2010-08-04 Our Baby "Tifa"

Today I went to another prenatal check-up. I'm in 20 weeks of pregnancy and Tifa is 20 weeks and 5 days old! In the screen, I could see her sucking her fingers and waving her hands.. She looked so content.. She is still bony and all, but I was surprised that she looks so much like her father Zach...!!! I felt myself welling up.. being so happy with her being healthy and being our daughter!!!

2010-08-02 I spotted a Gaijin...

Spot a Gaijin! (photo taken by Yusuke)

Last Thursday, Zach went to Izu with his co-workers and stayed at a Japanese-style inn for the night. Last night he showed me pictures taken by one of his co-workers, Yusuke. And I spotted a Gaijin right away... as he is the only one who was wearing Yukata (a casual summer kimono) with the left front robe under the right front robe, which is done only for corpses...

2010-08-01 Exploring the campus at Tokyo University

After lunch, we went exploring the campus at Tokyo University.

Zach and I have been watching the drama "ドラゴン桜 (Dragon Zakura)" in which an ex-motorcycle gangster and now a lawyer, Mr. Sakuragi, tries to boost his career by making students at a notorious high school enter Tokyo University. As Zach had never been to or seen Tokyo University and it wasn't far from the French restaurant, we decided to go exploring the campus together.

It was a huge campus with lots of greens... and lots of mosquitoes!!! We all got eaten alive...

Passing by the agriculture department buildings

Random objects

A tunnel through the buildings

A student? A professor? Or a... Gaijin?

Ricky (name: Rikimaru) and his father, Nobu-san, with great smiles

Group Photo

Black against the Red Gate

In the mosquito paradise

2010-08-01 The surprise party for my birthday

My friends threw me a surprise birthday party at a French restaurant "Tanger".

A few days ago, we had a conversation like:

- "Let's go have lunch this Sunday."

- "Sure! Should we make a reservation?"

- "No, it's good."

- "Could you send me URL of the restaurant?"

- "Well, it's a surprise!"

- "... OK."

Somehow, I did not expect it to be a surprise party & lunch with our friends. So when we walked in the restaurant, went upstairs, and saw my friends there, I was.... "What?! What?! Why?!" It took me a while to figure out that they were there to celebrate my birthday for me! It was.. such a sweet surprise and they made me soooo happy.

Kanpai with beer, ginger ale, sangria, apple juice and orange juice!

Thanks, everyone, for being there for me! Thanks, Eiko, for the photos!

You guys really made my day!!!

2010-07-31 Fireworks

- "Zach, would you like to comment on the fireworks?"

- "Sure."

And here he goes:

"There was a million billion people stretching out as far as the eyes could see. It was also hot. That was OK, though, because the fireworks were awesome!"

We went to see fireworks exhibition in Tachikawa, Tokyo. Tachikawa is located in the west side of Tokyo and is about 1 hour train ride from Meguro. Fireworks in Sumidagawa is the oldest and biggest exhibition, however, there was a million people came to this exhibition last year and most people I asked about it told me that they could only see the backs and heads of people as they waddled through the crowd... So we decided to go to the one in Tachikawa where we would be able to find a decent space to sit down and relax.

My sister, Ritsuko, had bought him a set of Yukata which is a casual summer kimono. It is black with dragon prints. The belt has velcro and easy to put on. The sandals called "Geta" came with the yukata, too, though it seemed very uncomfortable to walk in.

Mr. Michigan in Black Yukata

When we arrived at Tachikawa station, we saw the rain pouring down hard and people running with their hands, towels, and things over their heads. We decided to wait at the station for the rain to die down a little, worrying that the tonight's fireworks exhibition might get canceled.

Rain! Rain! Rain!

Fortunately, the rainy clouds seemed to have passed after a while. It was still cloudy, but people, us among them, decided to enter the park and heads towards the site.

Blue sunflowers.. Mr. sun is not smiling in the sky today...

Sunflowers + 1

Filled with expectations! We can see the fireworks exhibition tonight!

Though the umbrella

People! People! People!

Waking up after a good nap, we saw the site filled with people.. Though excited I was with the fireworks which I was about to see, I was getting a bit concerned about our way back...

From our seat, we could see a full view of the fireworks and could feel the shock waves from the explosions!

I could hear lots of "Oooooh" and "Aaaaaaaah" coming from the people around us, and "すげ～っ マジすげ～～っ (= awesome!)" from the person in black yukata sitting right next to me.

It was a great summer night.

2010-07-31 Zach looks like a gangster

Zach looks like a gangster (taken by iPhone)

2010-07-18 With Ritsuko and Tomohiro

After having lunch with my aunties, we went home, convinced my mother to come with us to see Ritsuko and her family (her husband, Tomohiro, and her baby, Ooka-chan), and she drove us to Ritsuko's apartment in Ibaragi city. My mother is a dangerous driver as she drives VERY slowly. So slowly, in fact, that I had to remind her many times that she'd need to accelerate to go forward...

Ritsuko's husband, Tomohiro, is an unique guy. He is a surgeon and at the same time develops robots as his profession. This means he has so many computers, gadgets, and strange things at their apartment (it's almost like an amusement park for him). This time he had a pack of fireworks on the kitchen counter... and by the look of it, he had lit one in the kitchen sink... (He is a real kid!)

200 hand-held fireworks!

Zach lit one in the kitchen together with Tomohiro

While my mother was baby-sitting Ooka-chan, we went out for dinner at the near-by Japanese restaurant. As Tomohiro is a chef himself (very good at cooking fish), he knows places which have particularly good fish. Zach and I, who do not have fresh fish that often, were literally digging into the dishes.

Giant clam with crispy river crabs (photo with iPhone)

Oysters! (photo with iPhone)

Tomohiro, who was intently seeing us eat, muttered... "Seeing you eat so vigorously makes me happy... Please eat more!" And that's what we did.

Tomohiro, Ritsuko, me, and Zach

Thank you, Tomohiro & Ritsuko, for a wonderful dinner!