Golden Week 2013 wrap up
today's the last day before we all have to go back to our regularly scheduled lives of routine and mundane events. it's been a great vaca despite the three days that Kay had to go to school. here's a wrap up of what we did :)
the first half of GW was all right. Kay and hubs kicked it off with a trip to Space World, which is a theme park near northern Kyushu. it's about 1.5 hours away by train from us, so it took hubs and Kay the entire Saturday, from leaving at 7:00 AM to coming back home at 11:00 PM ^_^;; they actually went there for two reasons: 1. to let Kay enjoy her GW and 2. they were having a campaign where if you get two yearly passes, you get a free ticket. so, hubs and Kay got two yearly passes and then they got a free ticket for me. :) hubs had already decided that we'd end GW with a family trip there. i had to work on the 27th, so i couldn't go with them that day :P
although on the 27th, i started off my GW by having a goodbye/welcoming party with some coworkers after we all finished work. it was for my Saturday eikaiwa job. one of the teachers was being transferred to Tokyo, and they'd found a new teacher, who just happens to be a friend of a lot of the other teachers at my school. normally, there'd be a welcoming party along with a goodbye party, but because of time and other circumstances, we combined the two. :)
we went to the same izakaya as we did last time for our end of the year party, where every plate of food is 280 yen and it's all you can drink for 2 hours. i don't drink, but i sure love the food served at izakayas ^_^ since the school was hiring someone they already knew, it didn't take long for everyone to start having a great time. the new guy is from Las Vegas and has been living and teaching in Japan for the last five years. he was hilarious during the party and really had a great sense of humor :) not a dull moment, i tell you. ^_^
i got home and it was around 10:00, and hubs and Kay still weren't home then. i got a text later saying that they had just gotten on the train and would be home around 11:00. they did just that and basically showered and zonked out on the futon ^_^;; talk about playing hard, right?
so Sunday, i took Kay out to run some errands, and we went to the department store where Kay's Mother's Day pictures were being shown. every year, some of the nursery schools around the area submit their art to places that will exhibit them. i was really curious since she's been getting really good at drawing ^_^ then, i was really surprised to see what she drew:
lol!! since when did i ever have blonde hair? XD Kay's explanation: "you're wearing a wig!". that totally cracked me up, and i can't wait for her to bring that back home, so i can put it in the art folder i keep all her drawings and stuff in. :)
after resting for a day, i took Kay out on the 29th to get some new shoes. i'd been wanting to get some new sneakers since mine were getting pretty worn. i also wanted to get Kay some new crocs, so i decided to take her out to Marinoa City, which was having a GW sale during that time ^_^ we spent a good afternoon there looking through the stores and even treated ourselves with Krispy Kreme ^_^ i also got Kay her first pair of sunglasses, which she totally loved and wouldn't take them off until we got home ^_^;;
here are the shoes we bought. i was really glad that i had found a pair of sneakers that resembled my original nike ones, but after a week of wearing them, i realized that they were a bit too small for me. :( can't take them back now, but i guess i'll just have to spend extra time breaking them in and stretching them out more. good thing i didn't throw away my old nikes ^_^;; Kay picked out her shoes. they weren't my first choice since they were a bit more expensive than the ones that i wanted her to get, but i've learned that if i get her something that she doesn't like, she won't wear it ^_^;; she has another pair of crocs i got from an outlet without her and since they weren't pink, she never wanted to wear them, and now they're too small for her :P
the three days that Kay was at school, i had pool duty on the 30th, and then went on a "me" day on the 1st to watch Iron Man 3. Thursday, i spent getting all my work finished before the big Hakata Dontaku Festival days and then a Space World trip on Sunday. i also ran some errands before picking Kay up from school. it was nice picking her up from school those three days since hubs usually does that. i was surprised that the other teachers at the school even knew who i was since i rarely ever pick Kay up from school. :)
