Contraction interval when delivering Merisa

These were noted on the 8th of January 2011.

08.10am        15seconds
08.15am        15seconds
08.22am        22seconds
08.29am        19seconds
08.35am        19seconds
08.42am        32seconds
09.00am        30seconds
09.09am        24seconds
09.27am        35seconds
09.46am        35seconds
10.03am        38seconds
10.13am        21seconds
10.30am        30seconds
10.40am        32seconds
11.13am        30seconds
11.25am        34seconds
11.35am        20seconds
12.05pm        32seconds
12.24pm        42seconds
12.34pm        10seconds
12.42pm        31seconds
01.00pm        14seconds
01.05pm        25seconds
01.55pm        34seconds
02.18pm        19seconds
02.21pm        16seconds
02.36pm        32seconds
02.51pm        24seconds
02.59pm        26seconds
03.28pm        30seconds
03.41pm        24seconds

04.02pm        45seconds
04.25pm        45seconds
04.48pm        43seconds
05.25pm        20seconds
05.50pm        43seconds
06.30pm        35seconds
06.51pm        32seconds
07.21pm        40seconds
07.29pm        39seconds
07.46pm        49seconds
08.03pm        38seconds
08.29pm        45seconds
08.57pm        48seconds
09.12pm        48seconds
09.25pm        36seconds
09.33pm        51seconds
09.44pm        41seconds
09.51pm        30seconds
09.55pm        33seconds
10.00pm        27seconds
10.02pm        30seconds

We were told to only come to the hospital when the contractions are 10 minutes apart and lasted for 30 to 40 seconds.

We went to the hospital at 10.30pm. And Merisa was born at 4am, 9th of January 2011 :)

Japanese mattress sizes

We've recently moved into a new apartment and being one with sinus and 花粉症 (かふんしょう, pollen allergies), I insist we sleep on beds rather than on futons on the floor.
Bed/matress/futon sizes in Japan normally comes in 3 sizes:

• Single (S): 150x210cm
• Semi double (SD): 170x210cm
• Double (D): 190x210cm

When you have 2 small children co-bedding with you, it is highly recommendable that you get an SD plus an S size bed/mattress/futon. With the limited space you have in Japanese apartment, this would be the ideal combination instead getting 2 doubles (too big) or 2 singles (not enough room for 4 people)

On another note, the common size for baby futons is 70 x 120 x 6cm and play yard mat is 64 x 96 x 4cm.

Getting free stuff in Japan

When living in a developed country.. or put correctly, a country with huge population... you MUST take advantage of the marketing effort of various companies giving out free samples to potential customers. Apart from the common pocket tissues and clear files distributed in crowded areas, you might want to check out sites like samplefan.com where they compiled information on what's currently being given out for free. Some does require your time to fill out questionnaires or become a member of their community site, but that's such a small matter when they are giving out 2000yen coupon in return.

Another way to get free stuff is buy buying magazines. Japanese women's magazine often give out branded small bags etc. and you're only paying 600yen for it.

Ebooks in Japan

Japanese are the best copycats. They would take the basic idea from other people and develop them to a whole new level until they owned the industry all together. Best example would be automobiles. But I am more interested in their new passion for ebooks. My husband bought me an Amazon Kindle last year but looking at the choices of ebooks available now in Japan, my Kindle is almost useless. Kindle can only read books in its format or pdf, while the trend of ebooks now are more interactive and colorful to a point that they are publishing children's picture books in digital format now. Platforms to be used for these ebooks are smartphones,PC and the latest favourite, tablets such as iPad, Galaxy tab etc.

And have you seen this?



It costs less than 3000yen, which I think is very reasonable. You can get them at Yodobashi Camera outlets at the magazine/books section

Japanese habit of writing everything down

One of the things that made living in Japan very troublesome/irritating is that they loooove to record stuff. Every activities must be followed by writing down your feelings about what you did/learned. I guess that's what made them good scientists but seriously, do we really need to keep the record of the exact day and date your child's tooth came out.. for EVERY tooth. The first week after giving birth to Merisa, the nurses made sure I keep records of how many times my child peed and pooped and at exactly what time.

Starbucks Sakura Cream Frappucino

My son loves it so much, he could finish one whole Grande size of it. Then he'd become hyper from all the sugar and can't stop talking :p The barista recommended their Sakura cheesecake as well but I hated it. It tasted like creamed fish.Wekk!