X'mas Time for Richie

This was Richie's first Christmas. It was great to celebrate X'mas with the big family. More than him, I was excited for Richie, because I know how much fun we have at X'mas time. We started playing christmas carols one month in advance. He would dance to the tunes of the songs. His favourites being "Feliz Navidad, Do they its Christmas, I met an angel on Christmas day".

Few days before Christmas, we decorated the Christmas tree playing carols in the background. Richie was fascinated and was wondering how could such a big tree could be there in the house. We also put stars and lights outside the house.The next few days we were visited by groups of carol singers.

Even Santa Claus came to meet Richie, with lots of gifts for him. Richie shook hands with Santa Claus and Santa Claus gave him Candies. It was a whole new experience for Richie. He was enjoying himself thoroughly. On X'mas day, we went to see the beautiful cribs all over the town. Looking at the crib, we told Richie stories about the birth of baby Jesus, 3 kings, shepherds, shining star etc.

All in all Richie had a loads of fun for christmas.

Travelling home for Christmas

I remember this song "Travelling home for Christmas" and brings back nostalgic moments. Yes, we are all going to our hometown for X'mas celebration. This is Richie's first Christmas and we are going to have a blast.

Formalities after childbirth in Japan- Part 2

After the formalities at the city office are done, you need to apply for the passport and visa for your little one within 30 days after birth. We had found out the procedure for obtaining a passport for our baby. So we took the necessary documents i.e baby’s birth certificate, our alien registration card copies, our passport copies etc. and proceeded to the embassy.

Now there is one interesting thing which had happened when we were filling the passport application form. It is so fresh in my mind as if it happened yesterday. Richie was 4 weeks old. The application form needed baby’s photo and signature or thumb impression. Now the photo needs to be such that baby’s both ears are seen, fully awake etc. Babies are fidgety. It is difficult to hold them in one position. And Richie has the habit of sleeping on his side. So getting a good photo was difficult thing. I must say my hubby is very patient. He held Richie and even managed to click a good photo of him.

The work was not over. We had to get Richie’s fingerprints on the form. Richie’s dada used to come home late those days. After having dinner we decided to give it a try. We tried putting Richie to sleep first. After that was done, the thumb impression had to be correctly taken without spoiling the form. I was rocking Richie in my arms while dada took the fingerprints. It was not once but 3-4 times on the form. Sighhhhh. It was 2 am by the time we finished.

Next was visa application (residence permission) at the Immigration bureau of Japan. To avoid any penalties, you have to apply within 30 days, whether you have got the child's passport or not. Actually we did not know this as we thought we need to apply only after we get the passport and we crossed the 30 days limit by few days. They expressed their concerns as laws in Japan are very strict. Luckily the penalty was not too much. We had to provide our income tax certificate as well as the certificate of employment (COE) along with other documents (mentioned above). It actually delayed the process, which could have been avoided if we had done within 30 days. I am not sure if there is a payment penalty. If you have applied for a passport but haven't got it yet, take the document showing that you have applied for the passport to the immigration office. It is very important to apply for visa within 30 days regardless of whether you have your baby's passport or not.
Here is the Immigration bureau of Japan site link. You can browse to get all the details.

After all this is done you can sit back and relax and enjoy the time with your little one.

All the very best!!

Looking for nursery in Japan for Richie

As I have to join back work soon, we are on the lookout for nursery for Richie.
There are 3 types of nurseries in Japan. The first type is the government owned ones, wherein the nursery fees depends on the tax paid by the working parents. Higher the tax paid, higher the fees. For the government nursery you have to apply in the city office (Kuyaksho). Second is the semi-government one, which is affiliated to the metropolitan (for us Tokyo-to). Third one is the private nursery, which is run privately by an individual or private organisation.

In Japan, the academic year is from April-March. April is the best time to get admission. Other time of the year, it becomes difficult to get admission as the nurseries get full and there are several people in the waiting list. We are having a difficult time to get entry. We tried several ones, but still no luck. Lets see what happens. Keep trying!!

Formalities after childbirth in Japan - Part 1

After 5 days in hospital, Richie and I came home. Giving birth in a foreign country, you have to abide by their rules. We were given a birth certificate by the hospital of which one side was filled by the hospital and the other was supposed to be filled by us and submitted in the city-office. My hubby went to the city-office with our passports, alien registration cards, mother-child handbook and of course the birth certificate. Our baby was registered and an alien registration card was issued to him. Also the city-office gave a official birth-certificate which will be a proof of Richie’s birth in Japan for years to come. An official copy of the birth certificate costs around 300-400 yen.

Now my dear hubby was smart. He thought of finishing all the official work on one day. He had National Health Insurance(NHI), so he entered our baby's name on to the insurance card. He also applied for "marufuku," which is free medical care for infants. That is a very wonderful service in Japan. You can go to any hospital and if you have the card, you can get free treatment for your child till he goes to elementary school

He also applied for the hospital child birth expenses (around 350,000-380,000 yen) which I had already mentioned in my post “Pregnancy and childbirth in Japan - What to expect”. There is also a child benefit programme . The Japanese government pays 10000 yen per month for the monthly expenses of the baby. You can do all this in one go. Remember to take all the documents with you. More about passport and visa in the next post.

What goes in comes out

We were just preparing to have our lunch, when Riya said she can smell papaya. Now, we had papaya last night, and we even disposed off all the leftovers last night itself. How could we have the smell of payapa around?

Oh, by the way, did I mention that last night was the first time Richie had papaya? He liked it a lot!

Now, Richie has the knack for doing it when we are about to have our meal. "Could it be Richie?", I asked Riya. Since I was the one who suggested, I got to do the honors of checking his nappy. Lo and behold, it was him!

So we had to do the necessary chores before we could have our lunch. As we finally sat at the table, I said, "Can't complain!". Then, as we began munching, I thought to myself and could not help but say to Riya, "Well, what goes in... must come out". And we both roared with laughter!

Baby has started scribbling - 10.5 months old

Babies are voracious learners. They explore the world with their touch, eyes, ears and specially with their mouths. Whatever is in their hands goes in their mouths, however much you try to stop them.

Richie wants to do new stuff everyday. He easily gets bored with the same things. So I am always on a lookout for new toys, games etc. Last week we got him the Magic Board. With the Magic Board, kids can practice their writing skills over and over again! The magnetic “pencil” makes writing fun and simple…and the easy-to-use eraser bar lets kids clear the board in seconds.

Initially he learned to erase the letters by moving the eraser bar. He would smile to see the letters disappear. He would wait for me to write and then erase it himself. Seeing me write, he was fascinated, and tried pulling out the pencil from my hand. I held his hand and guided him. We drew straight lines and then circles. He was amazed. He tried it over and over again. And now he does it independently. He likes to watch this particular video "Sesame Street: Crayon Magic Letter I" and must be thinking to himself , after all it is magic.