Life Goes On

I was surprised at how much manual labor is involved in implanting a port. The surgeon had to tug fairly hard to make a space for the resevoir portion of the device and then carefully push the catheter part into the vein. I saw why it took longer than expect when I saw the x-ray confirming placement; those catheters are quite long. I didn't feel a thing thanks to the local anesthesia, but I wasn't surprised that I had a sore should the next day. I was told to keep the bandage on until Tuesday, when I go for treatment, and that showering and bathing were not a problem. The bandage kept moisture out and would have worked fine if I'd stayed home and relaxed in the airconditioned living room all week.

Did I relax at home? Of course not! I got back from my overnight stay in the NCC spa around lunchtime on Wednesday and took the kids out to karaoke for two hours before meeting S at a cheap Chinese restaraunt for lunch. The private airconditioned karaoke room and the cool Chinese restaraunt were fine and I was glad to have no dishes to wash. The area under the bandage stung a little but was fine after a shower and a good night's worth of sleep.

J and I left M in charge of the younger two with food for breakfast and lunch and went to an open house at one of the better public senior high schools on Friday. She'll be taking tests to be accepted to a high school so we're checking out as many possibilities as we can to decide where she wants to try for. This school look really great; a good blend of academics and other character building challenging yet fun events. This will be the first time in her life when she can be surrounded by similarly talented students with like interests. She manages well now in spite of the riff-raff, but I expect that this is due to the training she's had at home in concentrating among the chaos created by her siblings.

We finished our tour around noon and I mentioned to J that Mrs. Y lived on the other side of one of the nearby stations. We decided to call and see if we could meet for an impromptu cup of tea. Mrs. Y said that she had plans downtown but could meet us so we walked on to her station and she caught a bus. We coordinated by e-mail messaging on our cell phones and she suggested we wait in the cool bookstore near the station. We browsed for a while and were very pleasantly surprised when she showed up with her daughter M. M and her husband have been in Colorado with his job for the past few years and I haven't seen her in a very long time.

They changed their plans and the four of us enjoyed a delicious lunch in a new Italian restaraunt near their station. J had a wonderful time at our leisurely ladies' lunch and we head home in a good mood, arriving around 4 p.m., a little later than our estimated "lunch-time" frame we had given M but apparently the younger two had slept until about lunchtime anyway and there had been no problems.

All that walking and talking in the heat did a number on the bandage and it peeled off on its own from the sweat to reveal four neat but still yucky black stitches and a fairly neat and well healing incision. I washed and applied iodine and let it air dry for a while before covering it with a non-stick bandage from our first-aid box. I expect the tugging sensation to go away after the stitches come out.

RePORT

I got a bed in a quad with a spectacular view and no room mates.The TV runs on prepaid cards and also has an internet connection with a doohinky "ring scroll mouse" I can use to click on a cyber keyboard to type excruciatingly slowly.

I had a quiet day and my port went in smoothly. My neighbor came by with a friend of hers to sit and talk for while.

More details when I have a real keyboard.

Hmmmmm and Wow!

Dr. F showed me the CT scan results from last week. The good news is that the cancer has not spread anywhere outside of my lungs. The not bad but still not great news is that the lung tumors are still slowly growing. I've only had the Xeloda oral chemo and Herceptin IV combination for two months, so the next scan, in October, will be the decision maker. I'll probably stop Xeloda then and go on to a IV chemotherapy drug called Navelbine. I haven't had any trouble with Xeloda side effects at any rate.

Tuesday I go in to have a portacath surgically inserted to a vein on my chest to facilitate the weekly IVs. No more poking and prodding search and destroy every week. In the U.S., this procedure is an outpatient one, in and out in a few hours. Here they keep people overnight. The kids have a few things they can cook and eat and there is a large variety of inexpensive take-out food nearby so I know I can relax during my night away.

