Thursday, December 25, 2008

New House

We moved in last week. It was exhausting but I'm very happy with this place. It's bigger with much better environment. We are close to our friends so we have more chance to hang out and play together.
This would be our home for the next 3 (or 4!?) years (^_^)

Christmas present

This is my biggest Christmas present ever haha!

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Moving again?!

I just finished unpacking our luggage LAST WEEK.
I just waxed the whole floor LAST WEEK.
I just finished arranging my kitchen.
I was about to start our new life here with our complete "gadgets".

BUT now we (probably) are moving to Salonsa area.
We checked the house out yesterday. It was not much bigger than the
house we are living in now. But it is located at Salonsa, where
expatriates mostly live. There's school bus pick up service for Iki too
if we live there, and the most important thing is that it is
(hopefully) much safer than Old camp area (where we live now). I hope
there would be no motorbike racing in front of our house anymore, I
hope there would be no one knocking our doors almost everyday asking
for job at Hiro's office. And I hope Hiro won't lose anything from his
car anymore :p

Ah well.....I just don't know when and where to start packing AGAIN
(>.<)

pre-school

Iki is accepted at the international pre-school! Thanks God, he will
start on January 28, next year. *YAY*

The admission process is not difficult, but it did take time. They have
to go through Iki's documents to find if Iki is eligible or not for the
international school. Only KITAS holder could enter it, and once INCO's
expatriate administration approved Iki's documents, we could arrange
meeting with the principal.

The introduction meeting was at a bar named Wet Monyet LOL. Every
wednesday the expats in this small town gather there for a theme dinner
and drinking together. I was already drunk when we were introduced to
the principal hahaha.

And yesterday we were invited to the school. They explained everything
about the school and the program, and I found it really good. I could
see the teaching materials and had a talk with Iki's teacher about
their teaching goals and methods. I was a teacher so I'd like to know
about those information too ;-). Iki loved the place. Ehm, of course
because there are lots of toys there haha! But I think he would be
alright there. He already knew his classmates too before and didn't get
problem getting along with them. I feel confident with the school, the
teacher, and everything. Anyway, this international school is surely
the best pre-school in town (^_^).

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

At last!

This morning we got our shipped luggage. At last!!!
58 boxes in total. Seems that I'll be busy for a couple of days :p

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Ruined morning

I went to the gym this morning after having a bad morning at home. I
was thinking that exercising could refresh my mind. As usual it was
quiet there. There were only me and Fino, a woman who always spends her
morning time at the Gym. Until then a man came, a talkative one. At
first he just talked to Fino while I enjoyed my exercise. I was not
interested to his kind of show off talking.

Then Fino finished her exercise and said goodbye. He came to me and
started to talk to me.

Him: I like exercising. Good for health
Me: Yeah..
Him: Do you know the previous woman?
Me: Yeah, my friend
Him: She is pretty and sexy
Me: *smiling*
Him: If I don't do exercise I couldn't have enough power to fuck (while
making fucking sign with his fingers)
Me: Ha? (left him and moved to other exercise machine)
Him: I heard you're from Manado
Me: hmm
Him: Do you have friend? I live alone here
Me: Sorry?
Him: My wife lives in Palopo. I live alone. Please introduce me to your
Manadonese friend. Manadonese are usually pretty and sexy
Me: Sorry. My friends won't be interested on you (Stop exercising and
walked away)
Him: I'm rich. Very rich. If you're alone in the afternoon, I can come
to your place
Me: I'm not interested. Look at yourself at that big mirror behind you.
And anyway I'm richer than you! (Very angry and packing my stuffs)
Him: No one is richer than me in Old camp hahaha
Me: You ugly old bastard!! Take care of your wife and children!!
(leaving the Gym)
Him: Hahaha all men are the same. So is your husband!! .........
BANG!!! ==> I slammed the door and walked away

Damn old (very) ugly fat bastard. He ruined my morning exercise.

