Snowstorm in the Kitchen

As a kind of post script to the last post, I would like to offer some advice.

The baking continues today in my house, with "help" from Mairi, resplendent in the blue apron made for my 3 year-old self many moons ago. I had no time to take pictures, due to the emergency nature of the incident, but believe me when I advise you: never leave a two year old quietly playing near an open bag of flour. Even if she has never before shown the least interest in flour. Even if you can see her back profile completely the entire time you're washing those dishes, and you think she is just making cute little cookie shapes with the cutters and the dough you safely allotted her.

Never ever.

Another Day in the Life

Got up and sent the princess to nursery on the train bus, geared up for a whole morning to do with what I would. Christmas is coming and there are geese waiting to get fat on my baking, so that was the first thing on the agenda.
Christmas muffins for M's nursery teachers, and just to be nice, a box of biscuits for the kids - all 50 of them! The first batch of muffins were made yesterday, but due to a lack of other viable breakfast materials in our house (not an entirely unusual thing) half of them were gone, so a top up was necessary. The cookie dough was also chilling in the fridge, ready to be cut into Christmas trees and stars and baked to a perfection that would melt the hearts of all my little charges in the nursery class, and prove , once and for all that I am indeed the best teacher in the world.
Or that was the plan. Up to the Martha-esque popping in the oven of neat rows of trees, all went well. What popped out, however, was a large oily map-of-the-world-before-the-tectonic-plates-moved-apart mess. Failure number one.

Not to worry, there were still the stars. In they popped.
In the meantime I thought I would update Mairi's blog while I had a spare minute. Or 45, as the server doesn't acccept full res photos and you have to downsize them yourself. Plus the typing in Japanese and English. After all this time, finally satisfied with my wit for the day, I hit "publish", to get a message saying "Server is extremely busy, please try again later" . On clicking back, I discovered my carefully crafted words and pictures had all disappeared and gone to cyber heaven. Number two.
Checked the oven. Despite having made these biscuits from a well tested recipe in exactly the same way to rapturous reception before, the stars too are a big oily mess. Number 3. Now I'm starting to get annoyed with my morning.
Oh well, the kids get bugger all and I'm still a big scary gaijin teacher. But I've already got half a portion of muffins that will go to waste if I don't hand them over, so I better tempt fate and make the apple muffins. All looks fandabbydozy. We may still salvage the day.

While muffins are sending lovely cinammon aromas through the house as they bake, I remembered I had to hang out some washing, which had been lying on the top of the washing machine for a day already and would likey go mouldy if required to wait any longer for fresh air. Quick check out of the window. Good - blue sky! Half the T-shirts are neatly pegged on the line, when it starts to snow! Beginning to suspect a conspiracy against my day now.
Back in the house - you guessed it - muffins have sunk. It's only 12:30 and we've had 5 torpedoes into my good mood. I should have called it quits and gone to bed then.

But no, the princess needed picking up. Number 6: After leaving the salvaged and prettily packed muffins on teh counter in the front hall, I had to return to get them and was 15 minutes late picking Mairi up.
M very girny in the car, methinks over-tired and refusing to nap! Lovely. After a few wails and a bout of Barney, she falls asleep however. Safe for a couple of hours, I thought, but then I heard a crash. Gale force winds appeared to have blown my laundry poles off their concrete stands and my washing into the garden. Lucky 7!

Precisely 30 minutes into her nap, M wakes up, still crying uncharacteristically. She's had a snotty nose for a couple of days, but no other symptoms. Oh oh! Thermometer whooshes into view. Nope, temperature completely normal, but by now she's shouting "No Doctor" " I haven't got any sore bits!" which is very suspicious indeed. After a lot of cajoling and reassuring, I get her to admit that she has a sore ear, and promptly reward her honesty with a trip to the dreaded ENT clinic, thus dashing my Best Mummy of the Year Award hopes. So spent the afternoon there with other sick people being infected with God knows what, to find out that Mairi does indeed have a midddle ear infection, the probably imminent pain of which is most likely to keep me up all night, as well as make her a poor wee soul. And we don't even know yet, that the primary infection causing the runny nose that begat the ear infection is just a cold . Might turn into something nice and feverish yet, you never know.

