November flower arrangement

Kamen Rider Fourze

It's way too late, but here it is anyway, iki's Halloween costume!

He wanted to be a Kamen rider Fourze, his fave superhero character so we made this costume together!

Iki made the mask, belt and switches from paper craft. I made the costume from 100 yen raincoat with black thick tape and red marker!

Visiting ASIMO

We went to the science and future museum, Miraikan this afternoon.
Actually I brought iki once last summer holiday but he wanted to visit
it again with papa!

The first visit to that museum opened his eyes about robot and future
science. He is in love with robot making and plamodel since then.

Today he got a very rare chance to do short demonstration with ASIMO
robot. His favorite ever robot.

He really enjoyed the visit. We stayed until closing time, and he was
very satisfied!
Later at home he told us that he will study hard and learn how to make
a robot. He will make a saru (monkey) robot who can climb a tree. Good
luck, iki!

Sweet potatoes party

Early this month we had school trip (ensoku) to saitama area for sweet
potatoes picking (imohori)

We brought home soooo many sweet potatoes. I sent obaachan 8 potatoes,
gave away some more to friends and neighbor, put a bit of it on our
meal every day, but still had some left!

So yesterday I had sweet potatoes party at home with some friends.
Everyone should bring in one sweet potatoes meal!

It was a good party! A lot of variety of sweet potatoes meal, to my surprise!

We even had small birthday celebration for a friend, with sweet potato cake!

And I closed the day finishing the left over wine. Ah.... What a life!

My first handmade tempe

So at last I made my own Tempe, million thanks to nova!!

It's actually not difficult to make, but takes time and a lot of patience. Especially during this peeling the beans' skins process!!



Then it takes about 36 hours of patience 



But here it is :)



So my lunch was this super spicy Tempe penyet. Ahhhh life is beautiful

Tahu tek tek

It's my favorite hawker's food back in Surabaya, and i'm very very
happy to make it myself today!

Big thanks to mbak Maria and nova, for all the inputs to make the
lontong. It made my simple tahu tek tek perfect. Yummy!!!!

Visiting nova

We went to shin misato to visit nova. Kimi is much bigger now, a very brave and independent little girl!!

Iki, kiyo and rui now can play together. They fought sometimes  but surely had a very good time!

It's like the end of summer, but it was still warm so the kids hit the pool. What a fun afternoon ( with fabulous lunch)!!!

Yes!!!

So starting today, I'm officially a permanent resident holder in Japan (^O^)／

No more visits to Japanese embassy abroad for applying Japanese visa
from now on. YAY!!!

Sent from my iPhone

First TAMIYA kit

So iki chose this Amphibious vehicle kit from TAMIYA shop yesterday.
Well, he actually wanted to build a robot but we think it's way too
difficult for him!

He started right away once we arrived home and really got into it.
It's his first time to build this kind of plamodel. He has to work
with tiny parts, motor and even grease. Not easy but he enjoys it so
much that I think he could manage to finish it.

Ganbatte iki-chan!! This will make him busy for a few days during this
very long summer holiday (^_^)

Science museum

Iki was obsessed with robot since he visited the Miraikan! Last Sunday
he asked papa-chan to bring him to other science museum in Tokyo.

He enjoyed it. So much that it was difficult to drag him out of the
museum. Papa-chan was tired and I could hardly walk when finally he
grumpily stepped out of the building (´･_･`), asking papa-chan to buy
him a robot making set so he can make his own robot.

Brand minded papa-chan didn't want to buy him one from the museum
shop, but brought him to tamiya shop in shinbashi instead. There you
go!! Iki found a new hobby again! ！(◎_◎;)

Tantanmen

We went to roponggi hills last weekend to watch cars 2 and I had this for lunch.

It was said as Japan's spiciest Tanya men so I ordered it. Too much
expectation!!! It was not spicy at all. What a dissapointing lunch
haha!

Bye bye Kaho....

I held a make it yourself sandwich brunch party as a farewel to iki's
dear classmate, Kaho.