A few months ago one of the domestic phone/media companies was offering 1,000 yen gift cards to people who responded to a survey. Women in an online group here requested that their gift card amount be offered as a contribution to help me with my medical costs. Last week 52,000 yen was sent to my account. I was awed by the support and am very thankful to know these women, some in person, most only in cyberspace.

A Nine Year Old

L made a Monster Cake for his birthday. It was actually banana chocolate chip bread, baked in the stainless steel mixing bowl per his instructions to achieve the pot-belly he needed. It was good enough that it didn't need frosting or whipped cream so he used sweet straight pretzels (Pocky Brand) to stick it all together. Friends from downstairs came over and were duly impressed by the obviously home-made cake.

We celebrated the birthday a day early by going to see the new Miyazaki animation "Ponyo" on Tuesday evening. Cute and simple movie with a catchy tune. "Alright already! Stop singing it over and over again!"

I sure showed 'em!

A neighbor gave us some free tickets to Yomiuriland's waterpark so I
took three of the kids yesterday (the other one went off to a track
meet). Most Japanese pools are only slightly deeper than my waist, in
case people can't swim (and so many people never do learn to swim!),
and my kids and their friends never have any chances to actually jump
or dive into the water. This pool had a 5 meter deep diving pool
though, with some low diving boards and a platform about as high as
the old low diving board I remember at our local pool when I was a
kid.

People were enjoying taking turns timidly dropping off straight down
into the deep water and building confidence to actually try jumping
or diving. A few fathers (the moms probably didn't want to risk
wrecking their make-up by getting their faces wet) made everybody
(about 70 people standing around watching and or waiting for their
turn) laugh making huge splashes belly flopping off the 2 meter high
platform. The lifeguards supervised well and made sure that each
diver was out of the pool before they let the next person jump.

My daughter N challenged me to go off the platform so I stood in line and waited for a turn. The lower diving boards had shorter lines so I was able to see N and her big sister J jump a few times while I waited. When my turn finally came, the crowd seemed suddenly silent. What was this fat, white haired, foreign grandmotherly person doing up there on the platform in her bright blue swimsuit? N was smirking in anticipation of a big splash.

Did I walk and stand at the edge and drop off feet first? No, I took
two quick but firm steps and a jump and propelled myself up and over
half the pool, flying through the summer sky in a perfect swan dive
(my first in several decades). I heard a big collective "oooooh!" as
I glided splashlessly into the cool, deep pool.

Boy did I show them! :-) The amazed look on N's face was precious.
I think that this makes up for my dismal performance velcro-wall
jumping earlier this year (which she did enjoy though).

Shave and a Haircut Five Cents

Well, a little more than five cents...more like 3,000 yen, but still a good deal.

I'm noticing that as estrogen levels are down (the chemo seems to
have stopped the menses this time around), my hair (now that it's
grown back) is nowhere near as thick as it used to be yet is
prolifically growing in unnecessary places. Of course half of the usual volume is still more than most people, but my hair line is a little farther north than I seem to remember and a few stray eyebrow hairs showed up farther south (on my chin!) and I had a peach fuzz lion cub face that didn't feel too sexy.

I finally decided to do something about the pelt on my head so I went
to the local barber shop today and got a very short haircut to shape
and control things a bit and I also had them shave my face for an
adventure (included in the cheap haircut). The haircut took about 4
minutes but the shave was a 20 minute mini-spa for the rest of my
head.

This guy caressed my face with his straight razor so thoroughly that I'm surprised I still have my recently regrown eyebrows (they're slightly more precisely shaped than before). He even did the bridge between my nostrils, my eyelids, the bags under my eyes and my ears. Then he massaged my face, head, neck and shoulders. I kept thinking of Sweeney Todd as I submitted myself to the barber's blade. Thoroughly chilling...which was good as today was meltingly hot.

