Tag Archive for 'Ebina'

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Long Weekend, At Least For Some…

Published on March 22, 2010 in weekend. 0 Comments Tags: Ebina, long weekend, park, playground, pool, shopping, Vina Walk, water, windy.

This weekend was (still is =) a long weekend here in Japan. At least, for those of us not working on a very busy project for a car company that shall remain nameless… Tamie had to work on Saturday and she has to work again tomorrow (Monday), so while the rest of the country gets a special 3 day weekend, the employees in her group get a special 1 day weekend. Nice!

So Saturday, I got the opportunity to take care of Layla for the day. I took her to the park because she wanted to go on a big slide, but she never actually went on it. Instead she discovered that she is able to jump across the tires that are set up that she’d been, up until Saturday, afraid to attempt. She was so proud that she made it across that she did it four or five times in a row. On the fifth time, she fell and cried something fierce, but eventually got up and played again… on another part of the playground.

Eventually, the kid got hungry and we were off to grab something to eat. I offered everything from rice to burgers to waffles to pasta but she wanted Starbucks. I’m beginning to think we go there far too often. Regardless, I took her there and we sat and watched people walk by as I took about a million pictures of her eating and sucking back her frappuccino.

When the music started playing from the band downstairs, we bailed on the chilling and went to take a look. It was a band who’d played Ebina before, but for good reason – the crowd seemed to really get into it, singing along, waving towels and dancing! A much livelier crowd than I usually see at the free concerts every weekend.

We met Tamie for dinner later that evening, yakiniku was the meal of choice (ladies’ choice, and a good one at that!). We bbq’d up chowed down on a lot of meat that night. We even a bit of vegetables too — to satisfy Tamie’s momly instincts.

After dinner, we headed home. Climbing a set of stairs, Layla nearly passed out. I don’t know what they put into her orange juice, but the poor kid collapsed as Tamie caught her. It wasn’t until I asked he if she wanted some chocolate and to be carried that she came to and promptly climbed up into her mom’s arms.

Sunday was a day for the family, albeit a lazy one. It wasn’t until the afternoon that we even got mobile and headed out to do some shopping. As Layla is getting older, she is getting into the more advanced stages of daycare — the strict requirements are getting even stricter. We need to get a bunch of supplies, things such as bags of various sizes, play-doe with associated tools, and SIXTEEN different colour crayons. Why sixteen? Because it seems like they only get sold her in packs of 12.

With the daycare shopping out of the way, we let Layla check out the kid’s arcade that houses rides and games for young kids. They must make a killing there as it’s always busy and the games and rides are a minimum of 100 yen and last about a minute. I see some parents in there with there kids for a lot longer than a couple minutes (ie. they are there when we get there and still there when we leave). Luckily Layla isn’t the type of kid to make a fuss after only one ride… at least, not yet. After riding the Thomas the Tank Engine ride for 45 seconds, Layla was happy to go. She was even happier when one of the employees gave her a snack on the way out.

We ended up at Vina Walk shortly after shopping. There were kids playing in the small water pools there, despite the strong, cold winds blowing that day. Of course, seeing those kids, Layla wanted to take a turn. We sat by the pool as she debated whether or not she really wanted to go in. She slowly took off her jacket and socks and rolled up her pants. By the time she got down to the water and touched it, 15 minutes must have passed. Once she was in, though, she had a blast!

Check out the pictures here:

Saturday Pictures

Sunday Pictures

This video was taken Sunday night, after we got a diaper delivery. Layla loves playing in the box and I love playing with her. I got a kick out of the video, I hope you do too. Click on it to go to youtube to see it larger/higher def.

Finally Spring is Here… At Least For Now.

Published on March 15, 2010 in weekend. 0 Comments Tags: ball, bubbles, chocolate, Ebina, frappuccino, park, playdoe, spring, Starbucks, white day.

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

From Parks to Aquariums

Published on February 21, 2010 in weekend. 0 Comments Tags: aquarium, Ebina, fish, hamster, juggling, Layla, park, playground, sobuki, tokyo, Tokyo Sea Life Park.

