Missing my daughter

Although I’ve returned back from Japan, my lovely wife and daughter are still there, enjoying the good food and nicer weather.

Not surprisingly, I miss my little girl quite a bit. This was a picture taken on Christmas as she played with her new Anpanman cash register from Japan. It scans the barcodes of the toys, reports prices, and lets you do the math. Only in Japan.

When I call her daily, she’s very happy to hear from me. I can hear her say “Daddy! Moshee moshee”, which is her way of trying to greet me in Japanese.* She then tells me she’s eating ice cream (“aye shoo” as she calls it), and sometimes she’ll tell me her day, which is just incoherent babble anyways. Then, when I am about to get off the phone, she often blows kisses to the phone.

My wife told me lately she’s been very naughty since I left. She doesn’t like to get dressed and wants to run around the house with no clothes on. Part of this, we think, is because she misses Daddy. We also suspect she might be still teething (since her hand is often in her mouth).

Either way, I miss her lots. Our home is pretty quiet and dull without her and Mom. When I see all the toys or fold her clothes from the trip, I think of her.

It’s only six more weeks, but I miss her all the same.

Namu Amida Butsu
Namu Kanzeon Bosatsu

* – In Japanese, the standard greeting over the phone is moshi moshi, followed by your name in formal tones. Examples:

• moshi moshi, dagu desu. Hello, this is Doug.
• moshi moshi, dagu desu kedo. Hello, this is Doug. (If the other person hasn’t had a chance to reply back yet).
• moshi moshi, Koizumi desu. Hello, this is Koizumi (surname, if you don’t know the person well).
• moshi moshi, Hitachi no Koizumi desu. Hello, this is Koizumi from Hitachi Company (surname, plus company, if a really formal call).

…and so on.