I didn't feel better at all when I left the Gym this morning (>.<)

Friday, November 14, 2008

Gym

There's a gym here!!! Well facilitated by INCO. The funny thing is, member can enter it anytime, with a special key. My friend lent me her key while she's away for a month so this morning I could have an hour exercise without being exposed to the sun hahaha. Hope I could be a member and have my own key soon!

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Coffee Morning

Last Monday I was invited to an-every-Monday gathering for expatriate
wives, Coffee Morning. It is where the wives share what the plans of
the week over coffees and some sweets.

There are quite a number of expatriates living here, and it was nice to
meet some of them. There I could get some information I never thought
exists in this small city :)

There are some families with toddlers too. And there's international
pre-school as well. I still don't know if Iki's is elligible though,
since we are only contractors meanwhile the international school
belongs to INCO. I do hope he could enter it when he turns three :)

Arisan

Once I was invited to an arisan (gathering) of wives nearby. I think it
would be nice to get to know each other so I did attend it. I came 10
o'clock sharp as what the invitation said, but until 11:30 it was not
started yet. Almost everyone brought brochure of their business and
wanted me to buy something. The thing is, the goodie is not cheap!!!
most are kitchen gadgets (well, like what else does wives crazy about?!
:p), and the price range from 100 USD to 700 USD. Even the cheapest
curtain cost 500 USD (>.<). When I got interested to one item, another
women would come and told me to buy hers too....hhhh...

When one woman then ask me to introduce her to my husband so that my
husband could hire him at the office, I couldn't stand it anymore. I
told them that I had to feed Iki so I must go home before 12. The host
told me to pick Iki up and came back to the gathering, but well.....I
don't think that kind of gathering is my cup of tea :)

And as I guessed, when I showed Hiro the brochures, he was not
interested at all. We will only live here for few years. Those
electrical gadgets couldn't be brought back to Japan anyway. And most
of all.....he didn't recognize the brand ahahaha.

I MIGHT still come to such arisan anyway, but next time I will tell in
advance that I'm not buying anything here :)

Sunday, November 09, 2008

Happy?!

Lately I always ask Mina-chan to go to the market but this morning somewhat I missed that place so I asked Hiro to take me there (I still don't dare driving to the market. Maybe after a year? :p).

It was 10:30 am so the market was almost empty. I enjoyed my "window shopping" and the small talks with the sellers. Until I visited the veggies stall. The woman there told me that she was wondering why she didn't see me shopping lately, and said that I looked really really happy living in Sorowako. Which confused me.

How could she say that? how would she know?

And she answered: "yeah....because now you look much much fatter"

^%!#^@^*&!@^!*@!)#(_!

So fat = happy?! huuuu huuuu I'm NOT if I'm fat (T_T)!!!!

I'll definitely double my jogging route tomorrow!!

Saturday, November 08, 2008

Telkomsel Flash

Is DISSAPOINTING!!!

Well, I got it activated last Wednesday actually, but because my computer is still on its looooong way to Sorowako, I could only get online at night. When Hiro's computer is available and Iki is sleeping *sigh*. Actually I could use Telkomsel Flash from my mobile phone, but it just could not get connected AT ALL. Today at last I could use the internet but it is very very slow. I got disconnected a looot of times, and it pissed me off when I left comments at some people's blogs and they are all gone! (Sorry Sheila, Intan, Benova :p).

I hope this email could be successfully posted hahahaha

It might be different at other places in Indonesia though :). I actually am not surprised yet dissapointed :p. The mobile phone line got disconnected for many times especially during hard rain that I know I should not expect that much about the internet connection. Anyway, good to be back on the web. I hate updating blogs through my tiny cellphone hahaha

Friday, November 07, 2008

Gardening

Today we started our vegetables garden at our back garden. At first Iki was excited but after he found out that gardening involves touching 'dirty' soil, he started driving me crazy. He wanted to plant the seed but didn't want to make his hands dirty. So Mina-chan must stand by beside him with wet towel to clean his hands (>.<).
We stopped when he fell down and made half of his body covered with soil hahaha. You guys should see his face!!
Anyway hope the veggies would grow. We brought the seed from Japan hoping we could grow some japanese veggies for Hiro.

