sunday (in japan)

everyone is still asleep here.. 6:55 a.m..... 

friday afternoon i rode the bike to the grocery store.. unaccompanied by anyone who speaks japanese....
i picked up a few familiar things and a couple of items by looking at the picture on the packaging...  the "margarine and sugar" sandwich was a  little disappointing.. looked like butter to me! otherwise i did okay... couldn't understand what the cashier was asking me, i think it was did i have a store card, for points... i just smiled and shook my head no.. she must think i am a moron..

yesterday casey, ray and i went to a different playground, which was mostly slides for rays age, and some more slides for older kids, requiring some fancy footwork to get to them.. he had fun and we heading back to the playground that i rode to on thursday..  turns out i was a couple of buildings away from where i should have been going and it WAS a school.. not where i was supposed to be at all!!

ray fell asleep before we got there, so casey drove me by some land that he and chieko have been looking at to buy and build a home .. it was very nice.. mountains views and more space between the houses in their current neighborhood.... plenty of space for a garden... in law apartment...

last night francis and myumi came over for dinner.. they brought a lovely pot of stew, casey made salad and had picked up a couple of baguettes.... chocolate cake for dessert also brought by francis and myumi,  delicious!


casey and chieko have legless chairs for sitting at the kotatsu.. it's nice to be able to lean my back against something, but i am sore all over from having to haul my fat butt up off of the floor thoughout the day.. they also have a very comfortable couch, but i tend to fall asleep whenever i find myself on it.

um...

i seem to be having a bit of trouble keeping track of the days... here it is friday already and i can't seem to distinguish one day from the next.. not that it is a bad thing...

i am really enjoying my time here and loving getting to be nannie..

monday ray and casey went to school... i must have done something during the day..

tuesday ray got to stay home and we just mostly hung around.. i made rice and beans for dinner..

wednesday ray was at school again.. i would love it if he stayed home everyday, but i don't want to mess up his routine too too much, besides it gives me leo time!! i made lentil soup for dinner with salad and chieko made delicious bread.

thursday ray stayed home again and we took a bike ride to a local playground that casey said was fun.. i got us there without getting too lost or run over, but there were a bunch of school children there and i wasn't sure if it was a school playground or if the kids were on a field trip and since i can't communicate, i couldn't even ask if it was okay to stay and play... sooo... we came back home.. i think we will try again tomorrow.. i made soy sesame tofu last night.. we also had salad, rice and some pork stir fry (leftover) that chieko had made for lunch..

today ray is back at school and i am getting some more leo time.. he is sleeping most of the time and right now he is curled up next to me while chieko catches a few winks.. leo is already holding his head up, pretty steadily, and looking around.. my grandchildren are SO above average, haha.. and adorable.. making sweet potato burgers for dinner tonight

saturday, etc..

chieko's dad made the four hour drive from niigata to pick up her mom on saturday... her mom made a delicious lunch of various rice balls, stuffed cabbage and i can't remember what else, before they headed back.. i felt bad that her dad was doing so much driving in one day, but chieko said they would take turns..

then we must have napped or something.. leftovers for dinner and bed (i have been going to bed REALLY early... )

sunday, casey, ray and i took the train to picnic along the river with hoards of other people (actually it wasn't overcrowded) and enjoy the cherry blossoms.. did i take any pictures?... do you see any?...

ray had fun climbing and then running down the sloping embankment, after a while he did some rolling down, getting covered in grass, such fun...

we took a wrong turn heading back to the train station, walking for about a year and finally hailing a taxi to get us there.. we were just a few blocks over...

more napping when we got back and yummy pizza for dinner...

i'm here

i left boston at 6 a.m. on thursday morning, after very little sleep the night before..i was going to be so organized and ready by tuesday... didn't happen!

anyway, traffic and check in were smooth, my bags were not over weight by some miracle.. i did have a middle seat on the flight to chicago, but managed to sleep some without falling into anyone else's personal space.. i forgot to grab my neck pillow but picked on up during that 2+ hour layover.. i got some yogurt and wandered...

a suggestion... if there is a mcdonalds in your airport, buy your yogurt and water there.. it is much cheaper.. unfortunately for me... i didn't think of this before getting my expensive yogurt.. i would have waited to have water on the plane, but i was thirsty..

i was in the last row on the flight to tokyo, (economy is 2-3-2 seating) the man in the other seat was chatting with the flight attendant and just before we took off, he said he was going to move up a few rows to the center section because there were some rows with only 1 person and it would leave an empty seat between them, and i could have both seats in the back... that was really nice and it let me stretch out a bit when i slept, which i did!

i watched 3 movies.. the decendants... mission impossible, ghost something or other and sherlock holmes.. i started to watch the j edgar hoover movie, but it didn't hold my interest so i stared at he sky map instead... i was going to watch a dvd on my laptop, for school, for some training hours, but for some reason it would play, oh well....

another 4 hour layer in tokyo, where i got my lovely milk tea and wandered the airport... up to the 4th floor airport mall.. i lost my bearings at one point and couldn't remember where i came in, but wasn't too worried, because i knew i just had to get back to the first floor.. bought a few little items and made my way back to the departure area and read till we took off (sleeping a little more) i must have looked like a lunatic with my neck pillow on, sitting there...

not too many people on the flight to casey's and i had my own row again.. a short one hour flight (although delayed) and casey and ray were waiting for me.. there is a glass wall between the arrival lobby and baggage claim so even though we could see each other, we ( and i mean me here) had to wait for till i got my bags for hugs and kisses...

it was friday night now, with the time travel and all....

ray was not shy at all and let me pick him up right away.. he has been very sweet about me squeezing and kissing him..

leo is a little peanut...he was not excited to see me at all, sleeps right through the squeezing and kissing..

4 leaf clovers

last spring i found a patch of clover in the yard, so of course i had to look for one with 4 leaves... over the course of a couple of weeks, i found 21+ in that one patch... well that patch was off in the wood chips and eventually got cleared (more or less) during a yard clean up.
anyway... last week i noticed a tiny patch of green in the general area where the clover was last year, so, yesterday i went to take a peek and sure enough, i found two 4 leaf clovers.. i seem to have misplaced my camera, but perhaps i can post a picture when i find it!

GOING TO JAPAN!!

i am leaving first thing thursday morning to go visit these little darlings

ray

ray and baby leo

sweet baby leo
born on april 4th
just over 7 lbs
just over 20 inches

also, very much looking forward to seeing casey and chieko
xoxo