Tag Archive for 'long weekend'

Long Weekend, Short Week

Published on September 20, 2010 in Family, Japan and weekend. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , .

This weekend was a long weekend, due to today being “Respect for the Aged Day”. Not sure why it’s an actual holiday, but I’ll take it. Thursday this week is also a holiday (Autumn equinox) making this week a pretty short week. Gotta love it when that happens!

This weekend wasn’t especially busy, but we did manage to get out to do a couple things. Saturday we went shopping, looking for a new mattress for Layla for her new big bed. Tamie got it in her head that she wanted bunk beds in preparation of number 2, assuming we could just put the two kids together in one room from the get-go. I thought it best to wait until the second was old enough to sleep through the night before we considered that… Layla, however, loved the idea. Luckily, this time, I won out. We got a single mattress for her (although, I’m sure it fits into the bunk bed frame if need be)

That night Tamie wanted to have some meat for supper and who was I to argue? Barbecued beef sounds good to me anytime. We tried a local yakiniku shop, which from the outside looked like a hole, but inside turned out to be pretty decent. The old lady owner really took a shine to Layla, equally impressed that she spoke Japanese and was very polite. I knew she spoke Japanese, but I’m always impressed with how polite our kid is. I guess she gets that from Tamie.

Sunday we headed down to Hon Atsugi for what I thought was a small food festival, celebrating different foods from all across Japan. I think all of Tokyo showed up for it, as there were only about two million people milling about. Lineups ranged anywhere from 45 minutes to up to two hours! People were waiting 2 hours for 400 yen yakisoba, a food you can get at any festival in Japan. Thankfully, Tamie thought better of lining up and instead we bought some at the grocery store and she made it at home. Personally, I think her yakisoba is much better than the festival variety… and even if this particular festival’s yakisoba was supposed to be the best in all of Japan, I still think hers is better because I didn’t have to die in a two hour line to get it!

Layla, too, was anxious to have some food at the festival. When she hears the word festival now she associates it with the flavoured shaved ice she gets when we go. She was looking forward to it so much that she even agreed to walk all the way to get it, fighting the urge to ask me to carry her. And much to her credit, she did walk. Through two different festival sites. Only to find that there was no shaved ice booth. D’oh! We ended up at a cafe that sold the stuff, only at a 600% markup, but they added some frozen strawberries and a scoop of ice cream for the trouble. It was actually pretty good, and the price of admission paid for the air conditioning we enjoyed. After leaving the cafe, we found a booth selling the festival variety shaved ice, but by then Layla was satiated. And we were broke.

Today was the final day of our extended weekend and we didn’t really have any plans. Tamie had a dentist appointment at 10 and we were going to meet after that. She called me at 10:10 and said she was finished. Layla and I had just finished eating breakfast and were nowhere near ready to head out to meet her so she came back home. We ended up spending the day spoiling Layla (as opposed to every other weekend, eh?). We took her to the indoor kids’ fantasy land, the park for kids where most parents zone out in massage chairs, sit at slot machines or just read a book while their kids go wild. She loved it. After that, we went for lunch and she took her Mom on a train ride around the shopping centre. Finally, we ended up at an outdoor concert that broke out, as they often do, at the same shopping centre.

That’s about it. Check the gallery for more pics. Sorry for blurry, dark, or overexposed pictures. I’m still practicing with my new camera and I’m too lazy to filter out the bad pictures.

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Long Weekend In Hakone

Published on July 20, 2010 in Family, Japan and weekend. 2 Comments Tags: , , .

There was a long weekend here in Japan and we took advantage, renting a car and heading up to Hakone for the weekend. We booked a room at the Prince Hotel, showing up in the early afternoon, giving us enough time to catch a concert, check out the hotel grounds and grab some dinner.

The next day we hit up a nice breakfast, checked out the on-site aquarium (which turned out to be pretty decent), splash around in the water for a bit, summit the mountain and then get a good lunch on the lake. The sun was hot on the ground but on top of the mountain it was foggy and windy, which translated into a chilly (or refreshing, depending on who you ask) experience.

Layla fell asleep on top of the mountain, shivering in my arms. I wrapped her in my shirt, for whatever that could offer, and we took a look around while she slept. She was out for quite a while, not even waking up when we got on the cable car. It wasn’t until we were almost back at the hotel that her head popped up, eyes wide open and she said without missing a beat “Not windy anymore! No more chilly!”

Pictures from the trip are here:
HakoneClick Here

Oops… I Broke My Daughter.