Thursday, November 06, 2008

(_ _)

I'm sad :(

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Massage

Feel so good now. Had an hour massage at home this evening while Iki was sleeping. This is one of the good point of living in Indonesia. I only have to pay IDR 50000 for this relaxation at home :p.

Monday, November 03, 2008

Blackout

And it's blackout here. Been in darkness for almost an hour. It's raining hard outside with thunder and lightning. No flashlight, no candle, not even lighter for we're using electric stove. Only this phone's screen light helps us. And papa-chan didn't answer the phone.
Iki is scared. I'm also scared.....we hate darkness!

I ate my dinner alone tonight. Roll cabbage that I prepared the whole evening, hoping papa-chan and Iki-chan would like it. It's a difficult meal for me, and takes long time to prepare. But suddenly papa-chan called that he's not having dinner at home tonight because a new game just arrived at the camp and he wanted to try it. A very nice surprise.
And Iki-chan refused to eat now because he's waiting for papa. Look at him. He doesn't want to touch his food at all. Great.
Just great.

I can drive!

Today was my first time driving all alone. I even went to Toko Baru (the only supermarket here?) for a bit shopping. I could park the car too though my car took the parking space of two cars hahaha. I was already sweaty when I picked up the driver to accompany me driving on crowded roads, and indeed driving there made me even more sweaty! There were lots of motorbikes and cars and chickens! All I need is more practice.
Tomorrow I will try driving with Iki on the child seat :p

Canoe-ing

Yesterday morning we went swimming in the lake with my new blog friend, yuni-chan, who surprisingly is one of Hiro's staffs (what a small world!). We went to the yacht club at Salonsa area and had some swimming when suddenly Yuni found out that we could rent canoes! Yay!
We went around the lake with two canoes. It was my first time, so I didn't know how to row. Iki kept disturbing papa-chan too so our canoe was a bit uncontrollable. We took a rest at Salonsa beach and swam there and Iki didn't want to get back on the canoe. He said that it was scary (>.<).....
So we had to put him on it though he was crying. Nila helped Hiro rowing while I hugged Iki who was frozen. Oh well.......
But I like canoe-ing! This morning I got muscle pain on my both shoulders and hands. I think it would be a good sport for my blabering hands hahaha. Next time l want to try it again (if Hiro doesn't mind just accompanying Iki swimming) - ehm, are you reading this Yuni? :p

Sunday, November 02, 2008

Golf

We are now following papa-chan playing golf. I planned to walk with him for exercising but end up accompanying Iki playing with a tree branch and some pines in the middle of the golf course. It's not too hot today but is enough to burn our skin.
Next time perhaps I would bring Mina-chan and the stroller so that I could also learn playing golf hahaha

Friday, October 31, 2008

Driving License

I got a driving license 30 minutes ago!!!
We had to leave home at 6 o'clock this morning with papa-chan to go to Malili. It took about 1 hour driving from Sorowako and then papa-chan dropped us at the Japanese staffs' camp before he went to work. Then around 10 his staff came and took us to the police office. In less than 10 minutes, I got my license. Means I could drive around freely now. YAY!
Anyone dare sitting in my car? Hahaha

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Walking

I think I'm gaining weight, and I know that Mina-chan is the one who is responsible. She is a really good cook. Everyday she prepares delicious spicy Sulawesi-style lunch for me, and I just can't stop eating eventhough my stomach is actually overloaded :p.
I want to do the Billy Bootcamp again, but I'm afraid such an exercise could break down the whole house. That's why now every afternoon I walk for about 2 km while Iki is sleeping. I hope that way then I could maintain my weight, but I'm afraid now I couldn't help protecting my skin from sunburnt!! It gets really dark now (>.<)

