Happy Birthday Rika

Rika had a happy birthday in April.

24 Again!

Hannah on the trampoline at the sports center

Earthquake

At 14:45 on Mar 11 we had felt a large earthquake in Tokyo.

Hannah was at her friend Akira's house with Rika.

Hannah wearing my hard hat

Hong Kong

In Feb we visited Hong Kong for the first time.

Hannah has become a seasoned jet-setter.

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Our hotel was in Kowloon not far from the ferry terminal.  This is the view over to the International Financial Center where my company has its offices.  The building site in the foreground is for a new high-speed railway station.

Taking the ferry across Victoria Harbor from Kowloon to Central


The first day we checked out Discovery Bay (or "DB") which is a car-less beach-side suburb on Lantau Island popular with expat families.  

Hannah was impressed with the beach.

The next day we took the bus up to The Peak and watched the lights come up from  the Peak Restaurant which had a superb view of Victoria Harbour

Winter with Baba

In mid Feb we went down to visit Baba and almost got snowed in.

Hannah enjoyed playing in the snow.

 

And of course we made a yukidaruma (snowman).

Baba had less fun because she still needed to do her normal jobs.

January 2011

Hannah started ballet classes in January.

Sunset over Mt Fuji from my office in Akasaka.

New Year 2011

As usual, we went down to Ikadaba to celebrate New Year with the family.  I must say I was glad to say good-bye to 2010.

New-years-day lunch.   From left Chiaki, Nao-chan, Papa Ni-chan, Baba, Makoji-chan, Ya-chan (standing), Ma-chan, Rika-mama, Hannah. 

Hannah was very excited to receive presents from her family.

Hannah received a 'Syklvanian Families' dolls house from nao-chan and Nii-chan.  Here she is saying its like the one the Millar family has.  

The big event this year was the Wii game consol which the family purchased collectively.  Everyone enjoyed playing Wii sports, especially Papa Ni-chan.   Hannah enjoyed 'Chanbara' which is a sort of sword fighting game, and ping-pong.

One fun part of the Wii is 'Mii' which allows you to create your own characters to play the game 

and choose their features so they look like each member of the family. 

This is Hannah playing Chanbara with her Aunt.

Score:  Hannah 2 - Nao-chan 1

Hannah playing Chanbara with Papa Ni-chan

Learning to play ping-pong.  

Christmas 2010

At the end of school term Hannah's school held a 'Happy Holidays' concert for the proud parents.

Hannahs class sang 'We wish you a merry christmas' and 'Santa claus is coming to town' which they had been practicing hard.  Well done little seals!

The proud parents enjoyed the show through their viewfinders

Then the children received presents from Santa (or 'Father Holidays' as he is now officially known).

Hannah received a book 'playful penguins' which we still read occasionally.

Finally the seals orange class assembled in their classroom and said goodbye for the term.

(The newspaper covers the spot where Hannah's classmate was sick.  The teachers just covered it up, carried on and nobody noticed.    Very cool and professional). 

Christmas shopping in Shinjuku.  Mummys love shopping and so does Santa.

Hannah got a little upset when we chose a nice watch for her -  but then refused to buy it.

Even santa gets tired of christmas shopping sometimes.

But a little something from Old McDonalds soon has Santa back on the sleigh .

One of the highlights of christmas - christmas cake.

You can see one of Hannah's presents from father christmas - a Hello Kitty watch.  Remarkably like the one she wanted in Shinjuku but her mean parents had refused to buy.