Cyborg

I enjoyed breakfast with my neighbor at the Cancer Center this morning before we headed off for our various medical agendas. She had a mammogram and I had blood tests, an x-ray, a consultation with Dr. F and my Herceptin. Dr. F was concerned that the veins in my right arm are not faring so well these days and he recommended that I have a portocath surgically "installed." This is an overnight stay in Japan although I've heard that it's outpatient surgery in many states. He was ready to schedule me any time this month or next so I requested mid August when S should have some evenings off from teaching as most of Japan is on vacation. It's also probably a busy time at the hospital when people are trying to squeeze in surgery during vacation time.

Other than scheduling my surgery, we also looked at the x-ray results and the lung tumors haven't changed from the pre-Xeloda baseline x-rays of two months ago. Well, they aren't bigger at any rate. I'll know more about how they look after my CT scan on the 29th, which will be discussed on August 5th unless anything really drastic rears its head. The CEA (a cancer marker) number was up a little too, but that's been up and down along the way and is nothing to worry too much about.

My neighbor was finished before I was as I had treatment after my consultation and also had to drop by the pharmacy outside of the hospital to pick up my prescription. She decided to head back home on her own as the mid morning trains are not so crowded. I stopped by the market in Tsukiji to pick up some cheap tofu, cheese and squash before heading home for a late lunch of leftovers and a nap before going to J's school for a mini-concert. The brass band did an excellent job.

Tomorrow I start the paperwork shuffle to get documents from city hall that are required by the hospital at check-in time. They need some proof of who I am and who will foot the bill I guess. I will ask if they can bill city hall directly per a program I've heard about with the National Health Insurance system but I expect it'll be the same old run around.

Sizzle sizzle sizzle melt

N stayed home with a tummy ache and a slight fever yesterday but had too much energy this morning so I agreed to take her and L to the public pool which opened for the summer on the 10th. I was glad my swimsuit still fits but ended up staying in leafy shade of post-blossom wisteria arbor where the ants kept raining on me as I relaxed in the relatively cool spot with a good view of the pool. J was off at an event at the Metropolitan High School of Science and Technology on the other side of Tokyo with a friend, checking out possibilities for next year as they have to choose and test into a high school next winter. M was at track practice in another city as our city doesn't have a full-spec track and their junior high school doesn't have enough space to run more than 60 yards unless they run in the streets, dodging traffic, around the school. The kids go on weekends and pay a hundred yen to polish their techniques on a real track.

S stayed home with the door locked, so M had to break in when she arrived a few minutes before N, L and I did. She was quite distressed and angry to learn that he was actually home and just not answering the doorbell or opening the door when he heard her crawling through the tiny space that any burglar can use to deprive us of our treasures, if they can find any in this mess, that is.

Tomorrow is the second stage of M's Pre-2nd grade test of English proficiency. Wish her luck on the interview. J gets results back tomorrow afternoon from a recent practice entrance exam at a local study center. I have to go with her and make sure they don't pressure her into joining their summer study sessions as several hundred dollars per subject. The test was free and is a good diagnostic tool for her to find the areas she should be brushing up on over the summer.

Summer vacation starts on Saturday and softball, swimming lessons and other things all start on Tuesday. Looks like I'll be up at 5:30 every morning for a while. I plan to take a lot of siestas this summer.

Summer is here - I think...

I haven't turned on the news to see if the meteorological agency has officially declared Japan's extra season, the Rainy Season, over but it sure feels like it must be. We had thunder and lightening at 5:00 a.m. yesterday and the forcasted rainy day blew away with the wind making me sorry I hadn't worn sunscreen when I went out to do some errands. L is running around in his underpants as it's too hot to wear more and too sticky to sit on our chairs without them. The bathtub is full of cool water for the kids to use as a mini pool when they need to cool down.

I started to fill in my datebook with the various schedules and it made me dizzy with how busy the summer "break" is turning out to be. I plan to do as much as possible in the relatively cooler mornings and then sleep all afternoon every day while the kids go off to and return from all of their activities. Slow life - I have to keep telling myself.

