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!

2010-07-18 Visit my aunties

All of my aunties live in Osaka. Today we went to see my father's three sisters first at their places and then we all went out for lunch afterwards.

With two of my aunties

A part of my aunty's factory is right next to her house. They make auto parts for Toyota. My Dad is showing the factory to Zach.

2010-07-17 Visit Mikako at Mount Koya

One of my best friends and my bridesmaids, Mikako, was going back to Koyasan where her parents and brother's family live. The temple her family owns and runs is called "蓮花院 (Rengein)" and it has 1,200 years of history.

After hearing her plan for the long weekend, I decided to go back to Osaka as well. It'd be ideal if we could go and explore Mt. Koya and could visit Mikako at the same time! Also, I always wanted to take Zach to Mount Koya as it is known as the world headquarter of Shingon sect of Japanese Buddhism and is registered as one of the World Heritage Sites in 2004 by UNESCO. A must-see place if you were in Japan, don't you think?

It's about 1 hr. 40 mins. train ride from Osaka to Koyasan. We stopped at a convenience store at the station and look what we found there!

Pepsi Strong Shot!

We took the train to the end of the line - to the station called "極楽橋 (Gokurakubashi)" which means "Paradise bridge", and then took a cable car to the top of the mountain.

Single track connecting the top and the bottom

The track forks into two for letting the trains pass. The trains must be running on a tight schedule!

Steep stairs inside a cable car

I was planning to walk to Mikako's family's temple until... I saw the sign board which said "3 km to 大門 (Daimon)" which stands right in the half way to the temple. We made a quick and sharp turn towards the bus stop by the station.

Right before 1 p.m., we arrived at the temple. Mikako took us to the room which Tokugawa Ieyasu had used about 400 years ago, who was the founder and first shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan which lasted from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868.

"精進料理 (Shojin-ryori)", which is Buddhist cuisine, was prepared for us and set up in the magnificent room.

A room with a history

This is the room which Tokugawa Ieyasu used to meet his guests. He sat where the eagle statue is sitting now. His body guards stayed behind the sliding doors.

Fabulous meal in a fabulous room!

Very authentic Shojin-ryori

Everything was DELICIOUS!

After lunch, we took a walk to 金剛峰寺 (Kongobu-ji) which is the head temple of the Koyasan Shingon Buddhism with Mikako as our personal tour guide.

Our tour guide, Mikako, and Zach

The air is filled with natural scents in the shine.

A pond with a story

This is the pond where Mikako's brother stole a fish when he was a little boy. He caught a big one, however, he was found by a priest or guard of this temple when he was about to bring the fish home. The priest yelled, "Who's stealing a fish?! You little brat!". Though he had started running, her brother answered truthfully to this priest's inquiry, "I'm a son of the priest at Rengein temple!". Of course, the priest called his family right away.. His family, who was shocked to hear that their son stole a fish from the neighboring temple, told him to return the fish to where it came from with an apology.. It is such a cute story of a boy who is now a fine priest!

Beautiful light pouring on the temple

Push! Push! Push!

Zach and Mikako are trying to turn the building. It's hard. It is said that a good fortune will come if you can turn it. With two people, we could not move it. With three, we could not move it. I went to ask a man for help who was walking towards us. With four, we could move it!

There's a wall. There's Zach. So there's a man on the wall.

As a daughter of the priest family, Mikako looked a little confused... But she let us do what we had to do...

Thanks, Mikako, for everything! We had a great time in Mount Koya and at your family temple "蓮花院 (Rengein)"!

2010-07-16 Ekiben "Yakiniku (BBQ)"

Our Shinkansen for Kyoto/Osaka was scheduled to leave at 7:56 at Shinagawa station. We were running a little late as usual and left our apartment in Meguro at 7:05. We walked up the steep road leading to JR Meguro station in such a hurry. Zach, who was carrying a suitcase and a bag with dinner boxes I had packed for us to eat on the train, was soaked in his own water as if he had just swum with his clothes on...

5 mins to JR Meguro station and 7 mins from JR Meguro to JR Shinagawa station. 2 hrs 14 mins from JR Shinagawa to JR Kyoto station (We stopped by at my sister Ritsuko's place first before going to my parents'). Not bad, not bad at all!

We bought one Ekiben at Shinagawa station as we must try a different Ekiben at a different station! This time we purchased "Yakiniku (BBQ)" -- Zach's selection, of course.

2010-07-09 Zach is exhausted..

Zach works like a Japanese business person in Tokyo and usually comes home around 8:30 or 9:00 p.m. Tonight we decided to go to a Yakitori restaurant called "笹や (Sasaya)" near our apartment. As the place was so busy that night, we had to wait for their phone call to let us know when a next table was available. They called us around 10:30 when we devoured an apple to get through hunger... Yakitori (grilled chicken) at the place was good. Towards the end of our dinner, however, Zach's eyes became very watery and looked extremely sleepy.

We came home around 11:30 with a happy stomach. As soon as we walked in, Zach collapsed...

"散歩してください・・・・ (In his words, it means "Please walk on my back")" in a rarely-audible voice.

Even after I walked on his back and heard his back "pop", he did not stand up. He... fell asleep at the door.. Poor Zach...

What did Mayumi do? Take out her camera and voila!

Zach is exhausted... falling into a deep coma

2010-07-02 Crab pasta with tomato source

Finally!!! Our long-awaited table has arrived! Click here to check out our new table!

This additional piece of furniture to our apartment makes me feel our life has finally been up to date. Farewell to the boxes which served as a table for the past three weeks!