Everyday Stuff

Well it's summer here in Japan.  Summer is hands down my least favorite season.  My theory is, you can always put on more clothes to warm up, but you can only (legally) take off a certain amount of clothing to cool off.  And then there's the bugs.  I haven't seen them personally, only photos from friends of spiders the size of your hand.  Apparently they are harmless, so if you are nuts you really can hold them in your hand.  And the mosquitoes.  Poor Leyton is a bugger favorite.  Even with ridiculous amounts of bug repellent, she gets devoured and the bites swell to the size of a quarter.  So combine the heat and the bugs, we spend a lot of time indoors, which is not the most ideal locale for kids.  Fortunately we do have AC here.  Our bill will certainly be insane... but whatever the cost of the cool air, it is worth it.

With the exception of a couple of hours of 'pool time', Leyton is out of school for 4 weeks.  Luckily, Poppy and BB will be here for the middle portion of summer vacation.  We are SO excited to have our first visitors to Japan.  And now that Dada has to make a whirlwind trip back to the States during that time, I am even more excited.  I love my girls, but there is only so much fussing and princess and fussing I can handle.

The last couple of weeks, we have had a couple of playdates with our Japanese neighbors.  The first was just Ellis and I (LC was at school).  We visited our friend Ms. Jun.  We met Ms. Jun one day at the local park.  She heard us speaking English and came over to talk.  She grew up in Japan, but lived in Sydney, Australia for the last 30 years.  Now she and her husband have moved back to Japan for retirement.  She lives just a couple of blocks from us, and we run into her from time to time around the neighborhood.  She even helped translate for me at Leyton's first Parent-Teacher conference.  She had Ellis and myself over for some tea.

Our second playdate was at the Saitou's.  Hero is a boy in Leyton's class and his mother, Takae, speaks English and helps me enormously.  She had us, another American friend of hers, and a Japanese friend who studies English, over for a couple of hours after school.  She has three boys and another baby on the way and she is amazing.  I made Rice Krispie treats, which where a huge hit with the 4 adults and 7 kids!

I also try and get to base to meet up with some Navy 'American' friends as well.  We do lunch or have a few play dates with friends.  We are doing our best to make friends here, but there is only so much you can talk about while making sure the children aren't going to jump off the couch or jump in the kiddie pool with their clothes on (both of which actually happened -can't take your eyes off of Ellis for a second!).

Care packages are our favorite.  This one is from Poppy and BB.  It was full of glitter and other princess paraphernalia -and of course was a huge hit with these two.

Leyton went through a phase where she would come out of her room and wait at the top of the stairs for us to come get her in the morning.  Ryan found her up there one morning at around 0530... sound asleep.

After this morning, we had a talk with her about staying in her room.  We already have to put up the baby gate and 'lock' her in for nap time.  We threatened to do the same at night, but she has thus far heeded our warning and stays put.

We hit up the pool about once a week.  I wanted to do swimming lessons with the girls this summer, but the timing with school and visitors isn't going to work out.

E is such a funny kid.  She is talking more and more.  She says 'I poop', 'I eat', 'I hungry', 'I cry' and other such cute things. She is also warning up for her terrible twos with frequent fits of rage.

I didn't make the selfie, but cute pic of the girls.

Poppy and BB sent two new princess dresses, complete with sound effects and lights.  Here is Cinderella giving Sleeping Beauty 'true loves kiss' to wake her up.

One evening I took a walk and typed 'Temple' into Google maps.  About 15 minutes later, I arrived here.

This is a sort of fountain that you are supposed to use to cleanse yourself prior to visiting the shrines.  Apparently there was a spider web in my way.

Some kind of shrine 

The temple that I believe doubles as a sort of community center, though I could be completely wrong about that

Another nap time. She only naps about once a week.  The rest of the time, she plays and destroys her room.

Cool kids

We braved the bugs one evening for a little swim session 

Happy Summer!  Stay Cool Friends!

Fuji Safari Park

We set out on another outing this weekend which took us to the Fuji Safari Park. It was right below the base of Mt Fuji which was about a 2 hour drive. We went on a bus with our church that left early in the morning. We arrived and found out that the bus we were riding could drive through the park amongst all the animals. So in wen the bus! There were animals everywhere and each "zone" was contained within two sets of fences. First there was the bear zone, then lion, tiger, cheetah, rhino, herbivores etc. It was a pretty long drive through the windy roads and through all the gates. The animals were super close to the buses and occasionally crossed the roads. After the drive-thru safari they parked the buses and we at lunch and roamed around the zoo part of the park. The most ridiculous thing they had there were these "Cat/dog/bunny houses." You had to pay 500 yen (~$5) per person to go in a room that was loaded with either cats, dogs, or bunnies. LC and I went into the dog house first. There was probably 30 small dogs in there, 27 of which were sleeping. So we would just go up to the dogs and pet them and talk to them. A man brought us over a min pin for some reason so I held it for a bit before offering it to LC. She said she didn't want to hold any dogs because she didn't want to get fur on herself. We pet all 35 sleeping dogs and made a move for the exit.  Later on in the day she convinced mom to take her into the Cat House. Shannon said the cats were all out of reach and they too were all sleeping. The houses however were packed with Japanese folks who were just sitting in there relaxing amongst the animals. Weird. We bought Lion waffle bites and ice cream before we left but over all we had a good time.

The token Selfie on the bus ride to the park! 

Some of us looked out the window at all the scenery...

Some of us studied the safari map to maximize our time at the park...

And others watched Frozen.

The first zone was for the bears. 

This one had an itch on his back.

This was inside the Lion zone. These buses were what you can ride on if you didn't want to risk it and take your own vehicle on the safari. These buses were shaped like animals and they caged you in to protect you. Wait a minute -- who are the animals here? The buses would stop and let you feed all the animals. 

E liked the lion zone. She let out a lot of "roooooooaaaaars."

Lions in the trees and on the roads. 

E loved it!

Check it out! 

I thought these signs were funny.... as if you anyone was going to get out of their car.

Tigers

Cheetah

Elephants

LC kept saying the Zebras were her favorite. She would always hold Dodo up to look at his wild Zebra friends in the park. 

The girls thought this giraffe was funny -- he just stood there eating and staring at us.... for a really long time.

E liked the guinea pigs... until they moved. Then she jumped and ran away. 

Checking out the grey kangaroos.

Here is our little monkey feed the monkeys. LC was a little timid at first...

But then she got the hang of it.

Cuddling Hyenas. 

Of course the girls wanted a ride on the "Princess Coach." LC named the horse Sunny. 

We were able to pet the Kangaroos! 

And then we found a little joey kangaroo with his mommy. 

E was tuckered out on the bus ride home.... phew, what a day! 

But still had enough gas left in the tanks to play at the park!