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Morning Raft

This morning we joined Fantasy Playgroup (another playgroup here) monthly outing. My new friend, Mirna talked to the headmistress and she invited us to join the raft around the lake as a consideration to join the playgroup.
The people are nice and friendly there. And so were the headmistress and two of three teachers there. But the-will-be Iki's class teacher was not friendly AT ALL. She didn't look at me when Mirna introduced me, and talked to me in harsh intonation. She told me at once that her class is full (meanwhile the headmistress told me later on that it is not!). I watched over her the whole session and could say that she has the image of 'killer teacher', which I don't feel comfortable to be my son's PLAYGROUP teacher.
Anyway Iki enjoyed his first experience though he was still too shy to join the others. He happily swam on the lake too.
This Friday the headmistress invited us again to take a look inside the playgroup before deciding to join. She said that her playgroup is very small so she wanted me to really think before putting my son there. I actually don't really care as long as Iki likes it and could get along well. Let us just see this Friday. I'm crossing my fingers.

Swimming

Iki wanted to ride a boat so last Sunday we drove around to find a boat rental. We saw the boats at Salonsa area, but had no idea how to rent them as there was nobody around. Lucky I brought Iki's hand helpers so I just opened his clothes and threw him into the lake.
He enjoyed it! How he loves swimming :p

Searching for a playgroup

We were busy in Japan. Swimming, playing with friends, and visiting places. That's why Iki is very lonely here. Everyday he mentions his friends one by one and says that he wants to play with them.
Therefore we think that it's time now for Iki to go to a playgroup.
We visited Salonsa Playgroup, recommended as the best in town by a friend. Iki fell in love with the place. It is spacey with lots of toys. Look at his face. He was very happy to play around that he didn't want to go home.
Too bad. It is full.... :(
They couldn't accept Iki until PERHAPS January. What a pity. I couldn't wait for two months and let Iki gets depressed at home.
I must find another playgroup....

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

At last....

So after 3 weeks at last tonight we will sleep on a bedsheet, with proper pillows and bolster. I got big package of bedsheets and pillows today. From Nova, not from the service department who keeps promising me everyday on the phone that they are coming hahaha!
Anyway, we love the sheets!! Anyone interested could contact Rumah Batik Arundhati (benova) :p

Monday, October 27, 2008

Locked (oh, God! Again!?)

Iki was grumpy from the second he opened his eyes this morning. I didn't know what he wanted. This whole week he has been acting as a baby. He wants my fully attention and always cries over tiny stuffs. Grhh he drives me nuts!
After crying the whole morning, he wanted to sit on his baby's car seat that just arrived from Japan yesterday. At first I said no, but then I just couldn't stand his shrieking so I put him on that seat. And put the seat belt on too....!
It was when my gardener came and knocked the door. I went out to explain what he must do today. I totally forgot that our door's lock is broken. It would automatically be locked and can't be opened without a key from outside. And this morning I didn't bring a key out...when I finished talking to the gardener, I was so freaked out to find out that the door was locked. I couldn't get inside, I had no phone in my pocket, and my crying son was dangerously locked on his car seat!!! Look at him on that picture. If he moved forward he could fall onto the table before hitting the ground!
My gardener couldn't help me so I ran to the nearest bus stop to ask someone to call the service department. I told the on call service that it was an emergency so that he could come asap. I waited for damn 30 minutes but nobody came. Then my maid came and an ojek driver tried to find a security to help me out. Meanwhile my boy was crying his eyes out inside. I stayed nearby the window to talk to him, and my maid tried to break the door's lock. She climbed the back window, opened it, climbed it, and opened the back door's lock from there. Oh, the hero!!!!
The 'emergency' service department came 10 minutes later, which made the total waiting time was 40 minutes!! Looked annoyed because the door was opened already. Anything can happen in 40 minutes right?! Shouldn't I be the one who was upset!?
Anyway it was over and thank God that Iki was alright.
But now I am wondering...if Mina-chan could get inside the house from outside, ANYONE could do that too!!! Oh my....

