..............

Be strong, Indonesia....

You'll always be in my pray (_ _o).........

Imo Hori (sweet potatoes picking)

I also joined Iki's schooltrip for harvesting sweet potatoes last two weeks. Not only kids enjoying this kind of activity, but me too!! As long as I could remember, I have never paid quite amount of money to harvest veggies or fruit MYSELF back in Indonesia! I did pay the gardener to do the whole thing ;-)

At first he used gloves because he didn't want to touch the soil.

But then what the heck! haha

Dig dig dig! Everyone tried to get as much sweet potatoes as possible

Then we had picnic lunch together

This was Iki's obento. Halloween theme one again.

Everyone was dead tired. But had to walk about 20 minutes to the train station. Bringing the sweet potatoes back!!!! Thanks God I brought this (^_-)

Swimming class

Today mothers were allowed to go to poolside and took pictures!

Iki likes swimming now and I was thinking to add one more swimming day
for him. But winter is just around the corner, going to the swimming
school is another freezing trip for me (@_@)

Wednesday Bento: Halloween

This was last week's bento for the upcoming Halloween

Inside:

Cube carrots and yellow paprika on picks

Chicken teriyaki

Rice

Spinach and nori rolls

Spring onion

Marsmallow and cheese rolls

(_ _o)

Uma....Ocho...

Cepat sembuh ya...... (_ _o).....

Iki masih mau ketemu....

Tonkotsu Ramen 

It is definitely my favorite ramen ever!!

Tonkotsu ramen is Kyushu (japan southern island)'s specialty. The
thick broth is from boiled pork bones, and varies in some areas all
over Kyushu.

There is garlic tonkotsu based broth, miso tonkotsu, and spicy
tonkotsu for example.

Personally I like the simply white tonkotsu broth, with not too soft
ramen (Chinese wheat noodle), some slices of char siu and aji no
tamago (tasty half boiled egg).

Hmmmm.....I think I know what is for lunch tomorrow! ���

Camping at Kinugawa area

Iki had high fever after swine flu injection last Thursday. We almost
thought that we couldn't go to our might-be-last camping this year.
But he looked fine on Saturday morning! So off we went to kinugawa
hotspring area in nikko late in the afternoon.

It was a good decision though. We were more experienced this time, so
things ran really well. And we enjoyed our might be last camping this
year �

Happy Birthday, Papa-chan

I seriously don't want to remember your age haha!

A very happy birthday, honey. Sorry for the burnt cake, it was supposed to be a campground anyway ;-)

Tooooo bad Iki got fever that we couldn't have your birthday camping this weekend. But we did celebrate it with a little tent and campfire yesterday (^___^)

Campground: baked cheese cake

Tent: store bought castella

The lazy pig: snow balls

Campfire: pretz with caramel chips around

(and two little candles in the middle)

Undokai (Sport Day)

I think almost all kindergartens all over Japan scheduled Undokai or sport day last Saturday - and then rescheduled it to Sunday or Monday because of the pouring rain! It was kind of ruining our mood and plan to go camping for that rare long weekend, but apparently the super shiny Monday when Iki's undokai was rescheduled was just a perfect time.

Iki's school is a small one, run by Hiro's company's management. It's much much cheaper than normal kindergarten around, but mothers have to participate in all event it held. Which is actually tiring eventhough they're all good fun. Also for this undokai. Mothers had to prepare a lot of things, decorated the school, cleaned it well, and had performances too. As I'm writing this the next day, I can feel my whole body aching from the participating there.

On the other hand, the undokai itself was great. The fact that not only kids participated was actually fun too. They had games for moms, dads, toddlers, and even yochien's graduates (two of them were grown ups and work for the company too!)

They had sprint. Of course my boy lost haha!

Giant balls racing

Dancing

Walking on a "bridge". This is interesting because each kid has to show their own creativity. Iki surprisingly "walked" on his butt haha

Throwing balls into the nets

There is fathers' dancing wearing vegetables hats too. Papa-chan was the only one wearing REAL chinese cabbage hat hahaha. How funny!

Mommies also had to dance samba together, and made performance to support each group competing. I was participating so I don't have the photos :(. It was good memory though.

Poor daddies then had to race bringing the kids on the back

The undokai was closed by Mommies and Kids dancing.

And of course everyone has to clean up the whole school after that, except papa-chan! haha

Good fun. It was a good fun!

Wednesday Bento: Lightning McQueen

I had a very bad morning that really ruined my day, that I was surprised I could finish making this bento. I am not satisfied with the result, and so was Iki..... :(

But he had to bring it to school anyway.....

The inside part was like this:

I put furikake rice inside, with Tetsuage Fish and Renkon, mini tomatoes and sliced cheese on the picks, cheese kamaboko sausages, and mini oranges as dessert.

And then covered it with the pinky Lightning McQueen - ah....it was supposed to be red!

It's made from white eggs omelet (with supposed to be red food coloring added), sliced cheese, and nori for decoration.

Wednesday Bento: Tomica Cars

After very very long summer holiday, the Wednesday bento was started again last week. I almost forgot how to make bento again! LOL

Let's say it was a warming up one for that Wednesday: Tomica cars Bento

Inside:

Fried chicken

Carrots cubes and processed cheese on the picks

Furikake rice

Sliced ham, cheese and nori for the tomica cars

Sunday run

It's been kind of routine lately whenever we don't go camping or if
iki doesn't stay over at his grandparents' house. We run about 1.2 km,
have breakfast at mister donuts or mcd, then walk back home.

