We had a nice little break from work, school and life in NH. We decided to spend the vacation in the Hamptons with the family. It still isn’t over yet, but I thought I would share some of the pictures from the past week or so. Highlights include the icy lake, birff-day parties, and NYC.
It was nice to see everyone, who we saw; those of you who we didn’t see you need to stop living in far off places: who lives in North Carolina? That is almost as weird as living in Japan.
Oh speaking of Japan, NYC has a pretty good set-up when it comes to anything Japanese. We were able to find a bookstore, many restaurants, and even a little authentic grocery store, complete with Asahi Super Dry. We need to find some good places like this in Boston; if anyone out there is from Boston, hollar back and let us know where to go.
Coming up we have the Baby-shower for Kai’s soon to be Best-friend, and then Abol Hassan Fotouhi’s 98th birthday. Spring has come, but I know how fast spring likes to turn into summer. We will be back again, for the next vacation for sure.
Here are the pictures that I promised, a little before schedule even. There are a lot of pics in here, taken from Nov. 18th till recently. Yes that date does sound familiar: It was Kai’s birthday.
Besides the B-day photos, there are pictures from Thanksgiving Vacation back in the Hamptons and also a trip we recently took to Boston.
This was quite the experience. The day started off with some of the lesser known dudes fighting, then ended with a fight for the top spot of all the wrestlers, which doesn’t happen to often.
I forgot to explain the rules: Basically the first guy to step out of the ring, or touch the ground with any other part of his body than his feet loses. Oh yeah, and no biting.
This is the opening ceremony where all the Sumo wrestlers are called by name into the ring (hand-made from clay new, for every tourney) in their formal gowns which have their sponsors written on the front.
Come take a ride with me, on the shinkansen (aka the bullet train). This is what it is like to be moving at 200mph on the ground. For a more smooth ride let the video load up first, and/or play it twice.
Okay here are the pictures that I promised a couple weeks ago. I hope you are sitting down cause there is a lot of them. The first part is from Nagoya Castle, during the cherry blossom season. We went with Aya’s friend who has a cute little son named Yuka.
The second bit is from a festival we went to in Aya’s old hometown, where she was born: Inuyama aka Dog Mountain. And the last part is of the cherry blossoms and parks that are around our house.
Well we had a good time at all the parties, Brian’s, Nick’s and the trips on the boat. It was a great weekend, and thank you Nina for documenting the festivities. Have a look-see if you weren’t around for the week, or if you would like to relive it once more here’s the link.
This weekend was packed full of adventures for the Monticello-fam. On Friday we made our bi-monthly visit to Babies ‘R Us. While we were there we picked up some bedtime books, a few small things, and a crib protector (thing-a-ma-jig). I had to get home early so I could rest up for my trip the next day.
Saturday, I was up at 5:30am and off to Kyoto with a few of my friends here. We took the train from Nagoya Station and arrived in Nara at about 8am. (more…)
…Kai has pooed lately. Actually he has been up to a lot of new activities. First and foremost, Kai can now recognize his name. This is huge, I mean let’s say you’re Kai. Suddenly you understand this sound is for you. From now on he will forever know this word to mean “I” and that is quite the accomplishment in that little noggin of his. Of course he won’t remember the transition from no-name to name, and how it changed the way he looks at the world, but it’s a good thing it happened in the Grand Scheme of things. (Sorry to get all philosophical on you there, just feeling rather enlightened today).
In case you were wondering how exactly I learned that Kai could recognize his name, (more…)
So this past week was a holiday in Nippon (aka Japan), and Aya, Kai, my Mother in-law, her friend and myself all went off to the neighboring prefecture for a day trip. We checked out the Wisteria Festival of Takehanabetsu-In, I can’t say it either, but the town sure did put on a good show.
When we first arrived in the small village we had to wade through the sea of street vendors (and the random Godzilla Museum) that lined the main road, which took us to the center of the festival. There, a 300 year old Wisteria Tree was in full bloom and it was located next to the main temple of the town. (more…)
