100 Yen Shop

The road of sakuras on the riverback right by our place is in full bloom, so almost every day is a picnic lunch for Sota.

Sakura's really have a special power to make everyone happy!

Anyway, with the warm weather and longer days, we brought out the kite we got last year and to my surprise Sota was able to control it on his own.

And looking at all the stuff I was carrying, made me realize that Sota's ball, kite, jump rope, shovel/sand toys, our picnic sheet...all the outdoor toys were from a 100 Yen shop! So cheap but good quality...which will make any mommy happy!

There's a lot of 100 Yen shops but personally I would reccomend DAISO.
http://www.daiso-sangyo.co.jp/

Recommended toys

With everything happening and the rainy days, we've been indoors alot. So I pulled out a few new things we can do around the house.

1.
Nendo (ねんDo), which is just like play-dough made of flour is 630 Yen for 12 colors. It's soft and easy to play with for kids.



2.
Sota's loved coloring for awhile now

but lately he's into the Hiragana coloring book. But rather than the coloring, he grabs his pencil and tells me he's studying.

Hiragana is still too early for him but since he's showing interest, I've gradually been teaching him how to write his name. They have an ABC version of this so if you're kid like Anpanman, it might be good to grab their interest with Anpanman.


3.
Everytime I stand in the kitchen, Sota drags the dining room chair to the kitchen and says he wants to help. So I decided to buy him his own knife. There are plastic kinds, or knives with animation but since it's not a toy I bought one looking like the real thing...Kai Jirushi is the brand sold for about 600Yen. He's very careful when he uses it and helps me cut veggies for dinner, so it's actually quite helpful.



If you're interested, all this stuff can be bought at Akachan Honpo.

Watching the news 24/7 and reading all the information on the internet has been pretty stressful and confusing for alot of people in Tokyo. Even though my husband needed to stay in Tokyo to work and my parents were here in Tokyo, I was ready to escape to be in a safer place...wherever that may be.

The planned power outage, trains stopping and the shortage of certain foods, baby diapers and other select items when you go to the grocery store (either due to the people paniking & buying the shelves out or cause the deliveries where not possible or cause factories are closed down for now). These things were worrying people but to be honest life in Tokyo is fine. And as I realized that, Sota and I started to get back to our daily routine (going to the pool, seeing neighborhood friends) and living our normal life again.

Now that my mind is clearer from all the worries, I was able to think about the people in the Tohoku area and how we can help...manpower seems to be what is lacking most at the moment so I hope to volunteer from Tokyo (perhaps at the evacuation centers or even just sorting donated supplies...which I need to look into) but other than that EVERYONE needs to continue to save power, donate money/relief supplies and the easiest thing for all of us to do is to simply keep our positive vibes.

Easy explanation of the Nuclear power plant situation

There is a video that will help you or your child to understand what is going on with the Fukushima Nuclear power plant now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nbEFhPVM_k&NR=1

Pray for Japan

Lot's of prayers from all over the world
http://matome.naver.jp/odai/2129985372846288901

Here's a list of ways you can help:
http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/03/11/6246445-japans-earthquake-how-to-help

or a link to Lady Gaga Japan Earthquake Relief Wristband
http://ladygaga.shop.bravadousa.com/Product.aspx?cp=14781_42444&pc=BGAMLG88

Deco Choco

We made a box of Deco Choco for White Day! These Chiroru Choco's are a famous chocolate in Japan and they let you customize the wrapping.

You can easily design your chocolate wrapper from the website.

A box comes with 45 chocolates and you can design up to 3 different patterns for 2362 Yen + shipping.

But after eating the chocolates, you're gonna want to save the wrapping so check out the other merch they sell, like magnets, straps and plastic cases (fitting 9 or 10 chocolates) to give as a gift.

If you're out of present ideas, why not create a box of chocolates with your photo or a sweet message.

http://www.decocho.com/

(Only in Japanese)

Pizza party

We had a homemade Pizza party the other day!

Made the pizza dough with our bread maker.

Then Sota & friends rolled out the dough and

created their own pizza with tomato sauce, toppings and cheese.

Even if you don't have a bread maker, seems like you can easily make pizza dough with flour.

Or even better, if your too lazy to even make it, order from the Domino Pizza English site to "Buy 1 Get 1 FREE". This deal is only for the Brooklyn pizzas on the ENGLISH site but 2 large pizzas for 2,500 Yen is a great deal!

Actually, ordering online gets you another 5% off so it's a total of 2,375 Yen!!http://www.dominos.jp/eng/

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

In Japan, boys recieve chocolates/sweets from the girls...

and Sota got his 1st valentine's gift from his girlfriend today!

It was so yummy that he finished it all in seconds!

Useless fun facts for mommies

Did you know?...

that today is Anpanman's birthday?

We had no idea til g-pa called us to tell us.

Happy Birthday Anpanman!

It seems that when kids asked the creator, Takashi Yanase, about Anpanman's b-day, he didn't know what to answer so he told them it was Feb. 6, which is actually the same day as his own birthday.

Recommened Train DVD's

kaito loves to watch train related DVD's and after having rented a bunch, kaito's favorite is"Norimono Daisuki! HiVision NEW Tetsudo Special 100"!

As a mama-tetsu (mommy's that love trains...usually from the influence of their kids), "Ressha Daikoushin 2011" was a DVD that looked interesting. It has 200 different trains and lots of trains that aren't included in the "Special 100". It can't be rented so it was a great purchase.

You can also chose the type of narration so kaito always watches it with the kids narration. The "Special 100" also explains the trains so both of these DVDs are reccommeded for trains lovers.

