A letter from Tokyo? How very retro!
Jo and Miki watching the sunset on Waikiki Beach.
Hi friend
I hope you’re well, and sorry if I haven’t been in touch. All is good here in Tokyo, so no need to worry. But, I suddenly felt inspired to write about what Jo, myself and Miki have been up to.
Firstly, you’ll notice this email is a little different, and I’m only sending it to family. Basically, I’m off social media now, so I decided the best way to keep friends and family up to date is to go old school and send letters by email now and then, and include some cute photos of Jo. Hopefully this is more entertaining than annoying!
If you want, you can read my rant on why I’m doing this here
There is rather a lot to catch up on, and apologies if this first email includes old news. Feel free to just scroll down to the photo galleries!
The last year and a half has certainly been eventful. I know me becoming a Dad was a shock to everyone, myself included! One friend even suggested the news was a sure sign of the apocalypse!
But, as you know, on May 19, last year, our little devil, George Lee Araki (aka “Jo”), was born. (Make sure you have that date in your calendars please!)
Left: First contact! Right: The ceremonial meal when Jo turned 100-days-old. (Although, he was still too young to eat it!)
He was a rather large baby, weighing in at 4.1 kg and 55 cm tall. This must be somewhat of an anomaly in Japan, as the doctor yelled out “okii! (he’s huge!),” when he pulled Jo into the world. Since then, the poor lad has heard much the same from everyone he meets: “My god, he’s so big!” For a while I joked okii was going to be his first word.
Instead, it was a quietly whispered “fuish.”
This is no doubt due to our regular visits to watch the tropical fish in the aquarium at the local “Donki Hote” store, and me constantly urging “Look at the fish Jo! Look at the fish!”
He does seem to be a smart and observant kid, and loves flipping through books. He’ll point and say “fuish” if he spots one on the page, and babbles away in his mix of Japanese and English almost-words.
He likes music too, and bobs his head to the beat or bangs on whatever object is his latest drum, and dances around the room waving his favourite paper fans.
Who needs a TV when you have fish to watch and books to read!
Generally he’s a happy, social baby, and waves and smiles at everyone he passes. I’m desperately trying to teach him you can actually wave “Hello” rather than always say “Ba bai,” which may be a Japanese thing.
He seems to have inherited my impeccable sense of direction, and has already memorised the route to the park we visit every morning before daycare. He points the way at every turn with an emphatic “Dou dou!” (i.e “Go go!”), and gets upset when I take a different path, but is slowly learning there’s more than one way to reach your goal — an important life lesson, surely!
He’s got a keen eye too, and constantly points things out for me to look at. “Tar! Tar!” he might say. And sure enough he’ll have spotted a poster for Sapporo Black Label beer, with its star logo. Or he’ll bark “wan wan!” (the Japanese for “woof, woof”) as we pass yet another of Tokyo’s millions of poodles.
Jo himself seems to be part retriever, shouting “baw, baw!” as he chases balls around the house. And he shoots hoops at his miniature basketball net with the stance of a baller and such a cute look of concentration on his face. My hope is he’ll go pro when older, and support me in my dotage.
Our ball mad son!
On that point: becoming a father for the first time at 57 has been a challenge. Last week, Jo turned 18-months-old and is transitioning from cute baby-steps to an arms-up-stumbling-forward sprint that leaves me breathless. Chasing him around is either keeping me fit, or aging me rapidly, I’m not sure which, but I’m constantly exhausted.
My sports obsessed father, Adrian, would have been ecstatic Jo’s so ball mad, and I wish they could’ve met. Unfortunately, he died about a two weeks before Jo was conceived. I sometimes wonder about that, whether he’s watching me from behind Jo’s eyes. Anyway, it sucks he didn’t meet the grandson we named after his own father.
That Jo, aka Captain Jack Lee, was killed on June 7th, 1944, after landing on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day. Dad was only three-years-old at the time so never really knew him, but my grandad became a mythic character in our family lore, and I look forward to telling my Jo all about him. As some of you may know, last year, on the 80th Anniversary of D-Day, we even had the honour Jo Lee’s final letter to my Grandma, Olive, being read by the actor Jonny Weldon before the King at the live telecast from Southhampton.
It seemed fitting, then, to keep the name in the family. But much like “Jo” was actually my grandfather’s nickname, our Jo’s official name in Japanese is Jōji. To further complicate things, it’s written as George in English. But, he seems to answer to Jo or George, so it’s all good!
Jo’s first snow, in Hokkaido, and surfing in Waikiki! (Just like me in 1968!)
Most of you have met Jo’s lovely mum, Miki, who is much, much younger than me! She’s such a fantastic mum, and loves to travel, so the three of us have had a busy 18 months. In March, we went snowboarding in Niseko, Hokkaido, where Jo saw snow for the first time. And in August/September, we had an amazing holiday in Hawaii, which was Jo’s first overseas trip. We’ve also gone camping twice, and have been back and forth to Kumamoto to visit Miki’s family a few times.
Work is pretty slow for me, but I’m getting more freelance writing — mainly travel, food and wine related — so when I need to go on a trip, Miki’s mum kindly flies up to help look after Jo.
But, most of my days start with Jo waving to me from the balcony as I arrive on my bike around 6:30 AM. Watching his face light up when he sees me makes anything that’s worrying me immediately vanish. After breakfast we have some playtime at home — playing ball of course! Then I take him to daycare via the park, which we also visit on the way home after I pick him up.
He’s a fearless climber, and recently he’s taken to climbing the ladder of the park’s jungle-gym while clutching his drink bottle in one hand. The first time he tried that I foolishly tried to stop him. He shook his head, gave me a determined look, and kept going. At the top he turned to me and nodded emphatically, as if to say “See Dad, I could do it.”
Jo in the park on the way to daycare.
That in a nutshell is Jo, and it’s fascinating to watch him work things out for himself like that. He’s definitely a stubborn little kid, and really doesn’t like being told how to do things. Remind you of anyone?!
Personally, I’m doing OK. I had a cancer scare last year and my gut is now 20-cm shorter than it was! But the good news is I’m all clear now, and plan to be around long enough to see Jo enter university — hopefully on a sports scholarship!
OK, that’s probably a good place to round off this first letter. There’s plenty more I could write, but I hope you’ve got a better sense of who Jo is now. I’ve created some photo galleries of his first year and a half, which you can access using the links below and this password:
Password: jomay192024
You’ll see my mum has been up to visit three times, including for Jo’s first Christmas, which my sister, Amanda, and the gang also came to Tokyo for. I am slowly adding captions on some photos, but you’ll have to hit the “Info” icon (i) to see them. And there is a slideshow function too.
Thanks for reading this far, and I hope you enjoy the photos. Please do reply to this email if you want, it would be nice to hear from you.
We will be in London for Christmas, so see some of you then!
For now, stay safe.
And of course, if you’re not at all interested in getting emails like this in the future you can remove yourself from the list here. I promise I won’t be pissed-off!
Love you all!
Andrew
P.S. If you happen to know a family member I’ve missed, please forward this email to them, and they can subscribe here.
