghast to realize that the whole affair costed me about 8400 yen.

I was also able to visit the famous Space Needle (I have an unobstructed view of it from my window here right now), paid 14 bucks to get to the top. Baggy told me that I would have had a free ride to the top if I had eaten at the revolving restaurant, for a lunch of about 30 dollars (3600 yen? No thank you.). But I’m the hopeless omiyage shopper, so I ended up splurging more than a hundred dollars on souvenir items at the gift shop at the bottom of the Space Needle.

Anyway, yesterday, like today’s, was perfect weather, you know, cloudless blue skies and the sun was out in full force. I have no plans of going anywhere else in Seattle, so I might as well have a taste of its famous landmark. The rest of the park in the Seattle center is blah. I thought I would be spending the rest of my morning there, but as it turned out, boredom got the better of me and I found myself back in my hotel room less than four hours later. And that includes an hour or so of walking!

Just 48 more hours to go, and I’ll be home sweet home.

Third day in Seattle, so far wala pa akong nagagala. Early this morning I went to one of the top 5 places to visit – as recommended by the magazine I found in my room – this one being the Pike Place Public Market. It’s a wet and dry market, with lots of mini-stalls and stores. I really wonder what the fuss was all about. I mean, it’s your typical palengke! Anyway, there is at least one good thing that came out of my early walk to the palengke, and that is to find a store of Seattle’s Best Coffee. Baggy brought home from Seattle a decaf version of their coffee, and it was really great. According to Lai, ang galing ng pagpapanggap niya, akala mo it’s the real version (note that it’s not real to her if it doesn’t contain caffeine, that hopeless addict.) He bought it at the airport, so it must have been more expensive there. I bought ground coffee beans for 9 dollars a pack. I think it is a real bargain. For the same content in grams, the decaf we bought at Starbucks in Japan is around about 1300 yen, or more than 10 dollars. And it didn’t even taste that good.

I am still jetlagged. Today I woke up at 5 am, and couldn’t go back to sleep anymore. I would probably adjust to the local time in a few more days, which would be just about the time when I have to go back to Japan. Perfect. That’s why it’s much harder to adjust when returning home. Bioclock is already messed up to begin with. Plus the travel time is longer. Just one of the disadvantages of living in the far east.

View of the downtown area outside my hotel room.

For the last two days I’ve been paying 9.95$ a day to access internet from my room. Yun naman pala merong complimentary wireless access dito sa lounge. Duh. The connection is pretty good. But I don’t see any AC outlets around here, so I am at the mercy of the laptop’s battery. Also, there really is a kind of privacy when accessing within the comforts of your own room. I could laugh out loud and even do a video conference with Baggy, even if he’s the only one talking, hehe. I forgot to bring the external mic for this laptop, so I couldn’t talk back. I should also have brought a webcam, I realized quite belatedly. Well, this IS the first time for me to be away from the family after a long while.

It’s another cloudy day in Seattle, so I guess I have to postpone visiting the Space Needle (one of the city’s main landmarks) for now. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny, so I think I might be able to take a walk early in the morning and climb up the Space Needle for a bird’s eyeview of the city.

The longer I stay here, the more I don’t regret coming here alone. I mean, if Baggy and Aya came with me, what would they end up doing? Drinking coffee in Starbucks (there’s like a store in every block…hayy sobra.)? There’s really not much else to see. It’s your typical American city. It’s nice and clean, lots of high-rise buildings. I think there’s more to see on the countryside, but for that will entail both time and money. We learned our lesson in Jacksonville.

All for now.

I’ve had apprehensions about traveling alone – something which I haven’t done in a long while – just thinking about hauling my big luggage from the carousel is making my knees weak. When we travel as a family, Baggy takes care of the luggage while I look after Aya. Now, it’s just me, myself and I. I feel like a free woman, that much is true. But then again, I’m not used to being alone anymore.

We did consider going together to Seattle. But Baggy already visited Seattle last May. And according to Baggy, there aren’t really any must-see places in Seattle, unless you’re a fan of the Seattle Mariners. When we inquired about airplane tickets, we balked at the price – almost the same as the price for a trip to Florence. We decided to be practical this time (ok, this is not something we do all the time hehe).

