Christmas Shoebox Party

Sunday we invited Kianah's class over to wrap and fill Christmas boxes to send to Hong Kong as part of Operation Christmas child. We also decorated cookies and had snacks. We certainly don't want to have a house full of screaming 6/7 year olds every weekend, but it is fun to do once and awhile! Kianah had a blast....and so did Tysei.

Mochi Pounding

Kianah went to another school today with her class to pound rice into Mochi. This is a traditional Japanese event. It was broadcasted on TV, although we missed it. A teacher from school (Thanks Akiko) took these photo's on her phone and sent them to us during the day. Kianah had a blast!

Day 4 was spent shopping/eating/relaxing and ended with the drive back to Kyoto. We left Shizuoka around 9pm and got in around 1am. The next day we went to Mount Arashiyama. We hiked up to a monkey park where more than 150 live and hangout. It was hilarious to just be hanging out with the monkeys. After we left the viewing area we met many on the way down the mountain.
We stopped to let the kids play at a park and a monkey wondered over to watch us...





Its ironic, but in this case...the people are in the cages. In order to feed the monkeys you need to go into a small feeding house. They can go quite crazy when they want more etc........I prefer to hang out with them in the nature, but it was fun for the kids to feed them.

Day 3

Day three of our holiday took us on a day-trip to the base of Mt Fuji. We visited an amusement park that had some pretty wild rollercoasters....thankfully we hung out at "Thomas Land" where we didn't have to wait in line for any attractions! Kianah and I had to have a taste before we left though...so we waited for 40min in a line-up with all the university students......we got our small thrill out of the way. Over all we had a FANTASTIC day!

Day Three Con't

After the Fuji-Q Amusement park we went to a resort that we took Kianah to as a baby. We had a great meal with Live music and then after a chilly walk and x-mas light viewing, we relaxed in an outdoor Japanese Hot Spring (obviously no photos of this one;)

Shichi go san

In Japan when children are 3, 5 and 7 they are celebrated and a formal ceremony takes place. Most girls wear traditional kimono. Kianah wore Shunsuke's sister's kimono from when she turned 7......more than 30 years ago. Here are some photo's from this event. Thanks to Jiji and Baba for all their preparations!

Shichi Go San

Photo's part 2

Saturday/Halloween

We drove the 4 hours to Shizuoka on Saturday. It was a gorgeous day and we stopped by a lake (Hakone) along the way for some treats, a walk and a play. We arrived around 4pm and met up with Shunya, Yoshino, Kiho along Shunsuke's parents and grandma. Kianah came up with the brilliant plan to trick-or-treat around the house. We came up with a schedule and we hid behind all the doors to each room (I think 11 in total).　I think the kids had as much fun as trick-or-treating around the neighbourhood!

YEAH.....5 days off

Well we started our Autumn holiday with a Halloween party at school on the Friday. Our Nanny Kiyoe, brought Tysei to join in the trick-or-treating. That evening we took the kids downtown to a yummy tonkatsu restaurant. It was nice to stroll the streets at night with the kids and feel very safe. Shunsuke even added in an impromptu bowling game while I shopped! We lest the next day for Shizuoka (Shunsuke's parents).