Of course, before the actual summer break begins, I'm rushing off to meet friends who will also be tied to home entertaining and feeding their children or who will be off traveling or visiting family all summer. "Hurry up and relax before we miss the chance and can't see anybody until mid September."

Prelude to Summer

I had a phone call at 8:43 a.m. to my cell phone as I was paying my bill at the cancer center downtown before my 9:00 a.m. I.V. M hadn't arrived at school. It looks like J went back to bed after her ham and cheese pannini sandwich and loquats or couldn't manage to roll the others out of their futons. I'd taken a later train than usual to make sure that someone got up...S never came out of his room, probably quietly waiting to see how long they'd all sleep before someone realized the time and raised the alarm. What AM I thinking, leaving my babies to fend for themselves while I take the trash out and traipse off for treatment? How selfish and irresponsible I am! I did explain what I thought had happened, confirm that M was not ill and apologize to the teacher; that's all I could do. All of the sandwiches were gone when I got home at 1:oo p.m. but L and N told me that they didn't eat any breakfast. Sigh.

On an upnote, the two ladies who always get their Herceptin I.V.s on Tuesday morning were already in the lobby when I arrived and one of them told me she's dubbed us the Tenteki Trio. Tenteki is the Japanese word for I.V. so I guess an English equivalent might be the Treatment Trio - One for all and all for one! We wrote our hopes and aspirations on colorful strips of paper to hang on the hospital's star festival bamboo branch of hope (tanabata). Mariko-san, the seniour member of the trio, gave me some rolled sushi she'd made and a can of organic carrot juice which she'd frozen to keep the sushi cool. I had she sushi for lunch at home and it was beautiful and delicous.

N is excited about the 5th grade trip to the mountains tomorrow. She'll walk around with a forest ranger and learn about trees and forest management in the afternoon, have dinner and a bath and gaze at stars with her classmates before bedtime. The next day is a trip to a commercial dairy where the kids will enjoy sampling as much ice cream as they can eat after their tour of the plant. They all come home on Friday afternoon. Older sisters M and J will be grateful for the quiet evenings before their final exams on Thursday and Friday but I'll have to think of some diversion for N and L over the weekend for the Monday exams.

I've been trying to figure out when I can see some friends for coffee or lunch before I get busy with everyone coming and going and needing three meals a day during summer break but the weeks until summer are already looking fairly busy. Last chance before fall...

Wardrobe Switch

With limited space in most Japanese homes, ours included, people tend to store out of season clothes in plastic cases in a storage area or the back of their closets. This involves emptying the dressers and wardrobes and refilling them with the upcoming season's apparel from the plastic cases and then refilling the cases with last season's clothes before trucking the cases back to our storage room in the basement of our apartment building. I procrastinated until the last minute (the week when the schools announce that students may wear their summer uniforms and that they'll need their school issue swimsuits for P.E.) so we're still mid-shift and our place looks like a Salvation Army secondhand shop.

On the way to the National Cancer Center today the students who commute to school stood out more than usual in their lighter colored summer uniforms. I took a local train and was amused to see little girls hesitantly lean out of the doors each time the train stopped so their friends boarding at each station could find them. The students are gradually replaced by sleeping company employees. I still don't know how they manage to sleep while standing up in a crowded train though.

The numbers from my blood work looked OK today and the x-ray I had showed that the lung tumors haven't grown in the past month. My feet were a little swollen from a busy weekend of walking to and from the stadium where M's track meet was held and from irritated toenails, remnants of ten months of almost weekly Taxol. As there appears to be no infection, I didn't ask for antibiotics but Dr. F. did tell me not to hesitate to call and get a prescription if I noticed any pain. The yucky parts are growing out quickly now that I'm off of the Taxol at any rate. A little pink nail polish and I'm all set.

I had my usual Herceptin I.V. , paid my bill and went to get my prescription for the next three weeks of Xeloda filled out. I think that I've gotten used to the drug so I shouldn't be so sleepy this time around. I'll have a CT scan at the end of July to get a closer look at what the Xeloda is or isn't doing and revise my strategy is need be.

