Lunch with Emi

Today Emi came over and made lunch for us. Taka enjoyed helping Emi in the kitchen. He liked putting the mushrooms in the soup and helping putting the sandwhiches together.


The kabocha with sesame seeds and raisens was especially yummy!
We also had toast topped with fresh avocado and shrimp. Mmmmmm

Visit to the barber

Taka has been getting a little tired of his stroller these days but in Tokyo with it's busy crowded streets it would be too nerve wracking to let him walk on his own.

So we have the Monkey Back Pack as another option.
He is also carrying his new kid's froggy umbrella to block the sun.



























I'll have to get Ron to send me the after pictures. They did a really great job here and charged only 10 bucks. What a bargain!

Public Library

I found the public library the other day. The children's books are upstairs. They have lots of great books and small tables to read at. They also have this reading rug you need to take your shoes off to use. There is also a shelf full of stuffed animals that are characters from various books.

The have a selection of English books too, about 40 or so.

They have a bi-monthly story time that I plan to take Taka too.
As for getting library cards...I'll have to ask Ron for help. I don't know if I have enough Japanese yet to do that. Or at least it will take some looking in the dictionary for awhile.

Mr. Donut in Japan mmm....

Ron brought me these one day as a little treat. The green one is a matcha falvored donut w/ a match creme icing.....I don't know if late pregnancy has anything to do with this but I have to say it was the best donut I have ever eaten!! The other one was also very tasty. They are not as sweet as donuts in the US but I'll have to say they are artfully crafted! MMmmmmm

Check out the cute graphics on the box!

Dinner!

Taka's happy to eat hamburg steak w/rice and sauce, broccoli and tomato w/ avocado slices.

An American Day

Saturday we went to the annual embassy picnic/party and met Darlene and her two kids there. Taka had a great time playing with his 2 new friends!

We also went to Costco which was eerily similiar to the one in the states.We ate pizza and mango smoothies in the food court.






Taka is testing out the beds at Ikea.....and the toys.

Friday... a productive day

Today was productive....
I got up and made this bento or lunch box(see the cat on the top left w/ green eyes!) for Ryu.

You should see some of the creative and artistic bentos people make I'll have to add the links later.

It's rice w/ oshinko and then chicken fried rice in the top container. The lower container has curry salmon karroke, tofu, squid and veggies, and a type of gobo salad.

For dinner it was somen....which is supposedly an easy dinner to make....but when you have an unhappy 2 year old at your side and also trying to hurry it is not.

Plus Ryu said it was kind of weird (but nice) to serve it with all the toppings.

I thought plain somen wouldn't be satisfying enough though and found a recipe from About.com Japanese Recipe per day blog that I used for ideas.
I boiled the shitake in mirin, shoyu and dashi. I flash boiled the okra. I made an egg crepe and cut thin slices of carrotts into flowers..... Sliced shiso leaves, made the tsuyu which I thought was too salty but Ryu liked it.

I forgot the chikuwa and cheese so made a quick dash w/ Taka in stroller to the corner store....they have a good selection of cheese there.

Why is cheese so expensive in Tokyo?! and.....wala dinner....my 9 month belly is intruding into the 2nd picture :)

Also after hearing about the birth of Eric's baby girl I got a tiny little boost of nesting energy and went through the baby clothes and organized them by size....all the newborn things ready and bagged and labeled the rest into 3mo 6mo 9mo and 18mo and older bags and put them into the closet. Next I need to organize the blankets and other accessories.

Neighborhood Play Center

I found this great place to take Taka to play. It's for kids 0-3 and is free.... and only 10-15 min. walk from our house.

It is provided by the city. It has a great indoor play area, an arts and crafts room, upstairs is a library and play area for wee little folks 1 and under, a lunch area

2 different areas for parents to sit and drink tea, chat or read magazines while still able to see your child play.

Outside is a huge sandbox w lots of toys and a tap where kids can get water to play with. There are also kiddie pools for the hot days.



The only thing is that it's really hard to convince Taka to leave when it's time to go!

Starbucks in Seattle

It's been raining so much here in Tokyo I'm starting to feel like we're in Seattle....except for all the thunder and lightening and temperatures in the 80's.

I found Starbucks near our house.....was feeling a little homesick for Seattle so we went in to get out of the rain.




this photo is of a shelf in a convenience store...not only do they have starbucks but they even have a Mt. Rainier brand! (which is a little cheaper)

Taka had fun shaking pom poms with great grandma and dancing !

Matsuri- Catching goldfish

This Matsuri or festival was held at Great Grandma's nursing home. Taka had fun trying to catch fish with a net. After about 5 minutes they scooped up 5 fish for him and hung the bag on his wrist.










Afterwards we stopped by a pet store to get a little tank for his 5 fish. Unfortunately not one of the little guys made it past 10 am the next day.

Oh well there's lots of summer festivals or there's always the pet store which might have a heartier selection of goldfish to choose from.

Soba restaurant

This little soba restaurant in Chikura (buckwheat noodles) was delicious. Outside the window next to our table was a little pond with turtles swimming around.















In front of the restaurant.

Chikura

Are we there yet?
















The beach was a little to windy so grandpa got this small pool for Taka to cool off in.