Nursery school trip

The yearly autumn trip is back again.
This year, the nursery had organized a trip to Onokoro amusement park in Awaji island. Onokoro is famous for their miniatures of famous buildings. They also provide quite a nice place for picnic. Otherwise, we think the park is just like any amusement parks we see in Japan, offering rides as their main business.

We were required to gather at the front gate of the nursery by 8am.


Then there was a speech by the headmistress, giving a brief talk and making the kids promised to follow the three basic rules:
1. Always be with your parents. Don't wonder around alone.
2. If you need to go to toilet, never lock the door as it is difficult for kids to unlock later ( we don't want the kids to be locked in the toilet do we?)
3. Make sure to come back by 12.40om. (Kids should remind parents as well...)


After making the kids promise (by touching their heads....Hmmm, that was new I thought), we all walked in twos to the nearest bus stop where the hired bus were scheduled to wait for us there.

Up to the bus we climbed

Sya sat with teacher during that one hour trip

The parents sat at the back seats, watching the kids occupied their time with singing and quiz answering sessions

We arrived at Onokoro at about 9.30am

Here we come, Onokoro!

Ok you two...we will have to go separate ways. See u later Monica!

Mommy, let me have a look at the map. I shall decide where we would go first!

Sya decided to take a train ride with his friends...of course without his mommy and daddy

Joining his close friends...discussing where to go next.

The train ride would take them to a forest where statues of Jack and the beanstalk, Thumbelina and other famous fairy tales were featured

See you guys later!

The five minute trip seemed so long....sigh!

He spotted the big ferris wheel...obviously, we couldn't escape the ride.

Sya wanted to ride alone! Beraninya...But of course we refused

The views from the top of the ferris wheel...it would have been great if the weather was sunny

Excited with his first ride

A miniature of The Arc de Triomphe

It's so hard to get them to pose properly...hahaha

Lunch time, since we had made lunch box, let's have picnic!

Tamagoyaki ( Japanese omelette)

Karaage (Japanese fried chicken)

Fresh veges

sausages...Sya's favorite

Shrimp salad with erkkk...oxidated avocado (forgot to put some lemon juice...haha)

Persimmon and Fuji apple for desert

We continued the adventure after our lunch

Miniature of Neuschwanstein Castle

Miniature of Acropolis

Miniature of leaning tower of Pisa

Sya wanted to ride this antique car

The ride took us to see all the other miniatures

Then we saw this. Wah...this seemed fun!

After the first ride with ayah, Sya wanted to ride alone!

Sya loved it!

A ride with ayah

Go cart race with ayah

Having fun boyS?

Baikin-man (a Japanese animation character) ride

Merry-go-round, which we discovered that Sya had motion sickness after that!

We wrapped up our trip, as usual, with ice-cream

And we finally were back at the entrance before 12:40pm

Everyone seemed to enjoy the trip. What most important was that no unwanted things happened to anyone and all of us went back with a big smile.

The weekend chef

My son loves experimenting in the kitchen.
Watching his father cook dinner during the weekdays gave him the idea that men should be able to cook. So, during the weekends, at the time when I am most busy with house chores, he would come to me and ask when I would be baking cakes or cookies. To him, weekends equal to baking days.

Most of the times I would just take out some leftover dough from the freezer and let him play with it. I would totally leave him with the dough while I do my house chores. When he's done, I'll toss his 'creations' into the oven, cool them and serve.

I am making rabbit shape cookie

Mommy, is this enough for another cookie?

Rabbit and sakura shaped cookies...cooled

version 1: A dip of melted chocolate, then cool them in fridge for about one hour

Version 2: cookies sandwich

Yummy... Just on time for my tea!

I love having them with fresh milk. Burp...Gochisousamadeshita (That was delicious!)

It is good to see that he doesn't make too much mess nowadays.
Bye-bye to the days when I had to wipe the floor covered with flour, sugar, chocolates, oil, butter and whatever ingredient I used for baking. He was always 'menyibuk' in the kitchen when I was baking. But come to think of it, if he didn't get to start making mess he would never be what he is today. It was worth all the sweat!

You have grown up, my boy! I sincerely hope you would grow up to be the ideal hubby for your future wife. You won't go wrong if you learn from your daddy... *wink*

Gutsy

Not long ago, there was an article in Yomiuri newspaper which had reported about my university. A day prior to that, the same news too was broadcast on a nationwide tv program.
The news was not about how good the hospital service was, or any recent significant discovery in medical sciences research or how the new hospital building had facilities that would put Malaysia ministry of health to shame. No...it was about something I least expected.

It was about a muskmelon.


Yeah...muskmelon. And quite an inspirational story too.

This image was taken from Yomiuri newspaper

So, you must be thinking how that not so juicy looking, relatively small in size, not perfectly round melon made into the news.

Now, I have to admit this is why I find the Japanese fascinating (but can be irritating sometime)

The story went like this,

The melon was spotted to be growing in between the fine cracks of cemented floor. It was found by a staff who was working at the hospital's food supplier line. Just across the road from the kitchen was a small building, where the organic rubbish from the kitchen was sent to. Yeah, it seemed that the seed had probably escaped from the rubbish bag and dropped onto the floor while being carried from the kitchen to the big rubbish bin. It managed to grow despite the limited supply of nutrition from limited source of soil. Plus the super hot summer this year, people had never thought that the small plant, which happened by a mere coincidence, would grow and what more, bear fruit.

