Pool, Rides and Zoo!!!

When our grandma was living in Wakayama we didn't need to think about where to go during our summer holidays. We always stayed at her place and played in the river or at the beach or enjoyed forest walks. Now that she no longer lives there we had to think of what to do. It is very rare to have everyone off together in Japan, we normally make an effort to do something together as a family.
Even Matthew managed to join us using his days off for the month :)

Our first plan was to go to the beach by grandma's old place even though she is no longer living there but the typhoon was approaching and the sea got rougher so we had to give up on that idea.

Instead we took all the kids to our local amusement park - Misaki Park. This park is quite old, when we were kids our parents took us there every now and then. Even though it is not as popular as it used to be it is still going strong attracting wee ones like ours.

Rui (12), Hinata (11), and Oliver (3):



Runa (11) and Yuzuki (6):



Oliver was so so so excited!!



Unfortunately it was a cloudy day with some wind but that didn't stop the kids jumping into the pool. The bigger kids took off to queue up for the big slides and little ones stayed near a paddle pool.





Oliver was very impressed with a similar setting to the one in the Singapore zoo.





As you can easily guess it took forever to get him out of the water...



It got too cold for everyone when the wind got stronger, so we all got changed and moved to the rides.

Oliver didn't really know what he was into but he insisted to go on the big boys ride.
Matthew told me he was giggling all the way, making lots of happy noise!





He also enjoyed the little boys ride too :)





By this time our boys were getting very tired but I couldn't miss the dolphin show I used to love when I was a kid. The waiting was rather long and boys were getting scratchy :(  Luckily once the dolphins started to jump around and splash people with their big fins the boys didn't have a chance to fall asleep.





Luca is always into animals!



Oliver was so impressed dolphins and humans can swim and jump around together:





A little bit concerned...



The climax:







This exciting show woke them up completely and gave them some more energy to see the rest of the zoo!





Japanese monkeys were so cute!

Birthday BBQ

We had a family BBQ to celebrate Hinata's 11th birthday in conjunction with Matthew's birthday which will be in two days.

When we built our house in Japan, we decided to get an extra section next door to make a nice backyard when we live here one day. We have been in Brunei for the last 5 years so to make it easier for everyone to look after it we just put down some gravel. So not too pretty greenery garden but at least we have our own space for all the family members to get together! Our family is getting pretty BIG!

Dad and Rua:



Our friend from Singapore - Shem joined us too:





The birthday boy Hinata with Runa:



The yummy food:



Luckily we have a relatively quiet street so the kids can run around:





Luca:



Yosuke was very happy after few beers:



Mum and Mako:



After a big feast the kids had lots of fireworks! Made them even happier!!









We had a very nice ice cream birthday cake (which I couldn't get a photo of - it was melting away so fast!) to finish this great family party :) Happy birthday boys!!

Wheels

The other day when we went for a walk to a park all the kids had different ride ons - how funny!

Runa on her unicycle:



Oliver on his scooter:



Hinata on a ray-board:



And Yuzuki on her princess bike:



Luca was in his buggy:



Once we got to the park Luca decided he just wanted to walk and walk and walk!





He is so stable - growing so much everyday!

Fun in Sentosa

Our family holiday continued to Sentosa Island. Matthew was going to fly in the early morning so he took our boys back to the apartment while I took the others to one of the main parts of the Island, Imbiah Lookout. They had an adventurous fun filled day!



Very brave Hinata:



The luge was a hit!





And off they went!



I am coming back to Sentosa with visitors from Japan next month so I stayed behind and took some photos.



We encountered a lion on the way to the Mega Zip adventure park.



Hinata was very brave and wanted to try all the attractions except for rock climbing - we thought it might take too long to complete.



















The queue for the Mega Zip was very long. I got a ride to the beach and waited for them but it took over 40min for them to come down.

Can you see the little hut in distance? That's where they were zipping from.



I tried to take photos of them but I completely missed them. So here is someone else.



Lucky they bought some of official photos:





Here is a happy zipping family :)





We were all so exhausted by the time we got back to the apartment. We had only 4 hours until we had to go to the airport to catch a flight to Japan! Such a busy holiday!!