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Rent a Car

So Hiro rented a car for two months while waiting for my new car is ready. I couldn't drive yet so everyday a driver comes to teach me driving. If something happened to the car, I just have to make a phone call and someone will come and fix it. I think 2 million rupiahs per month is a very good deal.
My progress is satisfying too. Within two days I could handle the car a bit and drive back home by myself. I think I must develop my self confidence more. I was sweating and trembling when I arrived home this morning (>.<).
Wish me luck so that I could manage to drive a car before my new car arrives :p. I hope I wouldn't have to run again to the hospital in the future, and Iki would enjoy exploring this city without riding ojek anymore hahaha

Friday, October 24, 2008

Gardener

I got a gardener today. His name is Sandi and he committed to change our jungle into a beautiful garden :p.
So far we have few trees already here: a mango tree, three kinds of guava trees, a banana tree, a lime tree, even a coconut tree with some coconuts hanging already. The most dangerous tree of all hahaha. Can't imagine what will happen if one of the coconuts falls down when Iki is playing nearby!?
So now I'm busy making our garden plan. Can't wait until it looks like a 'real' garden :p

Oh well...

He was just recovered from his fever two days ago, and yesterday I brought him to the playground at Pontada. It was a contrast with the playground at our neighborhood. This one is clean and well maintained. Iki was very happy and enjoyed playing. I enjoyed making some new friends too. I planned to go to that place every morning until I find a playgroup for Iki.
But this morning Iki caught a cold! A pretty bad one. He was upset too because he couldn't play out.
Oh well....I was so happy already that he recovered from his fever. Only for a day :(

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Happy birthday

This is a very late post :p
Happy birthday papa-chan. No birthday cake or presents this year, sorry :p
But I am happy to have us together on that day (when u were getting older :p)

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Emergency (again)

We've been here for 11 days now and I brought Iki to the emergency for twice already (>.<).
The first one was because he got itchy reddish rash all over his body, which according to doctor was an allergic reaction. Either because of food, weather, grass , or water. I watched his food consumption this week and it's alright, so perhaps its because of grass from the golf course or the swimming pool.
And this morning suddenly iki got fever and stomach pain. He cried and cried in pain. It was so out of sudden that I got panicked. Hiro just left playing golf and telkomsel has been error since yesterday so I couldn't make any phone call. Couldn't call ojek too, so at last I decided to walk to the hospital (it's about 1,5 km). I didn't bother to change or put sunblocks on as it was very hot outside. I just hugged Iki and ran as fast as I could. Luckily then, half way, there was an ojek passing by. I was sweating from top to toe and out of breath already. This I learnt a lesson that I cant only rely on TELKOMSEL!!
Iki vomitted a lot at the hospital. Doctor said that I shouldn't give him UHT milk because it is an instant milk. Iki must drink formula milk based on his age. Hiro was shocked and said that formula milk is for babies :p.
Doctor also said that I must cook well all the veggies I feed him too. Including tomatoes. No raw fresh veggies until his body gets used to this place. Actually it's good for Iki if sometimes he got sick. That way his body is building strong antibodies. But somewhat it broke my heart to see my little one in pain...

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Matano Lake

Sorowako lays along the Matano Lake. Yesterday evening Iki and I walked down to the lake hoping to see the famous sunset there. Which unfortunately couldn't be seen from that part of the lake.
But we enjoyed the view anyway. Many kids were swimming, some people walked around just like us, and some couples were having their romantic moments.
Let's see if this weekend we could have a boat trip around the lake :p

Friday, October 17, 2008

Goats

These goats are Iki's friends. Iki is always very happy to see them around our neighborhood. This evening he gave them some leaves and was excited to watch them eating. His giggles made my day :)

Market

We went to the market again this morning eventhough Iki complained a lot the second I called the ojeks (it's the ONLY public transport here, FYI). I love this market! It has wide range of fresh vegetables I can only find in Indonesia hahaha (if you live abroad, you'll understand my feeling), and the price is always negotiable. I also enjoy the short conversations I usually have with the sellers. Somewhat it's more interesting than just picking display veggies from supermarket. Iki still hates this market and Mina-chan always laughs looking at his expression. But I'm sure he will get used to it sooner or later :).

