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 |