They named the melon 'ど根性メロン’ or 'The gutsy melon'

And since this so called 'phenomenon' happened within a hospital vicinity, the people around had given a fresh translation to this news.

People have been given lots of comments and one of the comments that I personally liked was,

'I am so inspired by this. There is a hope in everything we do. The melon taught us that we should take the chances and ganbaru (work hard). I shall never give up even though I am now diagnosed with cancer. I will think positive about everything from now on. Who knows, miracles like that may happen to me...and that I will survive for many more years to come...' A patient voiced out with hope.

When interviewed the staff who spotted the plant, he said,

'I never thought the plant would survive the hot summer. It was really hot this year. I observed it every day. Water the plants when I was around. Plucked off the new flowers so that this one and only melon would have the chance to grow bigger.'

Hmm... I was quite surprised that the news didn't elaborate much about what this man did. If I were to be interviewed, I would probably mention this equally important gesture and add my own interpretation that may go something like this,

'This also means that, no matter how miracle the story sounds like...we must always remember that, the support from people around us is equally important in achieving the goal. Also, we must remember that God gave us the chance to survive, but the key to success is still you. You will have to work very hard in achieving this.'

You are probably wondering how the melon is doing right now.
Yeah, the busy body me actually went and took a few photographs of the melon the next day after it got famous. It was still there, visible clearly from the road. Anybody could have stolen the fruit if they wanted to. But no, the fruit was given a chance to grow to its full size. It was also crazy to realize that I had been using this same road everyday, cycling to and fro the university and yet, never had I noticed the existence of this melon until it got famous.

A close look at the melon


Tracing the root

Aha! So your stem managed to squeeze out from this crack too!

It was reported in our local news two days later that the melon was harvested. Nothing was mentioned whether they kept it for public view or whether everyone at the hospital got to eat a fraction of this famous melon. Ahh...I am still curious, do you think this melon could have possibly received enough nutrient and tasted sweet?

Ermmm...I guess I will have to talk to the kitchen staff for that piece of information.

The gutsy melon

Any lesson learned?
YES!
Melon seems easy to grow. I may try to grow it in my garden when I go back...*wink*

Questions on spidey spidey

My son loves to ask questions. He is very inquisitive. Some of the questions can really trouble us cause we just simply don't know the answers. A few days ago, The spiderman 3 was on air. He was an ardent fan of spiderman. So, here comes the question,

'Why does the spiderman shoot his organic web from his wrists, not his...ehmm buttock like what spiders usually do?'


And our answer was, 'Because shooting from his buttock won't make him too popular cause then, he would be smelly...'
But at the end, we still doubt he was satisfied with the answer.


When talking about spiders...the imagination escalated. Another question was asked. This time, we seriously thought that our son may, perhaps, possibly be a genius? :)

The question went like this,

'Why is the glue from spider's web never go dry like the ones we use for art work?'


After a long pause, as time was spent thinking of a suitable answer from my too worn out brain, I came out with an answer, 'Ehmm....why don't you ask the spider?'( Yeah I know, very pathetic answer... boohooo)
Hubby's came out with a slightly better answer, 'Are you sure it wasn't dry? How would you know?' Answering a question with another question...which made him confused that for an answer. Well, at least that would make him go quiet for a while, processing the answer until he realized that his question was never answered. When that time comes, it would be another repetitive of QA sessions to satisfy his inquisitive mind. :)

Nomikai

Nomikai is a drinking party phenomenon particular to Japanese culture. Drinking parties like these are held to mark a wide range of events, including celebrations like entry of new members, graduation, entertaining guests or just simply a happy event. We are expected to attend these important events unless in cases of emergencies.

Last Friday, we had a nomikai at a restaurant called Waji'an. It was not the routine place that we usually went to. It was booked by my prof himself and the place was said to be inaccessible by people like us. Only special people who the owner allows can dine in this restaurant. So we the 'jakun' were very excited to attend.

Our main dish was hot pot. It was quite delicious. But then again, nothing can go wrong with hot pots...so it was nothing really special compared to other hot pots that we had.

Prof had arranged seafood hot pot for my table.

There were many other side dishes as well. I only managed to take a few pictures as the restaurant was quite dim. But something that really caught my attention was the 'Otsukuri', which means sashimi (raw fish) made in special dish to reflect the scenery and a feeling of the seasons, the ingredients are collected depending on the current time of year be it spring, summer, autumn or winter.

The fish head, a part of the Otsukuri

The Otsukuri in a special dish

Well, you probably won't notice if you look at the pictures. But I have to tell you, the fish was actually still alive! Yes, alive and breathing while we were eating the flesh!! It was quite an odd feeling though. But the sashimi (raw fish) was really fresh and tasty. Don't believe that the fish was still alive? Just watch the video below. I actually took the video only after a few minutes after the fish arrived at our table (which included the time seized while we were shock and stunned looking at the fish). When it had just arrived, it was breathing normally and regularly. But I guess when I took the video, it was approaching the end of it's life....

A fraction of high class, rarely seen Japanese culture that I got to witness this time.



We wrapped up the party with chestnut ice cream which came with a pleasant presentation.

Firework+ ice cream