This weekend was like any other weekend with the exception of an early(ish) checking of the status of a server at work. Everything looked okay, thank goodness, or this weekend would not have been nearly as good as it was!

Saturday we called my folks, who just returned from a trip to Calgary, and they seemed quite happy. It was a rare Friday night that they were home and not out gambling (or something). Auntie Gina was there so we got a chance to talk with her as well. Layla impressed all by folding laundry for the webcam — you got to start them young!

Tamie had a dentist appointment so I chilled with Layla while she headed off to get her teeth checked. We met up afterward at the train station and headed off to the park for a day of letting Layla play, and play she did. Hours passed before we finally headed off for “lunch”, which ended up being an early dinner at the Outback — hamburgers all around! Even Layla had a Joey burger and ate almost most of it, earning a balloon out of the deal.

Sunday, we Tamie’s sister came to pick us up and head in to Tokyo to see an aquarium. The plan was to leave at 8:30~9:00, but as is often the case, we didn’t get away until 10ish. After a long drive but a quick nap in the car later were arrived at Tokyo Sea Life Park! The nearly full parking lot was a bit intimidating, but thankfully, it wasn’t so bad inside the aquarium.

Overall, I’d say the aquarium did provide some entertainment but it was a bit lacking compared to the Enoshima aquarium we frequent. After being impressed with the shark tank that greets you, the main tank (judging by size) was nearly void of fish. There were a lot of smaller tanks with interesting creatures to see, but none of them really interested Layla — she got it in her head she wanted to see penguins… so off we went to see the penguins! The poor penguins… as we approached the penguin pen, the smell was a bit off. We quickly realized it was because they were doing some kind of maintenance on their pool so they didn’t have anywhere to swim! 10 days without a pool! They should have dumped them into the main pool.

We spent a lot of time around the touching pools where Layla tried hard to be brave. She did make progress though – she touched the water on more than one occasion. Her penultimate achievement for the day was after a presentation about star fish, they offered to let kids touch them and she actually got in line, went right up to the front and poked one! Once! It was a crowning achievement and one she looked so proud of.

Right before we left, I saw the fish in the shark tank were swimming about, all over the place. When we first arrived all the fish were at the top of the tank while the sharks were at the bottom… I was hoping to see some feeding but the sharks seemed to be on a diet or something. As I was busy taking bad pictures, Layla got mad because I wouldn’t let her play with my camera… I told her to wait a minute – her response? “Time to go!” before grabbing her Mom’s hand and heading for the exit. She’s soooo cute, eh?

On the way back to the car, we stopped to catch a show by a street juggler, Sobuki. He put on a good show for the large crowd and had my camera batteries not died I’d have a picture of him juggling knived while balancing on multiple boards/blocks on top of a cylinder on a trunk. Hard to explain, but there are pictures from right before the batteries died so take a look. =)

Back in the car, it was another long drive/short nap before we were home putting together the 108 piece puzzle Layla insisted she wanted from the gift shop.

Playground Fun

Tokyo Sea Life Park

Happy (Belated) Valentine’s Day!

Published on February 16, 2010 in weekend. 0 Comments Tags: Ebina, isehara, Japan, sushi, valentines day.

Saturday, we had a doctor’s appointment to ensure Layla’s health. She’d been coughing and sniffling all week and we were concerned that she was having a recurrence of her asthma attack, but luckily the doc said she was fine. Except for the extra medication we have to give her. We went for a nice breakfast after the appointment and then headed back home where I napped with Layla while Tamie went out for a massage. Tamie was meeting some friends for a girls’ night out that night, so I spent the evening with Layla. We visited the pet shop to see the dogs (they have a saint bernard puppy there now – only $2500!) and went to the kids’ floor in the department store so she could flirt with boys and play with toys… All in all, it was a good night for everyone, although Tamie might have had a bit of a headache the next morning

Yesterday was Valentine’s Day and the custom here is for women to give chocolates to the men. So I had to meet as many girls’ as I could — we actually spent the day at Tamie’s folks’ place, heading over there in the afternoon to have a nice sushi dinner. We’d been planning on buying them sushi to thank them for the time they spent with Layla while she was in the hospital and the schedules all finally worked out. Nothing better than sushi, beer and chocolate! The perfect Valentine’s Day, I’d say.