Published on March 24, 2010 in Family, Hospital, Parenting and weekend. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Monday was a day that Tamie had to work while the rest of the country had off meaning I got to spend another day hanging out with Layla. What that means is that we slept in late, played with some toys at home, jammed on the guitar/ukulele for a while with our spiffy new guitar picks before heading out to face the day.

We headed to the park where playing ensued – Layla ended up making some friends. It was so cute – she wanted so badly to play on a kind-of hammock on the playground jungle gym but there were already kids playing so she waited patiently. One of the two kids’ dad saw Layla and pulled his kid off to let her play – I, in broken Japanese, said they should play together and he agreed until his son decided he had better things to do than play with some girl.

Not long after the boy left, several other girls climbed onto the hammock and then a couple boys too. Layla was loving it. I felt like such a mean old Dad when I smelt the package brewing in Layla’s diaper. The kids all yelled ‘bye-bye!’ as we headed to the washroom to change her diaper. By the time we got back, they’d all split back up and moved onto other things. Layla sat back down on the hammock and said she wanted someone else to sit with her… I climbed on, but she told me I was too heavy and she wanted a smaller boy. I was almost offended. :)

Layla eventually moved on, ditching the hammock for the slides, and then playing catch (she can catch! who knew?). At one point we were chasing each other and I was picking her up and swinging her around… the last time I swung her by her arms under my legs, a move I’ve done many times before, and she wasn’t happy. She stood up, then looked at me… and then the tears came! Her arm dropped to her side, limp. I asked her to move her arm but she refused, sobbing. When I touched it she cried out in pain. So I did what any good parent would do — I grabbed the kid and fled the scene.

I guess now is a good time to point out that this isn’t the first time Layla’s had pain in her arm after being swung around. She usually ends up fine after a couple minutes, so it wasn’t that big of a deal… or so I thought. I carried her home and she fell asleep on the way. She slept for a couple of hours after we got back – right up until the time we ate dinner. It was after she awoke and her arm still hung limp that I started to worry… she didn’t cry at all, even when I gently poked and prodded her arm. It wasn’t until I took he shirt off to give her a bath that the waterworks started again. So, again, I did wahat any good parent would do — I put Layla to bed without a bath that night.

The next morning, Layla got up still with one gimpy arm. We figured it’d be best to take her to see a doctor and get a professional opinion of just how badly I injured the poor girl. Tamie called a couple clinics to see which we’d go to – none took reservations and the one closest opened at 9, so we headed there as quickly as we could.

When we got to the medical clinic, it looked more like a senior citizen country club or something. There were old people overflowing out of the waiting room, and most of them were chatting away with each other. I couldn’t help but think it must be their usual Monday morning gathering place – it was certainly cheaper (and probably more convenient) than going to Starbucks. We ended up getting a number and told it’d be a long wait. We went home until around 10:30 or so, heading back when we thought our number would be called.

Back in the waiting room, we sweated it out with the golden oldies for at least another hour before we were finally called in to see the doctor. I don’t know if they don’t do reservations or they were just full up for that morning… it seemed like the numbers only got called one out of every four or five callings. The rest were called by name… my thought was they were the same Monday morning crowd with their same weekly reservations at the country club.

When we went in to see the doctor, I was pleasantly surprised when he asked if I preferred Japanese or English. Surprised by the simple fact he even acknowledged me given the fact Tamie was in the room, I answered in perfect Japanese that I preferred English. I said “英語” (that means “English”, surprisingly enough :) ). He asked me to sit on the bed, holding Layla with her bad arm pointed out towards him. I figured he’d want to take a closer look, poke around a bit, or at least ask me what happened… instead he grabbed her arm, bent it at the elbow, and in the blink of an eye said “Okay, she’s fine. I heard it. It clicked.”

“What the… ” I sputtered.

He explained that it was quite common for young kids to dislocate their elbows or shoulders and he, being the all-knowing doctor, knew how to fix it. I asked if it was something I could do at home and he shook his head. Parents are too emotional and afraid, he explained – we’d best take Layla in to see him if it happens again. Like that’s going to happen… At the very least, if it happens again I’m going to see if I can’t reset her arm before writing off an entire morning to bake in a stinky sauna full of sick, gossiping, old people…

Long Weekend, At Least For Some…

Published on March 22, 2010 in weekend. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , .

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
Saturday Pictures
Sunday 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.



Lions and Tigers and Mice, Oh My!

