rabbit rabbit; first family weekend together
the week is over and so is June. my tummy is a lot better now, and i'm very happy about that. this weekend marks the first time the three of us are back together for some quality time! so, we had a few things planned out for Saturday and Sunday. basically, Kay would have a Daddy Day while i worked on Saturday, and then Sunday we'd make a Family Day to go out and do some sight seeing and grocery shopping. :)
since Saturday marked the first daddy day after hubs came back, of course he wanted to take her out somewhere they'd never been before. so, he took her to the "Kyushu Energy Science Centre". she was actually quite whiny going there and very grouchy when they arrived, he said, but after going in (yay for free admission!), she perked up a bit and enjoyed the hands on exhibitions they had there. here's a video of her playing with one of their exhibits:
then, she got treated to some McD's and got one of the cute Sugar Bunnies Happy Meal Toys that hubs saw on their website. i came home to see her quite happy from her daddy day :)
so, today starts off July, and in Fukuoka, that means it's Natsu Matsuri (Summer Festival) season! we planned to go see the big yamakasa floats and then do some grocery shopping at the nearby Gyomu Super, but we had to get all of that done before noon, because the night before, we'd seen that the forecast called for rain in the afternoon. fortunately, it didn't rain until later today, so we actually got what we wanted to do done despite leaving at 9:45 :) we took the subway and got off at Kasagawa Station and just walked our way around. it seemed like on every street in the Hakata area there was a yamakasa displayed on the corner or something. we only saw about 3 or 4, but there were definitely others that were displayed that we didn't get to see. so, don't really know how many floats there were in total :P i was just impressed at how tall they were. the first one we saw was positioned next to a building, so we could literally see that it was as tall as the third floor of that building! it's even more amazing to know that these yamakasas, which actually weigh 1 ton, will be carried on the shoulders of a lot of men running around the streets! :D
side note for those who don't know, the famous Hakata Gion Yamakasa Festival has started and will last until the 15th of this month. that's when you have all the men carrying the 1-ton floats around the streets racing against the other yamakasas for the best time :) i've seen those races on youtube, and you can't help feel the excitement in the crowd and the men who are participating in it. dunno if we'll actually be in the crowds this year (maybe hubs...dunno) since it is quite dangerous, but it's an opportunity of a lifetime to get to witness the races and those 3 story high yamakasas weaving through the streets and rounding tight corners :D oh well, we'll see :) here's one of the yamakasas that we thought was cute because it had Doraemon and GUNDAM on it instead of the normal scary kabuki-like men:
This is what I would think a normal yamakasa would look like:
afterward, we went to the Gyomu Super, which is just a chain of stores that sell things in bulk. we mostly get our pasta and frozen goods from them since they are a lot cheaper than the stores around where we live, especially the frozen goods like the chicken nuggets i use for our bentos.
we were actually quite lucky today because it didn't rain while we were out, and after shopping, we caught the bus right as it was pulling into the bus stop near the Super. that bus takes us right to our apt and usually there's a lot of them, but on Sundays, there are only two times it stops by the Super. so, very grateful for that bit of luck today! :D
we got home around 2:00ish, so that gave me a bit of time to do some laundry and clean the house a bit. wasn't able to wash the bedding like i'd wanted since it started to rain, but at least we were home when it started raining ^_^;
hopefully, everyone else had a great weekend too and HAPPY CANADA DAY to all of my Canadian friends! :D
since Saturday marked the first daddy day after hubs came back, of course he wanted to take her out somewhere they'd never been before. so, he took her to the "Kyushu Energy Science Centre". she was actually quite whiny going there and very grouchy when they arrived, he said, but after going in (yay for free admission!), she perked up a bit and enjoyed the hands on exhibitions they had there. here's a video of her playing with one of their exhibits:
Click to viewthen, she got treated to some McD's and got one of the cute Sugar Bunnies Happy Meal Toys that hubs saw on their website. i came home to see her quite happy from her daddy day :)
so, today starts off July, and in Fukuoka, that means it's Natsu Matsuri (Summer Festival) season! we planned to go see the big yamakasa floats and then do some grocery shopping at the nearby Gyomu Super, but we had to get all of that done before noon, because the night before, we'd seen that the forecast called for rain in the afternoon. fortunately, it didn't rain until later today, so we actually got what we wanted to do done despite leaving at 9:45 :) we took the subway and got off at Kasagawa Station and just walked our way around. it seemed like on every street in the Hakata area there was a yamakasa displayed on the corner or something. we only saw about 3 or 4, but there were definitely others that were displayed that we didn't get to see. so, don't really know how many floats there were in total :P i was just impressed at how tall they were. the first one we saw was positioned next to a building, so we could literally see that it was as tall as the third floor of that building! it's even more amazing to know that these yamakasas, which actually weigh 1 ton, will be carried on the shoulders of a lot of men running around the streets! :D
side note for those who don't know, the famous Hakata Gion Yamakasa Festival has started and will last until the 15th of this month. that's when you have all the men carrying the 1-ton floats around the streets racing against the other yamakasas for the best time :) i've seen those races on youtube, and you can't help feel the excitement in the crowd and the men who are participating in it. dunno if we'll actually be in the crowds this year (maybe hubs...dunno) since it is quite dangerous, but it's an opportunity of a lifetime to get to witness the races and those 3 story high yamakasas weaving through the streets and rounding tight corners :D oh well, we'll see :) here's one of the yamakasas that we thought was cute because it had Doraemon and GUNDAM on it instead of the normal scary kabuki-like men:
This is what I would think a normal yamakasa would look like:
afterward, we went to the Gyomu Super, which is just a chain of stores that sell things in bulk. we mostly get our pasta and frozen goods from them since they are a lot cheaper than the stores around where we live, especially the frozen goods like the chicken nuggets i use for our bentos.
we were actually quite lucky today because it didn't rain while we were out, and after shopping, we caught the bus right as it was pulling into the bus stop near the Super. that bus takes us right to our apt and usually there's a lot of them, but on Sundays, there are only two times it stops by the Super. so, very grateful for that bit of luck today! :D
we got home around 2:00ish, so that gave me a bit of time to do some laundry and clean the house a bit. wasn't able to wash the bedding like i'd wanted since it started to rain, but at least we were home when it started raining ^_^;
hopefully, everyone else had a great weekend too and HAPPY CANADA DAY to all of my Canadian friends! :D