cebu part I

autumn is in the air but my blog is still stranded back in summer. 

here are a few shots from our trip down to cebu island in the philippines. 
we spent the majority of our time doing absolutely nothing but swimming, taking afternoon naps and wining and dining at maribago blue water resort on mactan island; which I have to say was the perfect choice of location to chill out with an energetic 2-year old. 

the big two

last week just over a week ago kou-chan turned two (i know, two already!) so to celebrate his birthday we decided to invite his friends from the same “duckling” group at kindy and have a bit of a party/picnic at the park.

had a beautiful sunny day for it and all in all it turned out to be a great idea as the kids could run around on the grass and play on their bikes while us adults chilled out in the sun sipping our drinks and supervising.
the best thing about it was at the end of the day we didn’t have to worry about cleaning up had it been a house-party.

kiwi summer - scene 1

a couple of months ago we took the long haul flight home for a good old kiwi summer.
some random shots.

one

first post of 2012, now that's not a good start to the year...

i'm not gonna explain myself but what I'm gonna try and do is some catching up.

spring is in the air!
everything is good!

goodbye~

now i bet that title got you worried.
no, i'm not giving up this blog, but this post is probably gonna be my last one for 2011; hence the title.

i so didn't intend to disappear from sekimachihato's world for so long, but a few months back I went through a bit of a rough patch at work where I was chucked into the deep-end (that's putting it nicely) and was under too much pressure, enough to make me disappear from, here for a while.
every morning i would leave home early as kou-chan lay fast asleep in his futon only to get home late in the evening to see him tucked up fast asleep again in the same futon. this is so not what i had in mind when i moved to tokyo, i mean come on; no father in their right mind would want a life like this.

but since then things have picked up. i'm handling a project which i'm fairly passionate about, and making sure that i have a comfortable work-life balance.

it's never easy packing up your life, moving to a foreign country, and starting work at a new company (believe me, this is my blimmin 4th time!) but the initial settling-in/stressful period is over, or so i hope.

so with only just over a week to go until christmas we seem to have gatherings with friends just about every weekend.
today we had lunch gathering at our home with our guests bringing this delish cheesecake from "ginza no budo".



i've never tried a cheesecake like this one before, it's not baked or rare, but rather more like a mouse kinda cheesecake which comes tucked up in a zaru; a traditional japanese bamboo basket.
pretty cool. thank you t-san!



i had better get this post up and away as we're running out of time in getting kou-chan his christmas presents. last minute mad rush, but hey, it's all fun!

if i'm not back on here before this year's out, have a great christmas and new year. wanna hear lots of wine corks popping open over the next few weeks!
see you again in 2012!!

I can drive trucks

feeling really tired tonight, don't know why but I guess hump day has something to do with it.

yeah, two days to go until the weekend! ooh, and tomorrow will be the last day of my daily blog challenge.

I was given this (ugly) book all about trucks book as a sample way back when kou-chan was just a bean and seriously thought about chucking it.
I mean it's about trucks, kinda like saying boys have to like blue things, and it's got no story what so ever; pretty boring if you ask me.
by what do ya know, it's kou-chan's favorite book at the moment. he flicks through the pages going "brrrrrrooom brrroooom"; talk about bursting daddy's bubble.
but hey, if he's happy I'm delighted!

bust boiler

turns out our boiler went bust so today we got a new, a new (don't even know what this is called in english!?), a electronic bath wall controller?
anyway they are pretty common over here.

this new one is basically the same as our old one but there is a lady living in this one who talks to us.
kou-chan thinks this is hilarious and bursts out laughing when she says things like "the bath is now 41 degrees". he then gets a serious look on his face as he tries to figure out how a lady got into such a small contraption.

so glad he's not tall enough yet to fiddle with the buttons!

my new green-curtain

thank god monday's over; I so hate mondays.
today I had to write a letter to the CEO of one of the biggest corporations (in the top 10) in the world.
how's that for a freaky start to the week!

anyway, have you heard of green curtain?
it's not a "curtain" curtain but rather a curtain made out of lush green foliage which you grow outside of your window.
apparently by growing a green curtain you can reduce the temperate inside your house by around 2 degrees.
they also look nice too and offer a bit of privacy.

after walking around my neighborhood its easy to see that they are the in thing at the moment in my little suburban tokyo neighborhood.
couldn't resist but get in one the fun so yesterday I drove to the local hardware store and purchased myself a big flower pot, some dirt, couple of stakes, a net, and some plants.
most people around here are growing goya which is a bitter gourd popular in okinawa, but I went for yorugau; moonflower, from the morning glory family only because I though the odd flower would look better than some gourd hanging outside my window.

