Fun evening

There is a new housing development behind our section. There are about 20 new houses built in the last 3 years or so. I found out one of the houses has a cafe part attached to it and was having summer festival activities for the kids. If there are opportunities to experience anything Japanese, I like to take the kids along. So I dressed them up again.

It turned out the house was owned by my older sisters friend - small world ha? Only a couple of games for the kids and some food stalls but that's really all the kids needed. They had a ball! 

This was much better than live fish. We can take them back to Singapore! 

Nice to meet some new neighbours too. I hope I can go over for a coffee one day! 

Catching up with Yukari

I couldn't believe my eyes. Yukari came around for coffee with her youngest son Kyo. I think when I last saw him in person he was Luca's age. He is now 15 and so super tall! He still had his cute soft smiles on him. Very gentle with the kids, yap my boys were all over him...

I really appreciate having Yukari as a friend. We can still talk about anything and we feel very comfortable spending time together. Just our catch up is always too short... 

Thank you for visiting us again Yukari. See you next time!

Finally - sleepover!!

The kids were nagging me to arrange a sleepover at Yuzuki's place since we arrived. Mako was so busy with work but finally we got the kids to her place.

Escaping from the heat with Stefan

The kids are very lucky to have their back up daddy in Osaka. Stefan was in Osaka for a day and a 1/2 for work. I had to make sure I take the opportunity! It worked out perfectly as he wanted do some outdoor activity and I needed some extra hands to take all these kids out!

We met up at the train station near our house and took a local bus up into Inunaki Mountain. It is not a major tourist spot but it has waterfalls, clear water streams and lots of little temples - everything I love. Perfect day trip in the middle of summer. The temperature was almost 10 degrees cooler there.

We walked at least 5kms all up! The kids did very well. Especially Luca, he wasn't feeling too well... poor thing. He still managed to smile for every single photo though :)

This was the half way point. We threw some coins and made wishes. You can tell it was quite a mission to get Luca off the bell...

This was at the entrance to the main part of the temple. It is said that if you hit the giant bell up to three times it will bring happiness, health and wealth to the family but if you do more than 4 times it will bring bad luck. Ashley found it very interesting, she really wanted to keep going!

I managed to forget to take pictures of the main temple somehow. This is called Inunaki Shipporyuji Temple. This picture is borrowed from Osaka Prefecture informational site. It is a very small temple but beautifully situated in the middle of the mountain having a waterfall as the backdrop. Just stunning.

You can even apply for a one day practice program, wearing the religious clothing and walk under the waterfall. Normally the waterfall has more water I think. 

We spent quite a while relaxing, finding frogs and bugs under the waterfall.

We promised the kids some water play time in the mountain. I had to make sure we were halfway down the mountain just in case anyone got very tired suddenly. We walked another 30min or so and found a perfect spot where lots of Japanese kids were jumping into a pool. Of course Stefan had to get changed into his togs and jump!!! I am not sure if you can tell the height from this picture, it was quite high! Crazy crazy Australian...

The water was very clear. Perfect for a quick swim for crazy Stefan. Still too cold for my kids though...

Instead they tried to catch fish with a bag... Yuzuki managed to get some in the end.

I carried my cool bag just for this perfect moment. Deep in the mountain, surrounded by trees and waterfalls, super fresh air - a can of cold beer each, had to be done!!

It was such an awesome day out. Well done kids for walking such a long distance. Thank you Stefan for spending a day with the crazy Roses!

Little walk with Rua

I really love our neighbourhood. I am very glad we bought our land in this area. Only 10min train ride from the international airport. 50min into the heart of Osaka. Yet we can still enjoy the country style living.

This is the area where I used to walk on the way back from primary school. I still remember I went into all the little alleys to explore. Most of the areas used to be big rice fields and after harvesting we used to run around and play balls until dark. Unfortunately lots of them are now sold and 10-20 houses are built in each field.

I walked around the area with Rua one evening. We saw so many dragonflies in the rice field. Very very peaceful. 

Olympic fever - Part 2

The boys loved watching table tennis during the Olympics. Japan won lots of medals so it was always on TV. Plus it is a very simple game for them to follow. McDonalds was even giving table tennis rackets for Happy Meal toys!

They were practicing using the little coffee table before this arrived. An outdoor picnic/BBQ table that can be transformed into a table tennis table. Pretty cool ha!?

Local summer festival 2016

I am very happy that our kids have close age cousins in Japan who can enjoy this kind of special event together. They all got dressed up in their Japanese outfits and walked to the festival.

I bought Ashley and Luca a new outfit each this year. Oliver just fit in his older cousins hand me down. I think they look so cute!!

We got there too early. There weren't many people around yet. It is a three day event and most people come later in the night. I told Rua and Ashley to go and dance but they were too shy...

These kinds of festivals are called "bonodori" A style of folk dance during obon period. It is a dance to welcome the sprits of the dead. In our area a person selected sings with a microphone until very late... 

None of our kids wanted to dance unfortunately. I still remember I pushed myself hard to dance even I didn't want to, to get a snack voucher for a lolly shop. Ours were more excited visiting different fun game stalls.

Catching the goldfish:

Ashley was convinced she was going to keep them at her Japanese house. She was so angry when I gave all of them to Rua to look after. 

Once we walked back home it was time for some fireworks. The Japanese summer outfit and the fireworks are a magical combination. After our trip to Shirahama, the kids were really enjoying looking at the fireworks. 

My little sisiter Shinobu and Yuzuki:

Another fun day in Osaka. I hope all my kids are old enough to remember all these fun things they do during their holidays.