hottest summer thus far

It is already very hot even in the mornings in that last Friday, even with sunblock on her skin, I made Yui wear her hat again. But she absolutely doesn’t like it at all that even when we were still in front of our door, she took her hat off. But I firmly put it back again on her and again and again repeatedly told her “it’s so hot, Yui needs to wear a hat” on our way to daycare.

Admirably, Yui obeyed Mom. But she was holding her hat the whole 15 minutes that we walked from our home to daycare.

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With a frown.

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She probably wants to tell her Mom she doesn’t like the big ribbon on her hat 😀 Don’t worry baby, Mom realised she doesn’t like it either.

It’s been terribly hot lately. I grew up in a tropical country, with my hometown much closer to the equator than Japan but it only gets humid there whenever it’s about to rain. So the actual temperature is almost certainly the same as what you’d really feel. And there’s the wind, there’s always the wind to help keep things cooler. At least in my hometown. It’s an altogether different story with Manila. The last time we visited during the peak of summer, it was unbearably hot in Manila (well, I was pregnant then so it really is hotter for me than usual).

With my weather forecast app though, where we usually get only the sun, rain, clouds, wind or snow, we now have a thermometer, indicating how unusually hot it’s gonna be where we live.

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And yesterday, we actually had a “feels like 48degC” temperature (“feels like” includes consideration for humidity).

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Hubs said this summer is the hottest in Japan in 1000 years. I wouldn’t argue. I wonder though how the people managed the heat – no airconditioning back then! Yikes!

Take care in this summer everyone!

daycare Summer Festival

The daycare staff picked a good day and time to have the summer festival/natsu matsuri. It started off at 5:30pm so when we left our house, there was a cool breeze blowing, not humid at all.

At the registration table right before the entrance, Yui was given a sling that would keep tab of all our “purchases”.

Yui keeping tab of what we've ordered so far ^-^

Yui keeping tab of what we’ve ordered so far ^-^

The first floor was where we could buy festival food – frankfurts, yakisoba, choco banana. It’s only for the older babies and adults though, we had to bring Yui’s food with us. It felt weird to bring food at the daycare since they usually provide food for Yui. With a couple of the senseis.

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We ate our fill at one of the rooms of the second floor. Dad and Yui while Mom eats her yakisoba. It was the most bland yakisoba I’ve ever had though – naturally, because it’s also meant for kids.

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Yoyo ball pool!

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We didn’t get one for Yui. Turns out she wants one for herself!

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We had this for Yui though.

Please tell me what to do sensei

Please tell me what to do sensei

Art time! Design-your-own-fan.

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Mikoshi time! For the older kids. Sorry for the blurred photo.
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Obon dance time.

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Thankfully, the time was right for Yui’s sleeping cycle that’s why she didn’t have a meltdown. A lot of kids had a meltdown however towards the end of the program (it lasted about two hours). Hubs and I could understand. Both of us were actually tired after the activity, to think we just looked around. How much more overwhelming it would be for the kids, and the teachers for that matter!

Instilling culture right at a very young age. Very nice. Thankful.

 

 

 

natsu matsuri

Tomorrow’s the Natsu Matsuri/Summer Festival at Yui’s daycare. 楽しみにしています‼

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Above is the announcement posted right at the daycare entrance. The white block is for us to enter the PIN so we could enter the premises. I like it how the arrangement of the number changes after every input.

Børnelund Playworld

As a treat for enduring yet another round of vaccines, we brought Yui to the newly opened Børnelund Playworld/あそびのせかい (openedlast June 21) located in the likewise newly opened Mark Is. Fees was reasonable as well with 600yen for 30 minutes for parent/guardian, 300yen for babies and kids, and 100yen for the adults for every 10 minute-extension.

It was a wonderland for Yui. We only mostly stayed at the babies section, however.

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This one is Yui’s favourite.

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There’s also ball pool like those that are popular in the Philippines.

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And an area for bigger, more active kids.

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Play partners!

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Thing is, we were only able to explore the left side of the place. There were more interesting stuff on the right side! Left side was already more than enough for a baby that we just stayed there mostly. I wasn’t even able to take a photo of the right side! But definitely there’s gonna be a next time!

Watanabe-san and his thoughtfulness

We were walking at high noon earlier (we had to buy some stuff at Akachan Honpo and hubs had to go to office after that so we had no recourse but to brave the heat), our faces almost frowning because of the heat. But the heat didn’t seem to affect the smile that an old man in his bike gave us, who stopped by beside us and shortly cooed at Yui. We are used to this so we also stopped walking. He greeted konnichiwa and then talked to us. It took me a while to recognise him, other than that his kind smile look familiar. I was still racking my brain trying to recall who he was when he handed me a wooden toy for Yui. Keeping with the Japanese way, I opened it immediately and gave it to Yui.

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Seeing the wood reminded me who he was – he was the owner of the furniture shop a few blocks away our house where we bought almost all of our home furnitures.

And remembering him reminded me of those “early days” when we were just filling up our apartment, just a few days after the big earthquake. There was actually a couple times that we were in his shop and the big quake’s aftershocks were rattling the furnitures. And every now and then we visited his shop, with the most recent being us looking for another umbrella stand to replace the one that was broken which we also previously bought in his shop.

He was explaining that the toy is handmade in Japan and safe for babies to bite. I know well. These handmade Japanese toys are so well-crafted and safe that I wish all of Yui’s toys are such. But they’re just so expensive. We only bought one for Yui, also handcrafted and made of rice.

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Asuka koubou though, the one Watanabe-san gave, is more expensive than the rice rattle. However, the price of the toy is not the point here. What was really impressive was how he gave the toy to us.

He was biking (to somewhere) but when he saw us, he went back to his shop and hurriedly caught up with us. Done in the noontime heat. Think 35 degrees Celsius. And that smile he had while talking to us would always be remembered.

And since we had it while we were mobile, this will always be with us when we’re mobile.

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Thank you Watanabe san. You’re utterly remarkable.