Summer festival

Saturday was the end of summer festival on Rokko Island.  Everyone dresses up in Yukata (summer kimono) and there is a parade with shrines, food booths, and lots of singing, dancing and other performances.  It's basically like a big block party.  There must have been hundreds of people at it.  It was a little crazy, but lots of fun. It started at 4pm, so after Callie woke up from her nap I dressed her in her Yukata and we made our way downstairs.  

The weather has been kind of cloudy and rainy the last couple of days and Saturday was no exception.  It was really windy and we had a few raindrops, but it didn't stop the festivities.  We ran into some friends right away and Callie had a great time watching and playing with the kids while I visited with the adults.

  

Callie and her friends in their Yukatas

All the kids love to play with the toys I keep on Callie's stroller tray.  The favorite is usually the Ice Breakers tin (in Callie's hand).  It no longer has candies in it, just a couple of pennies so that it still makes noise when you shake it :)

Since the festival started so late we didn't get to stay for much of it.  We hung out for a couple of hours and then headed back upstairs so Callie could have her dinner.  We did get to hear most of the music from the festival since it was pretty much right outside our window.  Even though we are on the seventh floor I could still hear most of the music :)

Earlier in the day we spent some time outside because the weather was so cool.  Callie really loves watching all the pigeons and small birds, so we took some Cheerios to give them a snack.  After we ran out of Cheerios, Callie started dropping her toys for the birds to get!  Mostly it just scared them away, but I think Callie really enjoyed "feeding" the birds on her own :)

All the birds waiting for food

Callie trying to feed her toys to a pigeon that was walking by :)

Road Trip

Callie and I will be heading out tomorrow for our first road trip!  Scott's team will be playing the Yokahama Baystars.  They play in  Yokahama, which is not very far from Tokyo.  We will be taking the bullet train, so that should be exciting!  It's about a 2 1/2 hour ride and is apparently very nice.  We will be staying four nights, and then Scott will drop us off back in Kobe while he continues on the road trip with the team to Hiroshima.  

I'm a little nervous about the tiny hotel room we will most likely get, and if the hotel crib will even give us enough room to walk around.  Hopefully we will all be able to get some sleep each night :)

Just pictures

Here are a couple more pictures from my parents' visit.  We haven't been doing too much since they left, just hanging out and enjoying the cooler and less humid weather.  Scott gets back tomorrow from the road for a six game homestand, so next week we will be busy going to baseball games again.

Reading the newspaper with Grandpa

Playing in the water with Mom & Dad

A toothy grin :) 

Using her feet to bang the rally bats together

Look who fell asleep on the way to the Tigers' team store :)

Eating her first french fry  

(Sorry Patch, Grandma Kohn gave her the first one.  She handed it to Callie before I could take it away)  Callie didn't really eat the french fry.  She just took a few licks and sucked on it for a little while :)

At the Kobe Ogi Park Zoo again  

Scott had an off day and it wasn't super hot so we went back to the zoo to see the animals we missed the first time.  Callie really seemed to like the elephants the best. 

First dinner at a "real" Japanese restaurant  

The scout that signed Scott took us out to dinner with his wife on Friday.  We had to take off our shoes before we even walked into the restaurant!  I was glad I didn't have on holey socks!  We got to try real Kobe beef though, so it was worth it :)

Callie sitting in her first booster seat  

Most Japanese restaurants don't have high chairs (weird, I know).  So we usually just push Callie's stroller up to the table and she hangs out there.  We couldn't fit the stroller in the car so we were glad the restaurant had a booster seat.  Callie loved it!  She did great throughout the whole dinner, especially since we were out past her bedtime.  She did keep trying to steal my food though :)

Grandma & Grandpa Kohn go back home

My parents left on Thursday after a great visit to Japan.  They were a huge help to me; cooking, cleaning and playing with Callie, especially since Scott was on the road for most of their visit.  We didn't do much exploring of Japan, but they were okay with that.  They were just happy to hang out at the apartment with their granddaughter :)

Their last full day in Japan we decided to go to the Port Island Bird & Flower Park.  I had heard about this place but had not been yet.  Once we got there I was disappointed that I hadn't been their earlier in the season.  It was great!!  The park is mostly indoors and the air conditioning is great!  Which might sound weird, but most places in Japan that are indoors are not really air conditioned.  Like at home, when you walk into a mall in the summer it can almost be kind of cold because the air is on so high.  Well, in Japan you walk into a mall and you are still sweating!!  So let's just say that the park was a nice break from the hot weather.  Scott missed out on all the fun because he was on the road, but we will definitely go back with him on his next off day.  

