New Year's Eve

In Japan, New Year's Eve, New Year's Day and the few days afterwards are

the time when people spend time with family at home.

Following the traditional custom,

the Kawano family got together for the New Year's Eve dinner.

Milo was happy to hang out with Toshi jiji

and Sachi baba.

Milo played with uncle Taka as well.

It was nice to see his cousin, Yamane.

They had the story time together like good boys.

Then after that,

they got into troubles together

and more.

The traditional evening meal on the New Year's Eve is

Soba (buckwheat) noodle, called "Toshikoshi Soba"

("Toshikoshi" means "ending the old year and entering the new year").

People eat Toshikoshi Soda

for their wishes for health and longevity in the year to come.

This is Soba noodle.

and we all ate Toshikoshi Soba!

YAY!

yay...

Konnichiwa Goto san

Milo did his 1st train ride...

with this American tourist

to hang out with this gang!

It was really nice to see you guys in Japan!!

Fish Market

As a part of preparing for the new year party,

we went to the local fish market.

Here are some photos:

Also, we stopped by here...

Oh, Hello!

(Kayoko's papa san!!)

Nippon!

When we arrived in Japan, a whole Kawano famnily was waiting for us.

Surprise!

Hi everybody.

one more...

Aki, open your eyes!

(I know you are reading this.)

Some photos with cousin Yamane.

Milo, say hiiiiiiiiiiii.

Milo, smiiiiiiiiiiile.

Here we go!

That's the cute smile.

We all made it!!!!!!!!

Milo's 1st Flight

In the super early morning of Dec 29,

we headed to the PDX to catch our flight to go to Japan.

This was Milo's first experience flying,

so his parents were pretty nervous about how he would act

especially because Milo had been way too wild...

Here is Milo's 1st airplane ticket:

He was so hyper around the gate, running around,

and checking every single passenger.

Silas was chasing after Milo.

Milo wanted to cruise around more.

This was still 6 am...

Silas looked so exhausted already...

After taking a short flight from Portland to Seattle,

we got a 5 hour layover in Seattle.

So...

Milo started running again...

and Silas was after him...

At the moment, these were what Milo's parents were thinking:

"Oh my god, what's he gonna do on the airplane...?

Will he be fussy and freaking out in the limited space?

Do we have to walk the aisle with him over and over?"

HOWEVER!

Milo was such an amazing boy on the flight!!!

He learned all the airplane safety features.

He enjoyed listening to some music.

He played on the floor.

(We got 5 empty seats in a row, so Milo got a big instant play area!)

Milo sat in his seat happily,

and enjoyed his meal.

Then...

He took a nap...

What a nice boy!

Hey Japan,

we will be there soon :)

Japan Trip

As most of you have already known,

we had been in Japan for 3 weeks over the New Year of 2012.

After the trip, we have suffered horrible jet lag,

and we could not get a chance to deal with over 3000 photos,

which we took during our vacation.

From now on,

we will post our vacation reports little by little,

so stay with us!

For the further posts, we will change the "posting date"

to the close date when the actual events happened...

All packed!

Milo will go to his first Japan trip from tomorrow.

Yuri's suitcase is good to go...

Milo is ready and waiting!