Friday, July 23, 2010

Iki



At last iki slept....

I actually am writing this post on Monday night.

Iki and I stay at airport hotel tonight because tomorrow we're flying out of japan.
He is very sad when papa-chan said goodbye and left the hotel to go back home. He cried sadly and told me how lonely he is now, that he loves papa so much eventhough he often gets angry to him.

He said that he doesn't like to go holiday without papa, that he wants the three of us going together.

Before, he told papa that when he's in the airplane, he would always think about papa. Papa was very happy to hear that.

Naughty iki can be very sweet haha

See u in two weeks, papa-chan

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Swimming

He might not pass his swimming test last time, that's fine, because
now he enjoys swimming more than before :-)

Cute chocolate spoons



Iki's class mothers made these cute chocolate spoons for bazaar last tine. It was kids' fave!!!

Very easy but good for parties or coffee time ;-)

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Hanabi

It's summer time! it's hanabi time!

We just did it inside our apartment complex with some of Iki's friends whose daddies are gone for business trips abroad.


The kids surely had some fun :)

Friday, July 16, 2010

I am so unproductive lately. I wanted to do a lot of things, but at the end I don't have big enough effort to continue what I have started...

I started making Jewelry 3 years ago when we still lived in Korea. I enjoyed making pieces the most when we lived in Sorowako. I have a friend with the same hobby, and handmade jewelry was the best present for people who're leaving that jungle paradise (and in fact there were a lot of people moved out). But now since we moved here I just made 4 so far!! 4 in half year! What a shame....

This is the latest one. I made these earrings to go Sakuranbogari last month


And this very easy necklace was a last minute gift for my friend, Miwa


This one is my first hair pin ever. And I think I won't make it anymore unless requested nicely on a very special occasion :))


These unique earrings were for Mariko


And this very very simple necklace was in one set. I was in the mood for green LOL


Argh, have to take out those beads out of the closet to remind me that I bought them to make them into something :p

Wednesday, July 07, 2010

Wednesday Bento: Teru Teru Bozu

It's rainy season here in Japan. Time to hang Teru Teru Bozu now, praying for good weather (^__^).

This morning was raining too, so here is today's obento: Teru Teru Bozu. It's the last bento since from next week Iki's school will end before lunch time and then Summer Holiday is coming next month. Fiuh....So next obento will be in September!!!


Inside:
Teru Teru bozu: Onigiri, nori, ham and kamaboko
Mini tomatoes
Umbrella: processed cheese and ham
Bear shaped croquettes
Broccoli trees
Ham and kamaboko rolls

Ah......really hope it won't be raining in the afternoon. Iki will have swimming after school and I hate to go to the club by bicycle during raining (>.<)

But look....even the teru teru bozu brings umbrella LOL

Monday, July 05, 2010

Kidzania Tokyo

Yesterday Iki and I went to Kidzania with Miwa and her kids. Akari and Yusuke were very close to Iki when we lived in Sorowako, so he was really excited to meet them again.

This is quoted from Japan National Tourism Organization about Kidzania:

KidZania - "A land of kids, by kids, for kids" - where children can experience their favorite job and learn about the social system while having fun. Authentic looking "pavilions" including a bank, hospital, newspaper company, radio station, and pizza shop are all about 2/3 the size of a real building, and there are about 70 professional activities to try including banker, doctor, fashion model, newspaper journalist, and firefighter. The target age is 2 to 12 years old. Although adults are not allowed to enter the pavilions, there are monitors and observation windows so that parents can watch their children working actively. Children are paid for their work in "Kidzo" money, which can be used in KidZania to shop at a department store, save at a bank or withdraw from an ATM within KidZania. This is a wonderful way to help children realize the pleasure of working.

I heard about the place a while ago but just got the chance to go there yesterday. I was really amazed and Iki and the kids had so much fun "working" and earning money.

First they worked at a construction company, OBAYASHI; building the new Tokyo Tower. He got 8 Kidzos (the currency used in the city) for that job


This is the tower they built


And last photo with the construction team


And then they worked part time at Moss Burger, Japanese famous burger restaurant. He got 5 kidzos and a burger, for his lunch



Then he went to the bank to open a bank account and to get an ATM, and yeah, he had to queue in front of the counter too :p


And went to JCB to apply for an electronic money card


Time to work again! they worked as a car mechanic, got paid for 8 kidzos to change tire and batteries.


It made them hungry, so they worked at an ice cream shop and then bought themselves ice cream for 10 kidzos each - what an expensive ice cream!! :p


Iki learned that he had to wait and work to eat that yummy ice cream LOL


Then they went to EPSON art school to learn how to make sticker. They have to pay 10 kidzos each for that.


For doing those jobs they have to queue for quite a long time. Some popular jobs like pilot, firemen, for example need about 1-2 hours for waiting. We were quite lucky this time, the kids didnt have to wait for too long. The longest waiting time was to work at the ice cream shop, 1 hour!