Me & Callie enjoying the flowers

Feeding a cute little duck

Feeding the crazy toucan bird.  Before the bird landed on my arm it flew up from behind me and landed on my shoulder.  They were kind of crazy, but it was fun to feed them.

Me & Callie feeding a much smaller bird :)

Cute picture of Callie on the train ride home

Baseball Game

So, our first trip to the Osaka Dome went off without a hitch.  We arrived in the 5th inning, which was great.  Now that Scott is pitching out of the bullpen I can start going to games late again, as oppose to when he was starting and we had to be on time.  I love it!

It was about a 30 minute taxi ride to the field, which Callie didn't really seem to like, but we powered through it :)  Once we got to the field we were shown to our seats and I was really impressed with the Osaka Dome.  It is the only dome I have been in besides the Kingdome in Seattle, WA and it was huge!  The funny thing about it is the color of the turf.  The grass turf is obviously green, but around the bases and the mound the turf if orange, to blend in with the color of the dirt I guess . . .

It was pretty warm in the dome.  Which you wouldn't expect because it is inside and the domes in the US are usually air conditioned.  Well, in Japan they don't always seem to air condition inside places very well.  But we were nicely surprised when we got to our seats and saw that there were two vent on the seat back in front of us that were blowing out cool air.  And when I say blowing I don't mean that it made your hair blow back, you had to lean in real close to feel the air, but at least it was better than nothing.  

Callie did amazingly well during the whole baseball game.  Luckily she had taken a 2 1/2 hour nap in the afternoon to prepare for her long night.  She was a little scared when we first got to our seats because the cheering is so loud, but once we settled down and she starting banging her rally bats together she did great.  She also had a great time trying to reach over the seat in front of us and touch the top of the little boy's head that was sitting there :)  I'm also pretty sure that she entertained the fans sitting around us.  She played peek-a-boo with the man sitting behind me for quite awhile :)

Scott pitched, which was great.  My parents had never seen him pitch in a Major League game, so they really enjoyed it.  In Japan the teams are really big on entry music, and not just for each time a hitter comes to the plate.  The pitchers all have music too.  Scott has never had entry music in the US, so it was really cool to hear his music come on last night.  I felt like a down home redneck singing along to George Strait's "Heartland" last night when Scott came into the game, but it really got me pumped up :)  

My parents at the game

Callie watching the game

the view from our seats

Who knew the Kohn's had a store in Japan

So yesterday we took my parents to Motomachi, a town near Kobe, Japan that is a short train ride from Rokko Island.  There is not much to do except walk around and shop.  So we did a little shopping at Baby Gap and walked around a little bit.  This is also where Chinatown is.  Funny thing, I've never been to Chinatown in Seattle or Portland, or any other city I've lived in.  My first visit to Chinatown was in Japan, weird :)  

There is also a covered outdoor shopping area that Scott and I have walked through before, but I hadn't noticed this store until yesterday.  "Kohno".  It's some sort of handbag store I think.  Anyway, I thought it was pretty funny so I took a picture (for those of you that read this blog and don't know, my maiden name is Kohn).

The Japanese Kohn store :)

Tonight we are headed to Scott's baseball game.  It is in the Osaka Dome,

 which is not the normal home field for the Tigers.  So hopefully we don't get lost because I've never been to this field before.  It should be an adventure!

Callie playing with Grandma Kohn after a diaper change.  You can see she doesn't really like to have the diaper put back on.  She would rather play and roll around naked :)

Callie rolling herself up in the blanket, one of her favorite things to do :)

Hanging out

My parents have been in Japan for two full days now and we have just been hanging out on Rokko Island.  I made sure we went to Toys'R'Us the first day they were here.  I know that Grandma was really wanting to get Callie some new toys :)  Grandpa also made us a great Japanese dinner the first night they were here.  Which is kind of funny since I haven't done anything like that yet and I've been here for four months.  We had chicken stir fry and rice, sushi, and Japanese sake.  I even had to call one of the other baseball wives to figure out how to use the rice cooker, since all the buttons are in Japanese.

