Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Friday, July 8, 2011
Tanabata
Tonight, July 7th, was the day of the Tanabata. The "Tanabata” means the night of the seventh, and it holds special meaning based on an ancient Japanese fairy tale. The tale is about two lovers that live up in the sky, Orihime and Hikoboshi. Orihime (the weaving princess) was a princess who wove beautiful cloth for her father, the emperor of the sky. She met Hikoboshi (a cowboy), and fell deeply in love. They soon married and were too happy being with each other they stopped working. This made the emperor of the sky very mad and they were separated by the Milky Way. Since then, they are allowed to meet only on the 7th night of the 7th month. However, if it rains, Orihime cannot cross the Milky Way so they must wait another year to meet. It's a very romantic but sad story....It didn't rain this year, so I think they were able to meet.
It is custom now to write our wishes on a tanzaku, a piece of paper and decorate it on a bamboo.
It was Yuuki's first Tanabata in Japan. He wrote a wish as well, but I don't understand Yuukish yet, so only he knows what he wished for. May all his wishes come true....
It is custom now to write our wishes on a tanzaku, a piece of paper and decorate it on a bamboo.
It was Yuuki's first Tanabata in Japan. He wrote a wish as well, but I don't understand Yuukish yet, so only he knows what he wished for. May all his wishes come true....
Friday, June 10, 2011
Nakameguro Park
Today, we went to Nakameguro Park. It's close to my sister, Yumiko's house so she always goes here, but for some reason it was our first time. The park is located by the Meguro river, but it is on a hill so a nice breeze comes through. They also have great fresh green grass which quite is rare for Tokyo. Yuuki and I enjoyed walking barefoot and blowing bubbles. The weather was cloudy, but we had such a fun day!
Playing at Yuutenji temple
Yuuki and I are great at making everywhere our backyard. We played at Yuutenji Temple, which is just about a 5 minute walk from our house. It's great to have such a wonderful environment around us.
Rediscovering Japan: Hayama/Hakone
On Monday, we went on a trip to Hakone with Mizuki's parents.
We left Tokyo around 10 am, and stopped over at Hayama, a beautiful city by the sea with a marina. I wanted to have lunch at La Maree de Chaya by the sea, but we got there only to find they were closed on Mondays...: ( My bad for not making reservations!!!
So we went to Marlow, where they are famous for the custard puddings!! They also have a great food menu that uses locally and organically grown vegetables and seafood. Everything we had was delicious.
After lunch we drove for about another hour or so to Hakone. We went to Hakone Ginyu, which was a relaxing Japanese ryokan/ Bali resort fusion onsen. They welcomed us with drinks on their balcony overlooking the mountains of Hakone. They were built on a cliff, so they have the view of the entire mountain on the other side. You are actually at the eye level of birds soaring the mountains, and it was breathtaking. The fresh greenery this time of year was exquisite...the colors reminded me of a painting by Kaii Higashiyama, a Japanese painter I love. They say he traveled all around Japan for beautiful scenery... he may just have seen this scenery as well.
Each room had its own private bathtub outside, and we could enjoy the onsen and the scenery at once. Truly refreshing. Yuuki loooooved the bathtub, and he played until his fingers were wrinkly. It's great to have a private tub especially with babies since you can hop in as many times as you want. Mizuki and I were able to enjoy a starry night onsen while Yuuki slept in the room where we could see.
We left Tokyo around 10 am, and stopped over at Hayama, a beautiful city by the sea with a marina. I wanted to have lunch at La Maree de Chaya by the sea, but we got there only to find they were closed on Mondays...: ( My bad for not making reservations!!!
So we went to Marlow, where they are famous for the custard puddings!! They also have a great food menu that uses locally and organically grown vegetables and seafood. Everything we had was delicious.
After lunch we drove for about another hour or so to Hakone. We went to Hakone Ginyu, which was a relaxing Japanese ryokan/ Bali resort fusion onsen. They welcomed us with drinks on their balcony overlooking the mountains of Hakone. They were built on a cliff, so they have the view of the entire mountain on the other side. You are actually at the eye level of birds soaring the mountains, and it was breathtaking. The fresh greenery this time of year was exquisite...the colors reminded me of a painting by Kaii Higashiyama, a Japanese painter I love. They say he traveled all around Japan for beautiful scenery... he may just have seen this scenery as well.
Each room had its own private bathtub outside, and we could enjoy the onsen and the scenery at once. Truly refreshing. Yuuki loooooved the bathtub, and he played until his fingers were wrinkly. It's great to have a private tub especially with babies since you can hop in as many times as you want. Mizuki and I were able to enjoy a starry night onsen while Yuuki slept in the room where we could see.
We all had a great time and we were so happy Yuuki was able to spend some quality time with his grandparents.
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