Wishing upon stars

Tanabata is a Japanese star festival which is on 7th July. It is to celebrate the meeting of two stars "Orihime/Vega" and "Hikoboshi/Altair" which were separated by the Milky Way and are allowed to meet once a year.

It is our custom to write our wishes on pieces of paper and hang them on a bamboo tree. So right now lots of places have displays of bamboo trees.



Oliver had a go with Yuzuki the other day, well... he cannot write yet so I held his hand and helped him write his wish.



Yuzuki wished everyone free from accidents and their happy life. Oliver was very sleepy and didn't really think too hard - His wish was to get on airplanes (quite an easy wish - it will come true this weekend!)





The bamboo tree looked good with three extra wishes :)

Rubbish truck

Oliver is so excited to see rubbish trucks right outside our house. Toy Story educated him about them so well. He sits in his little chair in front of the window and waits for them all morning!



Still waiting...



Yes! They are here!!



Now the rubbish guys know we are watching their work so they wave to my boys every time they come.

Indoor playground

It is so nice to have Shinobu (my little sister) at home with her baby Rua. We can go out anytime in her car (she has a big car with three baby car seats!) and boy she knows so many good places to take the kids. 

Today we went to one of the indoor playgrounds I have never been to before. The mall is quite old so only us and one more family were there. And you only pay $7 for the whole day! I wish Matthew was here to play with the boys while I shop!

Luca looooved the ball pool - Yes he had a haircut!!!

They were both fast asleep on the way home in the car :) Such a great way to get rid of their excess energy!

Bento fever

Apparently making pretty Bento/lunch boxes is very popular in Brunei at the moment. Oliver doesn't go to nursery at the moment so I don't need to make one. But when I went to the 100yen shop the other day I saw lots of cool tools so I bought some and made Oliver a special lunch. Cute ha?

Looking for some trains

It was such a gorgeous summery day - I think the temperature was up to 29 degrees. Maybe it wasn't the best idea to take the kids for a walk on this hot day but... we decided to go and see some trains. Oliver hopped onto his scooter which made the walk much quicker!



We live 10min from the international airport, 45min away from the center of Osaka but we have lots of rice and onion fields.







Our train station is one of the major stops for this area as they have a depot where they park the trains at night. So Oliver could see so many different ones.





I really love living in the area where we grow up. I hope Oliver and Luca will appreciate what we have here too.

Smells good

It is supposed to be the rainy season here in Japan but we have had such beautiful weather so far. It makes me feel like I should be doing something outside. So today I spent an hour or so doing some gardening.

Oliver came out and enjoyed smelling my little orange thyme bush. They smell so sweet.

Birthday cake

We waited till Matthew arrived in Kansai (for work) to have Luca's birthday cake. Everyone in the family made it to a nice sushi dinner and a special monkey chocolate cake!





And more presents!!



Happy birthday one more time Luca!

Dragonfly park

Mako took all of us to a huge park near the strawberry picking farm. This was my first time to visit this park. It had everything, flying foxes, big playing frame, ball playing zone and a big pond with some ducks, swans and fish. We spent most of the afternoon there.

Mum and Aunty Kyoko:



Both loved the flying fox - they couldn't stop giggling!





These kept the kids going forever!





Mako told me this place is normally super packed. Luckily when we went the weather hadn't cleared so not many people were there. It was perfect for us, not too sunny but nice and dry :)







We walked over to the pond to feed some swans and ducks.





I found some toi-toi like plants:



And some beautiful white roses:



It was a very nice and relaxing afternoon. We all had so much fun!

Fruit picking weekend

We don't normally come back to Japan at this time of the year. We tend to come over in mid summer or winter. It is lovely to be here right now, wonderfully fresh air and just perfect temperature for the kids to run around outside. Plus lots of yummy fruits are ready for harvesting.

When I was 8 years old or so my friend gave me a bunch of biwa/loquat on the way home from school. They were so delicious. I took the seeds home and mum and I planted them in the backyard at our apartment complex. So many years (I think 8-10 years) later it started to fruit and now we have this huge fruit tree!

Mum has been watching and protecting the fruits from birds and a raccoon (someone must have had it as a pet but let loose) for us.











They were so sweet and juicy!!

In the afternoon we got in the car and headed out to the strawberry picking farm we visited in March. This time Aunty Kyoko (mum's little sister) joined us :)

This time I was very careful not to pick too many and ate very slowly. They had some cakes you can add strawberries you just picked, tea and coffee, ice cream etc etc. So great afternoon tea for us!

Mum was super happy!



Oliver knew exactly what he was supposed to do!





I am not sure why but they had lots of soft toy dress ups - I guess you dress up while you eat strawberries???

Mum:















Yuzuki and Runa:



Hinata and Oliver:



Luca and Aunty Kyoko:

Luca is so good at feeding himself - Yuuuuuummmmmyyyy!

Well in the end, as usual I ate way too much. I almost got strawberry flu! (flu-like symptoms I get when I overeat ...) Sadly the strawberry season is already over here, we just have to catch the next one down under!