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Playground

We found this playground about 10 minutes walking from our house. Iki was really really excited and jumped out of his stroller when he saw it. There was a written rule that the kids must not wearing any sandals or shoes, and it amazed me to see them ALL following the rule :p.
But it surprised me more to see how dirty the playing ground was. There were LOTS of shits all over the place!! Either from the cats or goats or cows or whatever animals 'playing' there too. One mother I met there said that the playing ground at the other INCO's housing complexes are well maintained, but unfortunatelly not ours :(.
Iki was still frustrated there, but started to play when i cleaned up a bit his playing area. There were some school boys playing hide and seek, and I can't help not to laugh out loud to hear them playing: "hom pim pa halahium gambreng!" hahaha. Reminded me of my almost forgotten childhood :).
What an interesting morning :)

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Mina-chan

Her name is Aminah, but Iki calls her Mina-chan. She starts working here today, helping me out with the houseworks. So far she is good. She follows my directions pretty well and is not lazy. She cooks our lunch too, so that I could steal some of her recipes :p. Iki is also happy. Because Mina-chan is here, mama-chan suddenly plays with him the whole day haha. I think I will start homeschooling him step by step in near future. Having a maid is an advantage of living in indonesia I won't miss hahaha. She just takes care of the household anyway. Iki is still my responsibility for 100%

Iki and ojek

This morning we went to the market by ojek again. When we got back home he told me, "iki scared. Next time, mama only ne. Iki yada (don't want to)". Oh dear....

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Our new life

We are all adapting to our new life here. Our house is located on a hilly area of INCO's housing complex. Sorowako is a mining city (nickel), so it's pretty polluted. It is very dusty in the afternoon, that's why i prefer bringing iki out for a walk early morning. The only public transportation here is OJEK. Iki had his OJEK debut this afternoon and he was so scared. He also added that the guy wore dirty jacket hahaha! Oh, my boy is having some hard time adapting here. He misses his friends in japan everyday and wants to play with them. Poor boy. He also is suffering because he couldn't find thomas toys or good clean cars at the local toy shop. And oh, he hates it when I bring him to the market. It's really the traditional one = dirty+smelly+full of flies+BECEK. He always gives me disgusted face and asks me to bring him out of that place. I hope he will manage :p. Our house is nice and half furnished. We're just waiting for some small but important details from the maintenance department. We've been using wrapping papers as curtain and sleep without bedsheets and pillow haha! I'm still using GPRS for updating my blog and start to get tired typing on this small keypad haha. Today we walked to the TELKOMSEL, but the flash connection there is too expensive. I don't know any other provider and has no one to ask to yet. I have some blog friends here but couldn't email them because i can't access my gmail's address book and can't visit their blogs to leave comment too :(. Yeah well, hopefully next week i could find one :p. The good thing is, I got a maid today and she will start working tomorrow. YAY !!

Morning walks

Hiro goes to work at 6 o'clock every morning and then Iki and I have some walks around the neighborhood. Iki likes to look for PUTRI MALU and touch them one by one excitedly. He also likes to find cats and watch their behavior. Sometimes we walk to the lake too. Morning time like this is the best time to walk around. It's not hot yet with fresh air (NO DUST!!).

FW: Immigration

Tuesday, 7 October 2008 3:30 PM

We are now waiting for Iki's KITAS at Immigration office in Parepare (about 3 hours driving from Makassar). The waiting room is dark and crowded. Two ceiling fans couldn't help bringing cool air inside. It's very hot, and with almost every man is smoking, this is a very poisonous room for my son (@_@). Don't ask me about the smell!! Sweat+smoke+food+whatever it is people bringing inside. I surely will vomit if someone brings durian here :p

Iki is also depressed here. He couldn't find any clean chair to sit on hahaha. He also busy warned the other japanese guys not to sit because the chairs are dirty. What a boy! Let's see how would he be after 3 years living in Indonesia :p

Thursday, October 02, 2008

Moving out

So we are moving out now. It's been 6 hours but the moving company hasn't finished packing our stuffs yet. I slept for 4 hours only last night so i'm struggling to keep my eyes opened now....

