This was one of the most interesting signs we came across in Japan. It was in a bathroom.
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Sunday, September 24, 2006
Japan Trip Day 5 - Tokyo Game Show again
We decided to go back for half a day to finish off a few things - Dan wanted to play a couple of the big games which required hours of queue waiting (one game was a 3 hour queue when he joined it), and i wanted to get the extra goodies I missed. So i went for 2 hours and gathered up nearly everything I wanted, and left Dan to wait in his queues.
Then I went shopping in the local mall which was fun except Preston decided to make a scene so we had to take lots of breaks. I bought quite a few clothes and some cute things for Preston. We ran into Dan randomly when he had played his games (and ended up not getting the prize he wanted which was really the reason for waiting).
We all need a rest so we might do some more shopping later. Then we are coming home tomorrow!
Then I went shopping in the local mall which was fun except Preston decided to make a scene so we had to take lots of breaks. I bought quite a few clothes and some cute things for Preston. We ran into Dan randomly when he had played his games (and ended up not getting the prize he wanted which was really the reason for waiting).
We all need a rest so we might do some more shopping later. Then we are coming home tomorrow!
Japan Trip Day 4 - Tokyo Game Show
Well today is the reason we came to Japan, and it didn't let us down. We could see the enormous queue fromo our hotel room forming from breakfast time, and it didn't even open until 10am. So we decided to wait a bit until we went in. With expected crowds of 160,000 people, this was one BIG event, and queues everywhere had times to let you know whether you even bothered waiting.
It was a pretty overwhelming thing to visit. All the stands for each gaming company had 'booth babes' which are pretty young Japanese women who dont wear much - but not in a bad way, more in a cutesy futuristic way. They have a uniform comprising of short, short skirt made of some kind of vinyl in assorted colours to match the company logo, short top that only reveals their tummy, and white shoes of some kind, either kneelength boots, or white heels. Their job is to give out promotion stuff to everyone, AND pose all day long for gamer geeks who want their photo. It's all very weird, but tasteful. At the end of the day, there was a photo session available outside every booth where the 10 or so booth babes at each would line up and pose for 10 minutes of photos. Here is ours:
The whole expo was just enormous and while lots of people took their kids, its not really ideal. The crowds become crushes near big attractions like the Playstation 3 area and it got soooo hot. Luckily lots of booth babes gave out promotional fans which Preston loved, so they kept us cool.
While Dan went on a game playing mission, I went on a hunting and gathering mission for free goodies. I ended up with SOOO MUCH STUFF - lots of useless things that were given out free, and then cooler niknaks that i earned from standing in small queues (15 mins or less) - so obviously the unpopular games - and then pretending that I knew how to play whatever console it was, let alone whatever game in japanese. I did manage to figure out some cool mobile phone games - the phones here are just amazing and you can play really good quality games and even read comics. Mostly, Preston earned me things because the booth babes thought he was so cute and he would smile and point at them, and who could resist??
The other cool spectacle to be seen was that here in Japan there is a hobby called CosPlay (dress-ups). But this is to the extreme - people seriously put a lot of effort into dressing up like anime characters from comics and cartoons. Outside the event halls were heaps of groups of cosplayers posing for anyone who wanted a photo. Here is one:
After 5 hours of crowds, extreme loudness and smelly geeks, we had run out of time to do everything, and there were lots of goodies that I hadn't collected yet. Our feet ached, and my back was tired from carrying Preston in the front-pack all that time. Luckily for us, he slept through quite a bit of the noise so it wasn't too bad.
Check out our Flickr album for lots more interesting sights! http://www.flickr.com/photos/regen/
It was a pretty overwhelming thing to visit. All the stands for each gaming company had 'booth babes' which are pretty young Japanese women who dont wear much - but not in a bad way, more in a cutesy futuristic way. They have a uniform comprising of short, short skirt made of some kind of vinyl in assorted colours to match the company logo, short top that only reveals their tummy, and white shoes of some kind, either kneelength boots, or white heels. Their job is to give out promotion stuff to everyone, AND pose all day long for gamer geeks who want their photo. It's all very weird, but tasteful. At the end of the day, there was a photo session available outside every booth where the 10 or so booth babes at each would line up and pose for 10 minutes of photos. Here is ours:
The whole expo was just enormous and while lots of people took their kids, its not really ideal. The crowds become crushes near big attractions like the Playstation 3 area and it got soooo hot. Luckily lots of booth babes gave out promotional fans which Preston loved, so they kept us cool.
