Get some interesting looks about town. For one thing, a father alone with a child remains a somewhat unusual sight in Japan. Gender roles are highly polarized hereabouts. Women are expected to quit working when the first child comes along and embrace housewifery. Then men spend all their time at work. All their damn time. According to OECD statistics, working fathers in Japan spend an average of twenty minutes per day with their children. Women become, in essence, sole caregivers. A by-product of this is that fathers are regarded as domestically incompetent. This is changing... albeit slowly.
Another reason folks look: absurdly caucasian baby. Granted, one finds plenty of caucasians here married to Japanese folk. Those children, however, don't often resemble "eugenics babies" from a 1920s county fair in Midwestern America. Make no mistake, got nothing but love for the little guy. Still, in this neck of the woods, his blue-eyed blondness borders on ridiculous. Some folks go utterly agog over the little Ollie-ball when he opens those sapphire peepers. Can understand their feelings.
Side note: constantly singing to the little bologna loaf during the walks. Current favorites: "Angel Band" and "The Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia." With the cooler weather, often go forth wearing a sweatshirt over the baby carrier. Upside: can zip the sweatshirt up over the baby for warmth. Downside: the sweatshirt renders the harness invisible to anyone walking behind. Thus, folk to the fore see a guy rocking and singing to a baby. That gets a pretty positive reception: a lot of "kawaii!" and such. Folk to aft see a guy, apparently, dancing around and singing to his own damn self. That doesn't do so well in the polls.
Another reason folks look: absurdly caucasian baby. Granted, one finds plenty of caucasians here married to Japanese folk. Those children, however, don't often resemble "eugenics babies" from a 1920s county fair in Midwestern America. Make no mistake, got nothing but love for the little guy. Still, in this neck of the woods, his blue-eyed blondness borders on ridiculous. Some folks go utterly agog over the little Ollie-ball when he opens those sapphire peepers. Can understand their feelings.
Side note: constantly singing to the little bologna loaf during the walks. Current favorites: "Angel Band" and "The Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia." With the cooler weather, often go forth wearing a sweatshirt over the baby carrier. Upside: can zip the sweatshirt up over the baby for warmth. Downside: the sweatshirt renders the harness invisible to anyone walking behind. Thus, folk to the fore see a guy rocking and singing to a baby. That gets a pretty positive reception: a lot of "kawaii!" and such. Folk to aft see a guy, apparently, dancing around and singing to his own damn self. That doesn't do so well in the polls.
