Speak softly and carry a big stick

I googled this phrase and found out it's an African proverb. In Ian's case, it really should be, "Shout loudly and run with a big stick."

While spending time at a park in Tokyo with Nathan and Kerry, I gave Ian a stick to hold. He spent most of the rest of his time running, shouting, and poking at the ground with his stick. If baseball doesn't work for him, we'll consider introducing him to javelin.

Visitors!

We were so excited that Ryan's cousin Nathan and his wife Kerry could fly out and visit last week. They spent most of their time skiing (look for a future post), but we did have a few days to explore in our area.

While in Tokyo, they had the chance to try takoyaki. For those of you with Danish heritage, it's similar to ebelskiver. They pour dough and chunks of octopus in the griddle and then slowly turn it to form a ball. They're pretty good.



They're typically topped with mayo (of course!), some sort of thick soy sauce-type sauce, and bonito (dried fish flakes).


Mmmm, mmmm, good!



We somehow managed to see two monkeys in one day while in Tokyo. One monkey was on a random street corner. He was drinking from a bottle with his owner. The second monkey was actually a kiddy act near the Tokyo tower. We missed the act, but did manage to watch the monkey pick tasty treats out of his fur.



It's actually pretty ironic that we spotted the monkeys. The day before our trip to Tokyo, Ryan read online about a bar/restaurant near Tokyo where they have a monkey who serves you your drinks. We wanted to go, but it's unfortunately 1.5 hours North of Tokyo. (and we're 1-1.5 hours South of Tokyo) You can find a clip on Utube if you want to check it out.

On their last full day in Japan, we ate outside in 50 degree weather, basking in the sun. Bliss!

Christmas in Japan

After traveling in WA and OR in late Nov. and early Dec., we decided to celebrate Christmas at home this year. It was nice to start some of our own traditions for Christmas. Unfortunately, we didn't get our act together in time to get a Christmas tree. Luckily Ian is still young enough that he doesn't know what he's missing.

I found out this year that the Japanese celebrate Christmas by ordering KFC for Christmas day. Apparently you need to get there early on Christmas Eve to make sure you can get your order. Or, even better, a lot of people reserve their buckets o' chicken in advance. Oh my. Colonel Sanders has done a mighty fine advertising campaign in this country. We bypassed KFC and made Swedish meatballs and prime rib for our Christmas Eve and Christmas day meals this year.

We decided to spread the gift opening over 3 days. Here is Ian digging into his first Christmas gift:

He was so excited to ride his riding toy. In fact, he loaded all of his stuffed animals on the toy for a ride.

Then, he took it a step further. He tried to tie one of his pull toys onto the back of his riding toy.

Ian also received a MD kit for Christmas this year. (with the hopes that he'll freak out a little less the next time we see the MD)

I'm not sure if this will transfer to MD appointments, but he's enjoying giving check ups to all his stuffed animals in the meantime.

Take me out to the ball game

Just after Ian started walking we introduced him to his first taste of baseball. It was love at first sight...or at least giggling at first sight. After 2.5 months, I've finally got around to posting this video. Ian will thank us for this early introduction when he becomes a major league player in 20 years.

I'll let the video do the talking...

It's finally mikan season!

Last year we arrived at the mid-tail end of mikan season. Mikan are essentially satsuma oranges/tangerines...but even better. This year we went mikan picking with friends.

They have a special type of scissor that allows you to easily cut the stem.


The trees are pretty much our height, so it made for easy picking.

It also made it easy for Ian to walk underneath. I had to do a lot of ducking to keep up with him. Of course, he had a tendency to go for the moldy mikan on the ground.

Here is Ryan proudly displaying his basket (along with Tim smiling for the picture). We had a contest to see who could pick the smallest mikan. (typically the smallest mikan taste the best) Ryan was in first place for a while, but by the end of the day he dropped down to 3rd. There was also a contest to see how many mikan you could eat that day. I think Ryan's boss ate somwhere in the range of 12-15. That's dedication.



We came home with a lot of mikan...which is a little tricky when we're heading to the US in 1.5 weeks. You really can never have enough mikan, though, so we'll be fine.

Sankeien

Last weekend we checked out a park near Yokohama. (about a 25-30 min. drive from us) It definitely reminded us of Kyoto. We didn't quite time it right for the fall colors (we're just starting to see leaves turn), but it was still beautiful.

Here we're either people or fish watching. Between the koi in the pond and the people walking across the bridge there was never a dull moment.



You can see a ton of maples in the background. We'll have to visit again in about a month.

The park has a pagoda and 10-15 buildings that have been restored. Many of the buildings have been moved from other places (Kyoto, etc.) to be displayed in the park. Most of the buildings have a thatched roof.


Of course we needed a picture on the red bridge.


Ryan tried to pose Ian by this old fence door...and apparently this is what Ian thought about posing.


Ian was pretty much moving non-stop.

In one part of the park they had a flower display. Here is a man dead-heading with a pair of chopsticks.



I believe they're mostly chrysanthemums?


This is one of those places that you can go year-round and be guaranteed to see something new. (i.e. fall colors, flower displays, cherry blossoms, iris, etc.)

Halloween

We had a great Halloween this year. We went to parties on Fri. and Sat. nights, so we had plenty of time to celebrate. We did skip the actual trick or treating on base since Ian is still too young for candy and I have no self control with sweets.

Ian actually had two costumes this year. I wasn't sure if we'd get his Turkish costume in time, so we also had a back up.

Here are our 1950s costumes:


1.5 hours before our first Halloween party, Ryan still did not have his costume ready. He went to the local Japanese Goodwill to find a leather jacket a la Fonzie. He came home with a leather jacket a la Bill Cosby. It looked like it was straight out of the 1980s. I thought he was joking, but no, this was the jacket he picked out. Apparently he didn't watch enough Happy Days in his childhood. So...45 minutes before the party we made another trip to the Goodwill and found this jean jacket that actually fit. Whew!


Ian was practicing his "I'm too cool" look all night. It's hard to tell from the picture, but we had his hair slicked to the side. His comb-over hair worked perfect for the 1950s style.



Yes, my hot pink skirt had an actual poodle on it.


For party number two, Ian sported his Turkish costume. It came with a hat, but the hat was off within 5 seconds of putting it on. Ryan somehow managed to catch him right before he took it off:


Ian loved the costume, though. Who wouldn't when you look this good?


At the parties there were a lot of great costumes. Here are a couple of my favorites:


The Anthony family went as characters from Peter Pan. Hallie made all the costumes. Brilliant! (the Crocodile is also an Ian - he's 3 months younger than our Ian)

The Putaansuus went as Minions from the movie "Despicable Me." I haven't seen the movie yet, but the costumes are impressive.