Hot June

Today was the first day of the year that really felt like hot summer. John spent most of the last week in western Japan, taking care of a doctor from New Zealand at a medical conference. Shinako was busy as usual with her company, and is currently working on new promotional literature which she hopes to debut next week. Rhianna is busy on building her vocabulary, with her latest addition being "good job!!" followed by a double "thumbs up" sign. It's pretty funny.

Today we spent the day at the Lollaport Mall at Tokyo Bay enjoying the beautiful weather. Rhianna loved playing on the swing-set and the jungle gym. I'll attach pictures! More soon.

Mom and Rhianna at the mall

Running in circles

Swing-set

Swing-set

Hi!!!

The slide

The slide

Playing house

Playing house

Playing house

The Lallaport Mall

Tokyo Bay

At work at the toy store

At work at the toy store

At the park

At the park

Hanging out at home

Hanging out at home

Hanging out at home

Elmo!!!

Rhianna is Two Years Old!

We celebrated Rhianna's 2nd birthday last week! She's such an important part of our family that it's hard two believe she's only been with us for two years. And with every day that passes she seems to make some kind of big stride in her vocabulary or other area. She's such a fun girl! We spent the evening at home, and Shinachan arranged to have a delicious vanilla cake with strawberries and purple frosting (with the logo mark from Shinako's store, Baby Purple). We all loved the cake. Unfortunately, we completely forgot to buy candles, so we just pretended to blow out candles and just enjoyed the cake (along with singing the birthday song). My (John) parents and great-grandmother Betty joined us on the web-camera as we ate the cake and opened up Rhianna's presents (which included a talking Elmo doll). Unfortunately, I was unable to take the day off from work to celebrate, but I intend to take a day off from work during the week after next (June 9) to go with everybody to Tokyo Disneyland. Rhianna has recently been liking Disney characters, particularly Mickey and Minnie, so I think she will have a really great time.
I will post a few pictures from her birthday!
More soon!
Mom!

Rhianna and new Elmo

Rhianna

Rhianna

Rhianna

Birthday Cake

Hungry!

Rainy Day--View of St. Lukes Hospital from room

We're back!

We never reallly went anywhere, but we have been a bit remiss in updating the blog (my fault!). But we'll try to do more regular updates. 2009 has been an extremely busy year so far. In January we moved into our new condominium in Nihonbashi, and since then both John and Shinako have had their hands full with work. At the same time, Rhianna has really been growing up, and is more and more fun to be with every day. She's a really great little girl. As for John (me), Ive been travelling incessantly throughout the year, including three trips to Boston, one to New York and Orlando, one to San Francisco and Los Angeles, and Ive even fit in a couple of trips to Colorado. Adding that to my regular constant travels in Japan, needless to say Ive been able to develop quit a large addition to my mileage account! All the travel makes our time as a family even more valuable, however, so we spend most of our weekends that Shinako doesnt have work going for walks in our neighborhood or over to Ginza and Marunouchi, going out to eat, and trying to enjoy ourselves as much as possible. Shinako has been busy as well, with her company's sales exploding throughout the year. This is great for her, she loves what she's doing, and we think its fantastic. This year she has been particularly busy with her new Baby Purple (her store's) branded leg warmers, has created a new set of baby hankerchiefs, and has been busy with the other brands she carries as well. Rhianna is a joy to be around, as usual, and is as popular as ever. She loves to say "bye-bye" to everyone she sees--even if she's just getting off the subway. It's pretty funny. She also loves to see any kind of animal, particularly dogs " wan-wan!" and cats "nya-nya!" Her vocabulary is slowly but surely expanding, and she loves to comment on how delicious her food is "oishii, ne (it's good, isnt it!) !!" She loves ice cream "aishimosh (aisukuriimu)," and also loves to say the traditional words spoken before Japanese people eat "Oshimoshi! (Itadakimasu!), while clasping her hands in front of her and bowing slightly. She also likes "juusu (juice)," and tasty snacks, which she calls "oishishi." She also knows the word for bus, and loves to point them out as they drive down the street. Ill attach some pictures of recent days in Tokyo
Pictures
At Bubba Gump Shrimp Company in Tokyo

Mom and Rhianna

Eating Lunch

Riding with dad (who is making strange gestures)

Riding with dad at Lallaport in Tokyo

At Starbucks

Out to eat with dad and mom

High five! on a cruise of Tokyo Bay

At the park in Shinjuku

With dad in Ningyocho

Waiting for the bus with dad