Sunday, May 20, 2012

GREENROOM FESTIVAL 2012


Sota's 1st festival!
http://greenroom.jp/english/

If you're interested in bringing your kids/babies to a festival,
GREENROOM is definitely a kid-friendly festival.

There's a kids section where you can leave your stroller when you don't need it
and lots of things for kids to do ...climb a treehouse, paint, play in the ballpool


and of course just enjoy the music.



If you don't have plans today, check the lineup and def. go.


If it seems a little too pricey, you can totally go and sit on the lawn outside and still enjoy the music and atmosphere.  

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Solar Eclipse 2012

The Solar eclipse can be seen tomorrow, Monday (5/21) morning around 7:30.
Found a site in English for details:
http://naojcamp.mtk.nao.ac.jp/phenomena/20120521/index-en.html

Was gonna get Sota a pair of special glasses to watch the solar eclipse but found mommies pair from 1995 (back from mommies high school days in Bangkok).


Looking up is dangerous so if you don't have glasses, etc, the quickest way is to grab aluminum foil, poke holes and project the sun's light threw the hole onto a piece of paper (might help to try it out with a flashlight first).

Monday, May 7, 2012

Super Sentai & Kamen Rider "HERO LIVE SPECIAL"


If your kids like both Super Sentai and the Kamen Rider series, the "HERO LIVE SPECIAL" show at Takanawa Prince Hotel is a must.
The 30 minute show seems to happen every year during GW and appearance from present and past heros appear.


It's 1,600Yen for Advance tickets(open seating),but you can confirm seats up front for another 700Yen.

After the show, there's a photo opp(1000Yen) and a hand shaking session.
We decided to take a group photo which turned out to be a great shot and memory for Sota.


The venue sells a bunch of toys and books, has game booths, a restaurant so there's more than just the show.
http://www.princehotels.co.jp/takanawa-area/gw/event/hero2012/index.html

Information for 2013 will probably be updated around Feb/Mar. so gotta look out for that.

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Opps...

Sorry that it's been almost a year since the last post in English.

The Japanese page is frequently updated so take a look there.
http://tokyomommies.blogspot.com/

Sunday, April 10, 2011

100 Yen Shop

The road of sakuras on the riverback right by our place is in full bloom, so almost every day is a picnic lunch for Sota.

Sakura's really have a special power to make everyone happy!

Anyway, with the warm weather and longer days, we brought out the kite we got last year and to my surprise Sota was able to control it on his own.

And looking at all the stuff I was carrying, made me realize that Sota's ball, kite, jump rope, shovel/sand toys, our picnic sheet...all the outdoor toys were from a 100 Yen shop! So cheap but good quality...which will make any mommy happy!

There's a lot of 100 Yen shops but personally I would reccomend DAISO.
http://www.daiso-sangyo.co.jp/

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Recommended toys

With everything happening and the rainy days, we've been indoors alot. So I pulled out a few new things we can do around the house.

1.
Nendo (ねんDo), which is just like play-dough made of flour is 630 Yen for 12 colors. It's soft and easy to play with for kids.



2.
Sota's loved coloring for awhile now

but lately he's into the Hiragana coloring book. But rather than the coloring, he grabs his pencil and tells me he's studying.

Hiragana is still too early for him but since he's showing interest, I've gradually been teaching him how to write his name. They have an ABC version of this so if you're kid like Anpanman, it might be good to grab their interest with Anpanman.


3.
Everytime I stand in the kitchen, Sota drags the dining room chair to the kitchen and says he wants to help. So I decided to buy him his own knife. There are plastic kinds, or knives with animation but since it's not a toy I bought one looking like the real thing...Kai Jirushi is the brand sold for about 600Yen. He's very careful when he uses it and helps me cut veggies for dinner, so it's actually quite helpful.



If you're interested, all this stuff can be bought at Akachan Honpo.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Watching the news 24/7 and reading all the information on the internet has been pretty stressful and confusing for alot of people in Tokyo. Even though my husband needed to stay in Tokyo to work and my parents were here in Tokyo, I was ready to escape to be in a safer place...wherever that may be.

The planned power outage, trains stopping and the shortage of certain foods, baby diapers and other select items when you go to the grocery store (either due to the people paniking & buying the shelves out or cause the deliveries where not possible or cause factories are closed down for now). These things were worrying people but to be honest life in Tokyo is fine. And as I realized that, Sota and I started to get back to our daily routine (going to the pool, seeing neighborhood friends) and living our normal life again.

Now that my mind is clearer from all the worries, I was able to think about the people in the Tohoku area and how we can help...manpower seems to be what is lacking most at the moment so I hope to volunteer from Tokyo (perhaps at the evacuation centers or even just sorting donated supplies...which I need to look into) but other than that EVERYONE needs to continue to save power, donate money/relief supplies and the easiest thing for all of us to do is to simply keep our positive vibes.

Friday, March 18, 2011

Easy explanation of the Nuclear power plant situation

There is a video that will help you or your child to understand what is going on with the Fukushima Nuclear power plant now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nbEFhPVM_k&NR=1

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Deco Choco

We made a box of Deco Choco for White Day! These Chiroru Choco's are a famous chocolate in Japan and they let you customize the wrapping.

You can easily design your chocolate wrapper from the website.

A box comes with 45 chocolates and you can design up to 3 different patterns for 2362 Yen + shipping.
But after eating the chocolates, you're gonna want to save the wrapping so check out the other merch they sell, like magnets, straps and plastic cases (fitting 9 or 10 chocolates) to give as a gift.
If you're out of present ideas, why not create a box of chocolates with your photo or a sweet message.
(Only in Japanese)