Pictures of the weekend here:

Saturday
Sunday… TBD.

Finally a Chance To Play

Published on February 7, 2010 in weekend. 0 Comments Tags: Ebina, happy, Layla, park, slide.

Today was supposed to be a hectic day with a full schedule, starting from the early morning… Unfortunately (or perhaps not), things didn’t quite go according to plan.

We started out this early Saturday morning with a daycare thing for Tamie to go to, a hospital visit for Layla, a remembrance ceremony at a temple for Tamie, a lunch with the grandparents, and then dinner. It started out well enough – Tamie made it to the daycare and I got Layla to the hospital on time. We even bumped into one of Layla’s former inmates as they were leaving. That was about the only smile I saw on Layla’s face the whole time we were in the hospital.

Layla clung to me, telling me that she didn’t want to see any nurses. She freaked out when one nurse came over with a scale to weigh her… I’m not sure why it’s at all important to her lung condition (and they have never weighed her before, plus I could have told her if she’d just asked), but instead we had to not only put the screaming kid on the scale, we first had to fight to take off her shoes.

We waited in the waiting area with all the other sick kids, some wearing masks, one screaming at the top of his lungs. Layla quietly sat on my lap sucking her thumb, watching closely every time a hospital staff walked by. When we were eventually called, we met the doctor (who speaks no English to go along with my not speaking any Japanese). She asked “Genki?” (meaning, “Healthy?”). I said “Yep.” So she listened to Layla’s breathing and checked her throat and told me she was okay but to come back again next week. Easiest check-up ever.

Just as we were wrapping up, Tamie knocked on the door and the proceeded to talk for a while… turns out the doctor wanted to see Layla again next week because she’s pregnant and not going to be there at what would be the regular scheduled time. Come March, the doctor we’ve finally started feeling comfortable with is going to be gone for a year. Something to consider when you get a female doctor, I guess…

After the appointment, I took Layla home and Tamie headed off for her temple ceremony. We were to meet at noon in Isehara when everything was done to all go out for lunch. I took Layla to the pet store so she could look at sleeping dogs through glass cages before heading off to meet. We waited for over 30 minutes before bailing. Turns out things were backed up at the temple, but Tamie wasn’t able to send or receive calls. So, unfortunately, we missed the planned lunch.

Instead of going to lunch, I took Layla back home for a while so she could take a nap – she was starting to fall asleep in my arms on the train. We played for a bit before I decided a trip to the park might be fun. The sky was blue, the wind was cold, but the day was still young.

When we first got to the park, brave Layla looked at it and blanched. She saw the big playground and instead of feeling happy or excited, she was scared and wanted to be held. I was a bit surprised as she used to love this place, pre-hospital stay. So I picked her up and carried her over to the playground and she slowly started warming up to the idea of actually playing… so long as I held her hand.

She eventually dragged me all over the place, getting her ‘playground-legs’ back under her. She was very timid to climb the steps and ladders and things at first, but by the end she was telling me she wanted to go by herself and to only wait and watch. That’s the independent Layla I remember, and I was quite happy to see her getting back to her old self. I’m not sure, though, if she didn’t want me around because she wanted to be independent, or because she was enamored with all the boys running around and didn’t want me to embarrass her…

As the sun set, the wind was getting cold and we came back home to meet Tamie. Apologies were said and accepted before she showed us the bags of loot that she brought home. Leftovers from the big lunch became our dinner and a bunch of souveniers from her parent’s latest adventures (thanks for that, ba-ba and ji-ji!) became our dessert before the two girls went to play in Layla’s playroom.

I posted some pictures today (as requested). Check them out here: