Friday 31 August 2012
When it is too hot to play outside try going...
...on a mission to the bottom of the ocean!
I pulled all the card that I had saved from the StarShip out of the cupboard yesterday, and Ebi-kun decided he wanted to find the Lost City Of Atlantis. This of course would need a submarine. We did work together building this one, we had a box with a clear plastic lid which made a perfect window and he has a periscope so I made a hole in the top for that. The other side had a lift up flap door using the hinges. It is all held together with the makedo pieces I talked about before. It still amazes me how few pieces you need to build a massive sturdy structure.
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Happy Birthday...
Maria Montessori! The Google guys Larry Page and Sergey Brin went to Montessori school as did Jeff Bezos founder of Amazon! I love todays Google doodle, do you recognise all the pieces?
Thursday 30 August 2012
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How to keep a 7 year old quiet for hours....
Ebi-kun used some of his money from Obon to buy himself a dino excavation kit, he as had a small version before and really enjoyed doing it so he was very excited to get one with his won money. The bones are set in a block of plaster of paris and before we did the digging outside but it has been far too hot so I said he could do it indoors. It is very messy/dusty though and because he had a bit of a cough I made him wear a mask when he was doing it.
Took him two days about 6 hours in all to dig all the bits out - which gave me a nice chunk of time to catch up on work! Ebi-kun and daddy and some one on one time in the morning and put all the pieces together, money well spent I think!
If I can make space in the freezer I might pull it apart when he is not looking and freeze the pieces in a tub of water so he can do it again, like the ice treasure boxes - but that will have to be done outside!
Wednesday 29 August 2012
How to stroke a shark....
Blimey, blogging about this holiday seems to be taking longer than the actual holiday did! Our last day we decided to visit the Sea Life park before heading home. I expected it to be a lot busier than it was, maybe the crazy stormy weather outside put many people off.
Ebi-kun checked his height, he is just over half the height of a tuna!
The most exciting thing in the Sea Life Centre is being able to stroke sharks. I must admit I was a bit apprehensive because the sign telling you this was next to the BIG sharks tank, turned out that the sharks and rays that you stroke are just little ones, no doubt they could take off a finger or two but I think they feed them before letting the kids in there! It was interesting to note that the different sharks all felt different, a first for me and that is about as close as I want to get thank-you-very-much.
Oh yes and the sting rays wanted in on the action too.
We all fell in love with this little fairy penguin, I am sure I could have sneaked him into my handbag.
I love all the colours of the different sea creatures, the boys get drawn in by all the big fish but it is the small pretty ones that I like.
And this is it, the last pic of the holidays, great time but I needed a holiday by the time we got home. Now I have a week of post holiday blogging to catch up on!
Tuesday 28 August 2012
Is there anything better...
than dinner with friends?
I met kate about 7 years ago, we met in Japan although we are from the same hometown. She recently returned to Japan after a stint in New York, where she produced an adorable baby girl, this is the first time I have had chance to catch up with her. And, as if that wasn't great enough I also got to meet the lovely Lulu too.
We booked a room in an Izakaya (pub) so that the kids could have a run round if they needed to, I told Ebi-kun that he was the baby sitter, he took his role very seriously and spent a lot of time entertaining M-chan.
Two little dickie birds...
Drawing on a magnetic drawing board, Ebi-kun has had one for years and still uses it.
We had a good gab, my poor husband couldn't get a word in edgeways, he managed to woo M-chan who is usually quite shy, hubby has a nack with little kids, I think he missed his calling, he should have been a kindy teacher!
And as it was almost Kates birthday we surprised her with cake and presents. It was great seeing her again and meeting M-chan and Lulu in person, after all this time., hopefully it won't be too long until we catch up again.
Monday 27 August 2012
And the answer is...
to the question, what is in the can?
I had some great suggestions on Facebook from vodka, hair product for doggys, candle, strawberries, air fresher, cherries, mechanically recovered hotdogs, flavored condoms, biscuits, peanuts, dog shaped sponge ball, dog toupee.... all very amusing!
