hanging out with Rena

We hung out with some of our friends,

and had a dinner with Rena.

Earlier, Milo was skating on the street in Shibuya,

but when we got the restaurant,

he fell asleep.

After this, Milo had the biggest melt down saying he wanted to eat a pizza.

(he was just too sleepy and did not like to be woken up.)

Oh it was tough one, but the good thing was Shibuya was such a noisy town...

bath time

uncle Silas

picking up his niece Tamaki from her daycare.

bike to the dinosaur park

This is typical look of a Japanese mama with two kids:

(it was hard to keep the balance first but pretty fun indeed!)

After we played a lot

Papa wanted to ride it too.

Keena did not like the idea.

(actually, she was just sleepy...)

1st day at the school

When we dropped Milo off at school, he cried A LOT.

However, his teacher told us that he had such a good time beside that.

So we asked her what exactly he was like at the school.

She said "Milo played with the toy kitchen with the girls,

joking and gigging with them.

Oh, also he was singing jingle bells!"

Yeah, all sounds like Milo... 

It must not be so easy to go to the school in the middle of the school year

with all other kids who speaks perfect Japanese.

However, we believe that this experience will be precious in his life.

After we picked him up,

we stopped by here and enjoyed the sunshine.

We gave Milo a big hug too.

Japanese preschool

Milo joined a Japanese preschool for 2.5 weeks in Japan.

We wanted him to make some Japanese friends in his age,

to play with them, to learn about Japanese custom and culture 

and to feel that Japan is his second home.

Also...  Yuri really really wanted to see Milo in the school uniform!

Look at this cutie!!!

He was not so happy to be away from her, though...

Shibuya to Yokohama

We took a train to Shibuya.

The big crosswalk was not only crazy thing there.

This was a homeless house.

We stopped by Paddlers and hung out with Kato san.

They don't serve milk,

but somehow Silas had his own milk in his pocket...

Then we took another (packed) train with two sleeping children to Yokohama

for...

the skate video premiere.

Now both children were excited to see!

new bath tub

Keen loved it.

Kamihira Park

The play structure at Kamihira park was amazing.

The path with the soft coral looking... something,

the long tube,

and the long long roller slide.

Who won't have fun here...?!

And the park was in the walking distance from jiji's factory.

We stopped by the factory,

and jig showed us around with his machine using demonstration.

hina ningyo

March 3rd was Japanese girls' day, and people celebrate the day with "hina-ningyo,"

a set of ornamental dolls on the platforms covered with a red carpet.

The dolls represent the emperor, empress, attendants, 

and musicians in traditional court dress of the Heian period.

The city hole in Konosu had the great collection of hina-ningyo just like this:

dinosaur park

Milo named Undou Ko-en "dinosaur park" because of this stracture.

He played soccer with a boy he met there.

Omiya Park

After the lunch, we wen to Omiya Park, which has Hikawa Shrine, 

a mini zoo,

and some fun rides.

Of course, Milo loved there although it was such a  freezing cold day!

group photo from the birthday lunch

We wanted to take a photo of Oba-chan with all grate grandchildren,

but they were too wild to take the photos together...

     

birthday lunch

The biggest reason that we went back Japan

was to have a birthday party for

Yuri's Oba-chan's (grandmother) who turned 98 years old 

and Keena who turned 1 year old.

We had a nice birthday lunch and cerebrated their birthday.

First, the flower boys showed up as a surprise.

Happy Birthday Oba-chan.

Happy Birthday Keena.

All grate-grand children enjoyed playing together more than the lunch,

but it was so nice to see Oba-chan.

She is 98 years old, but she still has her own vegetable garden

and always gave us her home grown vegetables and home made fermented food etc.

She owns her bike shop, and she can still patch a tire.

The hardworking Oba-chan has such beautiful hands.

We were so happy that Keena was bon in the same day as this healthy and strong lady!