|
|
by Hugh Cook |
|
|
|
Section 130 Entry 0001. Date: 2004 November 27 Saturday. (diary) (previous) (top) (bottom) (next) (topics) (contents) A young woman stood up for me in the train the other day, yielding me my seat. I was most surprised. And embarrassed. Even though she had a reason to give up her seat: I was carrying a baby in a baby-carrying pack. I bought this pack in New Zealand back in February of this year, 2004. I had visions of me striding through the landscapes of Japan with Baby riding confidently in the front. But, when baby Cornucopia was a very little baby, she refused to be carried in the pack. She screamed and screamed and screamed and screamed. I will not say that I was upset by this. No. It would have been childish to have taken such a trivial upset seriously. I will say ... what will I say? I will say I immediately put the incident firmly out of my mind and never thought about it again until recently. That sounds about the right thing to say. Anyway, recently, recently being Tuesday 23rd November, the day of our visit to the zoo, we decided we would experiment with carrying baby Cornucopia in the bought-in-New-Zealand backpack, as she had consented to being carried by her mother in a Japanese baby backpack (one too small for me to wear comfortably.) Well, baby Cornucopia did scream at first, but she soon settled down. I carried her in the backpack as far as Hinodechou station, and then we put her in the pram, which had been brought along folded up. And, a day later, I took Cornucopia to the supermarket in the backpack. It's infinitely superior to the pram, particularly because the pram is a Japanese model with handles set at a length appropriate for a Japanese woman. My stride is a bit long (110 paces a minute to cover 100 meters) and I keep stepping on the wheels. I've tried modifying my stride but it's hard to break the habit of decades, so I end up walking beside the pram with one hand on the handle. Additionally, the streets in Japan tend to have narrow sidewalks with various obstacles which slow one down. Striding along, I really felt like Father. Photo below, taken at Hinodechou Station. Note that Father has one hand on Baby's head and one hand on Baby's foot. This lessens the chance of one of Baby's appendages getting scraped off. On the way to the supermarket the other day I did scrape my own right arm against some thorny branches which were sticking out into the sidewalk. No damage to me, but it did emphasize the fact that this mode of transport is not without its risks. Theoretically, Baby can be carried behind rather than in front, but I like to be able to see what's going on. |
 Straps of the baby-carrying pack are black and are hard to see against Father's jersey. The white-and-black strap belongs to a separate daypack which Father is carrying on his back. Baby masses close to eight kilograms at the time of the photo, but the weight is well-distributed and comfortable to carry. (This assumes that you are used to carrying weight.) |
 Pretty much everything is adjustable except the length of the handles, which are fine for an average-sized Japanese woman but too short for a Westerner's mile-eating stride. In my version of English a baby-carrying vehicle is a pram if Baby lies down in it but a push chair if Baby sits up in it. The device pictures is currently in push chair mode but can easily be modified to pram mode. Although the length of the handles cannot be adjusted, the handles can be moved so Baby faces either forward (toward the oncoming road) or backwards (toward the pushing parent.) |
|
|
|