I miss my family. I wish they were here with me. Everything I saw on the airplane reminded me of my family. I saw a girl with her parents, and she was viewing Nemo on her personal A/V system. I thought of how Aya loved doing that. Hours later, I heard the same girl crying out, probably because of being uncomfortable in her seat. Aya does that too, and it could be pretty irksome for a parent trying to catch a few winks on the plane. Irksome, too, for the rest of the passengers. I know the feeling. I felt a mixture of feelings – relief, because I am finally on my own and didn’t have to mind anyone else for a change; and sadness, because inspite of the difficulties of traveling, having your family with you makes it all worthwhile. Sure, you end up exhausted and tired beyond your wits, but exploring new territories is infinitely much more fun and memorable with your family. Take my word for it.

Some anecdotes at the airport:

– There was a bitchy Pinay at the immigration. What made me notice her was her outrageously loud voice, which became particularly louder when she was harrassing, er, interviewing this family of Pinoys. I couldn’t help but notice how bitchy she was when she was asking them questions. I heard her speak in Tagalog once, – “May dala ba kayong mga pagkain???” At one point she asked them how much money they have. I didn’t hear their replies, but she repeated her question again, this time loud enough to be heard by the rest of us standing in line. I didn’t know that asking how much money one brings into the US is part of their procedure – we all have to make declarations on a custom’s questionnaire to be handed over to the appropriate officers on our way out. Anyway, that woman was clearly enjoying her power-tripping, it probably made her day to harrass fellow Pinoys that way. Note that she wasn’t as particularly bitchy when it came to other passengers. When it was my turn, I made it a point to avoid her even if she was already available, and opted to go to another available lane. The gentleman officer was particularly polite and asked me the usual questions – what do I plan to do here, where do I intend to go, standard stuffs. I got off that lane with a feeling that I was properly served and cheerfully welcomed. Now why couldn’t everyone be treated that way? I felt sorry for the Pinoy family – it seems to me that this is their first time to visit the US, and they were treated quite rudely, by a fellow Pinoy nonetheless! Sure, we can’t expect any special treatment from our kababayans, but at the very least we deserve to be treated in a polite manner.

– While waiting for my luggage at the carousel, an officer saw me holding my passport and asked me, “Indonesia?” PILIPINAS is clearly written at the cover of my pasport. Can’t you read? I shook my head and said, “No. Philippines.” He asked, “So, do you have any meats with you? Bagoon?” I shook my head to each question and said, “I came from JAPAN. I don’t live there anymore.” Not to give up so easily, he asked again, “So do you have any curries?” It was all I could do to keep myself from laughing. Ipukpok ko kaya ang poster na dala ko sa kanya para matauhan. Porke ba Pinoy ako I will automatically sneak in forbidden items like that? Gee, thanks a lot for the stereotyping. “Bagoon” – he meant “bagoong,” of course, is particularly infamous among custom officials. This is not the first time for me to be asked if I was carrying any bagoong with me!

Seattle reminds me so much of San Francisco. I could see the bay from my room, and the roads are particularly hilly, I half-expect a cable car to come out of nowhere. Not a particularly bad day outside, too. It was cloudless and sunny outside when arrived. I got to the hotel without much fanfare and checked into my room, after spending more than eighteen hours on the road since I left our house. I was asleep at 4 pm (8 am Japan time), and promptly awoke 8 hours later at 12 midnight. My bioclock is so messed up right now. But I know that I have to adjust to the local time as soon as possible if I am to perform at my peak at the conference.

So there goes my first day. Hope to blog again in the coming days. Ciao for now.

Last month, during the "Umi no Hi" (translated as Ocean Day, I guess hehe), much to everybody’s disappointment, it rained. I doubt if anybody made it to the beach on that day. As for us, we found ourselves hitching a ride to Costco in Makuhari, Chiba. It was the first time for us to visit the place here in Japan, although I did get to visit one of its stores when I was in LA. It was a nice experience. We bought many stuffs, most of them large American sizes, and practically stuffed the van with our goodies (along with our friends’ loot, of course). I was so happy to find a large bag of tortillas and an equally large can of nacho cheese!

Well, among our loot was a preschool workbook for Aya, and interactive software CDs for kids her age. Aya couldn’t wait to try each of the CDs on the computer. The CDs contained learning tasks and games for spelling and Math, video clips, even a software for drawing! The drawing software is soo cool. A some sort of Adobe Photoshop for kids. Aya was able to use the software to create drawings on the computer. Of course, there’s no substitute for drawing on paper, especially for someone her age who’s still exploring her artistic abilities. But it’s a nice introduction to what one can do on the computer. Who knows, maybe in the future Aya will be a computer graphics animator, hehe! 🙂

Here is Aya enjoying her first scribble on the computer.

Not bad for an aspiring artist, eh? This is a closeup of the drawing Aya made.