Director
Project Division,Chugoku Branch,Development Bank of Japan
"Well, things are settled. Now we can sit back and wait for my summer English school to start." When we were just start thinking like this, my wife had to visit Dr. Nishimura in Stanford University Hospital. She had not been feeling so well, probably because of the exhaustion of moving, we thought. I was quite concerned about her health until she came back from the hospital-but the news was that she was pregnant! This was our first baby after a long wait. Although the joy of expecting a baby made us weep, our "Let's Fully Experience Our New US Life" plan, which contained a full of agenda for the whole of the coming year, was certainly going to have to be amended.
The first amendment was concerned my wife's campus life. She, too, had enrolled in English summer school because she thought it no use to stay home doing nothing while I was studying in school. However, her morning sickness was so bad that she couldn't eat properly and we wondered whether she could carry on with her studies. We decided to give it a go. Then we found that it would be difficult for her to attend the full course, so we talked to our tutor and cancelled my wife's afternoon class. This helped her a lot because one less class means less homework. I also made efforts to make a greater contribution. I usually do not do much in the way of house chores at home, but now I helped cooking, shopping, and washing for my sickly wife and our coming baby. I could do these things partly because I did not work but mainly because of our baby. Oh the great power of a child! I had held a dream of communicating with the other students from other countries though my English course, but I could not spend much time on this now as our life already had a new priority-the baby!
The next amendment was in our trip plans. Although I still held a position in my company, now I was a student and therefore I could have more holidays than when I was working in Japan. We had dreamed of traveling around the US because there were just two of us, thinking it would be fun even if it was a low-budget trip, staying in one motel after another. However, my wife's morning sickness made the dream seem to be just a dream. Luckily, before finding out about the pregnancy we had already made a couple of trips to San Francisco and Yosemite, which were not so far from where we were staying. So I just told myself those trips were good enough at least. However, my wife's morning sickness quickly improved after summer school. Also Dr. Inoue, an obstetrician introduced to us by Dr. Nishimura, advised us not to hesitate to make a trip, as long as the travel time was limited to between two and three hours. Responding to this news, we rushed to reserve a trip before the fall term started. When we investigated the places that we could go with a 2- or 3-hour flight, we found that we could even travel to Canada. As a result, we made a four-night trip to the Canadian Rockies and Vancouver. Also, during the fall term, we could make some short local trips, such as to Napa Valley, Monterey and Carmel, and Los Angeles, where my wife's sister was living. We even went to Las Vegas at the year end. Despite her big belly, my wife remained active and enjoyed her trips. We were fully content with viewing the West Coast even if we couldn't see the whole of America. Of course, there are still some other places we would like to visit, such as New York, Boston, and Chicago in the East, and New Orleans and Miami in the South. But these places can be future destinations with our child.
In the meantime, my wife's belly grew bigger and bigger as her pregnancy advanced, and we became busy with preparing for the arrival of our baby. We were concerned whether we could find enough information in Japanese about giving birth in the US, but thankfully there was Kinokuniya, a Japanese book store, in Silicon Valley. We could buy all kinds of books about pregnancy, such as maternity magazines and even a naming dictionary. Also, hospitals in the US hold parenting classes for both partners where they train future parents about medical issues and how to care for babies. There is an intensive class on one weekend from morning to evening, and three other evening classes. Also, the Japanese wives nearby taught us many things and my wife received some Japanese books about having a baby from her parents. We ended up with piles of information! More practically, my wife paid attention to her physical condition by attending maternity yoga classes and taking regular walks. I attended a number of shopping outings for the baby. Probably we went shopping about 20 times in total just for the baby, looking for a baby bed, a stroller, and various kinds of clothes. These cost us quite a lot, so I was very grateful when Akazawa-san in APARC gave us a baby bed for free.
These preparations for the baby taught us many other things, including various differences between Japan and the US. Going shopping many times made me think of the business situation. The US is a totally capitalist country. A cheap shop is totally cheap and a shop with good quality products is definitely more expensive, and the class of the customers is clearly different in these shops. My wife didn't find Walmart so attractive because the available products were limited, although prices were very reasonable, and it seems that she felt that it catered for a specific kind of customer. This made me wonder whether Walmart's plan to launch Japanese branches could be successful because Japanese wives will all expect reasonably priced, good quality products and foods from any supermarket. Another point I learned about was the busyness of my work. If I were in Japan, I could not spend so much time for birth preparations. But in the US, it is common that husbands attend parenting class, no matter that they have jobs, and participate in going shopping for things for the baby. If Japanese companies allowed their workers to spend more time with their family, Japanese husbands would be happy to become more involved in family issues. It really made me think.
At last the expected date arrived but there was no sign of the baby's arrival. Then my wife went for a walk to Dish Hill behind the university. I don't know if it was because of this walk or not, but her labor pains began that night. She struggled over the night and we went to the hospital next morning and our boy baby healthily arrived at 2:00 PM on the third of March. We had heard that the permitted stay in hospital after the birth is only two days, and we were a little concerned whether that was really long enough. However, the advanced treatment is so effective and particularly the painless delivery helps the mother to recover more quickly from the exhaustion of giving birth. Both mother and baby could leave hospital within the two days. Still there was another concern, which was about the medical fee in the US. The cost of the treatment was truly high and probably twice that in Japan. We had been charged a deposit of approximately 300,000 yen, and were told that the remaining charge would be halved if we paid it in cash immediately. I realized that the medical treatment in the US is a severe business compared to Japan and it is a major social issue. I certainly came to appreciate the Japanese health insurance system.
So our baby had arrived! The next task was going back to Japan as "Japanese." In our case, I was to be in the US for only one year. We had already spent nine months before the baby's arrival. The period remaining to prepare the baby's passport was therefore only three months. When we consulted the Japanese consulate, they told us they could provide a certificate of passage even if the passport was not issued by our travel date. But as they told us that it would probably be ready within the time, we applied for a formal passport for our son. The procedure required went like this: (1) Obtain a Birth Certificate from the County by registering the birth of the baby as a US citizen in the hospital; (2) Using this certificate, register the birth of the baby and request for withholding nationality registration to a Japanese Consul in the US; (3) The birth report is transferred to the Town Hall in Japan where my Japanese citizen registration is held and where my son's registration is created; (4) Obtain my Japanese citizen registration, now with my newly registered son, and apply for a passport for him; (5) My son's passport is issued approximately two weeks later. Step (1) took about 3 weeks and (2) took about 2 to 3 weeks, plus some more time for international mailing. In the end we obtained our son's passport at the end of May, after spending two and a half months on the procedure. Because we planned to go back to Japan in early June, we were really nervous about getting the baby's passport in time when May arrived. Now I can feel that it was a positive experience, especially when I see my son's two passports: one as a Japanese citizen and the other as a US citizen!
I hope readers will not find my essay too long, but I just wanted them to know that having a baby abroad can be a great opportunity to understanding a country from a different perspective, and the tight bond and kindness from other Japanese people abroad truly embraced us. Stanford, where my son was born, is now our second home town. I can't wait to take him there sometime in the future!
