Kyoko's visit

One of the nicest thing about visiting home is that you are able to catch up with friends and family members.. and one of the family member that I was really looking forward to seeing again was my cousin Kyoko.  She and I has been always close, and now that we are both parents we seem to share a lot more things.  She had her first son soon before my wedding, and Shiori and her second son Souya was born on the same year, so every time we went home, she always make sure to visit and bring her two kids.

Shiori and Souya always played very well together, so I was pretty anxious to see their reaction together.  Needless to worry, they just got along so well just like all the other previous times.

He is pretty calm and easy going, and I think they just get along very well.
This is with Riki, Souya, Shiori and Ryoto infront of our house.  We took similar photo last time as well except they were much smaller.
And they watched TV together...

And played together
This is Kyoko holding Saichi, it was lovely to see her again, and she again brought us so much gift.  She handmade lovely bag for Shiori.. which she loved.  I am just looking forward to see these kids growing old, hope they stay close.

Weekend out in the mountain in Japan

The first weekend Faraz and Swee arrived, we all went out for a nice picnic by the water fall.  This particular water fall is only about 30min away, and it's made famouse by providing the natural water slides. ... unfortunately I didn't take any photo of the slides in action since it was cold, but here is the pic of waterfall..  not the sliding bit.

We all enjoyed nice barbecue together, my brothers Tsuyoshi and Shuya also brought their girlfriends and it was first time for us to meet them.. so there were many new faces.


And ofcourse we took the nice family photo together.

We tried some fishing at the fishing pond.. my father and my sister trying to help out Ryoto and Yuuki

Shuya giving helping hand to Shiori..  it was sweet actually and when she finally caught a fish she was soo scared to touch it.

Ryoto catching one.

And we all enjoyed the fresh fish that was caught, put skewer through, cooked on the open fire.. and ate by me.
And Ryoto..  I think this is his third one.

It was lovely trip, and I hope Faraz and Swee enjoyed it..   We all then went out for Sushi together.. gee we ate so much that day.

Family Trip to Innoshima

These are belated updates on our Japan trip still :)   Don't worry soon we'll catch up to our current events.

Anyway as usual, my family planned weekend away for us.  Every time we visit Japan, we always seem to go away for the weekend.. and this time we visited lovely Innoshima and other smaller islands in the Seto Inland sea.  These places are only hour or so away from home, and I remember visiting there when I was younger but you just forget (or take it for granted ) how nice these islands are.

Anyway here is where we stayed.. in one of the old english cottage, that used to be a house of English Priest.. and now a very cute place to stay.
Picture of my mom reading a story book to Shiori and Yuuki

And here is picture of my dad relaxing.. in the dinning room.. probably reading a paper or something

Picture of one of many bridges that connects these island.  This is one of the prettiest one.
Close to where we stayed, there were lovely flower garden.  From left, Ryoto, my sister Yachiyo, Shiori, my brother Shuya, and Yuuki
This is lovely view from one of the place we visited.  You can see the old Japanese houses and lovely ocean and islands view.
One of the famous temple we visited called Kosanji.  This place was absolutely fantastic, it was filled with amazing art works, it was created by this wealthy man for his mother.
Close up of the entrance gate for Kosanji
Pic of Kosanji taken from the street.

Family Portraits

On one weekend, we had chance for all of us to go and take family portrait together, this is often done in my family whenever everyone gathers.  Also it was perfect timing for Saichi's 100 days old photo, plus Shiori's 3rd year and Yuuki's 5th year (in Japan, girls celebrate 3rd and 7th and boys celebrate 5th) so it was perfect timing for us.

We were lucky to have everyone except for one of my brother..   We even had my grandmother joined us for the shoot.

Here Shiori is getting her hair and make up done.. yes this is serious business.
Here Shiori's cousin Yuuki is putting his kimono on.

After Shiori got her hair and make up, plus dress done.. we were just waiting for our turn.. 

This is my brother Tsuyoshi and Shiori and Yuuki all dressed up.


Now.. here is the actual portrait that we just received.. 

This is one of Shiori's photo. 

And Saichi.


Plus everyone together..  from left seating down.. my grandmother, Yuuki, my mother with Saichi, Shiori, my father, and Ryoto.  And standing up from left, my sister Yachiyo, Amelia, Me, Tsuyoshi and my other brother Shuya.

It was definitely an interesting experience for us, and these photos we'll be treasuring for long time.

Trip to Hiroshima

Although we have of course visited Hiroshima city in previous visits to Japan, it would have been unthinkable for Faraz and Swee to visit Hiroshima prefecture without visiting Hiroshima city, particularly the peace park and memorial museum. It is a must visit for anyone visiting this part of Japan as it is such strong reminder of how important it is for humanity unify. No matter how great perceived differences may be the devastation, as demonstrated in Hiroshima city, pales everything in comparison. Visiting Hiroshima city is a very solemn affair but at the same time, when one sees the rebuilt city, it is a strong symbol of hope and courage.

Below are the remains of one of the buildings destroyed by the bomb. As this building was directly below where the bomb was detonated it is still standing whereas other buildings in a wide radius surrounding this building were flattened. Hiroshima has kept this building in it's bomb ravaged state as a reminder to all of humanity of the destructive force of nuclear weapons. 

This photo of Faraz and Swee in front of the building demonstrates the feeling you get when you're visiting these sights. Solemn and quite eerie. 


Thousands of folded paper cranes, now a symbol of peace.


