Since we were alrady in Shinagawa, we headed over to the aquarium and checked out the most excellent dolphin show. Way, way too loud with the stupid music and dancing girls, but the fish were most excellent. Tonchan got a bit freaked out by the music and noise, but watching the dolphins jump and swim was awesome.
Met Uncle Jorge at Shinagawa Station and headed across the street to Singapore Seafood for some lunch. Tonchan inhaled many a shrimp and finished things off with banana icecream.
Picked up Tonchan from school and met P in Hiroo. We went to 67 Gyoza for dinner; Musashimau's restaurant. Tiny little sliver of a place but we went early and it was empty. Gyoza, oden, riceballed wrapped in pork...SO. GOOD.
How my darling, genius daughter responds to the question: "Can you show papa how you clean your ears?" She jams a q-tip in each ear and makes a variation of The Face.
Her royal P-ness had the fish o' the day whilst Tonchan destroyed an Idaho-sized bowl of fries. I stuck with the ever-so-healthy riette sandwhich. Ah, reconstituted pork fat; thanks for the recommend Beck!
After lunch P went for a massage and I held Tonchan for a couple hours whilst she napped. In the evening Ton and I joined Todd and the girls for dinner at La Boheme in Sanja, and finished the evening with some icecream at BaskinRobbins whilst the pregnant moms relaxed one their couches.
I am sure there are some parents out there who manage to feed their kids nothing but wholesome vegetables as part of a well-balanced diet high on natural vitamins and minerals, low on sugar, carbohydrates, and starch. Those are the same parents who make their kids wear helmets on the swing and never let them play with scissors.
BORING.
My girl eats french fries. Great big bowls of 'em. With ketchup. Lots and lots of ketchup.
She has really been into scissors recently.To the point that she cut her finger a few days ago. But that didn't stop her; she stills loves to snip snip snip.
I love my tailor. Besides being a fine collection of sharp dressed and quick-witted individuals, they have completely the wrong prices on really fine materials; Loro Piana, Zegna, Scabal, Dormeuil...they also have a great selection of proper buttons (horn not plastic), suit linings (silk not polyester), and are not afraid to recommend against something truly atrocious.
Mama's last night in Japan so we went to her (and our) favorite: Sankoen yakiniku! So. Good.
My name is Tonchan. I am two years old. I like raw liver. I ate a whole plate of raw liver. Then I ordered a second plate. Then I ate half a bowl of bibimba.
Soon I will be sitting on the porch step smoking unfiltered cigarillos, drinking whiskey from the bottle, and playing mahjong.
Mama and I went to make traditional Japanese sweets. Actually the teacher was Yoshida's mom, so we went to her house in west tokyo, made some sweets, then had a killer lunch and finished off with some fresh tea and sweets.
Brought the rest to work and everyone ate them at tea time.
Ton's been on scissors kick recently. She loves chopping up anything. P bought her a pair of red plastic scissors that can only cut paper, but for the real heavy lifting she goes for the small white nail clipping scissors, which can do serious damage to plastic spoons.
Chiepon's childhood home! Which is great because her nephew is the same age as Tonchan so I have not seen my daughter for hours because she is off playing with him.
Spent the day at Ueno Zoo with Baba and Tonchan. She liked the bears and birds and gorillas, she watched the porcupines eat carrots and fed the goats and sheep grass, but her absolute favorite part of the zoo? The monorail!
Mama's got some great photos and blogged it too.
On the way home she fell asleep but woke up when we got to Starbucks in Roppongi Hills so I carried her home. Then we watched sumo and snacked until dinner.
She got her rhythm from her dad and her voice from her mom. Don't ask why she's wearing an apron: I have no idea.
Spent the day shopping with mama and tonchan. We hit Tokyu Hands in Shibuya and then bought a bunch of quilting material at the cloth store for the new baby quilt. Skull and bones -- love it!
Then went upstairs and had lunch upstairs at TGIFs. Tonchan has been snuffling all weekend, her nose running just as fast as her little feet. She didn't have much of an appetite but with a pile of ketchup she did some damage to her fries.
Then we walked up through Aoyama, Ton happily dozing in the stroller...until we got down to Nishi Azabu crossing and some truck with a monster speaker blaring it's cheap trash collection and moving services at 150 decibels woke her up. We headed up to Roppongi Hills for a 'Bucks break, then hit the slide park and came home.
Mama made a mountain of potato pancakes that we had with steak and apple sauce. Tonchalizer liked the potato pancakes but still wasn't so hungry so she only nibbled a bit and chomped a couple bits of steak.
She doesn't have a fever but is sniffling and snuffling so we suspect it'll be a nice cold in a day or two...or she'll blow it onto a friend at school and pick up an even more pleasant virus!
I think she likes the music classes at school. Here Tonchan directs P and baba in a rousing chorus of "ABC". She's got more rhythm than I, and whenever baba sings she says "Shhh! No quiet please!" so she's got a decent ear for music, too.
This bodes well: Ton loves having a little kid around. She wakes in the morning and the first thing she asks is "Baby?" If she hears Layla crying she goes into the guest room and gives her a toy and jumps around trying to make her laugh. I only hope she is this nice when it's her own mom's baby, not some other random lady's kid who is staying down the hall for a week.
Took my Finance team out for some supposedly veggie dinner in Roppongi Hills. Ordered the black truffle course, but they were out of black truffles so instead we got...lots of MEAT! I love the vegetarian concept in Japan. Vegetarian = with vegetables. In beef broth. Restaurant was high on style, quality, and price, low on satisfaction and volume. Typical of the 'Hills.
On the wayto UR to get mama's hair cut we passed The Cool Sneaker Shop in Urahara. Mama got a fly pair of white sneaks with gold trim, and I took home the ever-stylish orange ZIRA complete with haibiscus logo.
shopping in urahara and picked up a pair of sweet orange zira sneaks