Published on October 13, 2009 in Family, Japan and weekend. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

This weekend, despite being a long weekend, was kind of a quiet one. We did, however, manage to make it out to the zoo we’d been intending to visit for the last couple weeks/months.

We were planning on going on Saturday but the weather didn’t really co-operate so we went on Sunday instead. So instead of zooing, we got our haircut, which can be a full-day activity. Tamie took Layla to visit the grandparents while I stuck around here. We have differing opinions on what a haircut entails and so go to different places to get our hair cut. I’ve gone to her place a couple times and the people there are quite nice, but I can find much better things to do with three hours of my time. My haircut this time – 22 minutes, and no army-style buzz cuts. Tamie’s? Her appointment was at 1pm, and when I called her at 4:30 she said she’d just finished. Different strokes…

The zoo we went to on Sunday was a smaller, freer zoo that we’d visited once before in Yokohama. Luckily the weather (and the time of our awakening) co-operated and we were able to attend.

We got there just after lunch and saw all sorts of creatures — Layla, as usual, was curious up until the point where the animals might actually touch her at which point she freaked and wanted to be carried. There were several peacocks walking freely (when not being harassed by kids) in the zoo, all of which scared the heck out of our brave little girl.

One section of the zoo was a kind of petting zoo, with chickens, chicks and mice for kids to manhandle. Even the smallest mouse was too much for our little princess, as she panicked and climbed up on me. I was a bit surprised when Tamie put the mouse on my shoulder as I thought Layla would have a heart attack, or worse, but she actually seemed okay with it. I guess so long as it wasn’t actually on her (or her mom wasn’t evilly trying to put it on her, she was okay).

The lion roared at us, causing all sorts of people to rush over and crowd around to see what the lion was doing, almost blocking our view. Gotta love the fact that the not-so-polite, little photographers who are a head shorter than me =).

The penguins were swimming in their little pool, all except one. Tamie’s theory was that it was still a bit young and losing its baby feathers… meanwhile, the lady beside us was telling her kid it was too old and couldn’t swim at such an advanced age. I’ll side with my wife, and not just because she’d be mad if I didn’t.

After the zoo, we headed down to a sketchy part of town to get some good meat in us. Sukiyaki, a beef hotpot that is oh-so-delicious, was the meal of the evening. It seems to be only a fall/winter dish here, despite the deliciousness. As such, this was the first time in months that we had the opportunity to have some. The fact that we had to walk past kinky massage parlours to get to it was all the better.

The actual restaurant was pretty nice and we got our own room all to ourselves. The kimono-clad waitresses were more than happy to serve us, especially with Layla being cute and charming as she is starting to learn to be. As it was a meal for two, Layla was taking only the parts of our food that she wanted… or that we didn’t want. As part of our appetizer we got a chestnut, which Layla devoured in seconds. Seeing as she seemed to like it, I asked the waitress for another beer and another chestnut… she asked if she should bring two at which point Layla jumped up holding three fingers up saying “pleeeeease”. She got her three chestnuts and I got another anecdote to write in a blog. Win-win, I’d say.

After several plates of meat, we were stuffed. Layla, not so much. She still wanted dessert and she was determined to get it. Here in Japan, it’s primarily the customer’s responsibility to yell at a waiter or waitress when they want something — ie. they don’t come and check on you. Yelling “Sumimasen” (“Excuse Me”) is something I’ve been trying to teach Layla to do but she’s usually either too shy or too quiet when she does. But not tonight — the paper walls shook with her sumimasen-ing. The waitress did come and when Layla said “dessert, please” it was with apparent joy that the waitress served it. Both plates to the baby.

Today (Monday) was another lazy day thanks to the Japanese national holiday, which I’ve just learned is called “Athletic Day”. We talked to my folks back in Canada for a while – they were shocked to see how tall Layla is. I went rollerblading on my new wheels (very fitting, considering the day). I realized two things — 1. It’s much better, in every way, to rollerblade on a full set of wheels. You get a smoother ride, a better stride, better acceleration and top speed, and 2. I’m even more out of shape now than when I tried to start rollerblading a couple weeks ago — guess I should do it more than once a month. Tamie went jogging, still training for her future marathon(s). Layla went to sleep, napping for over an hour. Then we went out for coffee. So yah, pretty typical lazy day.

I’m uploading pictures as I type and hopefully by tomorrow they’ll be ready. I’ll post a link to them when they are.

For now, here’s a sampler.