The fatty breakfast has probably double or triple calories we burnt
during running, but hell, it's a fun family time �

Two wheels bike

In a day he could ride a two wheels bike already!!! How time
flies....he is not my little baby anymore

Back to teaching

I had never thought that I would be an English Teacher in Tokyo. I did want to work because I was practically doing nothing than spending a lot of money eating and shopping with friends while Iki's at school. Applied for some administrative works, but well....I have not enough Japanese for that kind of job ;-)

Some mothers requested me to teach English to their kids then. At first I was just doing favor for the kids from Iki's class. I didn't really care how much they would pay me. Those kids were interested to learn English because they see Iki communicating in English. But it turned out that other kids from this apartment building also wanted to join the class too. Now I have totally fourteen students, divided in three classes (^__^)

I was nervous at first, I haven't been teaching for years. But I enjoy it way too much now!!!

Unexpectedly now I have little income myself. First ever since I married papa-chan five years ago. At least I could buy him birthday present with my own money this year? hehehe

First camping in Japan

Yes, we finally did it last weekend!

After our first and last camping last new year's eve on Matano Lake in Sorowako, we had always wished that we could go camping again. Summer was way too hot -and crowded here. So once the summer holiday finished, papa-chan started buying the camping gear.

We went to a lake in Fuji mountain area. Lake, this time, because Iki wants to play with his wooden boat he brought from Madura haha

Our tent is small but enough for the three of us. We spent a surprisingly comfortable night

Iki really enjoyed it. He helped papa-chan making the tent and preparing the fire

Also helping me cooking

In the morning he excitedly woke up and said' "mom, you can sleep more. I will make the fire and prepare the breakfast"

LOL, wasn't it sweet???

He of course enjoyed the lake, even the "jungle". And he used to hate jungle when we lived in the jungle paradise, Sorowako. How come!!

And God, that campsite had a breathtaking sunset view

The next day we went back to Tokyo after taking a relaxing bath at a hotspring (onsen) nearby, and had a super delicious soba lunch in a small soba restaurant in the middle of pine forrest

It was a great family time (^____^)

Earthquake Safety Training

Earthquake happens a lot in Japan. That is why this modern country is doing its best to minimize the damage. From using high construction technology that would reduce the effect of quake for the buildings, to give regular training to the people so that they could survive the quake.

The safety training here is a serious regular thing to do. They might have it at almost all its skyscrapers. Most importantly also at schools, including kindergarten.

So last week I got letter from Iki's school that there will be a 'quake' at school at 14.29 for students' training.

Iki went home with this outfit. Still thinking that he was in a danger. All kids wore this kind of protection over their heads too. I could hear some younger kids panicked and cried.

It was a good training for Iki and ME. I can't believe my son taught me how to survive from earthquake because I've never had such training in my country (and it has a LOT oh earthquakes too!!)

This is Iki and the protector pillow :)

Summer Holiday

So last this morning I am all alone again after spending 6 weeks with Iki during summer break. Phew, at last I have my own time, but somewhat I feel the house is so empty. Can't believe I am now missing my boy already on the first day he's back to school LOL

We had an incredibly fun summer holiday and did quite a lot activities. 6 weeks is not a short time!!

We went to Surabaya for about 10 days. Had a good family time, refreshing, and eating time. Didn't get the chance to meet a lot of friends this time but I am sure we will go back there again in the future. Happy to have short photo session with my talented girlfriend, Carla.

Iki got a Maduranese wooden boat from my auntie, love it and insisted to bring it back home to Japan by himself though I was against him. There was definitely no space in the suitcase of that boat. So it was tied on Iki's backpack and he carried it himself from Surabaya, during our 7 hours transit in Kuala Lumpur until we arrived safely and exhausted in our little home in Tokyo.

But surprisingly that little wooden boat from Madura was his best memory of this summer's trip to Surabaya ;-). Thank you, Oma Ayis hehehe

Then back in Japan we had a week Obon Holiday. Its one of Japan's most high season holiday so staying at home was the smartest holiday, according to Papa-chan. We managed to drag him out anyway. Staying at home might be smart but it was definitely boring :D

Papa-chan brought us to Kamakura Beach, twice! Because Iki loves beach! He enjoyed playing with the sand,

He discovered that body boat was a real fun, and even tried to teach me how to do it.

We also went to a crowded fireworks festival nearby our house. Iki got really excited to watch the show, too bad I don't have a tripod for my camera to get good photos :(

We spent a whole day going to Chichibu in Saitama area, so that Iki could ride the antique SL locomotive train that has a real funnel with real smokes.

We went to the Dinosaur Museum in Roponggi Hill.

It was great except Iki was upset and got bad mood because he couldn't see his favorite bird dinosaur. I had to send him to naughty corner somewhere in a crowded shopping mall (_ _o)

We went to the Kodomo Natsu Matsuri (Kids Summer Festival) in Omotesando area. Boy we had to walk around in 37C super sunny afternoon. But Iki had fun and did the whole thing himself!

Then at night we went to a summer festival. Iki and papa-chan visited the shrine and did the traditional praying ritual. Iki is big enough to understand to do the whole thing himself this time. He "cleaned up" himself prior to entering the shrine, then can follow papa-chan throwing the coins, pulling the big rope and then praying.

We enjoyed some traditional summer festival game too.

And that Summer Festival was just a nice closure to his Summer Holiday (^____^)