I picked up a block of sushi egg tamagoyaki in the Tsukiji street market for the lady on the third floor and headed back to Shinjuku to meet my British friend who'd been shopping there and two other foreign wives. They were just finishing lunch when I arrived but still had plenty of chat left in them to last while I tucked in to my plate of Indian curries, naan and salad. I enjoyed seeing them and having company on the train home.

This evening was my turn to join the junior high school neighborhood patrol so I delivered the tamagoyaki and headed off to school to unlock the patrol box and don an international orange mesh vest with reflective strips and walk around the neighborhood with three other PTA moms for forty minutes. When I returned the vests after our uneventful tour of the neighborhood the track coaches came over to thank me for taking some of the team members to the big track meet on Saturday. It had been a Saturday open house at school so they hadn't been able to take the team and they needed a parent to accompany the members scheduled for that day's events.

It made for a busy day on Saturday but I enjoyed watching the kids go through their warming up routines and competing. M ran in the girls' 800 meter event which was broken down into about 18 heats of 20 or 21 runners and she came in about fiftieth over all, not good enough to go to the "all Tokyo" event in July, but better than her personal best so far, so she was quite satisfied. Her best friend came in first over all in the girls 100 meter hurdles and a few of the other team members also qualified for the next stage.

Rain and Trains

After so many rainy days last week, rainy season here has been officially declared on the public television news. The trains have had troubles with all the rain and have been running slightly off schedule. It made for a bit of a delay on Tuesday when I took my friend from downstairs with me to the Cancer Center for her quarterly exam. We ran into the morning commuter rush and the trains were very crowded. At one station there were eight extra assistants on the platform assuring that the doors would actually close by either delicately tucking people into the train or barring the way so more people wouldn't lean into the masses on the train hoping to be absorbed and on their way to work instead of waiting for the next train. When the doors finally closed, trapping bits of umbrella tips and clothing to get soaked on the way to the next station where the doors on that side of the train open, the assistance crew did gestures to convey departure readiness to the conductor while carefully watching to make sure people were far enough back from the train. I plan to get the Dance of the Metro Assistants on my phone video next time I find myself on that platform in a rainy rush hour. They had lovely neon green vests and white gloves.

I maneuvered a space for my 77 year old neighbor near the courtesy seats and made sure that nobody could shove her or bump into her; she doesn't need that with brittle bones as a long term stage IV breast cancer survivor who beat all those bone mets. The person in the seat in front of us even responded positively to my request to please let my friend have the seat so the trip went well.

We arrived a little after 9:00 a.m. and each went our own way to get the medical part of the day over before meeting another survivor friend who synchronizes her quarterly exams with my neighbor's so they can enjoy lunch together. The ladies of this lunch club seem glad to have someone to watch over my neighbor on the trains there and back and have made me a regular member now. They've already made reservations for September.

I had my heart scan (echocardiogram) and lo and behold my ejection fraction is back up to 75%. This was a relief as I'd been concerned about decline due to Herceptin. Then I went for my I.V. and was just walking out the door of the outpatient chemotherapy center when my neighbor and her friend arrived on the escalator in search of me. We'd all finished early because many of the oncologists were away at a symposium (maybe in Chicago) so their patients weren't in for check-ups or treatment that day.

We went down to the lobby to pay our bills at the newly installed automated cashier machines which naturally had one employee (formerly from behind the cashiers' counter) beside each machine to guide patients in their use. I was a little surprised that the machines accept cash only. Other hospitals using similar machines allow debit cards, credit cards and cash options.

The rain and wind had picked up while we'd been shuffling around getting poked with needles etc. so we decided to take a taxi to the restaurant where we had reservations. Another survivor friend yet joined the three of us and we enjoyed a relaxing two hour lunch of dainty bite sized portions of too many courses of traditional Japanese cuisine for my chemo brain to remember. The discussion varied between comments on the appearance, texture, flavor and ingredients of the dishes and news about various doctors and associations. One of their favorite doctors is now the head of the Hospice Care Association in Japan now and they told me not to hesitate to ask them to contact him if I should have any questions about hospice here. He was also the doctor who got them hooked on this lunch routine. He used to have a big lunch party a few times a year with the women in his care.

