Sea Paradise - Yokohama

Here are some pictures of our day at "Sea Paradise". It's kind of like Sea World but on a smaller scale. They're known for their white dolphins and beautiful aquarium. The girls had fun on the kiddie rides too. If you scroll down to the bottom of this page you'll see Marissa posing with some "only in Japan" characters who greeted us at the park entrance wearing their costumes. They are the "Mentos" candy promoters (which the girls loved). Any park that hands out free candy as you approach is a hit with them.



You can see, we all had fun on the little train. I could barely get in the seat, but it was worth it to see Liana's sweet face light up with excitement! Kelea loved getting to hold this live starfish (but not before big sister showed her how.)

Ladies' Weekend to Tokyo

Some new friends from the Maborikaigon playgroup invited me to join them for a "Girls' Weekend" in Tokyo. It was my first time in there and we had such a blast! I love Tokyo and the New Sanno (the hotel we stayed at for service members and their families). The day we arrived it was raining but we were able to walk (with our umbrellas) to a French bakery just down the street from our hotel. Then that night we ate a beautiful 5 course meal at "Wellingtons". We had a great conversation and I learned a lot about other people's faith. We were laughing that the four of us (Catholic, Mormon, Jewish and Pageon) could find things in common and get along so well. :) We stayed in the hotel that night because of the weather and watched a movie. Then the next day we ventured out onto the bustling streets and subways. First to Bagel & Bagel (my first bagel in months and it was delicious) then took the metro to Ginza. The area is like Rodeo Drive when it comes to shopping. I found a fun hat shop and splurged on 2 cute ones. Then we went to Harajuku (the district that Gwen Stefani sings about) and took pictures of the "Harajuku Girls" in their Sunday best (costumes). The area is also known for their hip boutiques so we strolled down a famous side street and met up with our friend Corrie. After that we got some little souveniers for our kids and ate these yummy strawberry crepes. It was getting late, so we headed back but on our way we found a 4 story Gap! I had to buy some good ol' American jeans and then we went back to the hotel and drove home from there.

Japanese/American Class for Toddlers

Kelea and Liana just started going off base every other Friday to play and learn from other little Japanese toddlers in a play/class setting. This month they sang Japanese nursery rhymes and did some Halloween matching games. It was fun to meet other moms who (even though we may not speak the same language, are going through the same toddler phases).

Our Golden Book Girl