10 at last.

Lili wanted a party for her birthday.For ten with a ten cake. OK easily done.

The party was a huge success. I definitely throw the best party in town! (Not hard since birthday parties UK style don't exist !) The girls all played outside at first and then came in for a nail painting contest. I bought a load of nail varnish, stickers, rhinestones put them on the table, divided the girls into pairs and gave them 15 minutes each to paint their partner's nails. They loved it! I think it was a first for most of them and they really got into it. Of course I couldn't pick a winning pair in the end but no one cared! Then we had the cake. They ate the whole thing, wolfed it down .I thought we would be eating cake for a week but they didn't even leave a slice for K!

After that it was the hat, scarf , dice smarties and chopsticks game. A great game -takes ages ,loads of suspense,no winners or losers and you only need to buy a tube or two of smarties.

The finale was a game where each child ties a balloon to their ankle with a long string and then on a count of 3 everyone tries to burst everyone elses balloon whilst trying to protect their own. Loads of screaming and lasts about 30 secs but great fun!

And that was it -party over! All the girls asked Lili to invite them next year even if they change classes which was cute and 3 of them are coming over next weekend for another nail painting session!!

yum! (or not?)

I knew it was going to be bad as soon as I saw the ear to ear smile on K's face and it was. K came home Saturday night carrying bags of 'stuff'. The huge bag of fruit from MIL was gratefully received . The tuber? root? potato? less exciting. K on the other hand was well impressed. 'top grade, high quality, expensive, a real treat' were just a few of the exclamations as he opened the box. Actually it is a rather slimy vegetable that makes your hands itch and has the consistency of wallpaper paste but whatever, as long as i didn't have to deal with it.

Sunday, K was talking about lunch by breakfast. He got Lili on board and the two of them cooked(?) lunch.

Mmmmmm! Ground up tuber.

Placed on white rice and topped with soyasauce certainly not something I would choose to eat but I didn't have to cook and we had fish pie and apple and blackberry crumble for tea the night before so I shut up and ate while the rest of the family heaped praise on the tuber and ate copious amounts of the stuff.

They then decided to make takoyaki (batter with octopus) with the rest of it for dinner. Dh and Lili bickered the whole way through it. They wind each other up really badly at the moment it is worse than any sibling stuff. It is very funny to listen to though!

You pour the batter into the moulds add octopus chunks wait for it too start setting and then keep turning the batter over until it is a round shape. Toma and Lili did most of the cooking , K supervised and I drank beer! Perfect.

The next day I phoned the lady who gave us the yamaimo and thanked her. She was so pleased that we liked it that she has promised to drop more off in the very near future....on the upside at least I won't have to cook!

Wash my nose!

You know you are fighting a losing battle culturally when your 9 year old asks you to take her to the doctors so she can get her nose washed.

Lili was really bunged up with cold on Sunday. Her head and eyes hurt and what with that and a hack of a cough she barely slept last night. (Actually we both hardly slept as she came in crying at 2:30am and asked me to sleep in her bed... and since the humidifier was in her room .. I did)

So this morning she asked if she could go to the doctor get her snot sucked out with the nose vaccuum cleaner then have water pushed up one nostril and come out the other one. Yuck!

(Just to keep the cultures even she is now sat with a vicks soaked towel over her head in the bath! )

I have to say her nose is loads better and fingers crossed she will sleep like a baby tonight.

Spring?

We had glorious weather on Sunday. It was definitely warmer outside than inside. So using the fact that Lili was full of cold and therefore housebound I dragged Kei outside to sort out the garden. We cleared up all the leaves, twigs and branches (left where they dropped on our end of year pruning session) I weeded the flower beds and K dealt with the veg plot. There are actually some bulbs blooming already and the primroses are beautiful. shh , don't say it too loudly but spring is around the corner.

No socks

Lili left for school in the snow this morning. It wasn't settling but it was coming down thick and fast. She had no coat on just a thin blazer and a scarf and gloves. Fast forward to 3:30pm and she comes home with no socks on. In January.In the freezing cold. Why? Because they got wet while she was playing football in second period. Yep, second period. She has had no socks on since 10am and only flimsy indoor shoe things on her feet.In a school with no heating where they think it is invigorating to open all the windows after every lesson.
I mention this to Kei and his response is 'What's the problem ? She should count herself lucky, in my day we weren't allowed to wear trousers..'
What is it about enduring the cold that so amazingly character building? I just don't get it. I had to fight every step of the way to get my underfloor heating (3 rooms not the whole house) because Kei felt that you should be able to feel the passing of the seasons. Er... step into the garden.. Here ends the rant.

6 today!

The requested birthday breakfast: egg and soldiers.Spot THE best birthday present this year. Thanks Malina!

Snow especially for the boy who wanted to build a snowman for his birthday. How cool is that?

(I was rudely awaken by the kindergarden phone tree at 6:36am letting me know that the school buses weren't running and we don't even use the bus. Argg! I then had to rudely awaken the next mum.)

We had the snowman done by 7:40 Lili even got to help before she headed off to her freezing cold-we don't believe in heating-elementary school.(She had to be persuaded to wear a wind breaker style jacket-she was worried the teacher would tell her off.Argg again!)

I know it doesn't look much but it never snows here.

12:30 and it has nearly all gone. K is home on and off all the time at the moment. The shop is always really quiet this time of year. He suddenly decided to fix something I have been asking him to do for ages.On the coldest day in years with no preparation or tools. Why?I have no idea but I am not complaining.

I went to get Toma and saw that they were getting ready for the Dondoya ceremony tomorrow. They burn all the old New Year decorations and roast mochi in the fire. He has such a good week this week. Monday was a holiday, Tuesday was the monthly birthday party,today is his birthday, tomorrow is Dondoya and Friday is 'casual day' - a once a month chance to dump the school uniform and wear your own clothes.

The cake. A bit of a cop out this year but Toma was impressed!

Happy birthday Toma! We went out for dinner after this because he wanted pizza that 'isn't made by mummy'. The cheek!

Toma is 6 on Wednesday! He wanted to make a snowman for his birthday but Kei gently persuaded him that ice skating would be even better. (No snow around here.. not like the UK)He found an outside rink on Ebino Plateau on the kumamoto/Miyazaki border. The road up the mountain was deserted and absolutely breathtaking beautiful. There were even deer at the side of the road.

Then we turned a corner and there were 3 car parks full of cars,souvenir shops, restaurants, hot springs and the ice rink.. only in Japan.

Toma was so excited. Lili has been skating a few times and was off in no time but Toma was all over the place. This was him standing on his own for the first time!

Snow!!

Wobble....wobble

Almost....

Off on his own at last.

Lili skated almost nonstop. Her feet were killing her when she finally took off her skates.

Ahh! A foot spa ....perfect for aching bones

Nothing like ice cream when you can hardly feel your fingers because you are so cold .

That is more like it! Nothing like an onsen for warming you up!

And what a view.