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Long last update from this house

Hiro packed my computer already (>.<)!!!!! And tonight is my last chance to write some leftover memories here because tomorrow he would pack the server, that I wouldn't be able to access our photos folder anymore..... :( This month is the busiest month ever since I moved here in Japan. I must organize and pack our stuffs meanwhile I also wanted to enjoy as much time as possible with my friends. Which made me either too tired or too drunk by the end of the day. That's why the update here is very slow too :p.

I went to Tokyo Dome with my friends Keiko, Nayon, and Aki (with the children too), to bring the kids playing at the Toy Kingdom.





As described by its name, the place offers a wide range of toys for the kids to enjoy, for only 1000 Yen. We spent the whole afternoon there, yet still had to fight with the kids when it's time to go home (read: CLOSING time!!)



We also had small surprise birthday party for Nayon at my place



And visited Aquarium at Sunshine city with Tomomi



Continued with a great lunch at an Omurice restaurant with them (Tomomi and Aki-kun)





I also had a single day out with Tomomi only. We had buffet lunch at Skyview restaurant, on the 18th floor of Sunshine city building, Ikebukuro.





Had a small farewell dinner with my in-laws in Yokohama.



We ate dango (Japanese rice cake) together to celebrate Tsukimi, a day in Japan when the moon is believed is the most beautiful over the year.



Also gave some presents for the grandparents to celebrate 'day for old people' in Japan. This is what Iki "gave" them :p



I also already ate my favourite Tonkotsu Ramen!! (^__^). My dear friend, Tomomi and her family brought us to a delicious Ramen restaurant at Ikebukuro.



We also had a very long walk that afternoon to have this unforgetable chocolate cake



We also visited the zoo again with Nayon (and Kenshin), and Yukiko (with Mitsuki and Takahiro). The kids really enjoyed going to the zoo together.





We also had this very last shot with of Iki and some of his friends at the swimming school



We went to Thomas Land again with Papa-chan and Bobo. Would definitely our last trip there this year :D. Iki of course was really excited and enjoyed playing (also shopping!) there :).





But he cried when we rode a small boat attraction with small slide hahaha. He said that it was scary :p




We had our last dinner together with Tomomi and family at a famous unagi restaurant nearby our house. Famous because the unagi there is really delicious and Soichiro Honda (the founder of Honda) often ate there when he was alive :p. Too bad I couldn't transfer the photos here. Hiro packed my computer and his laptop has no card reader (@_@).

And yesterday I went to Iruma with Nayon and her son, to make the first and last visit to Aki's new house. They just moved in the day before so it was still a beautiful house full of boxes (just exactly likes our home now :p). We went to Mitsui Outlet to have lunch and brought the kids playing at the playing ground there for 30 minutes (for 500 Yen). The kids enjoyed their very last time playing together before we move....

Felt really sad when Aki-chan sent us to the station. I promised her to stay over at her place when I visit Japan again in the future.

Today I met Keiko and her daughter, Sakurako. She is my first friend in Japan, the very first one who invited me to come to her house. A very nice and fun friend to talk to. I helplessly cried when she handed me this card:



And now I only have 1 day left to finish our packing and CLEANING (>.<), also if possible to spend some last time with few friends too. I guess this would be my last post from a computer, from our apartment here in Tokyo.... :(1

This has been a great 9 months living here. I really enjoy my life here. I have great friends to keep me 'alive'. I definitely will miss them all, but I promised someday I will meet them all again (^____^).

We will fly to Bali on October 3rd, and then to Makassar on the 6th. Hmmm guess we are ready now to start our new life at SOROWAKO. Updates would be from mobile phone from now on, until I could get internet connection (if possible) in our new house. Which means I couldn't leave any comments to my dear friends' blogs :(. I'm sooo sooo sorry......... (_ _o). Please don't leave my blogs :p.