Again, life is just about hello and goodbye. Wish you the best in Jakarta.......

Miraikan

Last Thursday I went to Miraikan (science and innovation museum) in
odaiba with iki and my friend Tomomi and her kids.

Iki was amazed and fell in love with asimo ( the humanoid robot) and
all other scientific stuffs. He was really excited to see a real
moving robot and want to make one himself. He forgot that he wanted to
buy inline skate before and now he all he wants is his his own robot!

Shiohigari (collecting clams)

We went to Chiba prefecture for shiohigari last Sunday. Iki was
excited to have what he said his first shiohigari ever!! He totally
forgot that he did it before when he was 2.5 years old ！(◎_◎;)

It was 35 degrees celcius and I felt like melting. But iki had sooo much fun!

Our dinner that day was asari gohan (clam rice), BBQ hamaguri ( bigger
clams) and asari miso soup. The next day lunch was clam peperontini
spaghetti and we still had another kilogram of clams!! (which I threw
away today)

I think I won't cook clam for the next two months =))

My new dishwasher

Iki suddenly said that he wanted to help me with the dirty dishes. I
let him try and was so surprised that he did it very well. He said
that he always watched me doing it so he knew what to do.

Ahhh i've been waiting for this moment!!! I have my new dishwasher now

First sewing

Iki wanted to try, so I let him sew the name tag on his swimming towel!

Honestly it looks ugly but iki was happy hehehe. I think it could be
one good idea for the very long upcoming summer holiday

June Flower Arrangement: Diamond shape

This month's flower arrangement class is the most difficult so far for me. Diamond shaped arrangement.

View from above:

It's getting hotter here in Tokyo. Those flowers could only last for few days :(

Wednesday Bento: Shinkenja

I got flu, but I promised Iki last week that I would make this shinkenja obento. So here it is...

He was happy!! =))

Inside:

Green shinkenja: seaweed furikake onigiri, sliced cheese and nori

Red shinkenja: onigiri covered with crab skin, sliced cheese and nori

Yellow shinkenja: yellow egg onigiri, sliced cheese and nori

Rolled okra and bacon

Broccoli and crab salad

Watermelon

First beach visit

Last Sunday Hiro brought us to Morito Beach, near Kamakura. It was our first visit to the beach (in Japan) this year. A bit too early. It was still cold, and the cafes are still being built. The beach season will start on July 1st this year. Hiro, who hates crowd, prefers to go there either too early or when it almost finishes.

We had picnic lunch there. No, I didn't prepare anything. We just brought some food from the convenience store. Iki and Hiro played with the sand and the cold sticky water, and explored around excitedly, while I sat alone waiting. Ah.....this always happen lately. That Iki loves playing with Hiro, and that I have to kill the time alone (_ _!)

We also visited a shrine nearby where Hiro and Iki prayed a bit.

We didn't stay long. I felt the wind was too cold and was afraid to catch a cold (which actually really happened!) But it was a good relaxing one. I think it was a good change from our regular camping trip.

Lego necklaces

This is my latest interest. Making accessories from nanoblock, the micro size building block!

Small red robot necklace

Colorful nanoblock necklace

Simple red nanoblock necklace and earrings set

Blue robot necklace and earrings set

Little nanoblock robot mobile phone strap

I made these cute things for bazaar in Iki's school next month (^____^)

Kitty-chan: Mt. Fuji and Yokohama

These two kitty-chan were from last weekend camping to Saiko Lake!

This one is Kitty-chan in Fuji Mountain, drinking a cup of green tea -which is famous in Mt. Fuji area-

We went back to Tokyo through the highway that passes Yokohama area, so I bought this Kitty-chan bringing chinese' wrapped sticky rice (hmm....bakcang?). Yokohama has big China town. Though we didn't go there this time, I went there several times and loved the place!

And they joined the other kitty-chan on my fridge door ;-)

Wednesday Bento: Pokemon

Iki-chan is now crazy about Pokemon characters so these two weeks he requested Pokemon obento for his Wednesday lunch at school.

