Afternoon sewing project

For the past couple of weeks I've been up and down with the flu, and today I finally submitted and decided to spend the days indoors, resting and relaxing. Luckily, it's Sunday, so it was very possible. With Shiori well taken care of, I stayed in bed until one in the afternoon just sleeping and resting and woke up feeling so much better. It's amazing what a few hours of rest can do! Anyway, by the afternoon I couldn't tolerate being in bed any longer so I thought it still counted as resting if I was sitting down :) Since Shiori was so busy I thought it would be a great chance to get some sewing done. With summer on the way and Shiori in need of school clothes I got busy making her some easy mix and match outfits. As you can see, the model thought that whole thing was quite enjoyable as well!

More spring

We have been going on about this spring thing quite a bit, but it's just so lovely at the moment. We are especially lucky to be caretaking at the Baha'i centre, so we have the joy of having many lovely spring blossoms in the beautiful gardens.

some drawings

As lovers of art we really delight to see when Shiori takes an interest in creating. She's always very keen on craft activities which is wonderful, but we are always especially excited to see her development in the more classic arts like drawing and painting. Today Shiori did these two drawings of faces. She had disappeared for a while and the house was quiet, which is usually a sign that something dangerous is going on. However, when I noticed that she had settled herself down with some pens and paper I went into the room and read a book and waited for her to come and display her efforts. It was so cute, in about half an hour she came into the room with these two drawings carefully wrapped in a piece of cloth. I was happy that she was respectful towards her art and she proudly presented them as gifts to me. She explained that these are two faces wearing lipstick.

Of course, as parents we love these drawings so much. We thought we'd put them on the blog mainly since these are her first two self initiated faces we wanted to make sure we don't lose them. Whenever Shiori develops into a new phase of her art and drawings Shingo and I remember the wonderful talk given by Edward in Haifa about the development of children's art...Thank you Edward, that was such an eye opener.

Spring time in Canberra

These photos really speak for themselves, basically, I'm so glad that winter is over!! This weekend we enjoyed many spring time joys such as the Floriad (Canberra's flower festival) and the Japanese Candle Festival.
Famous black swans

Beautiful tulips in front of the lake.
It was exciting for Shiori to go to a Spring festival, and it was great to see lots of little Japanese children in festival clothing. It was also wonderful to see the lovely relationship between Canberra and it's sister city, Nara. There were so many people at the festival and the weather was so lovely that everyone especially enjoyed the great food, kite and lantern making workshops and Japanese cultural displays.

Cockington Green Gardens

On Saturday we experienced the first proper day of spring. The sky was blue, the birds were chirping, the weather was warm and lovely and for the first time we were close to 't-shirt' weather. It was beautiful. Of course, since then we've had a cold snap again, and all the coats that were prematurely and giddily put away were dragged back out for another few reluctant days of use...anyway, back to Saturday. We decided to celebrate the lovely weather by taking Shiori to Cockington Green Gardens, which is something we had heard about, but hadn't ventured to. Gladly we waited for Spring, as the flowers really made the place. It's basically a garden with little miniature things to see like mini houses, canals, an international section and even a mini cricket match, complete with spectator sounds. One of the highlights was a beautiful huge blossom tree in the middle of the gardens. So lovely. Below is a photo of Shingo and Shiori sitting underneath it.
We were amused in the international section where we saw the mini offering for Israel. It was basically what you see below, a flag of Israel stuck in the ground. However, there wasn't anything for Japan at all, so Israel really did quite well. Some of the countries represented were Croatia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey, Iran and S Korea to name a few. We were enjoying seeing all the mini representations of places around the world that we have been lucky enough to visit.
The summer palace in Istanbul was the offering for Turkey.
Shiori of course wasn't too fussed as they were a little too mini to go inside, however, she found her happy place in the playground. This little hut came complete with kitchen sink and stove. Someone had filled the sink and stove with loose bark that was covering the floor. When we asked her what she was cooking she said 'garbage.'
See the blossom tree, it was so beautiful, I'm glad we visited while it was in full bloom. Since then we have had some pretty gusty weather, so I imagine that a lot of the blossoms will have blown away.


In the evening we enjoyed a visit from Anisa who spoilt Shiori by making cupcakes with her. We had a great time together and it reminded us of how lucky we are to have so many wonderful friends here in Canberra.

The Kimono party

The day Shiori had been waiting for finally arrived on Saturday. She has been so excited to wear her kimono since it arrived a few months ago. We have had a practise session, but nothing like the real thing. Here she is getting ready.
Since it's spring time now the blossoms are out, and are so lovely. Shiori wanted to take a photo under the blossom tree. Of course she insisted on walking there herself, which in those shoes took a very long time, however, it was her party....
Finally we made it to the trees where she did a variety of poses. She loved every second of it.
and another pose...
Heading back to the house where some of her friends had come to have afternoon tea with us.

