The round room

Today's post is about the round room. Each of the rooms branches off the main living area, and only the square room has a door. The living space has very few flat spaces to sit down with the baby, so I find myself often sitting down on the lip of the doorway to the round room when I need to tend to the baby quickly.



Before arriving at the Reversible Destiny Lofts I was hoping to use the round room as a play room for the baby, because the incline is similar to his play seat back in Toronto. Now we're here I've realised that because each room is made of concrete it's exceptionally cold inside, and I am reluctant to use any other room for long besides the square room.

The people in the front office kindly put carpets and pillows in the round room to try and warm it up, but even then it's quite cold.



I put Elliott in the round room for a moment this morning to play, and he seemed to enjoy it for a while until we both realised I had forgotten his hat and he started crying from the cold...



I have caught cold, and Grant is coming down with one. Hopefully Elliott won't get one... we'll see! If Shusaku Arakawa were still alive, I would like to ask him, why concrete? Why did you think making everything out of concrete would be a good way for people to live?

Edited to add:

Grant just told me that Madeline Gins is still alive, and was as fully responsible for designing the Reversible Destiny Lofts as Shusaku Arakawa was. I must make my apologies! And Madeline, if you're reading this I'm still curious to know if the concrete was a conscious choice of materials.

Paparazzi

Elliott had a grumpy day today, so this blog post is a short one.

There is a film about the Reversible Destiny Lofts on in Japan at the moment. That means that the lofts are something of a popular local tourist destination lately. Yesterday as I was letting Elliott look out the window (he loves watching the cars go by) a group walked up the entrance path and waved at us as they went by. The film is about children who have lived in the lofts, so I wonder if the group members thought they had just seen one of the stars of the movie!

I'm not sure if there was a formal group that came through the lofts today or not, but as I was nursing Elliott in the square room this afternoon I saw a flash go off out of the corner of my eye. Our square room looks out onto the landing outside, and although there are gauze curtains covering the windows I think people can see in. I'm a little embarrassed to think that somewhere out there someone has a photo of me nursing Elliott in the privacy of our own home! Such is the trade-off of living in a work of art.

Here's the trailer for the movie they're showing in Japan at the moment:
http://www.shinanai-kodomo.com

The floor

We arrived in Japan with five suitcases, not realising that there isn't much storage space in the Reversible Destiny Lofts! As such, I haven't unpacked to my liking and am unwilling to share the state of the place in photos. So! Today's post is about the floor in our main living space.

The floor is made of concrete and has the texture of rough sand to the touch. The floor undulates in little hills, and there are small bumps everywhere. I have discovered that it is easier to walk between the bumps than on top of them, but I still find myself stumbling sometimes. This is particularly freaky when I'm holding the baby!

Because the floor is made of concrete, the entire living space feels cold most of the time, even though we have two air-conditioners, a space heater, and two small heated carpets in there. As such, I spend a lot of time in the square room where it's nice and toasty warm. Sometimes I will be shut in the square room feeding the baby and hear variations of "OW!" coming from outside. Grant is quite clumsy, and often trips, stubs his toe, or twists his ankle on the floor. Shusaku Arakawa wanted people to always have a tentative relationship with their surroundings, and I feel as though he would have been really pleased with how tentative Grant is!

Out and about

I haven't had a chance to put together a post about another room in our Reversible Destiny Loft because we've been so busy out and about introducing Elliott to old friends. So I think this blog will be not only about life in a Reversible Destiny Loft with a baby, but also about life in Japan with a baby. Here goes!

As I posted before, our Canadian-sized stroller is impractical in Japan. Yesterday I took Elliott to Harajuku to meet friends at a pub, and I took him in our Beco carrier. It went well! I needed to feed Elliott while we were there, and ended up just using my nursing cover right at the table. Perhaps because of the wonderful company, it didn't feel awkward at all.



Also perhaps because it was a pub, there wasn't a change table in the bathroom. I ended up laying a change pad on the floor and changing Elliott's nappy there!

This morning we left the house relatively early in order to meet other English-speaking babies at a breastfeeding circle in Shibuya. Again, I ditched the stroller in favour of the Beco:



This seems a good choice, considering that even the barrier-free bus was pretty narrow!



Just in case I ever do want to bring my stroller, there were these helpful instructions on the wall of the bus:



It seems a lot more trouble than it's worth, which might explain why I definitely see more babies in carriers than I do in strollers!

The breastfeeding circle was in a community centre in Shibuya, and the ladies and babies were lovely. Elliott and I were there an hour and a half, so of course he needed to be fed and changed during that time. I was really happy to see another adult-sized change table in the community centre bathroom. My favourite way to nurse Elliott is lying down, so we were able to do that here. I also read the instructions on the change table more carefully, and have solved the mystery of why the change table is adult-sized! It's for people who take care of their elderly relatives and need to change their adult diapers. So clever!



Elliott falls straight to sleep in this position, so it made it very easy for us to then go out for lunch:



As we headed home in the train, I had a chance to mull over some of the subtle changes that have occurred in Japan since I left three years ago. Nowadays, information about stations is available in Korean and Chinese, not just in English:



And Japan is showing signs of the international culture of fear caused by 9/11 and subsequent bombings:



Japan had it's own terrorist scare back in the nineties when a religious group called Aum Shinrikyo was responsible for killing people in a sarin gas attack in the subway. Note that the photo above only talks about bomb scares, however. For some reason we are all supposed to fear fundamentalist Muslim attacks on a daily basis these days!

