Category Archives: Japan: Life
Everyday life in Japan
Getting Pregnant in Japan – Part Six: Finding a Baby-Friendly Hospital (BFH)
Breast feeding at a Baby-Friendly Hospital in Japan
Has your wife already chosen her Obstetrics & Gynecology (Ob/Gy) Doctor in Japan? Have you met him? (I use “him” as unfortunately the vast majority of Ob/Gy’s in Japan are males) Did you go along to help scrutinize him? Call me paranoid but we went and interviewed 4 different doctors before we decided on who we wanted to deliver our baby. It’s astounding how different one Doc’s perspective can be to the next.
This is the sixth installment in a series about my personal experience of being pregnant in Japan (or perhaps I should say, of my Japanese wife being pregnant). I decided to start writing this series when I realized that there must be a significantly large population of gaijin dad’s out there who are making all of the mistakes that I have and wished there was a bank of information somewhere to save them some of the pain. In that respect, this installment Continue reading Getting Pregnant in Japan – Part Six: Finding a Baby-Friendly Hospital (BFH)
Getting Pregnant in Japan – Part Five: Something Fishy About Mercury Levels?
The “Mercury Food Chain” – From the ocean to your baby
Everyone knows that pregnant women should avoid fish and definitely shouldn’t eat raw fish… right? Or at least I thought that was “a given” until I started discussing what my wife and I might eat on our next date in the big smoke. Well, it turned out that we were to have sushi and that I had no say in the matter.
There is no better topic than pregnancy for old wives tales to prevail and the list of different foods that you can and can’t eat seems to be not only the longest, but the most contentious when it comes to the cross-border battle of who’s “common sense” was to prevail. While it is hard to prove most wives tales either right or wrong, but I assumed that something as important as food must have a “right” answer. Continue reading Getting Pregnant in Japan – Part Five: Something Fishy About Mercury Levels?
HIV Awareness in Japan: Things are still not changing
HIV Awareness in Japan:
Has anything changed?
Thus far, we have two articles about HIV and AIDS in Japan on stippy.com (the first and the second). Another year has passed since we last touched on this issue, but a recent episode in my own life drove home that things still are really not changing fast enough with regard to the blurry awareness of HIV/AIDS in Japan, and the studied nonchalance of the Japanese people whenever the topic arises.
In Japan, everyone knows the word AIDS, but still very little is known *about* HIV or AIDS by the general public. This giant disparity of awareness was brought clearly to my attention one day after overhearing the following conversation between a physical education teacher and a young math teacher in her early twenties in my office (I work in a Japanese School) Continue reading HIV Awareness in Japan: Things are still not changing
Getting Pregnant in Japan – Part Four: Do Japanese Mums need less Calcium?
Call me paranoid, but I’m really worried about what my wife eats these days. This is the fourth installment in a series about my personal experience of being pregnant in Japan (or perhaps I should say, of my wife being pregnant). Although I hope that some of the observations have value for gaijin of both sexes, I’m intentionally writing this series from my own perspective – a Gaijin Father / Japanese Mother. There is no topic better than pregnancy for old wives tales to prevail and it seems that the topic of food – what you can, can’t or shouldn’t eat – really takes the cake when it comes to misconceptions in not only Japan but every country in the world. Especially when it comes to Continue reading Getting Pregnant in Japan – Part Four: Do Japanese Mums need less Calcium?
Getting Pregnant in Japan – Part Three: Handy Internet Bookmarks
This is the third installment in a series about my personal experience of being pregnant in Japan (or perhaps I should say, of my wife being pregnant). Although I hope that some of the observations have value for gaijin of both sexes, I’m intentionally writing this series from my own perspective – a Gaijin Father / Japanese Mother. There is no topic better than pregnancy for old wives tales to prevail and I’ve been amazed by the seemingly endless views about pregnancy that differ between Japan and the West (where I’m from). While it is hard to argue that either view is right or wrong, I personally would have loved to have had a resource that taught me about both sides of the fence- hopes, expectations, taboo, you name it. That is the purpose of this series.
In the second installment I talked about my favorite reference books. I had hoped for a more balanced view of the world by buying a bunch of books on Amazon. I realized after about my 6th book that ironically I was getting a biased view of the world in a way that I had completely unexpected. Continue reading Getting Pregnant in Japan – Part Three: Handy Internet Bookmarks
Getting Pregnant in Japan – Part Two: Which baby books to buy, and in which language?
This is the second installment (find the first here) in a series about my personal experience of being pregnant in Japan (or perhaps I should say, of my wife being pregnant). Although I hope that some of the observations have value for gaijin of both sexes, I’m intentionally writing this series from my own perspective – a Gaijin Father / Japanese Mother. There is no topic better than pregnancy for old wives tales to prevail, and I’ve been amazed by the seemingly endless views about pregnancy that differ between Japan and the West (where I’m from). While it is hard to argue that Continue reading Getting Pregnant in Japan – Part Two: Which baby books to buy, and in which language?
Getting Pregnant in Japan – Part One: Becoming a Gaijin Daddy in Your Home Away From Home
I’ve got something in common with Leslie Nielsen. While I’m pretty sure that I wouldn’t look as good as him in a full nude photograph, the photo does give you a hint. I, too, am pregnant (well.. actually, my wife is!).
Getting pregnant with our first baby was a huge change for our household. Only a few months into our marriage, and just learning the ins and outs of what it means to have an international marriage, a whole new perspective showed its face when we found out that my wife was pregnant. Marriage is all about finding common ground when you both have differing opinions and there is no topic better than children to bring out the best (and worst) of Continue reading Getting Pregnant in Japan – Part One: Becoming a Gaijin Daddy in Your Home Away From Home
Summertime Blues for Civil Servants
One of the things I have always loved about Japan were the warm summer evenings. Sitting on the bank of the Kamogawa in Kyoto at 10pm, at 30 degrees in short and t-shirt, sipping on a cold Heartland, and deciding who was going to wade into the middle of the river to do sumo against the other blokes was one of my favourite pastimes. That was when I was a student, and unfortunately those days have gone.
One thing I often wondered about however, has not changed – why doesn’t Japan have daylight saving time (DST), or “summer time”? Continue reading Summertime Blues for Civil Servants
Living in Japan: Utopia compared with the UK
With our poem about Leaving Japan, we had quite a few comments from readers who previously lived – or currently live – in Japan, and what they love or hated about the place. In fact, some of the comments were longer than the article as many people expressed reasons for their deep attachments with Japan and its residents, even while they are aware of the fact that they will never melt in to their surrounds, remaining eternally gaijin. Just what is it that keeps us here? Continue reading Living in Japan: Utopia compared with the UK