as you can see I'm in need of some privacy so I'm looking forward to my green curtain to start winding itself up the net.

can you see kou-chan on the sofa to the right? he can now get on and off the sofa or bed by himself!

dandelion

I so shouldn't have made a promise to do this daily blogging thing over a weekend. talk about no time!

so yet another quickie.
kou-chan's recently found out how fun dandelions can be.
he still doesn't know that if he blew the dandelion it would be just that much more fun. he's pretty content at this stage to wave it around and wonder why it gets smaller and smaller.

forgot how much fun dandelions can be for adults too.
when was the last time you blew one?
a dandelion that is!

a wos first

I haven't hit the update button on my blog for ages, and it's only because I don't carry my camera around with me to take any photos nor (hate that word "nor") do I have the time to ever upload a new post.
as I've mentioned before, my only free time these days is while I'm commuting to and from the office or while I'm in the bath.

so here comes a wos first.

I've decided I'm gonna do a post a day for the next week no matter what.
even if I come down with malaria or loose a finger you are gonna see a new daily post right here.
it will most likely be updated during my commute because I don't trust myself in the bath with my iPhone.
mind outa the gutter. I don't wanna drop it into the bath.

but be warned, photos will be taken on my phone so don't expect any snazzy pics and the posts will be relatively short; I'm often not in the mood to blog while in a jammed backed subway carriage.
and don't expect any random photos of sexy people I see during my commute, we can't turn off the iPhone's camera shutter sound for Japanese iPhones. I think thats because there are too many creepy men going for the knicker shot.
yuck.

anyway, here is kou-chan waiting for his lunch at "cafe;haus" in toyosu last weekend.
cafe;haus has a very relaxing feel to it, a nice outdoor courtyard for bbqs, good hearty food and some eye-candy staff. happens to be across the road from lalaport so you can get your shopping fix too if need be.

oh yeah, I can only upload one photo from my iPhone to this blog so don't expect a daily barrage of photos.

Sent from mr sekimachihato's iPhone

hatsu zekku : 初節句

celebration after celebration.

a few days before kou-chan turned one he also celebrated his first ever children’s day; an important “first” in japanese culture called “hatsu zekku” (初節句).

although children across japan and many parts of asia celebrate children’s day annually, the 1st and the 5th children’s day are considered big events in japan for boys.

kou-chan celebrated his hatsu zekku with both his grandparents and all but two of his uncle and aunties. pretty special in my book.

unfortunately uncle N from japan was away in some exotic location in east-asia on business and untie A; (my sister), was in paris on holiday.

a special dinner was out of the question as you don’t wanna be dining in some posh restaurant with a tired toddler, so instead we booked in for lunch at the top-notch shiba tofuya ukai (芝とうふ屋うかい); a beautiful japanese restaurant at the very foot of tokyo tower.







as the name suggests this fine establishment focuses on tofu.
they produce all their own tofu which is made at their own in-house workshop in the foothills of the okutama mountains. the beans (yup, tofu is made from beans) are grown in hokkaido.

the lovely ladies who were serving our private dining room didn’t seem to mind that kou-chan wanted to be the first to get his hands on every dish that they served.
in true japanese service they simply smiled, commented on what a cute little boy he was and gracefully shuffled around the tatami mat room in their modified kimono dress.




(above photos from shiba tofuya ukai website)

not only did k-chan and I have to interpret all being said between the grandparents (my parents only know “hello”, “thank you”, and how to count up to 10 in japanese, whereas k-chan’s parents, well her dad anyway, is good at mimicking phrases from hollywood movies like “oh no” and “come on baby” and “fu*k you”…), but we also had to control a wriggly kou-chan AND try to enjoy our meal.
because of such circumstances we do not have that many photos of the “big event”, but we do have some wonderful memories.






restaurant info:
shiba tofuya ukai
4-4-13
shiba-koen
minato-ku, tokyo
tel: (03) 3436-1028 (reservations recommended)
website

nearest station: akabanebashi station (oedo line) or kamiyacho station (hibiya line)

happy birthday my champ

so behind on blogging….

just a quickie to spread the word that my beautiful little kou-chan turned 1 less than a week ago.
he's now got 8 teeth and walking (albeit a bit wobbly on his feet).
man, he's been experiencing so many milestones this past month, will get to these on a later post.

so now that he’s walking we purchased his first pair of shoes; some asics; not cheap considering he will apparently have grown out of them in about 3 months, but these are designed especially for toddlers who are learning to walk. pretty important time in ones life if you ask me.




guess who turned up for kou-chan’s 1st birthday?
chi-chi and pop (the grandparents) all the way from new zealand!
talk about the power of the first grandchild!

anyway, more on that later.