Kokonotsuido

The name of the restaurant. Anyway, long story behind it.

What should interest you is that it was the type of restaurant and cuisine and ambience that Ericka and I fell in love with many, many years ago when we first came to Japan. Absolutely beautiful, down to the soy sauce plates and tiny, hand-blown glass sake cups.

Our good friends of numerous years invited our family to join theirs for a soba dinner and needless to say we had a grand time. Tremendous food, sublime sake, great conversation, wonderful company, amazing custom-made pottery and lasting memories.

Thank you so very much, Kurita family. We are extremely lucky to call you and your extended family friends. Kampaii!!

Until we dine again...

Toy Story 2

Still waiting for #3 to come out on iTunes, but in the meantime we yanked out the sofa and had a family movie night watching Toy Story 2.

Miki's crafts craft

So every week at school Miki produces untold amounts of various paper crafts and, rather than trying to keep every single one, Ericka had the brilliant idea of fixing the majority to a massive piece of paper and taking a photo (and short video). Here's the photo.

Cranberry Lemon Muffins

Last weekend Miki and Ericka made a dozen muffins. Don' t laugh, our oven is quite small; if this were our Canadian kitchen it would have been 2 dozen at a time! Anyway, Miki truly enjoyed it and was oh so proud of them. And of course they were delicious.

Hippie Dippie

Not sure what to say...

Nana & Pop Visit Tokyo!

Well they came, they saw, they walked and they sweated profusely thru the first week of September. Here are the photos to prove it.

Thank you for coming all this way to re-unite with Miki and Sam and to catch a glimpse of our life here in Japan.

Sami goes to Harvard

No, not really. This is Sam trying on Nana's glasses.

Lake Sagami

Ok, I promise; this is the last update I will make for the rest of the year regarding anything to do with summer festivals or fireworks-related. They've all been wonderful experiences and events to take the girls to but we're pretty burnt out on them. No pun intended.

The last one we attended, about 2 weekends ago was at Lake Sagami. A large lake in the mountains about 1.5 hours north west of us, we went with some friends to see how the "country folk" celebrated. And it was nice to get out of the hot city and into some cool mountains.

Met some new people, tried a local micro-brew and Miki & Sam held their first sparkler.

Thank you very much, Koizumi-san for inviting us. Tanoshikata desu.

Hanabi in Nakanoshima

We were invited (for the 2nd year in a row) to a friend's flat along the Tama River to watch the annual fireworks display from their rooftop patio. Last year Ericka and the girls were in the States so I went alone. Fun, but not the same without them.

This year we were all able to attend. Great fun and since it was Miki & Sam's first experience with a major fireworks show, very memorable.

Thank you very much Saito-san and family! Tanoshikata desu. Rainen tanoshimi ni. Arigatou gozaimashita!