Hi there!
Sunday night. Whew...we had a very fun (but tiring) weekend.
On Saturday, my family took a train from Toyokawa to Nishio. We met some of my old students at an Italian restaurant Saizeria near the station. (The kids have grown so much!) As I was leaving, I ran into another former student. It was nice to see her too. (It seems that every time I go to Saizeria, I run into someone I know.)
After lunch, Kazuko did some shopping for clothes. She has a good time shopping for clothes in Japan because everything is cute, and it fits. (Unfortunately for me, almost all of the clothes are too small for my size!)
After shopping, we went back to the hotel to get ready for our evening's plans. We had Korean barbecue with an old student/ friend of mine. That was really good for me, as I had recently seen a commercial on TV that made me really hungry for Korean barbecue. We are always happy to meet Mr. Takaba.
After dinner, we enjoyed an evening in the relative quiet of a hotel. That was nice.
This morning, we went to visit a friend who came all the way from Hamamatsu to see us. We introduced Kentaro (now almost 9 months), to my friend Yoskiko's baby named Mone. Mone is ten months old. She is a cute little girl.
The babies played together as well as they could, but since it was naptime, they ended up both falling asleep. (I took a cute picture of them both sleeping on a futon.)
After meeting Yoshiko and Mone, we traveled to Anjo to meet some friends and to enjoy the Tanabata Festival. At the festival there are lots of food and other stands, there are parades and live music, lots of colorful streamers, fireworks at night, and local businesses have good sales. (I'd describe it as a combination between a county fair and a sidewalk sale.) Even though it was pretty hot, we had a really good day.
We bought lots of nice food, and Kazuko got some clothes. I bought myself a pair of geta (Japanese wooden sandals.) They will be useful for running outside to get the mail in the winter.
We ate karaage, a selection of Brazilian foods, turkish ice, a corn dog, some dango, a few sticks of yakitori. It was all yummy! We also bought a grapefruit flavored shaved-ice dessert called kakigori. We fed some of it to Kenny, and even though he kept making funny faces, he seemed to keep asking for more. He must have liked it!
Little Kenny also figured out how to drink juice out of a juice box. It is really cute to watch him drink with a straw!
Tomorrow (after sleeping-in), we're going to visit the Nagoya Aquarium and have dinner at Red Lobster. I have never been to a Red Lobster in Japan. I wonder whether it'll be good...