And if that all that isn't enough, my pc just crashed in the middle of typing all this and I had to start again.

What a magic day!

Airi Kinoshita Rest in Peace

Last week a little girl, aged 7, called Airi, was found strangled and dumped in a cardboard box in Hiroshima city, less than 10Km from where I used to live. Everyone who heard the news, whether living in Hiroshima or elsewhere, was left incredulous. None of us want to believe that murder happens on our doorstep at all, and when it's a 7 year old on her way home from school, reactions are emotional and extreme. I know how I feel: when I type her name, it's Mairi without the M. God alone knows how her family will cope. If you read Japanese, look at her father's statement to the press here, before the killer's identity was even suspected. It had me in tears imagining a precious life so unfairly snuffed out. Nothing anyone can say, far less me, can lessen their horror in any way.

By far my most prominent reaction to this news is utter horror that this kind of thing happens anywhere. I'm totally unreligious, but Airi -chan, when I think of you, I hope there is something like heaven and that you're there.

Now why am I writing this here?

The man who did this has been caught and has admitted the crime. It has caused a certain amount of "discussion" in the foreign community here, because the monster happens to be Peruvian. A couple of my good friends have posted on their blogs on the subject too. JJ, tackling it in a practical way, addresses the issue that affects us most: what we can do to protect our own kids, here at Hiroshima Oyako. She asked me to comment, but I had to take a while to gather my thoughts.
I obviously agree with your sentiments, JJ: we have to take a collective responsibity as adults for our own children as well as other children we encounter who might be in danger. This is a hard one though. One thing you learn when bringing up a child is that common sense is anything but common. What to some is an utter no-no, is to others the natural way of doing things, and because someone does things differently from you doesn't necessarily mean that they haven't thought about it much. Where to draw the line with approaching strange situations, however well intentioned, is such a hard call. (Obviously the airgun one is a no-brainer though.) I have attracted dirty and strange looks for commenting on the behaviour of and towards children not my own outside too.
" Scary" is also in the eye of the beholder. On another tack, I was thinking, trying to empathise with the kids; particularly, but not exclusively, our "international" kids. You always wonder how these things can happen in broad daylight. We tell them not to speak to strangers, but at the same time encourage them to be polite, and answer people's greetings, however wary they are. In our "foreign" cases, we tell them not to speak or go with strangers, but them drag them half way round the world and encourage them to be nice to our relatives and old friends, most of whom, to them, are practically strangers. Kids, however cute, are seldom stupid about these things, and there must come a scary point , possibly even about Airi's age, when these kind of contradictory statements by adults get confusing. From an adult perspective the differences are clear, but it's got to be confusing for kids.
So is it pointless to try and teach them, thereby scaring them more sometimes ( like in Felix's case) ? Of course not, confused and a little bit scared, but healthily suspicious and prepared, is better than attacked or dead.
In fact I think children's literature and entertainment has become too polarised these days. The bad guys never meet grisly ends like in the old days, when good and evil were clear. We are all taught to embrace each other's differences and think of the mitigating reasons why illdoers felt the need to commit the crimes. The villains invariably see the error of their ways and become friends with everyone in the end. This "no-one is really just "bad" " attitude concerns me. Especially here in Japan, I feel that young kids are cushioned in a superficially cute world, which belies the reality which eventually hits them in the face with no warning. The other extreme is the meaningless kick and punch" Magi Ranger" type violence where kids are given no clear message. The good guys kick and punch with the rest of them, but they are "cooler" so that's OK. ???? I don't think what happens on TV is necessarily the ultimate influencing factor in our children's mindsets either, but it's another thing to throw into the mix.