While Dan went on a game playing mission, I went on a hunting and gathering mission for free goodies. I ended up with SOOO MUCH STUFF - lots of useless things that were given out free, and then cooler niknaks that i earned from standing in small queues (15 mins or less) - so obviously the unpopular games - and then pretending that I knew how to play whatever console it was, let alone whatever game in japanese. I did manage to figure out some cool mobile phone games - the phones here are just amazing and you can play really good quality games and even read comics. Mostly, Preston earned me things because the booth babes thought he was so cute and he would smile and point at them, and who could resist??
The other cool spectacle to be seen was that here in Japan there is a hobby called CosPlay (dress-ups). But this is to the extreme - people seriously put a lot of effort into dressing up like anime characters from comics and cartoons. Outside the event halls were heaps of groups of cosplayers posing for anyone who wanted a photo. Here is one:
After 5 hours of crowds, extreme loudness and smelly geeks, we had run out of time to do everything, and there were lots of goodies that I hadn't collected yet. Our feet ached, and my back was tired from carrying Preston in the front-pack all that time. Luckily for us, he slept through quite a bit of the noise so it wasn't too bad.
Check out our Flickr album for lots more interesting sights! http://www.flickr.com/photos/regen/
Japan Trip Day 3
Akihabara - the land of technology. We went to Akihabara earlier in the day and had a good look around before lunch. The place was just amazing, and I (dan) had a fantastic time going into all the toy stores, buying japanese Nintendo DS games, and checking out all the random electronics thats up for grabs.
Preston did really well, and managed to stay patient with us. I think its a little overwhelming for him, cause everywhere we go, its loud and busy, and cause he's constrained to his chair a lot - you can't really let him loose in the big city.
In the evening we went to the Microsoft XBOX 360 Community Party, and met a few of the personalities. It wasn't exactly well run, but we had some food and met some people and got some free stuff. Unfortunately Preston threw up again... so I was a little worried about him... Belinda decided to take him home a little earlier to give him some rest.
Preston did really well, and managed to stay patient with us. I think its a little overwhelming for him, cause everywhere we go, its loud and busy, and cause he's constrained to his chair a lot - you can't really let him loose in the big city.
In the evening we went to the Microsoft XBOX 360 Community Party, and met a few of the personalities. It wasn't exactly well run, but we had some food and met some people and got some free stuff. Unfortunately Preston threw up again... so I was a little worried about him... Belinda decided to take him home a little earlier to give him some rest.
Friday, September 22, 2006
Preston Dancing
We just auditioned preston for the Scissor Sisters - here's a video of his audition dance.
preston's audition
preston's audition
Japan Trip Day 2
Just a quick one before i go to bed. We went on a big shopping mission with Dan's friend Mark and we spent most of the day figuring out trains, stations with endless corridors, elevators and confusing signs. In fact, as i type this, I can still feel my body moving from the trains. We managed some shopping and we have our holiday photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/regen/
Haven't bought anything for me yet, but Preston has some new clothes and cute books, and Dan has lots of comic things. Poor Preston - he's done so well today. We set out on our journey at 12:30 and got home about 9:30pm. He was so good and sat contentedly in the stroller for HOURS and even had a couple of sleeps. He had a few grouches too but that's to be expected, especially since he isn't feeling that well. Looks like his tummy is better, and his swollen allergy-face seems to be drying up. He fell asleep on the train on the way home and he didn't even wake up when I put him to bed. Cute boy.
More shopping tomorrow, then a Microsoft Party and then the Game Show!
Haven't bought anything for me yet, but Preston has some new clothes and cute books, and Dan has lots of comic things. Poor Preston - he's done so well today. We set out on our journey at 12:30 and got home about 9:30pm. He was so good and sat contentedly in the stroller for HOURS and even had a couple of sleeps. He had a few grouches too but that's to be expected, especially since he isn't feeling that well. Looks like his tummy is better, and his swollen allergy-face seems to be drying up. He fell asleep on the train on the way home and he didn't even wake up when I put him to bed. Cute boy.
