Sumo at Yaskuni-jinja

Yesterday, Gaku took a day off from daycare and I took him and Hana to see sumo at Yasukuni-jinja. It's an outdoor sumo ring and they hold this tournament once a year as part of a special spring celebration. It started around 10:40 with the lower-level wrestlers. They let in a maximum of 6,000 people. We went by taxi, because I couldn't figure out how we could go by train at that time of the day with 2 kids and a big stroller. It would still have been the tail end of the morning rush, which on the Mita Line is quite packed and not so friendly.

When we got there, we bought a couple of bento and were able to find a place to sit without too much trouble. Basically, it's packed dirt with large stones at the front edges of each level. The good thing is there are lots of little stones throughout the dirt, so Gaku kept busy with another boy collecting rocks for a long time. Gaku's pants were so filthy, and the pockets were full of stones. The wall at the end was also nice because it kept him from escaping, so I didn't have to chase him too much. Although I did have one slightly scary moment where I lost sight of him. He was also having fun running up and down the row talking to people. A guy at the other end gave him a pencil and a piece of candy, which he's running back with in the picture.

The bad thing about this ring is that it's a bit dangerous. Near us, a few elderly people fell trying to get down from the higher rows. One woman fell and hit her head on the rocks on the opposite side from us; another man landed on Gaku when he was playing down in the aisle.

From about 2:00 in the afternoon the more famous higher-level wrestlers start. Unfortunately, we had to leave just as they were about to start - Gaku had gotten a bit too bored and was about to meltdown/go crazy. It was a bit difficult to get out with the big buggy because of the way people were sitting and the fact that everyone else was trying to come in, not go out. At this time, there were people lined up for quite a while waiting to get in. We stayed a bit too long, though. By the time we got out of the sumo ring and towards the shrine entrance, Gaku was starting to meltdown. He basically cried the whole time we were walking from the shrine to the station, about 10-15 minutes. Because he was crying so hard, I couldn't quite figure out what he was saying. I know he wanted ice cream, which I had said we would get. By the time we got to the station, he was fine again.

We took the train to Shinjuku to buy him a new pair of pants first. His pants were so dirty I couldn't imagine taking him into a restaurant and wouldn't let him sit on the train. At Shinjuku, we made a quick stop into Baby Gap and bought some pants which he wore out of the store. Then we went and had a big sundae! Towards the end of eating the sundae, his eyes were starting to close. I nursed Hana and changed her diaper so I could put her in the carrier on the way home and let Gaku sit in the buggy. He was asleep before we got on the train.

I think we'll just stay home today as I'm a bit tired and tomorrow we're going on a "sakura walk". It's a walk set up by city hall to view the cherry blossoms along the river. It starts from 9am and is about 6.5 kilometers.

Hanami (Cherry Blossom Viewing)

On Sunday we went to a hanami party with the Mukai family. It was a bit chilly, but a lot of fun.

In the morning Tak went really early - about 7 am - to put out a sheet with our name on it. A bit later in the morning one of our friends who was going went to check out the spot. At first, he thought we might have a problem because all of the spots were taken. Then he noticed the huge sheet with Mu-ka-i in big characters. Later they took 2 big rugs to put on it. Tak made a huge table out of plywood.

I made Coca Cola chicken and Tak made dangos (a kind of sweet made from rice powder) to take to the party. Obachan ordered 40 onigiri (rice balls) and 3 kg of meat and cut up lots of veggies and fruit. There were a couple of tabletop gas grills for cooking the meat.

In all we had somewhere around 30-40 people - I think closer to 40. Mizuho, Shige, Rio, and Kei had just arrived back from Bali that morning. They arrived with all of their luggage, opened the door and saw all of the hanami preparations. Obachan told them let's go. They basically dumped their suitcases in their apartment and headed straight out again. I went slightly late because I was nursing Hana before we went.