After getting off the train, we were one bus ride away from home. Elliott decided we wanted to be fed, so we looked around the station for a place to do that. I'd heard about "nursing rooms", and found one that really impressed me. There were two private cubicles with a change table each and a simple chair for nursing in, and in a kitchen area there was a machine for heating bottles in case that was more your thing. There was a line-up starting by the time Elliott had finished eating (he likes to take his time), but people seem accustomed to waiting to use the facilities.








We left this great nursing room and were heading towards the bus when Elliott let it be known that he was still hungry. We were close to a department store, so decided to check out the nursing room there. It was also very nice, although this one didn't have a device to heat bottles. It did have an extra seat in the cubicle though, which was useful for Grant considering we were there an hour and a half as Elliott blew through three changes of clothes!!



I think all the stimulation from meeting many new babies really tuckered my Reversible Destiny Baby out, because he has been asleep since we left the station and it's now five hours since then... Let's hope he hasn't forgotten how to sleep at night!

The square room

I thought I would start by doing a post for each room and explaining how we're using them so far. Today's room is the square room! The square room is the only room with a flat surface. This means that with a baby, it's the room that gets the most use. We use it as our bedroom at night, and as a nursery during the day.

Here's the room as you look in:



The door is strangely the only Japanese thing about the whole apartment...



During the day we fold our futons up so that we have more floor space:



And at night we roll them out to sleep on. They cover almost the entire floor space!



We have a baby-sized futon that I was planning to put Elliott in at night, but at the moment he sleeps on my futon at night. With no crib and space at a premium, we are "attachment parenting" by default!



I hope to use the baby-sized futon for naps during the day, because for now he ends up looking like this:



There is next to no storage in our Reversible Destiny Loft and no free-standing furniture, but in the square room there is a rod hanging from the ceiling that we use to hang clothes on:



Unlike in Canada, there's no space for a change table for the baby, so during the day we keep a waterproof pad laid out for easy nappy changes. At night it's a free-for-all. We're lucky there haven't been any accidents so far!



The carpet you see in the above photo is a "hot carpet", which means when it's turned on the whole floor is toasty warm. This is good, considering there isn't central heating in our loft! We've been keeping the carpet turned on at night to keep us warm.

So there you have it! The square room!

Everyday activities (1)

We are slowly setting up house in our Reversible Destiny Loft. We're so new to our life here that it's hard not to compare things to life in Toronto. It's very cold without central heating... I miss putting Elliott down in just a receiving blanket, and having easy access to his nappy when we only had to dress him in one layer! Elliott wears three layers in the loft, and I am testing out swaddling him in a thick blanket for naps:



Our apartment in Toronto was about as big as our loft in Tokyo, but unlike Toronto we don't have space for the usual baby paraphernalia here. Instead of a change table I keep a waterproof pad set up in our bedroom here, with supplies on hand. Poor Elliott really hates it when I dab him with frozen Vaseline with my frozen fingers! Such wailing!! I wonder if I will ever see him giggle and play as he used to when I changed his nappy at home...



We ventured out with Elliott this afternoon. We went in our usual manner, with Elliott tucked up in his stroller. Even a short walk to get lunch at McDonald's and to the supermarket for supplies made me realise that our Canadian-sized stroller will not work in Tokyo-sized spaces! We took up too much room at our table in McDonald's, and although the air-filled tires on our stroller are great for pushing through snow-filled streets in Toronto they are not great for pushing through narrow aisles in the supermarket in Tokyo. I noticed a lot of babies in carriers rather than in strollers while we were out, and I think I will try the same from now on.

Travelling

We started our day at 5am on Monday. All went very smoothly, and Elliott slept the whole way in the taxi to the airport. He woke up for a quick feed at Starbucks (I'm pretty sure he knows what Starbucks smells like!) and then we went through customs to the waiting area. Customs was a little irritating, as everyone knows. I was asked to take Elliott out of the carseat even though he was napping. Evil glares at the customs officer made no difference to the situation!

Once we got to our gate, we discovered that our flight had been delayed an hour. Never mind, I thought, this is Air Canada. There were sure to be delays. Soon after that, we were told the flight would be delayed another three hours. Screw you Air Canada, I thought. Don't you know I'm travelling with a baby?!

The wait passed somewhat uneventfully, aside from the fact that both mummy and baby needed multiple changes of clothing. Then it was time to board! Grant stood in awe as I politely pushed past all the people who thought that "Those boarding with small children" meant they didn't need a child in arms to start lining up! When we got on the plane there was more polite persuading as I managed to ask several people to move seats so that I could have access to a bassinet for Elliott. Considering we had discount tickets I was way overstepping my mark, but I dreaded the thought of not having a place to put the baby down for 13 hours so I wanted my bassinet, dammit!

The bassinet was interesting. Here's a photo of the width of it:



And of Elliott sleeping in it:



Elliott slept for most of the flight. He seemed to have a sixth sense about when the meal cart was coming, and conveniently fell asleep in the bassinet just before our food arrived every time. He's such a kind baby! I had time to finish a two hour movie during the 13 hour flight, and it was such a refreshing feeling to have seen one of the latest Hollywood movies! Elliott watched a bit of TV at one point too. It wasn't his favourite TV show Jeopardy, but apparently it was still fun!



Then we were in Tokyo! I needed to change and feed Elliott before we left the airport to drive to the Reversible Destiny Lofts, so I went in search of a place to do that. I found a family-sized bathroom in the ladies toilets, and wonder of wonders there was an adult-sized bed as the change table! According to the wonderful friend who came to pick us up from the airport that is not the norm, but I was so glad of a comfortable spot to nurse Elliott after such a long flight. Even if it was in a toilet!



Elliott slept the whole car ride to the Reversible Destiny Lofts, and also gave us a chance to rest most of the night before popping awake right at his usual Jeopardy time!