More shopping tomorrow, then a Microsoft Party and then the Game Show!
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Japan Trip Day 1 - The Day of Poo
Yay we are here in Japan! Our first day has been rather trying since as we predicted out of pure irony, Preston started teething the day before we left....and this means a red face, irritability, lots of weird poo, and not really an ideal travelling companion. He also had a food reaction before we left which has given him a big scaly red rash all over his face, so he is not looking his cute self and we got lots of strange looks from people.
The first hour on the plane was the most eventful - Preston had managed to get poo all through his clothes, and once we changed him into the only spare set i brought onboard, he managed to spew all over them AND all over Dan (who didn't bring a spare set of clothes), AND then had another poo eruption as well through the clothes. So after a couple of complete washings down with baby wipes and storing clothes in sickbags, poor Preston had limited clothing and didn't smell very nice. Despite his runny tummy and sore teeth throughout the rest of the flight, he did get a little bit of sleep and started to feel a bit better.
When we got to Japan, we had a 50 min bus ride to our hotel, and we were just hoping we didn't need to do any nappy changes.....luckily he managed to hold himself in until about 5 mins before we got to our hotel and then really let go....completely stinking out the bus. When we got to our room, we were running the bath before the luggage person could even get our bags in the door! Preston got all clean and then I had a giant pile of disgusting washing to deal with. Anyway, I hope that episode is all over now.
Japan so far seems really cool! The city we are in (Makuhari New City) is amazing - all brand new and fancy and so clean. We only had a brief look around when we went for dinner last night but today we will go exploring. Luckily most people kind of speak english so we can get by.
Weirdest thing I've seen so far: melons in a food shop at the airport were selling for 5000yen - thats about $65!!! i should move here and grow fruits and veges!
The first hour on the plane was the most eventful - Preston had managed to get poo all through his clothes, and once we changed him into the only spare set i brought onboard, he managed to spew all over them AND all over Dan (who didn't bring a spare set of clothes), AND then had another poo eruption as well through the clothes. So after a couple of complete washings down with baby wipes and storing clothes in sickbags, poor Preston had limited clothing and didn't smell very nice. Despite his runny tummy and sore teeth throughout the rest of the flight, he did get a little bit of sleep and started to feel a bit better.
When we got to Japan, we had a 50 min bus ride to our hotel, and we were just hoping we didn't need to do any nappy changes.....luckily he managed to hold himself in until about 5 mins before we got to our hotel and then really let go....completely stinking out the bus. When we got to our room, we were running the bath before the luggage person could even get our bags in the door! Preston got all clean and then I had a giant pile of disgusting washing to deal with. Anyway, I hope that episode is all over now.
Japan so far seems really cool! The city we are in (Makuhari New City) is amazing - all brand new and fancy and so clean. We only had a brief look around when we went for dinner last night but today we will go exploring. Luckily most people kind of speak english so we can get by.
Weirdest thing I've seen so far: melons in a food shop at the airport were selling for 5000yen - thats about $65!!! i should move here and grow fruits and veges!
Monday, September 18, 2006
Preston is 9 months old!
Wow how the time has gone. We have a real little boy now, not a baby anymore. In the last couple of weeks Preston's communication and understanding of the world around him seems to have advanced rapidly. He loves pointing and things and he 'talks' all the time to us. We've been teaching him baby sign language for a couple of weeks as well, which is kind of like an interim communication method useful until he can talk. He knows what I mean when I sign (and say) milk, food, kitty and a few others, and he has just started to sign back 'milk' which is really cool because now he knows it is a way he can communicate with us and get across what he wants. So now we can expand the signs to include feelings, needs, objects etc.
He still has no teeth....and since we are going to Japan on Wednesday we've been half joking for the last few weeks that he will start teething seriously on Wednesday morning while we are at the airport...just to make our holiday ironic. Well what do you know, it's late Monday afternoon and we have about 3 teething signs already, so our flight is going to be FUN. Not.