Tomorrow is my big day as pre-school teacher for a day. A friend has asked me to substitute while she's off to the States for her daughter's high school graduation. I expect to have a lot of fun singing, dancing and making crafts with the cuties.

Xelodoze

The first week on this oral chemotherapoy went well enough; minimal nausea, no allergic reactions, slight fatigue. The only effect I was concerned about was swelling of my feet and ankles so the new and comfortable SAS shoes sent to me in the mail were too small. I'd been gleefully walking around in them for a few weeks and then BLAM! an alien replaced my already large feet with even bigger ones. A few nights of sleeping with my feet up on a chair resolved that and I can walk on my triple cushioned wonders again. Whew!

I had my Herceptin drip on Tuesday and then spoke with Dr. F. who'd been out lecturing at Tokyo University that morning. We decided that things are good so far and he gave me a two week prescription and sent me upstairs to get a baseline x-ray so we can compare in July.

Wednesday I rode out to the immigration office in Tachikawa with a friend who needed to get a re-entry permit. We met with another friend for lunch and laughs before driving home again to get ready for Wednesday evening classes.

This morning I decided to take a short nap after getting the kids off to school and the garbage out. I dozed off at about 8:30 and woke up when L came home from school after 3:00. Just a short nap...I'm not sure if it's a Xeloda side effect or if I just needed to catch up a little after those nights of half-sleep when I was keeping my feet up on the chair...I'm well rested for the upcoming sports days at each school at any rate. Now to plan all the picnic lunch boxes.

So far, so good

I made my way to the station in buckets of rain as this season's typhoon number four passed near Japan. The 6:30 train was not as crowded with commuters as usual and the trip to Shinjuku was not so packed. I took the looooooooooong escalators down from the Keio Line platforms (which are already underground) to the Oedo Line tracks near the center of the earth and was surprised to see that these trains were less crowded than usual too. I even got to sit down for most of my ride to Tsukiji. By 7:30, when I arrived at Tsukiji, the rain was not so heavy but the wind was whistling strongly through the city buildings. The number of people at the automated reception machines was less than half of the typical crowd. The TV on the lobby informed me that the morning trains for a number of train lines were running 20 to 30 minutes late because of the heavy rain and one train line had stopped completely. My morning train must have been one of the last trains before the delays began.

Dr. F called me in promptly at 8:30 and I told him that I'd decided to start with the Xeloda option. He confirmed a few things and explained again about what to expect and then gave me a prescription for a week's worth of pills to be taken after breakfast and dinner every day. He'll come up to the chemo room next Tuesday while I'm getting my Herceptin drip to give me the results of next week's blood work and ask how I'm faring on the Xeloda before prescribing another two weeks' worth. If I tolerate it well and the blood work looks good, I'll be on a three weeks on / one week off schedule of this oral chemotherapy and continue with the weekly Herceptin IVs for now.

The rain had stopped by the time I finished my IV and headed out the door around lunchtime but the trains were still running a little late. The sun was shining brightly by the time I got home.

I started on Tuesday evening and haven't noticed any trouble so far (knocking on wood).

Translation of Tuesday's Talk

Dr. F showed me my CT scan results and input a summary of our discussion onto the hospital computer file, printing out a copy of the summary for me. Here it is:

Results of the April 22 CT scan show the appearance of a new 1.8cm tumor in the lower part of the right lung. We determined that the effectiveness of Herceptin + Taxol has decreased. Recommend changing treatment to Herceptin + Navelbine or Herceptin + Capecitabine (Xeloda). The chance that either of these will be effective is about 20% and main side effects are decreased white blood cell count and inflamed veins for the former and decreased white blood cell count, diarrhea and hand-foot syndrome for the latter. After these drugs, using Lapatinib (Tykerb) which is due to be approved in Japan within the year, is in range.

