Tag Archive for 'bubbles'

Hakone Day Trip

Published on May 17, 2010 in Family, Japan and weekend. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , .

Friday night Tamie told me she wanted to do something spontaneous so we decided to head up to Hakone for the weekend. Hakone is a mountain area not too far from where we live. It’s a great place to visit what with all the trees and nature – a nice contrast to the concrete jungle/rice paddies we see daily. I really dug the idea but was somewhat surprised — the plan was to head up there and find a hotel for the night. I was surprised Tamie was being so adventurous, as usually everything is meticulously planned and roughing it means only a 4 star hotel.

We got up early-ish and headed out to catch the first of several trains. We booked a romance car (an odd name for the reserved seat train) that took us up to the Hakone-Yumoto. From there we took another, smaller train that criss-crossed up the mountain to a place called Gora. After getting off this train, we took a cable car up to Sounzan, another station on the mountain, where we got on the Hakone Ropeway, a gondola that took us to Owakudani — a place famous for hot springs and black eggs.

At Owakudani, we walked up a small path (with a thousand other people) to take a closer look at some of the hot springs and to get our fill of black eggs. The eggs are boiled in the hot springs, which turns them black. Legend says that if you eat one it’ll add seven years to your life.

When we finished with the eggs and photo opportunities, we took another gondola to Togendai, a station on the edge of Lake Ashi. Lake Ashi is something I’d been wanting to check out since I arrived in Japan. We’d been in and around Hakone several times and even driven and walked around parts of the lake. However, there’s a pirate ship that takes tourists from one side of the lake to the other. Yep, tourist trap. I think Tamie was in the minority as we rode that boat across the lake.

At the other side of the lake, we got off the boat and started to think about what we were going to do for the night. Tamie was expecting to find an information center where we could ask about hotels in the area… unfortunately there was no such information center. There was a hotel, however, and I went and asked about availability. As expected, they were booked solid. I asked about other hotels in the area and the guy kindly pointed out a ryokan (old-style Japanese hotel) across the street.

We went to check the ryokan out and it too was full up. When I explained our situation the guy said that on weekends, Hakone is pretty much booked up… he did offer us a room without dinner or breakfast, which was great except for the fact we didn’t see any restaurants around, Tamie wasn’t feeling well, and Layla was getting sleepy and hungry. In the end, we headed back to the dock to catch a bus back home, grabbing dinner at a restaurant near the train station before coming back. Not exactly the perfect ending we had in mind, but looking back on the day we had, the good times certainly outweigh any disappointment.

Today, we were a bit less adventurous. We headed to the local park to play with Layla and play she did. She crossed a rope bridge that she’d been afraid to cross since losing a shoe on it the last time. At one point she wanted to play with her ball but didn’t want either me or Tamie to touch it… until she realized it’s not a whole lot of fun to throw a ball and have to go get it yourself while your parents sat together watching. We ended up playing together again in no time. Eventually, the bubbles we brought came out — watching the joy Tamie gets out of blowing bubbles is more fun for me than actually blowing them. I think Tamie enjoys them even more than Layla does.

At the end of the day, we headed to off to do some grocery shopping, but not before stopping at Starbucks to get some pictures of Layla. At this point, we don’t even go because we like the coffee/frappucinnos – I think we just go to get another picture of Layla there. We certainly have enough of them.

Pictures, as usual, can be found at the gallery.

Hakone Gallery
Saturday in Hakone 		Ebina Gallery
Sunday in Ebina

Finally Spring is Here… At Least For Now.

Published on March 15, 2010 in weekend. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

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 :P ).

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:

Mom and Daughter
Last Week – Posers 		Starbucks Pictures
Saturday 		Park Pictures
Sunday

Farm Festival and a Day at the Park

Published on October 19, 2009 in Family, Japan and weekend. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , .

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:

No One Rains on Layla’s Parade

Published on October 5, 2009 in Family, Japan, Parenting and weekend. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

Weekends are supposed to be times of a little R&R and a lot of sleeping in. This weekend was a little bit different.

Saturday started like any other weekday, the alarm buzzing at a too early hour in the morning and the snooze button being overused in an attempt to gain ten more minutes of well-deserved rest. We had to get up early because there was a daycare event taking place that we needed to attend.