Anyway, we're going to Tokyo!!! Yay!! We leave on Wed and will be back next Tuesday. We have a couple of days of shopping and eating yummy food (should we try pufferfish?? There is a 60% chance of death if you get poisoned by it!!) and then we go to the Tokyo Game Show with all the other gamer geeks of the world. I just looked at the map of the expo today and it looks ENORMOUS. It fills 8 expo pavillion halls and each one is divided into 3 normal sized expo halls, and they are expecting something like 160,000 people. And the entry fee is only $13.50! A bargain! I'm hoping to get lots of freebies :)
Hopefully we will have internet access in Japan so I can put up some pictures of our expeditions.
He still has no teeth....and since we are going to Japan on Wednesday we've been half joking for the last few weeks that he will start teething seriously on Wednesday morning while we are at the airport...just to make our holiday ironic. Well what do you know, it's late Monday afternoon and we have about 3 teething signs already, so our flight is going to be FUN. Not.
Anyway, we're going to Tokyo!!! Yay!! We leave on Wed and will be back next Tuesday. We have a couple of days of shopping and eating yummy food (should we try pufferfish?? There is a 60% chance of death if you get poisoned by it!!) and then we go to the Tokyo Game Show with all the other gamer geeks of the world. I just looked at the map of the expo today and it looks ENORMOUS. It fills 8 expo pavillion halls and each one is divided into 3 normal sized expo halls, and they are expecting something like 160,000 people. And the entry fee is only $13.50! A bargain! I'm hoping to get lots of freebies :)
Hopefully we will have internet access in Japan so I can put up some pictures of our expeditions.
Monday, September 04, 2006
Preston's update - he's growing up!!
I thought it was about time I wrote what Preston can do these days, since you are only getting to see cute pictures.
Preston is really growing up fast lately. It hasn't taken him long to figure out that crawling is fun to a point, but it is more fun if you can climb on things! So he spends his time crawling everywhere and pulling himself up on anything at Preston height (which is getting higher and higher by the day). He stands up against the couch, coffee table, doors, and can now even reach up to higher things like whatever might be on the tray of his highchair, while standing on the ground. On Friday he figured out that he can walk around easily while holding onto other objects for stability! His balance is really good and it wont be long before he can stand on his own. He practices this - he lets go of things and can stand for about a second before plonking on the ground.
Yesterday we took Preston for his first proper outing to a park and we pushed him on a swing and he crawled in the grass which was the most fun activity for him I think. Then Dan and I each took a hand and Preston WALKED for about 5 metres!!! We are so proud of him!
He is turning into a big chatterbox and is starting to string more sounds together. In the last few days he has changed from saying Dada, Mama and Baba to saying big long sentences mainly with Dabu dabu dabu dabu, which sounds very cute. I recorded one of his big story-telling sessions and will add it to the blog for you to hear!
We got our photos back from the shoot last week - they are ok but not amazing so we probably wont buy any. In the meantime, we had a really great photo session on Saturday with a photographer who is entering Preston in a competition, and i can't wait to see the photos - they will be soooo cute!
Dan had his first father's day over the weekend, and Preston bought him socks and ties :)
Preston is really growing up fast lately. It hasn't taken him long to figure out that crawling is fun to a point, but it is more fun if you can climb on things! So he spends his time crawling everywhere and pulling himself up on anything at Preston height (which is getting higher and higher by the day). He stands up against the couch, coffee table, doors, and can now even reach up to higher things like whatever might be on the tray of his highchair, while standing on the ground. On Friday he figured out that he can walk around easily while holding onto other objects for stability! His balance is really good and it wont be long before he can stand on his own. He practices this - he lets go of things and can stand for about a second before plonking on the ground.
Yesterday we took Preston for his first proper outing to a park and we pushed him on a swing and he crawled in the grass which was the most fun activity for him I think. Then Dan and I each took a hand and Preston WALKED for about 5 metres!!! We are so proud of him!
He is turning into a big chatterbox and is starting to string more sounds together. In the last few days he has changed from saying Dada, Mama and Baba to saying big long sentences mainly with Dabu dabu dabu dabu, which sounds very cute. I recorded one of his big story-telling sessions and will add it to the blog for you to hear!
We got our photos back from the shoot last week - they are ok but not amazing so we probably wont buy any. In the meantime, we had a really great photo session on Saturday with a photographer who is entering Preston in a competition, and i can't wait to see the photos - they will be soooo cute!
Dan had his first father's day over the weekend, and Preston bought him socks and ties :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)