As there has been a recent tendency for ejection factor to decrease, we're concerned that some heart damage is beginning to show due to the long term use of Herceptin. We'll re-check in a heart ultrasound in early June.

So, I didn't get any Taxol on Tuesday but I did get my weekly dose of Herceptin as my heart ejection fraction level from the last ultrasound, although lower than previous scans, was still within an average range. I asked for a week to think about the options as I thought I'd better read up a little more on the effectiveness and side effects of each before jumping in to anything. I'm leaning toward the twice a day oral Xeloda even if I still go every week for my Herceptin IVs. I have to make a list of pros and cons though.

The tumors that we were zapping away at with the Taxol have virtually disappeared, so I'm glad that it did work so well while it worked. The new tumor appeared after my January scans though, while I was still on Taxol, so I guess it's farewell Taxol, hello feeling in my fingers and toes (already returning after the three week break I had). The CT scan did confirm that there are no metastases to other organs or bones too. Costs will remain 44,000 yen a month max. after refunds so I won't have to worry about cost limiting my decision anyway.

Velcro Wall Jump

The kids and I (except M who had previously arranged plans) went to the annual Family Fun Festival otherwise known as Oyako Matsuri near the station. The kids were encouraged to make the usual fabric craft flowers to celebrate Mothers' Day and play various games with volunteers. This year the local youth center organization had a stamp rally where kids could get cards stamped for measuring their grip, flexibility and vertical jumping prowess at their booth. Completed cards could then be shown to receive a small prize like a pencil or a figurine or a ticket to try the Velcro wall jump http://www.metroinflatables.com/showgame.html?id=36 which was set up in the large room on the 12th floor where I emceed the kindergarten graduation party a few years ago.

Naturally, the kids wanted to try the ultimate stage of this physical fitness test so we went to get them some stamp cards to record their performance and were told that the parents should also participate. "Fine by me." I thought, and had fun gripping, stretching and jumping up with a string attached to a belt around my waist and a measuring device. Results: I have a much stronger grip than the kids do and I'm more limber than the kids are in spite of my stomach getting in the way but they can all jump about 10 inches high than I can.

Off we head to the elevator for the final stage. N and L were already in Velcro jump suits with Velcro mittens and feet by the time J and I arrived. The wall and a ten yard long "runway" were basically fancy variations of the age old inflated moonwalk with a similar inflated target shaped trampoline between them. This set filled the entire room.

L had trouble picking up any sort of speed on the huge air filled tubes and didn't bounce very high. N's performance was not any more inspiring. J and I were called over to get our Velcro suits. I had to wait until J finished her jump as they only had one large sized suit and the medium large one was just to small for big old me to squeeze into. I watched her struggle down the runway and throw herself at the wall to be peeled off by two volunteers and hoped that the suit would be too small so I could bow out of the potentially embarrassing situation. I couldn't decide which would more embarrassing, being too fat for the suit or to clumsy to even make it to the trampoline, and decided that injuring myself on a huge cushion of air was probably more inconvenient for all involved.

No such luck; the suit fit fine so I bravely made my way to the starting point. I managed to run in slow motion down the runway, jump (more like fall...) on to the trampoline and reach for the wall as I ascended only to find that I'd stuck to the wall before my feet ever left the trampoline. I guess it's made for shorter people. At least I didn't twist or break anything. I did wonder though, on the way out the door, where all the other moms were at this stage. They were probably downstairs getting pencils or cheesy figurines.

