Ball | Japanese Crackers

Finally, after many days of rain, snow, sleet and just plain coldness, the spring season seems to be upon us. This weekend was especially nice, with the sun beaming down from above, warming our hearts and our homes. For the first time in a long time, we had the windows open and the fresh air blowing through. It was nice.

Saturday, we did nothing more than some brief shopping and a bit of relaxing outside sipping on frappuccinos and coffee at our local Starbucks as we people watched and ate lunch.

Sunday (March 14) is White Day, and although it sounds like a day that celebrates guys like me it, unfortunately, is not. White Day is the chocolate-company sponsored sister holiday to Valentine’s Day here… On Valentine’s Day, women are obligated to buy every man they know some form of chocolate, much to the chocolate companies’ delight. On White Day, it’s the opposite obligation — men buy for women. So, I had to pick up chocolates for all the ladies in my life, at least in Japan (sorry Mom ).

Saturday night, ie. White Day’s Eve, Layla was eager to crack open the chocolate we bought. Not one to say no to such a cute kid, we cracked open Tamie and Layla’s chocolates after the nice dinner Tamie prepared. Tamie was anxious to try the chocolate we got her, but so was Layla. A cat fight nearly broke out as they argued over who would get which chocolate. Luckily, Layla and her mom were able to work it out and eventually shared it all. Even with me, the white guy! =)

After the dessert was done and put away, play doe was remembered (we’d just bought it at the dollar store earlier in the day). Layla was eager to play with it, and I brought it out while Tamie played games on her phone… the seemingly disinterested Mom eventually came over and after numerous claims of not being creative and not knowing how to use play doe, she ended up creating many things – from cakes to frogs to airplanes! She put my sad little multi-colored duck to shame… Layla, too, was good a master at the play does… I guess I’ll practice when they’re in bed.

Sunday was another nice day. I’m not sure how the morning was as we didn’t wake up until after noon. We had a nice pancake breakfast/lunch/afternoon tea around 2, before heading out. We were going to go the park, but before going I needed to stop and get some pictures for my passport application. It was only supposed to take 15 minutes, but seemed to take a lot longer… here’s hoping the pictures are “good enough” for the strict passport regulations.

At the park, we bubbled, we snacked, we balled, we slid, and jumped… at least Layla did all that… Tamie and I each did some subset of those. By 17:30, the sun was setting and we headed down to Vina Walk for some dinner at a decent fish Izekaya (Japanese bar/restaurant). The special tonight was whale, and Layla loved it… but only after we told her it was dolphin. What a kid.

After supper, Tamie went grocery shopping and I took Layla to get dessert – ice cream at the Baskin Robbins. She ate all her food so she deserved it. She even tells her toys now that if they want dessert they have to eat all their food. It’s so cute. It’s not so cute when she tells me the same thing. =)

Pictures? Got plenty… Check them out:

Last Week – Posers

Saturday

Sunday

Saturday was a day of a farm festival in Isehara, the city Tamie’s parents live in. They wanted to take Layla and we were more than happy to oblige – Tamie’s always excited to expose Layla to terrifying animals like mice and chicks. Layla seemed excited to go too, talking about how she wanted to see and pet rabbits at the fair.

After what should have been a quick stop at the hospital for Layla’s routine checkup for her asthma, delayed only by a swine flu outbreak in our city and a hospital computer system that went down, we were off to see the farm animals.

The festival was a bit bigger than last year’s, with a lot of people milling about like the livestock they were gawking at. Layla summed up all of her courage and milked a fake cow. Unfortunately with her courage sapped, by the time we got to the petting portion of the festival, she was scared stiff of all the animals running around her. Even the bunny she was so anxious to pet was terrifying.

Tamie’s sister joined us in the petting pen. She tried to get Layla to pet a rabbit to no avail. Even grandma was getting into the act — she promised the cowardly little girl popcorn if she could touch a baby goat just once. Layla, too smart for her own good sometimes, knew grandma would be getting her popcorn regardless and ignored the goat completely. So instead of petting animals, we went and got some festival food. And popcorn.

After the festival we went back to the house to have a deliciously homemade Sukiyaki meal. Twice in two weeks! Sorry Tamie, but I love it. Layla crashed on the way home, ragdolling in my arms before we made it back to the apartment. I bet she dreamed of ferocious bunnies and scary chicks.

Sunday was almost a typical Sunday. A typical Sunday involves waking up late, rollerblading, Tamie jogging at some point and starbucks-ing. We woke up late-ish, Layla waking up around 10.

I rollerbladed 8.34km, hitting a maximum speed of 25km/h and maintaining an average speed of around 12km/h… yep, my google phone is amazing! =) Highlight of the trip was almost running over a praying mantis! I’d never seen one before and wasn’t sure if what I saw was really a praying mantis and not just a green leaf on the sidewalk (it’s hard to make out such small things when you are flying at 12km/h!). When I got home I asked Tamie in disbelief if Japan had such cool bugs and the disgust on her face told me yes.

After I showered, we were getting ready to go out to starbucks. It was such a nice day outside, I suggested we head out somewhere else, and I knew the perfect place. Instead of our regular trip to Vina Walk in search of musicians, magicians, dogs, babies and frappuccinos, we headed out to the park we used to frequent. With Layla being bigger, she was able to use the playground jungle gym with a lot more confidence and independence.

Hours were spent playing with slides and rope bridges, balls and bubbles, running and laughing. It was a good time and great to see Layla having such a good time amongst the thousand or so other kids at the park.

Galleries:
Farm Festival
A Day at the Park

Let me know how slow the loadtimes are for the galleries. I’m trying to work on a new interface and am wondering how fast the current ones are.

Previews for the gallery: