GREENROOM FESTIVAL 2012

Sota's 1st festival!
http://greenroom.jp/english/

If you're interested in bringing your kids/babies to a festival,
GREENROOM is definitely a kid-friendly festival.

There's a kids section where you can leave your stroller when you don't need it
and lots of things for kids to do ...climb a treehouse, paint, play in the ballpool

and of course just enjoy the music.

If you don't have plans today, check the lineup and def. go.

If it seems a little too pricey, you can totally go and sit on the lawn outside and still enjoy the music and atmosphere.  

Super Sentai & Kamen Rider "HERO LIVE SPECIAL"

If your kids like both Super Sentai and the Kamen Rider series, the "HERO LIVE SPECIAL" show at Takanawa Prince Hotel is a must.
The 30 minute show seems to happen every year during GW and appearance from present and past heros appear.

It's 1,600Yen for Advance tickets(open seating),but you can confirm seats up front for another 700Yen.

After the show, there's a photo opp(1000Yen) and a hand shaking session.
We decided to take a group photo which turned out to be a great shot and memory for Sota.

The venue sells a bunch of toys and books, has game booths, a restaurant so there's more than just the show.
http://www.princehotels.co.jp/takanawa-area/gw/event/hero2012/index.html

Information for 2013 will probably be updated around Feb/Mar. so gotta look out for that.

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/

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

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.

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.

christmas concert

Sota and kaito went to Shimajiro's Christmas concert.
https://kodomo.benesse.ne.jp/hiroba_concert/xmas/index.html

It's an hour and 15minutes (with a 10 minute break) full of Christmas songs & dancing and both Sota and kaito's eyes were glued to the stage. (FYI: The songs are all in Japanese)

The concert is til next week so if you have time check it out.

You can chose your seats if you purchase the tickets on eplus
http://eplus.jp/sys/main.jsp

cars2

TSUTAYA was giving out Cars 2 stickers!
Yippee! It'll be in theatres next July!

kaito was getting excited just by seeing the stickers (LOL)

TSUTAYA was promoting Cars 2 along with Toy Story 3's DVD so
you can probably get the stickers at your nearby TSUTAYA too.

Cars2.jp
Can't wait

christmas party

Sota & kaito had an early Christmas party with good friends.
There was 11 adults & 8 kids so we rented the party space and kids room in kaito's complex.

Sota mommy's carrot cake

kaito mommy's bagna cauda

lamb, lasagna, shrimp and lots of other delicious dishes that all the mommies brought.


mommies drinking champagne and talking, kids having fun playing in the kids room.
just getting together is fun but the main event of the day was...

Santa coming to visit the party!


Sota was thrilled to get an Anpanman gift.

kaito seemed a little scared of Santa but wanted the Thomas gift


Seems that that night all the kids were talking about Santa.
It must have been a memorable party for the kids.

Halloween

With Halloween becoming more common in Japan, there's lots of Halloween events going on!

Even our local children's hall had a Halloween party.

On the day of, kaito and Sota are gonna join a friend who lives in an international neighborhood to go trick or treating.

But if you can't go trick or treating (since it's not too common) and still wanna enjoy the Halloween spirit check out the places with Halloween events taking place.

Roppongi Hills Happy! Halloween

http://www.roppongihills.com/feature/halloween2010/

Kawasaki Halloween

http://lacittadella.co.jp/halloween/

Halloween in Tama Center

http://www.tamacenter-cm.com/halloween/

Umegaoka Cats Halloween

http://www.umegaoka.net/2010halloween/index.html

Yamate-Seiyoukan Hallowee Walk

http://www.yamate-seiyoukan.org/event/event-halloween2010.html

GAP kids model contest

If you think you're child is the cutest, enter them in the
2011 babyGap & GapKids model contest!!

It's an easy application process via PC by Nov. 14th!
(Unfortunately, the form is only in Japanese)
http://gap.co.jp/star/

MOTOSUMIYOSHI station

October 14th is known as Railway Day in Japan

so we went train-watching at Motosumiyoshi (Toyoko Line/ Meguro Line).

It's the perfect spot cause right infront of the ticket gate is rooftop garden

where the kids can watch all the trains pass.