You can get both on amazon.
"Special 100" is 892 Yen and "Ressha Daikoushin 2011" is 2400 Yen.

Today was another day for mama-tetsu to build the plarail

Here's kaito standing in the plarail tower.

Cheese!

Putting together the plarail is so much fun for mommy!

Bean-throwing Festival

Happy Bean-throwing Festival (Setsubu no Hi)!

Have you done the traditional beans throwing (Mamemaki)

to drive away the evil

and to bring in the good luck?

Don't forget to eat the sushi rolls(Ehou-Maki) for good luck too.

BTW, this is Sota, 2 years ago, celebrating with the same friends.

ZUSSO kids

kaito's hair at 1 year and 6 months, was getting too long and bushy so we went to ZUSSO kids to get his 1st haircut. He was totally excited that he hopped into the seat (shaped like a car), but once the cape was on and he saw the scissors, he was in tears.

Of course I wasn't able to get any shots of him getting the haircut but as you can tell from the photo he looks and feels fresh

I'm glad I took him to get his first haircut at a professional place. The people are used to crying and kids that move around and easily soothe the kids with toys while quickly getting the haircut done!
http://zussokids.1755.net/

KID-O-KID

We went to KID-O-KID.
The reason was cause kaito is obsessed with plarails that I wanted to see if he'd be interested in other stuff and wanted to get him a new toy.

But....

even at KID-O-KID he was glued to the train section...Now that I recall it was the same situation at Pierette too.

Other areas have puzzles, wooden tools to play with like daddy, a ball pool, etc.


Compared to Pierette, KID-O-KID (Tama Plaza) is smaller. Pierette has a sandbox, circuit, a cafe but KID-O-KID is great cause it's in the shopping mall connected to the train station.

Pierette is 600Yen/30 mins (if over 110 mins. the flat rate is 1400 Yen)
http://www.pierette.jp/
KID-O-KID is also 600Yen/30 mins (or a day pass is 1500 Yen)
http://www.bornelund.co.jp/asobi/kidokid.html
Adults are also charged at both places

It's too cold to play outside so places like these are great.

BTW, kaito's new toy

even since we got home, it's been keeping him busy.
FYI, if you want new toys, toys at Bornelund are gonna be on sale from Jan. 22-27

Surgery Doll ERWIN

kaito has a new friend Erwin

But he's not like any other doll cause you can take-out his organs.

It's a doll that will get your kids interested in the human body. kaito keeps taking out and putting away the parts but of course the heart, lungs and other parts aren't in the right position (LOL).

Each organ(heart, intestine, lungs) is a different color and there's a color-coded velcro strip to tell you which parts are connected.

Of course, it's still too early to understand the organs or even say the names but he's just happy to carry him around for now.

You can get it here

http://www.bornelund.co.jp/ec/detail.php?category=5&category2=05006&id=4842

Eneloop

Things have finally settled down for us.

Ever since the holidays, kaito(mommy & daddy too)came down w/ a cold and from the start of 2011, kaito fell from a chair and broke his collarbone.

But luckily he's been occupied with all the new and old(hand-me-down) plarail trains he has now and can pretty much say the names to all of them.

We have so many trains that we've switched our batteries to Eneloop(rechargable batteries).
Another environmentally friendly year!

Takoyaki Maker

We've had a Takoyaki Maker for a while now but totally forgot about it until a few days ago when Sota kept saying "I wanna make takoyaki" (influenced by watching Anpanman cartoon). So today we made takoyaki(octopus fritters).

Sota knows the difference between what's hot and dangerous so we let him help us add the ingredients and turn the fritters.

It was good to see Sota having fun cause til then, I thought that the purchase of the Takoyaki Maker was a mistake...the one we have is a cheap one where the pan can't be removed to wash and it takes up alot of room when you wanna put it away. But the Takoyaki Maker can also be used to make other stuff and since it makes so many at once, it can be frozen which will proabably be good for when Sota starts school and needs to bring lunch.


Here's a site with recipes for the Takoyaki Maker (only in Japanese)→http://www.geocities.jp/oishiicamp/campdeko-suryuu/takoyakimeijinn/takoyakimeijin1.html


Takoyaki Mix and Takoyaki Maker's (cheap ones are for about 1000 Yen) are sold at supermarkets so if you like takoyaki, why not get a Takoyaki maker - it can be a fun party activity.

Rice Krispie Treats

Lately, Sota's been into eating marshmallows which reminded me of my childhood and the rice krispie treats I made/eat with my mom.

The normal Rice Krispies is hard to find in Japan but the chocolate krispies is pretty much in any cereal aisle and you can pretty much find a small(110g) bag of marshmallows for about 100 Yen anywhere.

So, as you probably already know...to make these treats, melt 1tbsp butter and bag of marshmallow together (be careful so it doesn't burn). Once marshmallow is totally melted turn off the heat and pour in 3.5 cups of the krispies and mix together quickly. Press mixture into a buttered pan, let cool and cut!

It's so easy & soo good that I'm definitely gonna make it again.

*The only thing about this recipe is that the melted marshmallow is pretty much glues to the pan so it's hard to wash! (LOL)

Kakizome (New Years Calligraphy)

The Japanese New Years has many traditions and this year, for the first time Sota tried kakizome (a traditional New Years calligraphy).

But obviously Sota can't write yet, and using real ink would become a huge mess so we used the special paper that can be written on with water. (It dries in a few minutes so you can use it as many times as you want).

http://mizukakigoo.com/

(Japanese site only)

You use a brush to write so it feels like the real thing and the watermarks looks like real calligraphy. Of course this is great for kids to draw/write with (mess-free) but it's great for anyone who wants to practice Shuji.