When I arrived, Gaku was basically done eating and ready to run around and go wild with the other kids. I was trying to help him put his shoes on when he fell over and got sauce all over his pants - not just a little, but one pant leg completely saturated. He was upset and started crying, so I jumped on Obachan's bike and made a trip home to get him a change of clothes. When I got back, he was sitting there with his fleece jacket covering his bare legs eating fruit. He was very happy to have a clean, dry pair of pants. Right after that, he headed off to the park with the other kids. I think it's the first time he's gone off without an adult present. Yushi, the oldest, is about 10 now. Gaku came back with a huge hole in the knee of his pants and his knee all skinned up. What a tough day on his clothes! Someone asked him if his knee hurt, and he told them it was fine, it would get better. He's a pretty tough kid.

When we got back home, we hung out downstairs for a while. I decided I was sleepy and would come home to nurse Hana and take a nap with her. Gaku started watching Madagascar while Tak played on the computer. I slept from around 5 to 6:30, nursed Hana for a bit, and came out of the room around 7. Everything was quiet. I looked in the living room and saw Gaku and Tak completely sacked out. Hana and I went down to the bath and came back - still sleeping. Gaku woke up once at 3 am because he was wet, went straight back to sleep, and slept until Tak woke him up at about 6:30. He slept a little over 12 hours!

I took this picture this morning. Gaku is holding Hana, sitting in the Baby Bumbo chair I got for her. Hana was talking, actually more yelling. She was happy and excited to be playing with her brother. She has a really, really loud voice.

Kids!

Today was one of those days where I think, "do I really want to have more kids?" It just seemed impossible to get anything done... The amount of laundry with two kids is crazy, especially when you don't have a dryer and have to hang everything up to dry. I ended up taking laundry over to the laundromat dryers, so I could finally get caught up. By the evening, all the laundry was done. But guess what! The laundry basket is already full again. *Sigh*

It got to be lunchtime and I didn't feel like making anything so we got ready to go to a local restaurant called Puchi House. I went to grab Hana who was just starting to wake up and realized she was super poopy! It had leaked through her clothes and on the blanket she was sleeping on (the red one from Sarah). So, there was another load of laundry right there! I quick grabbed her, washer her up in the bath, and got her changed so we could go to lunch.

Laundry may be the biggest downside, but there are so many great things about kids. Gaku says the cutest things lately, and really tries to be quite the helper. He was "helping" me do laundry. After lunch we bought some ice cream at one of the local stores. We got one for Obachan too. Then we came back and sat down in the bath lobby and ate ice cream with her. Even though Obachan had her own ice cream (the same one as Gaku's since he picked it for her), Gaku was sharing his and offering her bites of his ice cream.

This evening after Gaku went to bed I was having a lot of fun with Hana. She was really talking and smiling. (See the video on Facebook.) It was one of those times when I could really relax with her and appreciate just how special she is, and how special our time together is.

Laughing

Hana is getting more and more fun by the day. Lately, she is really changing each day. She is a really smiley, talkative baby. She is talking more and more, making new sounds every day. It used to be that she would give a huge smile and kind of laugh silently. But just this week she's started laughing out loud.

Tonight she was being just a little bit fussy, so I took her downstairs to the bath to socialize with Obachan and the other women at the bath. She was being super talkative and laughing. She is definitely a favorite around here. Then she started getting fussy and acting sleepy. So we came back upstairs. I was going to nurse her a bit, but she just started sucking her thumb and went straight off to sleep all by herself. (Gaku wasn't/isn't that good...)

Cherry Blossoms

I'm so glad that spring is really here now! The cherry trees are in full bloom in Tokyo right now. This weekend on Sunday, we'll either have a cherry-blossom-viewing party with the Mukai family or go to Yokohama and check out the venue for the Jack Johnson concert. Tak is pretty keen to check it out and see what kind of set up it is, so we can get good seats - it's general admission and an outdoor venue. He's talking about going down the night before with a sleeping bag... (That would obviously be him by himself, and I would bring the munchkins later sometime reasonable. Then again Gaku would probably love to go a bit early and run around talking to people.)

