Eiraku Park

Oliver and Ashley made friends while they were at Japanese kindy during the holiday a while back, Haruichi and Kannna. Their mother Asami is such a nice lady and I enjoy catching up with her. Each time we are back we make an effort to get the kids together. It takes a while for them to relax around each other but by the end of the day they just want to spend more time together.

Eiraku Dam is located 20min drive away from our Japanese house.
We knew there wouldn't be many cherry blossoms flowering but we still wanted to give it a go. This park is beside a dam and I remember coming here for school excursions when I was little. It would have been so beautiful if all these trees were blooming. Well, someone else had the same idea and brought their picnic lunch but no SAKURA!!!

At least the kids enjoyed the nice view looking over the dam:

The kids were slightly disappointed when they found out no lunch under the blooming trees :( but they didn't mind it at all once we got to the playground. Time to run around. 

They went up and down this huge slide over and over again. 

Great big park with lots of climbing frames etc for kids of different ages. 

Ashley loved the trampoline mountain:

Oliver had a great time playing ball with Haruichi. He exhausted Haruichi out but kept on kicking the ball for a long time. 

Ashley and Kanna:

I think the next catch up will be in summer. Thank you Asami-san for a fantastic day. We had such a wonderful day!

Visiting Wakayama

It has been a while since I visited my aunty in Wakayama. She now lives in a different apartment (we used to visit her almost every weekend when we were young) with my cousin Hiroshi. I haven't seen him in over 10 years! Mum and my little sister Shinobu both had a day off so we drove over for the day. It only takes 30min using the highway from our place in Osaka.

First, we stopped for a quick sushi lunch:

Then we arrived at Aunty Kyoko's place - funny to see them in the same colour scheme! They must be sisters!!

We decided to take the kids to Wakayama Castle Park and the mini zoo there while mum and aunty Kyoko had a little catch up at home. Having 4 active kids running around in the apartment wasn't too ideal.

We convinced Hiroshi to come along to get some exercise. He has been living alone in a different prefecture and had put on so much weight! He really needed a good workout. 

First mission - carrying Luca to the mini zoo. 

I often feel sad visiting Japanese zoos knowing how it could be improved like the Singapore Zoo or the Auckland Zoo. I guess being a free zoo (no entrance fee!) they can only do the minimum unfortunately.  

Oliver took most of the pictures. Since he did the photography pretend job in Kidzania last month, he is very much into taking photos!

Japanese deer:

Penguins in the sun:

Peacock:

Goats:

Oliver with some penguins:

Hiroshi and the kids:

Rua & Ashley with Mr. Sheep:

We then took a stroll up to the Castle. There were so many steps up but had a great view of Wakayama City. We even saw a couple of squirrels. 

Wakayama Castle came to be known as the most important fortress that watched over Western Japan in the 1600s. It was built in 1585 and had been extended out until 1691, when the Castle came to look much the same as it does today. 

According to the brochure, in 1846 the castle was struck by lightning and was destroyed in the resulting fire. Because it was the castle of one of the three top Tokugawa families, special permission was granted in 1850 to allow it to be restored to roughly its original state. However, during the war in 1945, it was burned to the ground by an air bombing and subsequently in 1958 it was rebuilt once more. 

We went inside for a quick look through. I think when the kids are slightly older they might find it more interesting. Again Oliver was in charge of taking pictures. 

Once we came out the boys couldn't wait any longer to go to the playground. I sent them off with Shinobu and Hiroshi. I really wanted to see the parts we used to visit during the Sakura season so I took Ashley with me to look around the other parts of the Castle. 

One of the famous Sakura trees at the front gate:

I think everyone was hoping to see more Sakura trees blooming (especially ME!!). 

 It was very festive walking around though.

Once Ashley and I got to the playground at the end of the Castle, my boys had tired out Hiroshi completely playing soccer together. I thought he might have a heart attack! 

It was very nice watching my own kids playing on the exact same slides as I did over 30 years ago. 

We should come back here more often. Such a nice place to visit and so close to our house. It was certainly a great family day out :) 

Sushi lunch and tenpin bowling

Lucky to have Yuzuki on her spring holiday. She came and spent most days with us. She is only 11 but can be very very helpful :)

We went and had lunch at a sushi restaurant first.

Then we walked around the shopping mall.

Then to play tenpin bowling!!

All the kids were so happy to be back in Japan. And ME too!!

Backyard fun

The best investment we made last year. Fencing up the backyard towards the little road next to our empty section and buying this trampoline.

The kids were up early - even though it was quite cold for them they went straight onto it. It was nice to hear them giggling and having so much fun together for such a long time!!