we took a little trip to southern oregon to visit kai's great grandparent's for his first thanksgiving.

wild turkeys came in front of grand parent's house in the morning. there were actually 8 of them.

leaves are turning color in their backyard.

deedee was running around having fun in the backyard. she spotted squirrels and birds, you name it, she was chasing them around.

kai was running around too.

i haven't baked stuff in a while but i made chocolate chip cookies today to bring them over my neighbor, mike + michelle's bbq. i got this colorful sugar sprinkles a while back and as you can see, i got little too excited with them today ;)

this is officially the last cucumber update as you can see :( since it's been getting cold, the cucumber pretty much died these days... i still saw some baby cucumbers but they weren't growing at all over few weeks and kinda stopped the growth. so this is the "cucumber grave" i made today and cleaned out the garden area. remember i said that before that my goal is to pick 100 cucumbers? well, i picked 99 of them. so close! anyhoo, i'm planning on making cucumbers again next year and i'm thinking i wanna try cherry tomatoes and maybe something else too? we'll see about that.

taking a nap on the blanket today.

kai's 1 yr old birthday party is getting closer and closer (less than a month now). i've decided to make lots of cupcakes for his b-day cake, and if it's cupcakes, you know you have to get sprinkles cupcakes, right? obviously it'll be cheaper to make them on my own, so i took a little trip to william-sonoma and bought some mixes (they were on sale too!). now only thing i have to do is actually make them right before the party!

went on a walk in the late afternoon with kai + deedee and saw this flower on the side of the road.

just a collection of random pics i took. i think this post wraps up all the pics from our japan trip.

oh yes, it is kai's 11 mo. old today. forget about him trying to sit with snoopy on the couch, it is officially impossible to do!

since he started walking around 9.5 months, now he drag snoopy by his ear and terrorize him. deedee looks pretty surprised in the side of the pic there, cracks me up! ha ha ha.

cont. reading for old pics.

10 months

9 months

8 months

7 months

6 months

5 months

4 months

3 months

2 months

1 month

went to shibuya and kai took a picture with famous hachiko dog. hachiko was actually a real dog lived 1925-35. the story about this loyal dog is that after his master's death, he still waited for him to return from work at the shibuya train station, at the same time, every day for 10 years. now around this bronze statue is a famous meeting spot for people.

this is the crazy cross walk that goes every direction right in front of sibuya station.

next stop was asakusa. here is pretty much old part of tokyo and very traditional japanese atmosphere, a complete 180 from shibuya!

the smoke near the temple is known to bring good fortune, longevity, and health we all got covered by smoke intentionally. this was my first time visiting asakusa and i think it was really cool to see the area personally (i've always seen it on tv!). one of the side street had lots of traditional souvenirs and toys. one of the amazing and very interesting thing was to watch the actual masters do their work by hand (wood block prints and paper lantern writing). now i know why lots of tourists go there, i totally recommend seeing asakusa area. on the other hand, kai was being good as usual, hanging out in his stroller.

last stop of the day was akihabara which is known for electronic, computer, anime, and otaku goods, including new and used items. it's interesting to see what they have and how much they sell for. of course we did few shopping here (you know daniel with gadgets) :)

first place we went in kyoto was golden pavilion temple. it was beautiful and obviously very gold!

we had traditional macha tea and treats with gold leaf on it at the tea house. also picked up some japanese charms for our family members.

then we went to nijo castle. we weren't allowed to take any pictures inside but there were amazing paintings everywhere on the sliding doors especially shogun's rooms. you can kinda seem some on the link. the most amazing feature was the "nightingale floors" in the corridors. it was to protect the occupants from sneak attacks and assassins, so the builders constructed the floors of the corridors in such a way as to squeak like birds when anyone walks on them. we actually took a pictures of the "mechanism" which was a clamp underneath the floor that moves up and down to cause friction between the nail to produce sounds continuously. how did they think about that back in the day?

very ornate gate, again it's amazing how they did that all by hand back in the day. the main palace has a really big yard with pond there. and you can see the nightingale floor "mechanism" on the picture. it doesn't look like much but sure they work pretty well. there were chrysanthemum flower competition right before the gate and of course, you see the moat all the way around the castle outside.

