Ojiichan

Yesterday afternoon Kaia’s ojiichan (grandfather) arrive from Japan. He’ll be staying with us for about 10 days and I’m looking forward to Kaia getting a bit more Japanese language stimulation. Of course, ojiichan was very popular upon his arrival as it was well known that he would be bringing a large collection of recently ordered Japanese books, Japanese snacks and other goodies that you can only find in Nihon. It was actually quite funny (and interesting) to watch Kaia look through his new Japanese books and refuse that anyone read them to him, except for his mama. You see, English books are ‘papa’s books’ and Japanese books are ‘mama’s’. Being in India has meant that we have been able to amass quite a few English titles at very low prices (if not lacking in binding quality), but nothing in Japanese. So, not since last summer, when we were in Japan for a few weeks, has he been able to get new and more age appropriate books. Anyway, now ojiichan is here and already working with Kaia on his kana recognition. Ganbatte little bear!

Why I Love this Time: For the first time today he urinated standing up—in typical Indian fashion, on the side of the road. It was very funny because all he would say is “like a man” which you might think meant that he associated peeing standing up with being grown up, but is actually because you tend to see dozens of folks within any given ½ mile stretch doing their business on a wall, in a ditch or just out in the open. So, “like a man” really means being like the folks (from all classes) he sees when we’re walking or driving around!