journal features

a fine visit

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Tokyo, 2010.01.02

We're back in Tokyo, but Kenny had a great visit with his cousins.

It was one of those visits where the two smallest boys—aged 2 1/2 and almost two—were pretty much inseparable. They spent all their time playing, squabbling, running around and terrorizing the adults at meal times. And they influenced each other.

Thanks to the gimme-gimme nature of Kenny's playing style (he's a daycare child), Ta-kun wound up toughening up a bit over the course of the week. At first he kept running to his mum whenever Kenny stole his toys, but slowly he began to steal right back. And both of them seemed to benefit greatly in vocabulary and speaking confidence: Ta-kun has been a bit slow to speak (he's not a daycare child) but by the end of our week he seemed to be making more clear sounds. And Kenny is now able to string together words in primitive noun-verb sentences. He sounds like me when I speak Japanese!

This was the first trip in which he didn't need to breast feed to take off and land successfully. A fine milestone.

rand()m quote

Naturally the common people don't want war: Neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.

—Hermann Goering