We have arrived

So we made it to Tokyo.  Jetlag has not been so bad.  The first 3 nights Rowan would knock out at 5:30 and wake up by 4am, but now we have her back on schedule and she is going to bed at 8pm and gets up around 6:30 or so.  

We got here on a Friday afternoon and Jason did not have to teach that weekend and the studio he teaches at in the mornings was closed on Monday – so basically we had a nice long weekend to just hang out and get settled in.  We have done a lot of walking around – thanks Nicole for the use of the stroller because I can’t imagine doing as much getting around as we’ve done without it!.  Once again I can’t stress enough the use of a sturdy umbrella stroller when traveling with small children.  Although Rowan does do quite a bit of walking on her own and in those instances the stroller sort of becomes like a pack horse for us.  Today it carried both mine and Jason’s bags, yoga mats, sundry food items we had picked up on the way, and jackets.  Nice.

Japan – clean, orderly, quite.  India is an assault of the auditory and olfactory senses.  Japan is an assault of the visual senses.  Lots to look at and see.  One thing that has surprised me is the lack of attention to Rowan.  In India we can’t walk two feet without people touching her, talking to her, picking her up and walking off with her to show their friends or family.  But here people almost go out of their way to ignore her on the streets.  However, she has been going to the yoga studio with me the past few days and the students there have been really great with her.  She is a real trooper – she gets up very early with us, makes the trek down there and then amuses herself for 2 hours while I do yoga (okay I do bring a laptop with a movie and she has toys and stuff, but still she keeps herself busy).  

What else?   I like the neighborhood that Tarik lives in which is where we are staying.  We get out and walk around a lot every day.  We go to the market to get groceries for the evening meal and their is a small playground across the street from his house that Rowan likes.  She LOVES the uniforms that the kids have to wear to school here and has been BEGGING me and Jason to send her to a school that has uniforms.  If only she knew…

The yoga has been great so far.  Rowan started school this year so it has been challenging for my practice to find times to do it around her schedule and then there was that whole injury thing that wrecked half my year but it has been really nice to practice every morning in the studio with everybody.  There is a really nice energy and it gets freakin’ hot and sweaty in there.  Eka Pada Sirsasana is back!  I’m not pushing Dwi Pada though.  Patience is a virtue, right?  My brother arrives tomorrow and since he will be my personal babysitter while he is here I can leave Rowan at home to sleep in and take a leisurely practice if I want

Well, I will leave you with some pictures I have taken so far.  Most are of the family tooling around the hood – I like the one of Rowan standing with Colonel Sanders which means that, yes, there is KFC here.