We talk about raising kids in Japan even though we’ve only raised one, about
schooling even though we didn’t attend here below the university level, and
about various digressions.

Transcript

K: So, lately I’ve been thinking a lot about having babies
and raising babies in Japan. And educating them and just all things babies.

C: Okay, but you know that we’re beyond that right? Rasta’s
25, and I am not going to participate in any having babies project.

K: So, but if I did have a baby, we’d be super rich because

C: We would be because both of us have been surgically
sterilized, so

K: Yes. Well, I don’t think of mine as surgical
sterilization. I had a hysterectomy.

C: It is litera- yes.

K: I don’t think of it as surgical
sterilization.

C: Okay.

K: Like, I didn’t have the
hysterectomy to be sterilized.

C: Right.

K: So, you did get surgically
sterilized. You had the vasectomy for the purpose of sterilization.

C: Yes.

K: And I had cancer, so that’s (laughs)
completely different motives for having those bits removed.

C: Yes.

K: You didn’t have really- you had
really tiny bits removed because I did watch your vasectomy.

C: Right.

K: And that made him so nervous. I
don’t know why he offered to let me be in the room if it was going to make him
nervous.

C: Yeah. “Hey do you want to
watch? What, you’re saying yes? Now I’m nervous.”

K: Yeah because I was like “yes,
please, I want to watch surgery.”

C: Okay. And that was only under
local anesthesia, so I was awake.

K: Mmm. Not really.

C: I wasn’t lucid, but I was
awake.

K: You think you were awake. I
don’t think you were awake.

C: I think I was awake.

K: I don’t think you were.

C: Okay.

K: So, just bam, right out the
gate with a digression. So, just straight up, I blame all our digressions on
you. I feel like I am laser focused always.

C: You are laser focused, and
today you are laser focused on having babies.

K: (laughs) No. I’m laser focused
on when Rasta has babies. The decision to do like… public local school in Japan
or international schools in Japan.

C: Mmm.

K: And here’s the quandary with
the international schools: because of my position as a therapist in Nagoya, I
have worked with heads of a lot of the international schools, and I’ve worked
with a lot of teachers. And here’s the thing, all of the teachers say, “I don’t
recommend my school.”

C: Mm. That’s tough.

K: And that’s like- yeah, so, and
even like some people in head positions are like “I don’t recommend my school.”

C: Uh-huh.

K: So that’s like “whaaat?” And
the international schools here cost bank.

C: Yes they do.

K: They cost grip.

C: Yes.

K: So I think that’s so weird. So,
I don’t personally have any… a couple of the schools, I’ve gone and sat in the
classes and stuff, but I don’t have a high… a high view of schools in general.

C: Right.

K: So we did a hybrid- if you’re a
regular listener you already know this- we did a hybrid of public school and
homeschooling, and it worked out great for us.

C: Public, private, and home, yeah.

K: Yeah.

C: But Rasta was out of elementary
and secondary education by 12, so.

K: Yeah because he graduated high
school and went into college.

C: Right.

K: So, for his kids, like… raising
a bilingual kid, everybody feels like I’m an expert on that because Rasta is bilingual
and bicultural, and I think it looks- he makes it look effortless. It was a lot
of blood sweat and tears.

C: It was.

K: Mostly tears on my part.

C: Yeah.

K: Mostly sweat on my part. And