Thursday, March 27, 2014

Tofu Utaiya

We are on a break from BSF so I have two weeks of Tuesdays with a babysitter but no leaders' meeting. I am using the free time to try some nice restaurants I have had on my restaurant bucket list. On Tuesday we tried Tofu Utaiya, a little oasis right in the middle of Tokyo next to Tokyo Tower, with a filling menu that was centered around tofu dishes. The food was exquisit and beautiful, and the company was fabulous. 

When I came home the kids and I had some backyard fun on the balcony blowing bubbles. They are simply growing up. I caught them holding hands briefly on Thursday on our walk to the climbing gym. I am thankful for the break I had on Tuesday for an adult lunch and also for the chance to stay home wiht my kids. God is so good and his blessings are abundant.


March...a month of goodbyes

It seems like we are always saying goodbye in Tokyo. It is fairly transient and people come and go often. We hosted a goodbye party for our Tuesday party friends as one family moves to Nagoya. For the party everyone stayed until 11:30. Nobody wanted to leave. Last night we had dinner together, the moms and kids, at the mall next door. After the restaurant nearly kicked us out, we went to a family's apartment and had after dinner tea. I am so thankful for this community. They have helped my Japanese, but they have also been family in our building. The kids get along tremendously and none of us are locals from Tokyo so we all know what it is like to be away from family. We will miss them every Tuesday.

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Scrapbook Day - March 14, 2014

For this month, scrapbook day fell on a Friday, which is a relatively busy day for us. In the morning we go to music class for the K Man and Miss M does Japanese. After a quick bite with friends and a play at the Toyosu Gas Museum, we went home, re-packed bags, and biked to swimming lesson for Miss M. On this particular day, I was telling myself this would be the last swim lesson. I really want my kids to learn how to swim at a young age. In the big city, we do not have lots of access to public pools and they are not exposed to it as much as if they would be living in southern America with backyard pools or summers spent at a country club. After getting rid of Miss M's water warts, she was finally able to start swimming in December. However, recently I felt like it was too much and thought we could just take her to an indoor pool on the weekends as a special date with daddy. She was not really LOVING the swim class so I thought no harm done. Well, on this particular day, she broke through her shell with the teacher and other kids in the class (it takes her a bit to warm up to people). She came out of the class telling me how much fun she had and how much she liked it. FYI, I had not told her I was thinking of dropping it. So now I am back to square one, trying to discern how best to spend our time. My husband suggested I write everything down and see what our week looks like. Then he and I can talk through it, as I need to verbally process, and see what we need to let go, what we need to keep and how we need to readjust. We ended this particular Friday with curry dinner and family fun in the evening with daddy while Mama went to hot yoga. Here are some recent pics of the kids and their growth. 

We can smell spring

Spring is in the air in Tokyo. Today we had a lot of rain and colder temps, but in the last week or so we have seen glimmers of spring. The kids get so excited when we walk past a sakura tree in bloom. There are a few throughout the city with some early blooms and if we see one the kids yell "SAKURA!" I guess this is their Japanese side coming out. They want to stop and take pictures of every sakura bloom they see. Tuesday I went for a run early in the morning. I saw the full moon set and the beautiful sun rise. It was breathtaking. To see both, the moon and the sun, doing what they have been doing for thousands of years, I was reminded of the bigness of God, Creator God, and how intricately he has created everything in this universe to work so well, from the moon and sun, to our bodies with muscles, bones and systems that make everything work. It truly is amazing. So here are some fun shots of creation...sakura, the sun rise on a morning run, and the view of Mt. Fuji my husband caught as he flew back into the city a few weeks ago. Our Creator God is an artist and to think...he delights in me and loves me. 

Hosting Fun - March 2014

On Saturday night we hosted some friends for dinner. Their kids are close in age to ours and they had a blast jumping on the bed. Not much else to say with this post...I just wanted to document the fun, the carefree spirit of a child, and the K Man trying desperately to get on top of the bed. He finally did, and everyone else left! As the husband said, we do not know our neighbors downstairs, and after Saturday night, we probably won't get to know them in the near future! We also hosted our college group from church a few weeks back for a nabe pot dinner. It was great - we provided a table and pot, and they cooked the food. The kids loved having some fun college students around to play with and we enjoyed their fellowship and learning from them. But, it did make us feel very old! And for kicks - isn't she the coolest...

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Weekend in Niigata

Last weekend we went to Niigata to play in the snow at Pingu's house. We had a lot of fun even though daddy came down with a nasty bug on Sunday and left Mama to sled alone with the kids. We left Friday around 5 on the shinkansen and the kids loved the train ride. It had been awhile since we had been on the shinkansen, and the K Man is at such a fun age to enjoy the trains. We had dinner at the hotel and then got ready for bed. Saturday we slept in until after nine and nearly missed breakfast. Once we were all dressed we headed to play in the snow. Both   kids loved sledding and we played outside most of the day, coming in for lunch. We enjoyed dinner and got to see the mascot of the hotel, Pingu, which was a huge delight for the kids. Saturday night I took Miss M to the onsen and she loved it. The K Man stayed back with daddy   and tried on yukatas. On Sunday, daddy was not feeling well  which is a bummer because we were planning to put the kids both on skis this day. I guess there is always next year. While daddy rested, I took the kids to play in the snow. We were back in Tokyo by 4, resting and relaxing from a very fun  weekend.