Uncle Goose Hiragana blocks

The other day, I discovered this amazing store in Canberra.. the bookstore named Asia Book Room. I went to look for the shop after Amelia telling me how nice it was. Apparently this store holds largest collection of books on Asia in Australia and I can agree. The place just had a really nice vibe, and it contained various books on Asia. It even had some rare old books. We happen to be friend with the lady who works there ( the reason why we went looking for the store). But upon finding it, Amelia quickly joined their book club.

Anyway, this place had lots and lots of Japanese books good for kids, and then I saw a Hiragana Blocks made by Uncle Goose in America. I thought these would be good for Shiori since I'm trying to teach her Hiragana at the moment.

Each of the 32 block includes a puzzle with the map of Japan, and all of Hiragana and Katakana equivalent, numbers, and animals with their english translation. I like selecting bunch of blocks and make Shiori spell some Japanese words much like Boggle. She can only spell simple words and most of them are actually name of animals but I think she is getting better. Saichi just like to collect different animals.

It's a great buy and they are absolutely beautiful to look and touch. Hopefully they'll look after them for long time.

More photos with Thomas

Again, bit late, but since I promised.. Here are some more photos taken during our trip to the Ipswich railway museum to see Thomas the Tank engine.

Fat Controller entertaining us all

With Lady the magical train

Making train around Thomas

With Donald.

Yup, they had great time and hopefully we'll be back again next year! I wonder if Saichi would be as crazy about Thomas a year from now.. Well I'm sure he will be.

Visiting some Japanese restaurant in Brisbane

One of the great thing about being in Brisbane is that there are greater choices of asian.. specially Japanese food that you can experience compared to Canberra. And now there are few really great Japanese places opened up in Sunnybank area..

Introducing Mos Burger.. Japanese Burger chain that is quite popular in Japan and also in Singapore.. they have great range of your typical burgers but they also have range of Rice burger where things like yakiniku and seafood tempura are sandwiched between two thing of rice. I normally like to get Yakiniku or Seafood Kakiage..


But this time I just had to try their new Okonomiyaki burger.. Okonomiyaki is my favourite Japanese food and I just could not resist the temptation.. unfortunately it was slightly disappointing.. probably due to their generous amount of bonito flakes which made eating this very very difficult but also sauce was too over powering. Anyway I just had to try it. Shiori and Saichi shared Yakiniku rice burger and we shared ice tea together which was yummy too.


Another place that opened up in Sunnybank is Hakataya.. Japanese Ramen place. The seating in this place is very limited and place is always very busy.. there are long ques every time we were there. Well I took Shiori and Saichi there to enjoy some Tonkotsu ramen and Gyoza.

Yummy.. there are other Japanese places such as Make your own Udon and Soba place called Mappen.. which I got to try later on.

A day with Thomas

Yesterday Shiori, Saichi and I went to spend a day with Thomas.. the tank engine. Ever since reading the ad on internet about the biggest Thomas the tank engine event in Australia.. I just had to take kids all the way to Ipswich to the Workshops Railway Museum ( about 1 hour away from where we are currently ) to see Thomas, Donald, Douglas, Lady, D199, Annie and Clarabel, and ofcourse Fat Controller.

I've never been to this museum before but I must say I was quite impressed with amount of scientific displays explaining how steam, diesel and electricity work, as well as some historical displays of old steam engines, trains to the newer models, and tons of interactive area for kids to play, small trains that you can ride on, large diorama set with moving trains, large play areas for kids etc. And yes we did all that but this was the day to spend with Thomas and his friends..

Every hour, Fat Controller appeared at different locations and told kids stories about certain engine, he was quite funny and both Shiori and Saichi loved him very much. So we made sure to be there for every one of his performance, while doing all those other activities in between.

We left home pretty early in the morning, only to stop by at Amelia's parent's cafe to have some breakfast and to get takeaway coffee :).. about one hour later we were there nice and early, Saichi kept asking where we are going to see Thomas and kept making the guesses like Home, Tv, Computer etc.. but he got really excited when he saw a Douglas the big black engine sitting in front of him. He wanted to go right in but we had to wait in the line to go into the museum first. Luckily since it was pretty early the place wasn't too busy.. although line behind us got quite long.

And here is the photo right after one of the Fat Controller's show.. Shiori did some drawing of him and wanted to give it to him. He really was quite funny and each show was very interactive for both adult and kids. In one of the show he took us through the museum to show us some of the exhibition.

And photo of kids with Thomas and Fat Controller..

Having a look inside the Thomas

Trying out different dials, knobs and bells.

This is inside of Donald.. one of the twin black engine from Scotland. The actual engine on display is made in Maryborough so it was nice to see the inside of the actual old engine.

And we took photo with Douglas the other twin engine.

I think Shiori and Saichi are actually driving the tilt train here.

And finally with Thomas.

I took few more photos but with my phone so unfortunately i'm not sure how to upload them from here but once I go home.. I'll probably post them in the separately. We had so much fun that I could bring Shiori and Saichi out of one of the play area to even have lunch. In the end we had quick lunch at about 2 and left around 3:30. It was pretty long day but kids had so much fun, and it was all worth it. Besides I do like visiting different type of museum and I do like old trains and steam engines.

I may bring them back again next year as Shiori was requesting... Saichi wanted to go back there the next day.