after that was kiyomizu temple. this temple was built in 1633. the location for this temple is very pretty since it sits right next to the mountain and you have to go up a hill to get to this temple.

walking up hill to get to the temple, tons of people! this temple is known for it's beautiful scenery and location but the other well know thing is the otowa waterfall which has 3 streams of natural spring water and drinking this water brings wisdom, health, and longevity (yes, we had to wait in line to drink the water!). so we got a little cup to make kai drink some too.

next stop was fushimi inari shrine. this is the largest inari shine in japan and torii (red gates) tunnel goes forever to the top of inari mountain. this shrine has foxes everywhere and they use them as god of harvest (rice and cereals).

it was getting dark when we got here but we got to walk around for a while. the numbers of torii is amazing, it just never ends!! it was definitely pretty place and i would like to come back here when the sun is still out.

next and the final stop was kyoto station, the second largest train station in japan. this 15-story train station is huuuuuge! it has department stores, shopping malls, nice hotel, movie theater, and has underground "restaurant street" that has more than 100 restaurant. the xmas tree was huuuuge also and was pretty.

just really cool modern architecture to look at. in front of kyoto station is the kyoto tower which is the tallest structure in kyoto and has hotel and stores underneath the tower. this was our trip to kyoto, very long and exciting day for sure. thanks for reading on my super long post this time. :)

we went hiking on meshimori mountain. it was nice clear sky and took us about 1 hr to get to the top (1,643 m above sea level). it was pretty rough to go up the hill with lots of big rocks with kai in our arms (we all took turns carrying him tho). you can see the mt. fuji when we are almost at the top from the trail.

this is another place around the second house. the amazing thing about this waterfall is that water naturally comes out of the mountain, no river or lake up there. the amount of water comes out is amazing! it was very pretty scenery and calming there.

so we came back from japan today. the 8.5 hr plane ride wasn't too bad, kai was doing good and not too crowded. sorry, i haven't posted any new pics recently...we've been busy going places and doing stuff (as you can imagine). now, we are back home, i'll post more pictures of our trip as i go thru them this week!

we were at second house and we just got a little bored and decided to open up the bird houses on the trees. plus we had to clean them out for the next renters. we were expecting a cute little round nest, but to our supprise it was more like a bird bed than a birds nest.

this sagami river fireworks festival happens once a year right infront of our house. it's usually at the end of july but due to the bad weather, it was postponed until nov. 1st., lucky us! i haven't gone to this festival in i dunno how long, so i was totally excited to see it! i was afraid that kai was gonna get scared of the loud noise but he was totally fine and watched fireworks with us until the end. he was such a good boy!

there are lots of yatai (rows of shops, most of them are food) and tons of people (really, tons! you can't walk straight!!) walking around and eating food. this picture kinda has a scientific feel...doesn't it?

again, you see how many people are there walking around? crazy, right? here are pics of some real japanese food that they sell in those shops.

this is the fireworks finale. it was so great and so beautiful.

after transferring 3 different trains, 1.5 hrs, and 740 yen (per person, one way) later, we got to kamakura around 1:30 pm (we did have a bit late start today). kamakura has lots of temples (it was japan's capital back in 1192) and places to see but we went to 3 main locations that are the most famous.

the great buddha of kamakura, he is the second biggest in japan. casted in 1252. he used to be in a temple but the tidal wave came in late 15th century and washed away the wooden structure therefore, he's been outside ever since. more info here.

his zouri (slippers) and pic of inside of buddha. the brown stuff was added in late 60's to have more support on his neck.

hase temple's main building, home of a giant statue of Kannon, the goddess of mercy. we really wanted to take pictures of kannon statue but we weren't allowed to take pictures :P but you can see the pics and more info here.

view of kamakura was beautiful from hase temple, looking down is sagami bay. very nice japanese garden and on one side of the temple, has about 50,000 jizo statues.

tsurugaoka hachimangu shrine has very intricate architectures and amazing detail in decorations. the shrine was built by yoritomo in the 12th century and dedicated to Hachiman, the Shinto god of war and patron of the Minamoto family. more info here.

soft bank (cell phone carrier and they are the ones that carry the iphone in japan) came out with cool pantone color cell phones. i just like the coloful doggies too but why don't we have those in the u.s.! i do like the pantone 325, 109, 1495, or 200? i can't pick one :P