Archive for December, 2006

Tokyo trip

Saturday, December 30th, 2006

We decided to go to Tokyo today, since we had never gone there as a family. I’ve travelled there a lot, since my work is there, but I’ve never really gone to see the city. Nicole had also only been there a few times.

We had spoken to Evan about taking the Shinkansen, because he loves trains and had never been on a Shinkansen before. We got all excited about going and at the station Evan and Lauren were quite excited. Once inside though, they seemed to find the trays that are hinged on the seat in front more exciting than the ride itself. Anyways, we took the Shinkansen from Shinyokohama to Tokyo.

After that, we took the normal train to Ueno to go to the zoo. Unfortunately, the Ueno zoo was closed for the few days around New Years, so we couldn’t go. We did see the rest of Ueno park and had some lovely food in one of the small streets off the park. We met some nice older people there who took a liking to Evan and Lauren (go figure). They even gave them some peanuts and 200 yen each! Very nice people.

After lunch we decided to check out the science centre, but that too was closed! 0 for 2 that day. Then we decided to check out the Tokyo Dome City, which was close to my work. I’d walked through it a few times getting from one place to another but hadn’t really seen it, so it was quite good to check out. Evan went on a few rides and we bought some caramel popcorn and then headed home. The kids were in bed a bit earlier that night and they gave us a bit of a sleep-in the next day.

Christmas day

Monday, December 25th, 2006

Christmas day was great this year, with lots of presents that the kids loved. We didn’t go overboard this year, which was good, and the tree was filled up, but not overflowing. Nicole and I didn’t buy each other anything, which was nice because we could focus on the kids.

The kids got lots of fun things – Evan got Power Ranger-type things (kinda like the transformer toys when we were young) and Lauren got a dress-up box with a few fancy dresses in it. Evan also got a soccer ball, which he told me “was the best present”.
Yoshie and Fumio bought the kids kites and so we went to Honmoku-shimin park to fly them as well as play with Evan’s new soccer ball.

Christmas

Sunday, December 24th, 2006

We had a lovely Christmas this year with Fumio and Yoshie coming over for Turkey dinner, as well as Akiyo, Mamoru and Akira. The kids were pretty crazy all night, with lots of running about, but they all had fun. We had some presents for the kids which they all opened when the guests arrived.

We put on some candles as well, and the kids loved that. We sang some Christmas songs and Yoshie and Fumio knew so many of them!