Scott will be back home tomorrow afternoon.  He had to leave to go on the road the night that my parents arrived.  So I think tomorrow we will take it easy again and probably take Callie to go swimming at the River Mall.  I'm sure she will love showing off her floating skills to her grandparents :)

Callie playing with her new favorite toy from Grandpa & Grandpa Kohn

Callie playing with her new puppet Mr. Bear

Callie helping me sort the mail from home :)

New Post

It seems like forever since I have last posted, but there really isn't much new going on.  We have just been hanging out around Rokko Island trying to stay out of the hot sun.  Scott is back up in the big leagues so we don't have as much time to go exploring together.  He is now pitching out of the bullpen instead of starting.  He threw two innings the other night and did well.  He definitely likes relieving much better than starting :)

My parents arrived in Japan today!!  It felt like we waited for them at the airport forever, I was starting to get worried they had done something wrong and had been arrested at customs!!  Turns out everything was okay, just that at baggage claim they went through my Mom's entire suitcase!  She said they shook every bottle and inspected everything.  We will have a fun ten days while they are here.  Callie seems to be adjusting okay to her Grandparents, she hasn't seen them since March.  They brought some cute toys with them and that helped Callie warm up to them pretty quick :)

Crazy bath baby

So we have learned that Callie definitely loves the water, but what I think she really loves most about it is splashing!!  About a week ago she figured out how to splash really big with her legs in the bath tub.  She kicks her right leg really hard and a ton of water splashes out, all over the counter, the floor, me and Callie.  She can tell it's funny because we can't stop laughing when she does it, so she just keeps going.  Last night she really got into it so we had to try and take some pictures.  You can't really see the water splashing out of the tub, but if you look close you can see it dripping off the counter.  We have to put towels onto the floor to catch the water because she kicks the water out faster than I can clean it up!

having tons of fun splashing in the tub!

what a watery mess!!

Busy, busy

We have had a busy couple of days!!  

We realized that Callie was coming close to running out of diapers a couple of days ago so we decided to make a trip to Costco.  They sell diapers here on Rokko Island, but they are these weird Japanese diapers that don't fit right, so we started using Costco diapers.  Costco is in Osaka and is about a 30 minute train ride and then a short bus or taxi ride from the train station.  Well, when we got off the train we couldn't find the bus so we just took a taxi.  Since we were on the train we didn't have Callie's car seat with us. So, we broke the law and just held her in our laps while we were in the taxi.  Well, we didn't really break the law since there is no car seat law in Japan, but it was still kind of weird to hold her while we were in a moving taxi.

Callie eating the directions while in the taxi

Scott also had Thursday and Friday off for the All Star Break.  On Thursday we went down to the water park again and had a lot of fun.  It was packed with kids since school is finally out for the summer.  Callie didn't seem to mind since she likes watching the other kids as much as she likes playing in the water.  We floated down the lazy river a couple of times, sat in the kiddie pool area and even played in the regular pool for a little while.  After a short nap and some grocery shopping it was time to head back outside for a BBQ with the other baseball families.  One of the players has a grill and we just bring our food down and cook out by the 

River Walk.  It's really fun and a great way to get out of the house for dinner without having to go out to a restaurant.  

One of the players also has two Chihuahuas and Callie is in love with them.  The moment she sees the dogs she starts talking and yelling at them, like she is saying "hurry up, come play with me!"  Usually I just sit her on the ground so she can pet them, this time I sat in a chair with Callie and the dogs wanted to get up in my lap.  Callie had a blast petting the dogs and playing with their leashes and collars.

Callie with her new best friend, Yoda

Friday we went to the Osaka Aquarium, Kaiyukan, with the Ford family.  I am still in shock at how much fun Callie had :)  The place was packed, so it took us awhile to actually get to see any of the animals.  But once we took Callie out of the stroller and Scott put her in the Baby Bjorn it was a little bit easier.  Scott had to do some creative maneuvering slight pushing to get close to the windows, but once he did Callie did not want to stop watching the animals.  She really loved the seals and dolphins and all the crazy fish, so basically everything :)  She even refused to eat, she didn't want to stop looking at everything!  We had a great time and will probably go back once school is back in so there won't be so many crazy people.

Callie watching the penguins

Callie and Daddy watching the dolphins

Here comes the Sting Ray!!

Crazy Japanese Spider Crab

Family picture in front of the big tank