Good Pickin's

The ladies of our local chapter of foreign wives of Japanese men held a baby shower for a friend today. It was a potluck lunch and from the lovely assortment of dishes, it was easy to deduce that most of us were ready for a break from Japanese cuisine. We had spinach quiche, a Mexican salad with layers of lettuce, onions, avocado, salsa, olives, sour cream and cheese to be spooned over tortilla chips, cheese and crackers, tomato stewed chicken, a black bean dip with pita bread, a summery pasta salad, a healthy green salad, chocolate chip muffins, a chilled blender borscht with sour cream (yes, I finally found canned beets near Tsukiji!), a friendship cake (the starter was smuggled into Japan in a suitcase), chocolate mousse, a yellow cake topped with chocolate, strawberries and grapes - nothing Japanese on the table at all. We did have a little iced green tea on the drink table, with hazelnut coffee, raspberry leaf iced tea...I was nervous about offering my pitcher of violently purple soup but it sold well, not as well as the chocolate mousse, but that can't be helped. The kids had sushi with S as the lunch was a ladies only event.

A Break

I finished my IV early on Tuesday and had a few hours before my quarterly CT scan so I traipsed over to Shinbashi a few blocks away to shop at Hanamasa, a wholesale grocer, and save a little on the monthly food expenses. The CT scan technicians managed to fit me in a little earlier than my 2:30 appointment so I dragged my sacks of groceries into the changing cubicle with me and was finished by 1:30. The next two Tuesdays are national holidays so I won't have treatment or hear about the results until then unless Dr. F. finds anything he doesn't like, in which case he'll call and have me come in earlier. It's nice to have a break.

Tomorrow I plan to take the kids to the other side of Tokyo to watch M run 800 meters in a track meet if the coach deigns to accept her application to continue in the track team. The students have to sign up every year and he was giving M and two of her friends a hard time yesterday about appropriate attitudes, discouraging them from ever doing track and field again. The traditional thought, according to S, is that degrading students and telling them to quit is supposed to encourage them to try harder. Silly me, and I thought he was telling them to go home when he shouted "Go home!" to them. Sigh. The coach called last night to apologize for misjudging a situation and overreacting and asked if M and the other two girls could come in at 7:30 to discuss and resolve the situation. Hopefully peer pressure won't keep them all from throwing in the towel just yet; they're all pretty good at the sport.

More on the unexploded bomb

It seems that the bomb was never actually dropped, but that the number 1 engine of B29 T-42 (also known as Mrs. Tittymouse) of Squadron 875 was hit by flak and the plane lost its left wing, last seen going down in a spin on 04/07/1945. The bomb must have been part of the debris from that crash. An account written by a Japanese man who was a child in the neighborhood at the time describes the strong smell of gasoline and the shock of seeing the picture of a topless girl on the nose of the craft surprise that the plane was equppied with beverage dispensers offering coffee, tea or milk at a time when the Japanese military did not take indvidual soldiers' preferences into consideration even if it had been possible to offer such luxuries. He was also saddened to see how young the crew members who did not survive seemed when laid out in a row before being buried in the local temple, Empukiji, graveyard. The eleventh crew member surviced and was taken prisoner and sent to Omori POW camp and returned to the States after the war where he struggled much with PTSD.

This Week's Big News

On March 27, 2008, an unexploded 1-ton bomb thought to have been dropped in an April 7, 1945 U.S. B29 air raid was discovered buried in a neighborhood yard along the train tracks. Japan Self Defense Force experts have assured the city that there is no danger of explosion without strong impact so the yard has been cordoned off and security personnel have been dispatched to keep watch while the city informs the neighbors of disposal procedures and precautions. The city has announced plans to regulate traffic and clear a 500 meter radius of neighborhood around the bomb on May 18 for disposal of the unexploded ordnance. We're about 700 meters away but there are two stations and quite a few residences and businesses, including a 32 floor high rise apartment and two large supermarkets within the evacuation area. Apparently the Keio Line's underground train line pre-construction magnetic exploration and stories of the April 7th air raid led to the discovery. Maybe the entire neighborhood can come watch this year's city-wide kiddy sumo that day at the American School in Japan on the very far side of Chofu from anything (well outside of the 500 meter radius).