Kobe

The kids and I took a trip to Kobe in celebration of my birthday. We lived it up (courtesy of arrangements by Naoto) and had a blast.

First Up: Kobe beef of course, as absolutely no trip to Kobe would be complete without it. This kid gobbled it up in record time while declaring "I love love Kobe beef."

The first of many selfies with my dudes.

Noah showing some emotional range.

Silliness

Followed by seriousness. Hard at work at the "office."

Little hipsters.

Visit to a local shrine.

The Bean taking on Chinatown.

Taking a break from sword fighting on the waterfront.

Kai displaying himself in a museum.

Ice cream goatee.

Okay Neglected Blog I'm Back

Working backwards since I have been a tremendous slacker. My I present the goings on while Mama was away in Sochi:

There was snow! Quite a lot for Tokyo actually.

Kai found it heavenly.

Noah... not so much.

City slickers version of sleighing.

Clearly, wild times for this one.

Cold and miserable on this end.

Sumo!

Now we're on a carousel in some random place.

And Naoto's in Milan!

Lego Land.

Taking in some rugby.

Getting some park life in.

Celebrating Setsubun, the day before the beginning of Spring in Japan, during which the kids perform a special ritual called mamemaki, where they throw beans as a way of driving away evil spirits for the year to come. They usually wear a little demon looking mask while doing it. But the schools of course always try to make it cute and fun so they make headbands instead.