After we had visited the peace park and the bomb memorial museum it was time to see a little bit of new Hiroshima city. First stop of course was Okonomiyaki mura where there are many stalls, each selling okonomiyaki, each trying to get us to eat in their stall, each claiming to be the best. We finally ended up with this guy...I think mainly because we paused slightly in front of his stall and it was too awkward to keep walking. It was yummy :) lucky for him.

Later, back in Fuchu we went for Okonomiyaki in one of the places that Shingo really loves. Below is Shingo's brother Tsuyoshi with his son Yuuki, and well, you know the other two characters.

Shiori and Ryoto, Tsuyoshi's other son. I love this photo as Shiori was having so much fun with her cousins. She seems so grown up in this photo.

trip to kurashiki

After we had a great time in Takayama and Ise we made our way back to Osaka and met up with Faraz and Swee Chen. It was such a great thing to see them in Osaka and we were really excited about introducing them to Shingo's family. After we met up we made our way back to the Shinkansen station to catch the train to Hiroshima (of course first stocking up on snacks and bento before we boarded).  The day after we arrived in Hiroshima we made a day trip to Kurashiki to take advantage of some fantastic cherry blossom viewing scenes. 

stepping back in history...
Shiori having fun playing with the fallen petals
So beautiful, everything was coated in a layer of pink.
When the wind would blow the petals would shower down creating what Shiori excitedly referred to as a 'flower shower.'
Enjoying an excellent lunch. Yum. We ate in this same place last time we visited Kurashiki and the food was brilliant both times.
This photo was supposed to be at the beginning of this post, but it's all in reverse order. This was us after we met up in Osaka, on our way to Hiroshima.

Some early photos in Japan

Before we go further with our trip in Japan, here we are posting some of the first photographs we took upon arrival.. see I told you we are posting these in completely random order.

This was taken at the airport...  after Amelia was looking for simple baby changing room.. she discover this space ship like room, where they had everything from, baby seat, baby changing table/bed that you can rest if you are not feeling well, wheel chair friendly toilet, shower, and half of the things I couldn't quite work it out...

Okay, here are the photographs of the first hotel we stayed..  we had told them that we are couple with two little kids, so that they had given us an extra large room.. with two good sized bed.. and this room even had our own massage chair.  Best thing ever after a long flight.
They even gave us four pairs of slippers and yukata.
This was just outside of the hote.. where they had small garden, and cherry was in full bloom.
This was taken in the Shinkansen, on the way to Takayama.  

Trip to Ise and Wedded Rocks

After two wonderful days in Takayama.. we left for Ise area.   Ise has one of the most important Shinto shrine and there are lots of areas that are associated with the birth of Japan, and forklore.  We were able to do all these travelling thanks to the Japan railway pass we got before we left Australia.. which basically let you take as many train as you like for the 7 days period.   

This is us on the train, on the way to Ise.
This is the place we stayed in Ise.. this was quite an interesting place.  The place was huge, and traditional Japanese inn.  I don't know how busy this place is, since we were the only people staying in the Inn so we were able to really relax.
This is at the Ise Jingu (one of the most important Shinto Shrine) we were cleaning our hands before we enter.
The area was absolutely beautiful, and serene.  Had very spiritual feel about the place.  Shiori loved walking on the pebbled path.
This is one of the Shrine.
We then took another train to visit one of the famous site of this region.  

But before that we had nice Japanese sweets.
This is wedded rocks, quite popular site in Japan, and I've been wanting to visit here for sometime.  It was lovely there, and was so nice to walk along the beach, and spend some time at this beautiful site.
Thing about these country side Japan is that once you miss a train, you'd be there for close to an hour waiting for another one.  Well.. you just have to make most of the situation, we quite enjoyed the scene and serenity of this country side.
Once we return to Ise, we found ourselves in this wonderful restaurant where you can order lots and lots of food in small portion.  I think we tried about 5 or 6 different dishes. 

Hide Takayama

So we're finally getting round to uploading our photos from Japan. We've only been back a few weeks now, but we're so into the swing of things that it feels like it was quite a few moons ago.

When we first arrived in Japan, after spending a relaxing night at the onsen hotel in Osaka we made our way to Hide Takayama. It was the first time that we visited there and it was a wonderful welcome back to Japan. The train ride there was made especially enjoyable by the delicious bento we bought in Nagoya featuring Nagoya specialties (which, as it turns out, we quite like!).  Below are some photos from our two day stint in Takayama and the old folk village. I was going to write more about it, but there are so many photos to upload and it will never happen if I loiter in Takayama. 

Congratulations Omeed!!

Yesterday was a very special day for Omeed who, after a lot of hard work, graduated with honours with an MBA from the University of Melbourne. We are very proud of him and wish him all the best with what comes next.  We actually should have a photo of Kathryn with a graduation outfit on as well, as it was very much a team effort as Kathryn has been working very hard while Omeed has been studying.  Sadly, we were unable to go for the graduation, but mum and dad went, and it would be hard to find a pair of prouder parents :)
Well done Omeed and Kathryn. We love you and look forward to seeing you soon!!

Some last moment photo from Japan

Okay, we are really starting this updates on our Japan trip from backwards..

Here are some of the last minute photos that we took with family.

Here is the photo with my grandmother infront of her shop.
Photo with my brother Tsuyoshi and his son Ryoto
Shiori enjoying one of her last breakfast at home... she is eating egg, ham, salad, rice, miso soup and Nattou, and strawberries to top it off. No wonder she is missing Japan.
That's Shiori and Saichi with my father.
More photos to come!!

Shiori's photos

here are some of the photos that Shiori took with my camera.  I think she arranged the subject and took series of photographs.  I am posting few that I thought nice.  I particularly like the second one...