This is a shot of Shiori with her good friend Milly. Milly borrowed Shiori's yukata for the day so that they could enjoy dressing up together. Milly is about 6 months older than Shiori, but quite a bit taller, so the Yukata ended up looking like a fancy top, but cute all the same.
Here is the snack table with all of the foods requested by Shiori. It wasn't really typical 3rd party food, but we thought that she should choose. Of course the huge tray of strawberries, her all time favourite, as well as olives, pickles, babybel cheese, cherry tomatoes, snap peas, cucumber and some other interesting items. Some of the friends brought cup cakes which Shiori was most pleased about.

SEVEN months!!!! So much huger this time around. I remember being more like this at about 8 months last time. The good news is that I'm feeling very unpregnant besides the fact that I have a GIANT stomach, so I can still run around and do what I do. Sometimes I even forget because it's been so smooth and wonderful, however, when I see photos like this I think 'holey moley!! I'm a giantess.' Note the 'hipster' apron :)....ahh, pregnancy.

Although we asked the friends not to bring any gifts, some could not resist. This is Shiori discussing a newly acquired hand bag with Rose and Stephanie, who work with Shingo at the film and sound archives.
Of course, there was plenty of candle blowing. We hadn't counted on it being a 'birthday party' type party because Shingo and I don't really do these kind of event, so we just stuck the candles into a pudding I had made....as if Shiori cared, we could have stuck the candles in a shoe and she'd be happy as long as we sing and she can blow them out. We put a few extra candles for Milly who was a great sport about it not being her birthday party :)
All in all it was a really fun day and we had a great time with friends and food. Wish you all could have been there!!

Our trip to Melbourne

Anyone who knows anything about what we've been up to will know by now that we have abandoned all efforts to be chronological in our blogging. This trip to Melbourne took place two weeks ago now, but finally I'm blogging about it.

Our adventure started one fine Friday morning, we got up nice and early and went to the airport. We had booked a early flight and Shingo had taken the day off work so we can make the most of the weekend away. Of course, as luck would have it, our flight was delayed...by SIX HOURS. Luckily for us, it was during the olympics, so we spent the best part of the day sitting in the airport watching the Olympics. Shiori was surprisingly busy, making friends with the other littlies also stuck at the airport, and a few grown ups as well. As far as being stuck goes, it wasn't too bad. I think it also had to do with the fact that since Shingo had used a day off, we wanted to try and enjoy it, even if it was a tad annoying.

When we landed in Melbourne we were amused by the very very budget 'arrival lounge' offered by Tiger Air. But then again, I guess when it's a budget airline and you've only spent about 39 dollars per ticket, one has to be prepared to put up with delays and carpark/arrival lounge situations. Below is the arrival lounge. There is a luggage carosel right there in the open air, and the most luxurious thing about it was the portaloo.
It was so nice to see Omeed and Kathryn and spend some time with them. We've been meaning to visit them for a while, but with their busy schedule and ours combined, it's been hard to get our act together. However, with a free weekend available during Omeed's school holidays, it was a chance too good to miss. Here is a photo of Omeed, Kathryn and Shiori all dressed up at a fabulous Kimono exhibition that Kathryn discovered.

One of the highlights for me was visiting 'Fifteen' which was established by Jamie Oliver. The food was so yummy and we had a great time. Below is the private dining room, we didn't eat in there, but I thought it was pretty cool.


Shingo had the joy of visiting a Japanese bath house, the only one of it's kind in the whole of Australia. I would have loved to go, but there's something about soaking in hot hot water that's out of the question for a pregnant woman. He said it was very authentic and came back very very relaxed (and slightly pink). Below is a photo of the foyer area and the post bath noodle eating and lounging about area.

Another highlight was visiting a great art deco exhibition in the National Gallery of Victoria, a great Japanese food experience and just strolling around the streets and looking at the pretty buildings. The best part of all though was just visiting with Omeed and Kathryn and seeing a glimpse of their lives in Melbourne. Thanks for having us guys and for showing us a great time!

The Store

Today Shiori set up shop. She actually made a lot of money. I should have thought about it a bit more before I readily agreed with all of her suggested prices. Well, actually I did tone down a few suggestions for 'one hundred and two hundred million and a half million' but in general, I had to go with the shop keepers suggestions. You can see her with her carefully crafted cash register, shop keepers hat and apron. The sign is a little hard to read but she asked me to write 'Shiori's store' on it.Click click click, that will be one hundred million dollars please.

Some of the fine produce such as ginger, a lone chinese date, a raw pasta, a tea bag...you get the picture.
She even waited patiently for Shingo to come home so she could really cash in. We ended up buying everything in the store and she was quite sad when we had to pack up and go to the real shopping centre to buy some groceries (which we'll most likely have to buy for a second time tomorrow in the return of Shiori's store...I have a feeling it's going to make a few return visits)

Shiori and I

Here are some of the more recent photo i took of us together.

I swear.. some of the things she says is just too funny, and I wish I can remember to write it down so I can post it here but anyway there are lots!!