Trip around Mt. Aso

Kei's father had kindly arranged a big van for us all to visit several sightseeing spots in Kumamoto.

We couldn't drive right to Mt. Aso this time as it had some volcanic activity in the last few months. The mountain is the largest active volcano in Japan and is among the largest in the world. We could see some smoke coming out of the crater while we were driving.

First pit stop - the monkey show and monkey park - we weren't allowed to take photos during the show  :( The monkeys were very clever and did lots of fantastic tricks. I think ours and Kei's kids were laughing the most in the crowd. The kids also got to feed the monkeys outside.

Quick stop at Bear Park. We had lunch and ice cream but ran out of time to see the actual bears... We had such a tight schedule!

Everywhere we went we enjoyed cherry blossoms in full bloom. 

We all had fun at this fishing pond. There were so many hungry fish in there, every time you put the fishing rod in you catch fish! Cannot be any more fun for the kids!  

They cooked the fish we caught. It was delicious!

 

It was a perfect place to have a good break from the long driving.

Before we arrived at our destination we made another pit stop. A park on top of a hill.  It was so much fun the kids never wanted to leave! The slide was great, nice and long and so fast at the end. Even us adults had a go. Only problem? It was such a climb coming back up!

We did so much in a day but it still wan't the end of our exciting day. Let me blog about this amazing place we stayed the night in the next post. 

Reunion day

Us being in NZ for the first part of March and the Komine family back in Japan from mid March meant we didn't see each other for almost a month. It felt so strange as we see each other at least 5 days a week in Singapore. Having Oliver and Ayaka at the same age (their birthdays are only two weeks apart) and both our husbands work funny hours, Kei and I became very close friends. Being in the same tower made it too easy to visit each others apartments - my kids are very comfortable with Kei and Tetsuo and vice-versa.

The kids were so excited to see each other. It felt quite strange to be somewhere new but felt so comfortable. We were welcomed by Kei's parents who prepared us a delicious BBQ. Who said Japanese people live in a rabbit house? Their place was huge! Very spacious and so many bedrooms!!

Ayaka and Oliver:

Kei's parents record the heights of the grandchildren. Our kids happily joined in :)

Start of our exciting holiday together!

It is so nice to have your family living in the countryside. My parents now live in our house in Osaka and my grandma moved to the city a while ago. When I was a kid I really enjoyed visiting my grandparents place each school holiday. I really wish our kids have places like Kei's family to visit in Japan. I am so jealous!!

Trip to Kumamoto

This was our first holiday within Japan. We must spend more time visiting various parts of Japan! This time we took a short plane ride to Kumamoto to see the Komine family who live in the same condo/tower in Singapore.

Kumamoto is marked in red. The flight was only 1 hour 15min - nice and easy!

Cherry blossoms

We couldn't pick any better day for this year's cherry blossom viewing in Osaka. They were soon to be in full bloom (I think 70% bloom on this day) and the weather was just beautiful! We were planning to visit friends down in Kyushu (Southern Island of Japan) from the next day and the weather forecast for the coming weekend was rain, rain, rain...

Matthew arrived so he could come along with us to meet my old workmate Jin and his family in the central city. They moved into a new apartment last year, which is at this amazing location - 2 min walk to this gorgeous riverside park.

They prepared a delicious gourmet picnic for us. We had sushi, BBQ meat and nice chilled beer for lunch under sakura trees! You cannot beat this, MUST DO in Japan if you are visiting in the spring.

Jin and Tomo have two boys exactly the same age as ours.  They visited us earlier this year in Singapore so the boys were comfortable with each other. They played soccer together most of the afternoon. There was also a magic show in the park which they enjoyed very much. 

So many different kinds of cherry blossoms. 

A family holiday photo - unfortunately the sun was slightly too strong...

Oh I love my country - so beautiful!

We had such an amazing day. Thank you Jin & Tomo for having us. See you next time!

Cousins day out

It is always nice to take them out together. Having older cousins are the best thing ever, they look after mine very well :)

Ashley and Rua - both extremely cheeky!

2nd part of our spring holiday

No doubt our kids travel a LOT! We had to leave daddy behind (someone has to work sometimes you know?) this time to spend a week & a half in Japan.

Oliver's inflight entertainment - pretty much all the way to Japan. NZ national anthem and All Black haka videos.

I used to prefer night time flights when I traveled alone with 3 kids. Now I think day time ones are much easier. All the kids tend to have a good sleep the previous night and start the day fresh. Arriving in Japan just in time for a quick dinner and bed is great (only 1 hour time difference helps too). We are all very excited to be in Japan at this time of the year. Spring is always my favourite time :)

Go Luca go!

Getting the trophy the other day made Luca very motivated at rugby practice this week. He is the one with the huge smile at the front of the pack wearing his All Black cap.

River Safari

Our kids have been spoiled the last two months. Visiting all the different zoos in different countries. And this time they were at the River Safari. As our pre-bought tickets were expiring we had to go this week. This week all the people in Singapore were in mourning for Mr. Lee Kuan Yew who had passed away on 23rd of March.

Not to mention that the place was very close to empty... We felt bad being out and about but we had to make the most of it.

I like the ceiling shadow effects:

Luca vs crocodile:

The first part of the exhibition was in the air con. These computer graphic fish were moving/swimming around you.

This was the first time for us to come and visit since they have completed all the parts of the River Safari.

Ashley's favourite exhibition, lesser panda/red panda and pandas. 

I couldn't believe no one was in this section to see the other panda!

We carried on to a boat ride. Again we didn't have to queue up at all.

It was quite nice to see some of the African animals from the other side. You don't see the fence so looked like they were in the wild. We were a bit disappointed about the boat ride though. First, it was quite short for the price of the tickets plus we didn't stop in front of the animals so our kids missed seeing some of them.

We got lucky doing this Amazon ride though. They gave us an extra set of tickets by mistake so both Matthew and I got to go on the ride with Oliver (he was very very happy to go twice!). The first part of the ride the boat started from the second floor and onto the river.

Then as you go around you get to see some of the animals very close to you.

Luca was very upset as he was too short to go on the ride... But cheered up when he got to see the animal show and was allowed to touched this lizard. 

I like the River Safari having both outdoor and some indoor areas. We were so hot by the time we finished watching the animal show. It was very nice to be in the air con area and see the feeding of the manatees. 

The boys were very attentive and curious about all the facts the lady was telling them. At the end of the show Oliver went up to the lady and asked a good question. How did they bring such big sea creatures into this tank? Of course Luca had to ask a question too - Why are there so many fish?? The lady didn't know what to say...

Another great family day out. We only have Night Safari tickets to go!