But the answer is... a clock! Don't ask me why, Laura did actually get it right so I owe her ¥20!
We didn't actually go into town to do any shopping as such, we just needed to get out of the house and out of the heat so we went and had a nice lunch and a mooch around Loft, 8 floors of Japanese cool and silliness, a few of the many other items that made me smile...
Rememeber those plastic soldiers you had as a kid, well why not re-create a battle on your dinner with them?
And next time I go to a fancy dress party I will be going as... a rice ball? I suppose it would work for a potluck party hahaha.
Sunday 26 August 2012
How the Japanese package Doggy Style...
Time for some Sunday Silliness. We were in town the other day and I spotted these tins, they are about the size of half a baked bean tin, I can never get enough of Japanese packaging!
What is this poor dog wearing?
Can you guess what is inside? Pop your guess in the comments section below...
Dinoworld at Makuhari Messe
After the few days in Wakayama, we travelled to Chiba to got to the Dinoworld exhibit at Makuhari Messe. I am kind of torn about this exhibit, it was over priced in my opinion and could have been laid out better. There were some interactive things for the kids to do but many of the the quest were really long. I think with it being really hot day it didn't really help matters.
The big news in the dino world is that they now think that a lot of the dino had feathers, including T-rex and they had some pretty cool models showing what they think they would have looked like.
There were also lots of replicas of dinosaurs including the largest bones ever found (I think), this isn't it, it is of course Ebi-kun's favourite, Stegosaurus.
All in all, I expected it to take us much longer than 2 hours - at a slow pace, to get around. They did have a massive gift shop which of course you had to go through to get out. Ebi-kun had been given some money from Baa-chan and Jii-chan so he bought himself a kits to dig out bones from a block of plaster and a wallet to keep the rest of his change in!
We had arranged to meet friends at 4pm so we had a couple of hours to kill but we didn't know the area at all, it was waaaay to hot to go out so we ended up going to Lalaport an enormous shopping mall. The upside was it had a big play areas so Ebi-kun could get his wiggles out and I left daddy in charge and sneaked off for an hours mooch around the shops.
Saturday 25 August 2012
Mohikans, Cousins and fireworks...
Snappy title don't you think? Still playing catch up here. We got back from our fishy day out and the Japanese cousins had arrived. T-kun is now in 5th grade and had a tonne of homework to do, I felt really sorry for him because he just wanted to play with the other two but no, he had to finish all his homework first. So whilst he was slaving away over a hot notebook, Ebi-kun and Y-chan got busy building and doing puzzles.
After a dinner of yes, sashimi, They got the fireworks out. I am not a fan and even less of one when the blokes running the show are both drunk! Luckily nobody got hurt (except for the 72 mosquito bites that I got in the space of 10 minutes) and the kids thought it was great.
Y-chan had got dressed up in her yukata so Ebi-kun wanted his hair doing then of course, as soon a T-kun saw it, he wanted his doing too, so a final pic of the cool kids....
Back home November 5th is the day we celebrate with fireworks, I still find it odd watching them in the summer, when is firework season where you are?
Friday 24 August 2012
Thursday 23 August 2012
Water and fish
Our second day in Wakayama basically con sited of water and fish one way or another. First the boys went swimming, Ebi-kun has come along way in the pool, last year he would panic if his face got wet, this year he managed to swim about 5m with his face in the water. Not quite up to Olympic standards yet but slowly getting there.
Next was lunch and I have to say, this is the most fun kids lunch I have ever seen, anywhere. It was build your own sushi, so they get a tray with everything they need then they can make it themselves, Ebi-kun LOVED it.
After eating fish (well, not me) we went to the aquarium, it isn't as big as the one in Osaka but it was also about 1/10th of the price to get in.
When we arrived back at Jii-chan and Baa-chan's house, Ebi-kun's cousins had arrived, of course there was sashimi for dinner, the perfect way to finish off a fishy day!
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