Whether or not this murder, or the next incident, has us ferrying our children to and from school personally indefintely , and trying to protect their every moment; or whether we settle again into a false sense of security when the news has been forgotten by everyone but Airi's family; the bottom line that we must face is that there are insane bastards out there whose behaviour can never be predicted, and the only way to cope with that is to assume" it won't happen to me or mine". What bothers me here, is that it is (logically only) implicit in our cathartic discussion, that in some way Airi-chan herself, or her parents, or her teachers, or her friends, or anyone who cared for her, was somehow at fault in this for not being careful or suspicious enough. Which is an absolutely disgusting thing to suggest. The only one at fault was the bastard who did it. I think that's why it took me so long to comment.
Don't misunderstand JJ, I'm not critising your thoughts, I know that's not your intention. What you say is right and almost goes without saying. My hesitation came from the fact that my next reaction after horror and sympathy for the girl and her family, was dismay that the monster who did this turned out to be non-Japanese; rather than worrying about how to protect Mairi more. I think we all strive as parents to do that anyway. And this news will only serve to sharpen our instincts.

SO, now on to the gaijin issue. Before you get your knickers in a twist, Maethelwine, if you've got this far, I agree with the essence of what you say. ( What Maethelwine says is here, btw) . The main point here is that nationality aside, a tragedy and unspeakable injustice has occurred.
However, I disagree if you believe that race is not an issue. It would be an issue in any country, just as , as you say, the race of the perpetrator of such a crime would be quoted on the first line of the top page of every article about a similar case anywhere. But just because Japan's racism is not unique does not mean it shouldn't be up for discussion. The "Shut up and go home, if you don't like it" attitude has always annoyed me. Injustice should always be up for constructive discussion.
The examples you cite are indeed specific cases of idiots or at best people who have let passion cloud their expression, shall we say. Now that we know he did it, with evidence, the discussion is indeed moot. Boiling him in oil is too good for him. And yes, job swiftly well done to the police.
But I heard the news when they first arrested him, and, not much evidence was explained. And full confessions are famously and suspiciously frequent here. The "baying" of the gaijin, may not necessarily be based on ignorance of the present case, but skepticism based on prior experience. . Perhaps you have been lucky, and have only experienced mild irritation from your kokusai experiences. Perhaps they were "baying" out of concern for a (at the time) possibly innocent man . If he had been, and no-one spoke up for him that would have been unforgivable too wouldn't it? My past experience gives me the impression, that there is more "tarring with the same brush" in Japan than in my experience of my own culture, and that there are consequences for the other members of the same group (any group, but also foreigners) when one asshole commits a sin. Personal responsiblity is not the biggest thing here.
Therefore a racially prejudiced rush to arrest was not completely outwith the realms of possibility. I preferred to wait for the evidence to come out before shouting about it, but can't say it didn't cross my mind at the presentation of the news. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Having said that, I didn't read all of whatever caused you to be upset either. Anyway, this digression is all just a reaction to what you wrote. The point?
My dismay at the news of his gaijinness was not based on any presumption of innocence on Yagi's part. Rather, knowing the Japanese ( yes, yes, not ALL Japanese!) tendency to label and lump members of groups together, I worry for the other hard-working innocent Peruvians, Brasilians, Filipinos and others who will no doubt feel the repercussions of this monster's handiwork. The deepened sense of mistrust that will (somewhat understandably even) no doubt be born from this, will make their lives less comfortable at best, and at worst result in failure to procure work , business ties being starined, etc etc. I won't go so far as to say that it's institutionalised, but I have personally witnessed the difference in treatment by Japanese, even at the immigration offices, and in two prefectures, one very rural, one not so rural, dished out to white North American and European gaijin on the one hand, and South American, Chinese, Korean and Filipino ones on the other.This ranges from just basic lack of manners, to treating them with suspicion and assuming stupidity, so who knows what concrete forms the discrimination may also take. I was surprised to witness this, as I have, believe it or not always liked to assume the best first, but 15 years here have given me ample opportunity to see that it is not all just "whining" ( however abundant that commodity may also be). They don't get the same treatment as we do, and sometimes even we have legitimate moans too.

I have been lucky to meet wonderful Japanese friends and people ( or I would have shut up and gone home a long time ago), both in Miyazaki and here, and Maethelwine, we have both been lucky to live in the relatively internationally tolerant and friendly city of Hiroshima. I hope that tolerance bears up in the light of recent events.

I agree that everything should be judged on its merits, and race shouldn't be a factor here. But that doesn't mean it won't be. And that makes me sad.