100 days

Today it has been 100 days after Kai was born and according to japanese tradition we had a small ceremony to celebrate this. This tradition is called okuizome and should help make sure that the baby will not have problem to eat during his lifetime. Maki's parents brought the sticky rice used for ceremonies, osekihan, and we ate together with Kai. For Kai it was only a matter of pretending to eat though. A nice tradition.

Merry christmas!

With only few minutes left of our christmas eve this year we want to take the opportunity to wish all our friends and family a merry christmas! Some of you still have most part of the day left, we hope you will enjoy just as much as we have.















Fortunately santa had not forgot us this year either. The raindeers however could not make it all the way to our house, think it was something with an injury but not sure, santa was not really clear on that subject. Any way he (she?) brought a whole lot of presents to all of us. Sadly Maki was on the toilet just when santa came by so she missed the whole thing.

Tha day before the day...

The day before christmas and also the emperor's birthday and a national holiday here in Japan. Note that tomorrow, the birthday of another famous person, is not a holiday but a normal working day. We have spent most part of the day at a christmas party at a friends place. Except for a lot of good food and a lot of fun Kai got to meet santa for the first time. Too early to say whether he bought the full story with the north pole and raindeers but at least it looks promising for tomorrow.

Christmas preparations

Christmas eve is just a few days away and even if the ground is not white outside it feels just as good as always to be approaching christmas holidays. Here I'm getting some help from Kai to read the recipe for the Christmas ham.













Ham (almost) ready! We cooked the christmas ham on saturday for the traditional christmas party and invited some friends over for the usual swedish christmas food and hot glögg.



















A "tree like" plant from the neighbourhood flower shop serves as a christmas tree. It's quite large and does the job fairly well I must say. The outside door decoration was hung in the tree when we didn't have any other decorations and seem to have gotten stuck there. Anyway, with presents under the tree it looks pretty nice.

Ninjas and skates

Ulf and I took a day outside Tokyo and went to Edo Wonderland outside nikko. It's a kind of outside museum with a whole small village built up with architecture from edo period. One of the highlights was a ninja show with stunts that would have made Jackie Chan himself impressed (well, almost).















Whole family having hot glögg under the christmas decorations outside Tokyo dome. Very nice indeed.











Saturday we spent in Yokohama strolling around bay area and doing some shopping. Around 15 degrees warm outside but that's no reason not to have an ice skating rink in the middle of the bay area in Yokohama.















Yokohama is really nice and well worth a visit if going to Tokyo. Here it's like they make more use of the areas close to the water and prepare parks and walking paths than what they do in Tokyo and you get a lot of nice sceneries along the water.











Bye for this time!

Tokyo donkey

After a while in Tokyo you get use to seeing different things to what you are used to. Still, I must admit I was a little bit surprised walking home today when we met this guy and his donkey in central Tokyo. Apparently the donkey wasn't keen on having his picture taken, according to his owner, but I was allowed to take this one photo.

New clothes

Tack farmor för de fina kläderna! De passade perfekt i storlek och är mycket omtyckta. De kom väl till pass, Kai har gått upp från 2,9kg till 6,2kg på 2,5 månader så de flesta kläder han har börjar redan bli för små!

Shoot out in Kamakura

Took a relaxing day off in Kamakura, one of the favourite places from last time mom and dad came over. Stralling around the old parts of the city we found a play ground like shooting range with toy guns using cork as ammunition. Few words needed and the competition was on. No need to spell out who won, let's just say that many years of hunting did not seem to give an advantage this time.

Warm winter hot spring evening bath

Outside the LaQua hot spring bath in central Tokyo. We've just finished some 4-5 hours relaxing inside and outside bath in hot springs, cold bath and sauna. Well worth a visit, especially when you need to wind down a little. Outside there are light decorations all over the place, very nice in the winter evening.