Kidzania was an interesting mini city. There are 70 occupations the kids can do there, but due to waiting time usually they could only do 3-4 jobs in a day. There are two sessions to choose to enter kidzania. 9am-3pm sessions, or 4pm-9 pm session. Seems long, but was actually passed really quick for the kids - not for the parents because they can only wait and watch the kids having fun :p

There is beauty salon there. Look, some customers got manicured ;-)


At the other side of the city there was an accident and the medical staffs were trying to save a guy


And a journalist walking around with their camera


At the corner some were trying to fix the electric cable


Then suddenly there was a loud sirene and a firecar passed.


Oh, there's a house on fire. Some firemen worked hard to turn off the fire.


The kids could rent cars, but they have to pass the driving license test first. Some kids can work at the car rental company too. Once they rent cars, they could drive around, and look! there's a gasoline stand too when they need it :p


At SONY counter kids can learn how to be a photographer too, but I guess they have to work hard to be able to pay the fee :p


And many other jobs. It was such a good place for kids, even better than disneyland!!

Kids have to pay for 4400 yen (44 USD) and adults 1900 yen (19 USD) to enter kidzania, and reservation must be made online through the website. Weekends are usually fully booked though, better made reservation ahead of time. We made our reservation a month before!

And to my surprise there is kidzania in Jakarta too!!!! If I ever HAVE to go to jakarta, I think I would definitely bring Iki there. hopefully its cheaper than the one in Tokyo hahaha

Iki learnt a good lessons yesterday. That he will have to work hard to be able to buy what he wants. Later at home he wanted me to pay him to clean up his toys haha. So now he can earn 10 yen after each job he finished at home. He said that he will save his money in the bank too later and buy toys. Well, he only has 30 yen now and the toys he wants is 3000 yen :p. Good Luck, Iki!!!! (^___^)

Friday, July 02, 2010

Iki's language progress

It's not easy to make Iki voluntarily studying English at home anymore. It used to be really easy when we just moved in here, he loved to study English back then. But now he is busy. After school he is always busy playing with his friends or swimming or gymnastic class.

His Japanese is really good now. He knows a lot of new vocabularies, and can already help translating them to me whenever I feel lost. Of course that he spends most of his time talking in Japanese. He even starts to talk to me in Japanese too......

Me: Iki I don't know what you're talking about. In English pls!'
Iki: Oh come on mom, I know you speak Japanese. I always heard you talking in Japanese here
Me: Yes, but my Japanese is not good right? I don't really understand what you're talking about
Iki: So you have to practice more!! Just talk to me in Japanese, it's good training

(>.<)

Now he can write and read in Hiragana and started to read Katakana too. It's just like me! I can read and write hiragana and katakana only :p


Once a week he borrows book from school and read it at home too


With all his daily activities, his pay less attention to his English now. He knows alphabets and can write them all but is not really interested learning phonics so no progress at all for these three months. Iki likes computers so I use computer, internet and even iphone as learning media too but I want him to practice his English more. I planned to put him into Summer course at the closest International kindergarten, but the school said that Iki's age group for summer course are all usually Japanese children who won't talk in English yet.....



Meanwhile he just laughed at me whenever I talk to him in Indonesian. For him talking in Indonesian is only to his grandparents from Indonesia. And surprisingly during his once a week phone call he can still talk fluently to them. He could even still sing Indonesian song to them (this afternoon was cicak cicak dingdingding :p), he would never sing it to me whenever I ask him to

I don't know if I have too much expectations on him.
I want him to be able to speak Japanese because he is a Japanese
I want him to speak English too. It's the main language in our house
And I want him to speak Indonesian too to be able to communicate with my family in Indonesia

Thursday, July 01, 2010

Twirl Skirt

I was in the mood for sewing again one Tuesday (when Iki is at school until 5 pm :p). Following the free pattern from here, I tried to make a cute twirl skirt (^___^).


It's supposed to be easy, but a beginner like me made quite a mess -that hopefully couldn't be really seen :p



But according to Hiro, I'm too old for that skirt and he doesn't want me to wear it whenever I go out with him (>.<)

Watching baseball

Not that we are big fans of baseball! LOL

Hiro's company built the stadium so the staffs could get free tickets to watch the game there. Hiro said that he wanted to show Iki a lot of new things he could see in japan while we're here for -only-God-knows-for-how-long.


I've never been watching baseball before in my life (not even on TV!) so I actually didn't understand at all how the game worked, but I enjoyed being in a big stadium with the enthusiast supporters. I could feel their energy as they shout, sang, and danced the best they could to support their team.


Even Iki who said that he didn't understand the game at all started to wave the flag, shouted "JOUJIMA" (which I dont understand :p) and moved his body in the same rhythm with the supporters LOL


I guess we enjoyed our first experience watching baseball ;-)