vacation and luau

Ueno Zoo

Ueno Zoo

We've been back from vacation for over a week now and I have yet to post a single picture.  I know, shameful.  It was a crazy, hectic vacation, with 2 ladies and 5 children ages 8 and under, but still fun.  Lots of "wow, what are the odds of that?" moments, not much shopping (maybe a little online) and tons of exhaustion.  We didn't end up renting a van, so we took taxis, shuttles and trains everywhere.  The cherry blossoms were in full bloom by the middle of our vacation and it was so beautiful.  The wind made the falling petals look like it was almost snowing.  Really amazing.  We did the Ueno Zoo, which was fun and saw some odd animals, and even odder people.  Really, who wears heels and skirts to a zoo???  We went to Chinatown in Yokohama, which is definitely not all it's cracked up to be.  Mostly restaurants and way too many people.  I spent most of the time terrified I would lose one of the kids.  We went to an outlet mall and ready, wait for it, a COSTCO!  Woo hoo!  That was an adventure all in itself.  Us to cab driver:  "costco, please", cabbie:  "costco?  costco?  costco?  uh, costco?"  (imagine it with a japanese accent and alot of sheer confusion), MA got out and asked a japanese lady how to say costco, came back to the cab and said "cos-u-co", cabbie:  "OHHHH! COS-U-CO!", like we had been completely insane for thinking he would get costco when we didn't say cos-u-co.  REALLY!!  Anyway, after a 15 minute cab ride that cost $40, we arrived at the outlet mall and cos-u-co.  Did a lot of walking around, a little shopping and cruised costco!  A different day we did a huge park that had beautiful flower gardens and a children's play area.  They had huge inflated mushroom-like things that the kids could climb up and jump on, however, it was very dry and dirty and the kids ended up completely brown by the time they were done.  They didn't mind, but you all know how I am when it comes to dirt!  ICK!  I'm going to work on loading all the vacation pics into an album probably on smugmug or something and I'll update the blog once it's done.  It was a fun vacation, but not really a vacation, I mean we had 5 children between the two of us and that takes alot of effort!  MA have decided that once the men come home, we are heading off to a resort or something for a little relaxation!!

Chinatown

Showa Kinen Koen park

The street across from our hotel

H pretending to scare the poor lady who chose to sit between 2 boys on a train, then fell asleep....she almost caught us taking this pic!

Oh, went to a luau last night.  It was a wives social thing that happens monthly.  Last night's luau theme inspired MA.  We knew that everyone would dress up with coconut boobs and grass skirts.  She came up with the "tacky tourist" idea.  We ran with it.  Holy cow was it fun!  She opted for the all over fat lady, while I opted for the gigantic boobs and butt.  We played off the Edna (her) and Hazel (me) roles, and said we were on a real Hawaiian vacation!  We won for best costumes and had a ton of fun.  

WARNING:  If you are drinking any beverage, you might have it come out your nose when you see these pics.  Also, if you need to pee, probably better to do it before scrolling down to the luau pics.  Otherwise, I cannot be held responsible for the puddle on your floor!

Love to you all, nighty night!

the big 8

Well, H turned the big 8 today.  Can you believe it???  It seems like just yesterday we were bringing that little (really BIG) bundle of joy home from the hospital in Monterey.  Now, here we are 8 years later, halfway across the world.  I was really bummed we couldn't do our Singapore vacation, as part of it was for his birthday.  I mean, not every 8 year old gets to ride an elephant for his birthday.  Since that got changed to a shorter vacation in mainland Japan, without the elephant ride, H had to get some pretty good gifts to make up for it.  At least, that's my reasoning, and I'm sticking to it.

I took him to dinner at the marina restaurant the other night, with MA and her kids.  He chose the restaurant, and I was happy with any choice as long as it wasn't Chili's.  We had a nice dinner out and saved the presents for his actual birthday.  I told him he had to wait until after school to do the presents/cake thing.  I had gotten his presents, but when I picked him up from his friends house the other day, he mentioned that he got to play a game there and he actually didn't like it.  Go figure, I had just bought that particular game and had it stashed in the back of the car.  So back to the PX today to make the exchange and it all worked out.  He had 2 small presents to open.  He got a new DS game and a Wii game.  He opened the Wii game and said, "uh, mom, this is for the Wii".  I played it off and acted like I had made a huge mistake thinking it was for the PS2.  I told him I'd exchange it tomorrow, and that I was sorry.  I asked him to put it over by the stereo so I could remember to do it tomorrow.  He opened up the cabinet to do it and found the new Wii system and was THRILLED.  I'd been thinking about getting one for awhile, but just kept putting it off.  Now all I can say, is how on earth did we not have one?  It is SUPER FUN!  We played bowling, boxing, go kart racing, air hockey and dodgeball tonight.  I think I might have injured my left elbow during a serious boxing match.  I'm not much of a gamer, but it is really really fun.  Even now, I sit here typing away, kids are sound asleep and I'm really thinking about going for one more game of bowling or maybe one more boxing match.  Took some good pics of the kids tonight and MA had taken some great ones at dinner the other night.  

I'm off to finish my tea, yes, you read that right, I'm having tea.  I've overcome my problem with drinking tea and now enjoy a cup nightly.  I mean, I am half-Japanese, and I'm living over here, how can I not drink tea??

Night night, all.  Love and miss you!