This was last week one: Naetoru (Turtwig) Obento

Inside:

Monster ball: quail egg with tomato skin and nori

Grilled tomato and asparagus salad

American cherries

Naetoru: wakame (seaweed) rice balls with cheese, ham, and nori as decorations

Rolled ham and spinach

And this one is today's bento: Nyoromo (Poliwag) Bento

Inside:

Nyoromo: Rice balls filled with pork ginger. With nori and sliced cheese as decoration

Soramame

Mini tomatoes

Grapes

Rolled bacon and carrot

He was happy!!! :p

Saiko Lake

We are out camping again. This time nearby the Saiko lake in mount Fuji area.

It's hot hot hot, didn't expect it at all. We were still wearing long
sleeves yesterday in Tokyo !

New class

This is my third class. Smaller than the previous two, but has 6 boys!
All are 4 years old!!

The most exhausting class so far, but they all are really eager to
learn. And it matters the most ;-).

I've got new request to teach another class of five 4 years old girls.
I think this would be the last class i would accept or I won't have
any free time left.

My house is like a small English school now!! :p

Gotochi Kitty

I recognized that there is always local's specialty Hello Kitty's souvenir wherever I went around Japan. Well, not only Hello Kitty actually. Doraemon, Kewpie and other character have too; but I think Hello Kitty one is the cutest.

So I started to collect Kitty-chan when we visited Shirakawa-go, during our golden week holiday early May. I regretted I didn't start earlier, we've been to many places that I doubt we would visit again in the future. But better late than never, this is my first Gotochi Kitty: from Shirakawa-Go

From Hida perfecture, where we had camp at the Takasu campground for three nights

From Kamikochi, where we had 3.5 hours hiking with Iki's walking speed.

From Yamanashi, an area where peach is the specialty

They are now hanging on my fridge's door, waiting for more Kitty-chan(s)!

6 Years!

So it's been 6 years! I can't believe it's been 6 years. I feel like I really lost track of time!

It's almost like an ordinary day for us. With SLOPPY me served the still floury pancake for breakfast; burnt baguette and still too hard veggies for dinner's side dish, and tasteless and uncooked roasted chicken for our supposed to be main anniversary dinner :p. A lot of eeww and yuck - as always, but they (hiro and Iki) understood anyway. After all these 6 years, things are still the same and I'm afraid will remain the same for the next hmmm 20 years? :p

It's been 6 years. 6 Years of ups and downs; and burnt or tasteless or too salty food. But it was our day today and we are glad that we've been together these 6 whole years.....

May flower arrangement: Roses

My favorite flowers!!!!

Wednesday Bento: Kamen Rider Oz

SO! It's wednesday bento again, after lo o o ong golden week holiday. I planned to make something really simple today because I was very very busy with houseworks and teaching after we got back from camping, but last night Iki begged me to make him his favorite Kamen Rider Bento.

Kamen Rider!! (>.<)

So this is it.....the first thing he said this morning when he woke up and saw it was: " hmm? what's this? ....kamen rider Oz...? why is it orange?!...why..." - and he stopped asking once he saw my very sharp look :D

Well, I should have used red paprika, but I didn't have it and didn't want to go out to buy it last night. Better than nothing, you have your orange face Kamen Rider Oz, honey!!

Inside:

Umeboshi onigiri, wrapped with Nori.

Kamen rider's face: Boiled carrot, nori and green pepper

Potato croquettes

Boiled quail eggs

Celery sticks with mayonnaise

Orange and Haruka

April's Flower Arrangement

An almost forgotten one!!

Iki got fever at that day so I didn't join the class, but it can't be cancelled so I had to take all the flowers home and arranged them myself based on the photos I took from the class...

Very difficult....I almost cried helplessly!

But anyway...here it is (^__^). I gave it to my mother in law for her 81st birthday present

Emergency lunch

We are on the way back to tokyo from shirahone onsen (gifu ken) and
felt very hungry! So when we found this beautiful view on the side of
the road, we decided to have an emergency lunch: cup noodle!! Yummy!