Japanese Speech Contest

A while ago, Shiori participated in the ACT primary school's Japanese Speech Contest representing her grade from Farrer Primary school. I was really happy that she wanted to participate in this, and though her Japanese name and half Japanese background, they allowed her to participate in the contest.

She introduced herself in Japanese and then sang "Ookina Kuri no Kino Shitade" (Under the Giant Chestnut Tree). She practiced quite a bit at home and school, and she did very very well.

And at the end of the contest, all the grade one and lower student received prizes.

Here Shiori receiving her prize.

And most of the people representing grade one or below from several schools in ACT.

And Saichi just had to join the party and pose for the camera :)

Cherry Blossom Tree

Wow.. well this is from long time ago, but just managed to post it.. And I remember that when I posted some photos for the signs of spring time.. I told myself.. I better make sure to post some photos of the actual Cherry blossom..

Well I kind of forgot all about it, and not even sure if I took the photo of Cherry Blossom in full bloom.. but here is the closest I found. Still very lovely.

And here is where that Cherry tree sits.

And view from our Japanese room.. it was lovely to just sit there and look at the ever changing view of this cherry tree.

Some photos from Brisbane

Here are some photo from our last Brisbane trip.. This was in September, as you can see the clothes that we are wearing.. there is no way I'll be wearing that jumper right now. I can hardly wear that jeans here at the moment.

This was taken when we all went to visit Coochiemudlo Island.. just a quick ferry ride from Victoria Point. It's a pretty small and quite island.. not too much to do there but people just go there to relax.. and relax we did. We just walked around a bit and spend rest of the time

Just laying about, watching blue sky and ocean.. Shiori and Saichi had great time playing in the sand and looking for some sea shells.

And here is a photo of Saichi having a fun ride with Agha Jan (Amelia's grand father) who is giving him a push. Pretty sweet photo so decided to post it. Saichi is doing exactly the same thing this time around.

Visiting Cafe Green Bean

We are currently visiting Brisbane at the moment, and one of the great thing about coming here is that we get to visit Cafe Green Bean, own by Amelia's parents :) This place has great coffee, food and all free. Great atmosphere and friendly staff.. and most importantly they love our kids to visit and we can relax a bit. Shiori and Saichi loves coming here and they talk about it all the time when we are in Canberra.. and you'll know why when you see the plates of food they get. They used to love getting big mug of babycinno..

And most importantly, this cafe hangs one of my university painting.. At least that big thing has somewhere where people can look.. certainly doesn't have a place for it in my house.

We did bit of a decoration on this wall.. as some people may know that this resemble very much of few of our wall.

Enjoy bit of Watermelon :)

And some breakfast with great cup of coffee!!

Introducing : Yes, We Afri-Can

Our dear friend Tenille and Hayden are smack in the middle of Africa having great time, volunteering at Cotlands working with HIV affected children in South Africa and trekking across Africa, and still have time to update on their blog.. They are witty, touching, full of amazing photos and little insight into the life of this amazing couple. Some of the story is hilarious and quite a lot of them very touching.. they cover from general adventure they are having across different countries to the health care system and serious problem that is HIV/AIDS in Africa.

Yes, We Afri-Can: Zanzi zanzi zanzibar

Yes you have now officially inspired me to update more on this site..

Shiori's Birthday continues

September is actually very very busy month for us.. with Shiori's birthday is on the 2nd of September.. we are constantly reminded that her birthday is coming up soon, her birthday is coming up soon.. and this year, we had lovely dinner together and on her birthday morning, we got together and she opened the present she received from us and also grandparents from Japan. We didn't host party, but she gets to go to plenty of them anyway so we thought it was nice to just spend it with family.

Shiori showing off the present from us.. Saichi eyeing on Shiori's pearl necklace for some reason.


And she opening up the present she received from her grandparents in Japan.. actually these came couple of days earlier but we told her to only open on the day.


And her trying out the present.. This thing is called Shu Shu maker and apprently received kid's toy of the year.. it just let you make creative hair tie yourself. I think she tried every combination she can on that morning..

Father's Day at Farrer School

This is bit old but just wanted to make quick post..

For Father's day, Shiori's school had fantastic program.. They had hosted Father's day breakfast for all the wonderful dad to attend with their kids.. enjoy some breakfast together..

It was also dress up day for favorite cartoon character for some reason.. I have no idea what Shiori dressed as.. nor these two friend of hers.


And as a reward for being a great Papa.. kids read book for you.. I was proud that she could actually read a book to me.


I thought this was a great idea and hope to attend next year as well!!

Sign of Spring at home

Finally.. weather seem to be turning, we are enjoying some lovely days here in Canberra, our heating is off, windows are open and enjoying some bird chirping and lovely breeze that coming through... Exciting time of the year, and what make is even better is that we are spending our first spring here in the house.. and there are little signs of springs everywhere. We can just go outside, and be happy to see the little buds poking through..

Saichi wattle and muji the rabbit



We fixed up the middle part of our backgarden.. turn it into some stone garden where it used to be full of weed. Can't wait for the Cherry blossom to open up.

Some cherry blossoms opening up.. and irises under the tree are going really well.

Not sure what the name of this flower that Amelia planted but it's really cute along our front steps

Planted flowering quince, looking forward for this in the next winter.

Cherry blossom bud just opening up.

Irises





Daphne's



And here are some picture of plum blossoms just around my work place..

Always attracting pretty birds.

And this is our backyard before we fixed up the middle bit.. bird must be waiting for the flowers to open up