Otoshidama

Otoshidama, a japanese tradition to give money as new year present to your own and relative's children. In fact we did not remember this until Kai received this present from his grand parents yesterday. As with everything else right now Kai tried to eat it.

Back in Nagano

For the third year in a row we are back in Togari, Nagano, for a weekend skiing with friends. We have had two days of sunshine and a lot of snow, luckely it was snowing on friday evening and saturday night so timing was perfect. It has been too warm for perfect powder snow but still more than decent off pist skiing with loads of snow allowing you to go down anywhere in the forest. And of course we have enjoyed onsen as well. Kai-kun enjoyed first contact with snow even if too early to try skiing.

Australia

Now we are back from our 2 week holiday in Australia. It was a fantastic trip and the small worries we had beforehand for going on an across the globe holiday with Kai turned out to be no problem. Both 10 hours flight and 1100 kilometer car drive just went like a breeze. I guess the advantage with having a baby that requires a lot of carrying around to fall a sleep or not cry is that it likes to be moved and enjoy being on flight, train, car whatever.















In Melbourne we stayed with Maki's cousin Akiko and her lovely family, here with children Shin and Hana. For 3 days we winded down and enjoyed walking around the city and their neighbourhood, going to cafées and simply relax around the house.















They live close to the sea in Melbourne so we got several chances of going to the beach.















Kai wasn't very impressed by the country down under but often took the chance for a good sleep in the warm weather.















But sometime it was Maki who was sleeping when Kai wanted to play. Sleeping family.















After strolling around Melbourne city for 7 hours one day we finished off by having dinner and watching the sunset in st Kilda. Well watching and watching, the sun set when we were trying to take photo of it.















After 3 days in Melbourne we spent 3 days driving the 1100 kilometers from Melbourne along the coast up to Sydney. Here on the amazingly long 90 mile beach on the morning of second day after spending the night in Lake Entrance, a touristic but very nice city along the coast. The place we stayed at had a garden with a grill free to use so we got some kangaroo meat and cooked us a well tasting BBQ dinner.















In Sydney we met up with Paul and his nice parents who we got to stay with while we were in town. Here in their garden just after arrival in Sydney. Notice the västerbotten cheese on the table that has made it all the way from Skellefteå to Sydney.















Maki dancing in front of the opera house.















On a warm and beautiful day Paul's father took us out with their 35 foot boat to cruise around Sydney harbour. An amazing experience and good way to see the city. When we stopped in a small bay for a swim we could see the Harbour bridge and opera house across the water. Must admit I had difficulties to completely forget about the sharks.














Relaxing in the botanic gardens in Sydney.















The last days before returning to Tokyo we took a rental car and drove out from Sydney and had a relaxing time in Blue mountains. We did some easy hiking around in the forest got to see some beautiful views.















Maki pointing out the famous Three sisters in Katoomba.















As a last thing before going to the airport we stopped by a wildlife park and I could finally see some koalas, kangaroos, crocodiles and other fun animals. Koalas are fun in the way to look so tired all the time and can sleep in all various positions. Similar to members in our family.



















Say hi to this guy, the Tasmanian devil.

More photos from australia on picasaweb in albums from Melbourne, roadtrip from Melbourne to Sydney, Sydney and Blue mountains.

Back in Tokyo it's cold, Kai is getting frustrated that he still haven't learnt to turn around when laying on his back (bottom arm get stuck preventing upper body from falling over) and tomorrow we are going to Nagano for skiing. Possibly only time this winter so it will be fun.

A new year...

has begun. It is the year of the tiger and a year that will mean a lot of change for us. We have six months left on the contract here in Tokyo and after that we will be moving back to Stockholm. Not only have we sold the apartment in Stockholm but also I will be out of job as my office in Kista will be closed shortly after we return. So we basically move back to no house and no job. We are not too worried about that situation but instead it feels like we have an opportunity to try something new, both when it comes to what to do for work as well as where to live. And I hope it will result in some time off from the working part of life and spend some time with Maki and Kai.

We will start the new year in a good way. On Monday we leave for almost two weeks holiday in Australia. As normal we have not made much detailed planning but on a high level we will fly to Melbourne and stay there for a couple of days with Maki's cousin and her family. After that we will take a few days and drive a rental car 1000km up to Sydney and spend a week in the Sydney area, partly with a friend and his family. So it will be quite an adventure to bring Kai on this trip but we have a lot of time and no need to stress so think it will be very nice trip.













This is how big little Kai grew in 2009. On the 3rd month's checkup he measured 64cm and 6,8kg (a 134% increase).


















In japan it is tradition to go to the temple on new year's day. This is a small temple close to our friend's house where we spent new year's eve and stayed over night.















New year's holiday equals "lucky bag" season. A lucky bag (fuku bukuro) is a closed bag with mixed clothes or any other things with a total value of 5-10 times more than the bag is sold for, at least this is what the stores claim but I must admit it often seems to be a pretty good deal buying one of these bags. The thing is that you can of course not see what's inside if you like it or not.

There is nothing Maki like more than shopping for lucky bags and here is the first one she bought on the way home yesterday.















And this is the second one she bought today. The clothes she got was so good so there is a great chance that there will be a third one tomorrow!















Have to agree with this tiger. Happy new year 2010!