A couple of weeks ago, Tak took Gaku to a rugby game. I think it was the finals. But Tak didn't get to watch the game at all. He had to run all over the place following Gaku. Gaku had a great time running up and down the steps, talking to everyone, getting snacks from people. He's quite the social butterfly. He has no problems at all talking with people he doesn't know - a good and bad thing... I suppose Tak and I worry that if a perfect stranger offered him a piece of chocolate, he'd follow them anywhere - a bit scary. We really have to keep a careful eye on him when we're out and about.

Spitting (with Video)

I haven't been updating my blog again... I've been a bit busy with a project working on a teacher's book for one of the local publishers. And I've been creating pages on the two networking sites - Facebook and My Space - at the request of different friends and family. The verdict is still out on which one I like better. So far it seems that on My Space you can personalize the colors more, but it's really busy because of all the ads. I haven't played much with Facebook yet, but have found that the way you have to hit save before clicking on the next tab when creating your profile (and not being prompted if you don't hit save) is not very user-friendly. The first time I spent some time creating my profile and after finishing all of the tabs realized none of it had been saved!

Today's pictures and video are of Hana, but the story is all about Gaku...

To fully appreciate this, you need a bit of background. There's a Dreamworks animated movie called Madagascar about some animals from the NY Zoo who are being sent to a nature preserve in Africa, but end up shipwrecked in Madagascar instead. This is Gaku's number one movie for the past couple of weeks. At one scene in the movie, the zebra Marty sets up his place. When they drink the water he has, it's saltwater so they spit it back out. When they spit it out, they kind of spray it. Well, when we were watching it, one time last week I saw Gaku's eyes kind of light up during this scene. You could literally see what he was thinking on his face. I told him he was not allowed to do this, except in the bath.

So on Saturday, I was hanging up laundry and came back to the living room to find that Gaku had spit water all over. I wasn't too upset because at least he sprayed it over the gate and into the kitchen which has wood floors and not on the carpet. But I immediately turned off the movie and made him clean it up. He very nicely cleaned it up and apologized, so I let him watch some more. That same evening he had a box of apple juice that Obachan gave him down at the bath. He took a drink and this time he sprayed it all over me. I was so pissed! I took the juice away and put it in the fridge. He cried a bit, but I didn't give the juice back to him until after dinner.

Now the absolute funniest incident was on Sunday night. Gaku was really tired and fussy, and we were trying to get him to go to bed. Gaku's blankey is a Mickey Mouse towel that he calls Mickey. That day he had a bottle of sesame wheat tea (no caffeine). Sometimes when trying to get Gaku to go to sleep, he goes a bit crazy and then suddenly crashes. So on Sunday, he was going crazy and cried a couple of times. He was starting to settle down when he said he was thirsty. So I handed him his bottle of tea. He said he was going to finish it. I figured fine, there wasn't too much left. He was swallowing it with big, noisy gulps, and Tak and I were laughing. Then he suddenly did the spray thing... all over Mickey! So he immediately started crying that Mickey was wet. I couldn't even get upset with him for spraying the tea. Both Tak and I couldn't stop ourselves from laughing. I assured him Mickey was okay, just a little bit wet, but he could still sleep with it. It was pretty funny. He was so upset about something that he did all by himself. He hasn't sprayed his drinks for the last couple of days since then... Maybe he's done?

Hana is quite the active little baby. When awake, she's in constant motion. In the video below you can see how her feet and hands just don't stop moving. I have to say that she's much easier than Gaku. Tak was saying that he remembers walking Gaku at this age to get him to stop crying sometimes. Hana will sometimes cry for about a minute, but if no one comes right away, she gives up, sucks her thumb, and goes to sleep on her own!

Just Like Daddy

On Saturday Gaku got a small wooden tool bench toy (picked out from a catalogue). If he takes out all of the wooden screws, it won't actually be a bench anymore, but just a collection of wooden nuts & bolts and pieces. It has a small ruler, hammer, screwdriver, and wrench. He picked up the ruler, pretended to measure something on the bench, and said, "14 kilo". How cute!! He was measuring, just not using the right system... That's how much Kei weighed when he was on the scale in the bath the night before. Gaku is at about 15 kilograms now.