Thinking back to last year’s daycare day, the one with the race that I had to carry Layla from the start to the end as she cried throughout, made me all the more anxious to turn off the alarm and resume my dreams of lollipops and hand grenades (don’t ask…). Unfortunately, or fortunately, Tamie was more eager to go and got us all out of our beds and ready to go. Her parents were on their way to pick us up in their brand spanking new Prius (go Nissan).

After Tamie called the daycare to find out where the thing was actually taking place, we were all on our way. Interestingly, they had two different locations picked out, one for a rainy day and one for a sunny day. As we pulled up to the sunny day location, of course it started to rain. If only they’d had some way to forecast the weather and know that after a full week of rain that there’d be one more day of it. Ah, well.

The actual event turned out to be a bit of an eye opener. Layla, our shy, little, afraid-of-her-shadow daughter turned into a confident leader among babies. I guess standing a head taller than everyone else does something to boost her confidence. It was a huge difference from the year before, enough to make me happy we went and enough to make Tamie cry tears of joy as she espoused how proud she was to see Layla jump around rambunctiously.

We watched as kids of all ages danced and raced, but the most (or only, depending on who you ask) interesting times were when Layla was actively participating. The opening ceremonies had everyone dancing around and Layla killed. She had a race that I wish I could say she won, but I don’t really think there was a winner. Everyone who actually makes it to the finish line without help from a parent or daycare staff is considered a winner in my book.

Then the rain came. Not just any rain, a torrential downpour of typhoon-like proportions. The kids all huddled in a corner while the parents all crowded under a tree. The daycare staff scrambled desperately to get everything under cover but were too proud to accept our help when we offered it. Eventually, they moved everything and then everyone into the school’s gym where we continued to watch the kids put on a show.

More races, including one with Tamie and Layla collecting balls in a box and another with Tamie running around the gym with a ping-pong ball on a spoon, ensued until it finally closed up shop. Layla got a Mickey Mouse plate out of the deal and Tamie got some dish soap, so it wasn’t a total loss. Me? I got the satisfaction of seeing my daughter not only actively participate but seemingly enjoy herself at the same time.

Following the event, we took Tamie’s folks out for lunch to a local kushiyagi place (random pieces of deep fried food on sticks) to celebrate Layla’s success. When lunch was finished I took the girls home where they both crashed, Tamie on the bed and Layla on me. I let them sleep until 3:30, the time Tamie told me to wake her up as we were to meet up with some of her friends by 4.

At 4:30 we finally met up with Tamie’s friends. One of them was getting married the next day and they all wanted to do some shopping for costumes. Because the wedding was on October 4th, it was close enough to Halloween that they were having a costume party following the actual wedding ceremony. With cosplay so popular in this country, I was sadly disappointed with their choice of costumes – three matching headpieces that looked like takoyaki (octopus balls).

After the long, arduous shopping adventure, we headed for a restaurant for a quick bite to eat and a mug or two of beer. I didn’t realize how tired I was until after we got home and I fell asleep on Layla’s floor when putting her to bed… and then on the couch after Tamie woke me up and brought me to the living room. Looking back, I should have taken a siesta with the girls in the afternoon… nothing a couple beer didn’t fix =)

Sunday, the day of the wedding, and Tamie was up and gone by 10:30. Layla and I were together again for another adventure in Ebina. I took her to Vina Walk (as usual) to see dogs and babies (as usual), but this time she wasn’t feeling all that well so we came home after not too long. She slept for three hours while I watched the latest Star Trek. (cool movie). When she woke up, I took her to the park where she proceeded to climb up ladders and slide down slides, run from dogs and blow bubbles in the wind.

The laughter and joy came to a sudden, screeching halt when Layla was running and fell, scraping her hands and her knees on the pavement. Considering how often she does it, either she’s going to toughen up, get better balance or we’re going to have to get her some knee pads and wrist guards. I carried her home, stopping only to get the poor kid some ice cream at the grocery store. We had dinner, played and eventually she went to bed.

And, that, mon amis, is that.

Full gallery pictures (with full-sized images) at:

Daycare Gymnastics Day
Chilling With Layla While Tamie Parties at a Wedding