It's a recommended hangout for train loving kids.
And luckily there's a bunch of benches so the mommies can sit down.
Bring lunch and you can spend the whole afternoon there.

Motosumiyoshi is famous for their local shopping street with bakeries, bento stores and lots more so you can buy lunch there.

ANPANMAN POOL

The last pool of the summer for kaito was spent at Yomiuriland's Anpanman Pool!

The Anpanman pool was huge compared to the usual local pool along with SL man slides, Uncle Jam's Bread factory, a section to play with water guns...definitely a fun place for kids.

There are also small waterslides and a wave pool making it fun for both parents and kids.
It's a great way to end your summer so check it out tomorrow (which is the last day)!

Adults 2800 Yen

Kids (over 3) 1800 Yen

To check more details see:

http://www.yomiuriland.co.jp/english/wai/

Fireworks

Seeing fireworks is a Summer must-do!

So, earlier today Sota went to see his first fireworks.

It was a small display of 5000 fireworks in our neighborhood but is quite popular amongst the locals. (It's been held every year on August 15 for the past 24 years.)
If you go to the main venue, there's booths and live jazz followed by taiko performances from 6pm...but we wanted to avoid the crowd so relaxed at the riverbank right by home.

It started from 7:30 and lasted for 40 minutes. It's short compared to famous fireworks but if you're with kids, local fireworks are enough to please them.

There's still lots of fireworks going on so might be fun to check it out.

Here's an English site that listup the famous fireworks:

http://gojapan.about.com/od/japanesefestivals/tp/tokyofireworksfestivals.htm

Enoshima Aquarium

It was kaito's first time to the aquarium and he seemed to love it!

We saw the dolphin and seal show but he was more into the toys at the shop.

kaito also experienced his first waves at the beach nearby
which made mommy wanna surf(LOL)

Enoshima is a great cooling spot where you can enjoy the beach and aquarium.
Mos Burger Ocean Cafe Enoshima is also recommended.
They have special curry dishes and Loco Moco
and lots of toys for kids to play with.

Best way to get to Enoshima is by train cause there's always so much traffic.

Enoshima Aquarium
Entrance fee for adults is 2,000 yen
Free for kids under age 3
Yearly passport is 4,000 yen

Goodbye, rainy season!

Ever since the rain has stopped, Sota's been pool hopping.

Kids probably just wanna play in the water so it really doesn't matter what the pool looks like but here's a few for the backyard or spacy balcony...

Sota's is from Akachan Honpo (about 4,500 Yen)...


Today's was 2,000 Yen from a hardware store...


We haven't filled it with water yet but Kaito has a pirates ship pool...

which was bought for half the original price at:
http://item.rakuten.co.jp/glitters/10000045/

BTW, if you're planning to get an inflatable pool this size, an electric air pump is recommended.

Sorajiro's weather news

NTV's evening news weather section lets any kid (up to elementary) stand behind the newscaster and the mascot - Sorajiro. It's only a 5 min. section but it's a chance to create a fun memory and be in the spotlight for a few seconds.

All you have to do is go to Nittele Tower's open space on the 1st floor around 6:30pm when the rehearsal starts. The section is On Air at 6:50 so you'll have to wait a little.

And most of the kids have posters with their names or props to stand out more.

If you click on July 9th, you can probably find where Sota is.

http://www.dai2ntv.jp/news/sora/

If you go too early and need to kill time, Nittele Tower has a few cafes and shops.

http://www.ntv.co.jp/shiodome/access/

Haircut

Sota went to get his 1st haircut.

Since it was the first time and Sota loves Anpanman, we decided to take him to the Anpanman Hair Salon.

Except for the fact that Sota didn't want to sit in the Anpanman chair (he sat on my lap), the staff were great with Sota so everything went smoothly.

Cut and Shampoo is 4,200 Yen. Just a haircut is 3,700 Yen.

A little pricey but for the first time I'd say it was a good deal.

If you go, I'd recommend going on a weekday in the late afternoon.

That way you get to see the show that takes place in the mall at 5:30pm everyday.

http://www.yokohama-anpanman.jp/mall/hair.html
(Japanese site only)