In early January, the annual Tokyo Auto Salon show was on (For tuned sports cars of Japan, but I won't bore readers with details here!).
Matt & his friend Jimmy flew over to attend the show and spend a few days with us. The kids liked them.
Jimmy in Ginza on a Sunday morning.
Matt with the little one.
Jimmy being a Sherpa!
My wife performed at a Belly Dance Show.
The dancing girls.
With the kids.
Mama & the smallest one.
The dancing girls. It was a great show!
For our son's birthday in January, we naturally took him to see his favourite thing. Cars, at the largest Toyota showroom in the world.
He got to climb into every different model his heart desired.
Our daughter was old enough to experience the Bungee Trampoline!
My mum's last day after 3 months with us, included enjoying our son's 2nd birthday together with the family.
His first 2 years went very fast!
He seems to have a natural affinity for things with handlebars, or perhaps this is his father's wish... in time we'll see!
Mama made a birthday cake to enjoy at home.
At 2 years old he got his first Skyline GT-R!
Later in January, we returned to the children's park not far from home. I took the little one and Mama took our daughter.
What can I say -women drivers! Hahaha!
Mama and the kids, including Jenny our Border Collie whose (11th) birthday was on this day.
Our little guy is always up to something funny. Here he's wearing my favourite snowboarding hat.
Our daughter's kindergarten has a fair number of events throughout the year. Here she was dressed as a butterfly & enjoying the play.
Mama & daughter performing a belly dance show together at our friend Ayumi's wedding (Who is also a belly dancer).
I turned up with our son later on, for the reception, after fighting through about 4 hours of Tokyo traffic!
The next wedding was in the height of spring, for Alex & Asuka. She is another of the belly dancers who got married this year.
Alex is a very interesting guy with quite a history of life and wisdom that's come from it.
The bride & groom.
Our daughter at the wedding party.
Our son often copies his elder sister's play.
A picture with the newly weds.
As spring came into the air, we took to the road to enjoy some time camping...
We stopped at a fabulous viewpoint overlooking Fuji. Very cold & windy!
Late last year we bought an old, but very sound Toyota Hiace 4 Berth camping vehicle for use on weekends. It's been great to be able to go wherever we want and never have to book (expensive in Japan!) accommodation any more.
On our way to camp by one of Fuji's lakes, we stopped off to visit a temple we'd gone to pray at when my wife was pregnant with our daughter.
This sweet picture was taken just before the littlest one pushed with his feet & caused both of them to lose balance and fall off!
A view the following morning, camping by Lake Saiko.
Morning milky mostache!
The next night we camped in the forest. Turned out to be a perfect location for enjoying a bonfire after the kids had gone to bed and keeping warm over a bottle of wine shared by the fire.
As the weather warmed up a little, we took the opportunity to go camping in Southern Chiba, by the beach and stopped off to see Phil's fabulous permaculture project.
He came and joined us on the beach on Sundat morning with his kids too, so a fun time was had by all.
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Whilst our daughter collected edible seaweed, our son spent much of the morning eating sand. He seemed to like it and we figured the minerals would do him good.
Before he used to eat soil, so who are we to say no. When natural, these things can be better for the body than we think!
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The kids also enjoyed catching little fish, hermit crabs and other crustaceans. It was lovely to take a dip too. We even briefly saw a young moray eel swimming near our ankles.
Harmless fun.
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Our little one seems to enjoy being a naturalist too.
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