once the second half of Golden Week came rolling around, there was something happening every day, so the time just flew by! Friday, i took Kay to the Hakata Dontaku Festival. i also was able to meet up with a friend that i met online! well, she found me through this LJ and lives in Fukuoka as well. we have similar backgrounds, and she's got kids too, so we got along great when we met. :) since she'd been out the whole day with two kids (both under the age of 3 ^_^;;), we didn't have a lot of time to chat, but the next time we meet, it'll probably at her place so that we'll have plenty of time to catch up ^_^ i just wish she lived closer, because it takes almost an hour for me to get to her place :P
Saturday, Kay and i went to the Dontaku again and watched the whole parade from the beginning to almost the end. i was also able to buy some food from the vendors and food stalls that were set up there. :D i was actually surprised to see a lot of the stalls selling things i would find at a normal Taiwanese night market! they had the candied fruit (fruit dipped in a sugar coating that hardens and becomes a shell around the fruit), and in the yakitori stands, i found chicken butts!!! XD lol!! yes, i love eating fried/bbqed chicken butts, a.k.a. "tails" here. :P although, the ones that i found in Japan were de-boned, which i was disappointed about, because that's what makes them crunchy :P lol, okay. i'll stop grossing you guys out ^_^;;
Sunday was the big Space World family trip! we hadn't had a family day since the last time we all went to Ohori Park last year, so Kay was super happy to be with both mom and dad at the same time outdoors ^_^;; it was such a fun but TOOOOTALLY tiring day!!! just like last Saturday, all of us had to wake up at 6:00 in the morning and be out the door by 7:00 in order to catch the trains going to "Space World Station". the theme park is big enough to have a lot of attractions in it, but small enough to get everything done in one day. :) we got there a little after 9:00 AM (park opens at 8:00), and we were surprised to see there were long lines at all the roller coasters already! hubs wasn't expecting all those people, because it wasn't like that last week. i guess the rest of Fukuoka wanted to end their GW with a bang as well and decided to come to Space World just like us ^_^;; it didn't really matter since i was kind of happy that there were a lot more people than what hubs described. to me, it adds to the whole experience. i mean, i'd rather be in a theme park with long lines and lots of people than a park with no lines and wait but feels like a ghost town, ykwim? the weather that day was really nice too. a little warm, but not warm enough to break into a sweat or anything, so pretty nice ^_^ we stayed there the whole day walking around, going on rides, people watching and didn't get home until like 11:00 at night. i think the worst part of the trip was trying to get back home, because both hubs and i had about 6 hours of sleep the night before, so we were really struggling to stay awake on the train going back ^_^;; Kay had zonked out even before the train left and hubs had to carry her the whole way back. by the time all of us hit the futons, we were pretty much sore from our necks all the way down to the soles of our feet ^_^;;
Kay and i were so tired that we slept for 12 hours last night!! we didn't wake up until 11:00 this morning, which has been a first for me in the whole time we've been in Japan ^_^;; talk about being exhausted! so, we were all glad to have today just to stay home and get our minds and bodies ready to go back to the grind tomorrow. :)
in the end, this GW was a heck of a lot better than last year's since i was able to have the entire time off. ^_^ here are some pics and vids from my facebook and youtube channel :)
Hakata Dontaku Festival Pics
Space World Pics
hope everyone's GW was as fun and eventful as mine! it's back to work and school for us tomorrow. hopefully, i'll be recharged enough to get through these couple of months working 7 days a week again ^_^ wish me luck and enjoy the videos!
the first half of GW was all right. Kay and hubs kicked it off with a trip to Space World, which is a theme park near northern Kyushu. it's about 1.5 hours away by train from us, so it took hubs and Kay the entire Saturday, from leaving at 7:00 AM to coming back home at 11:00 PM ^_^;; they actually went there for two reasons: 1. to let Kay enjoy her GW and 2. they were having a campaign where if you get two yearly passes, you get a free ticket. so, hubs and Kay got two yearly passes and then they got a free ticket for me. :) hubs had already decided that we'd end GW with a family trip there. i had to work on the 27th, so i couldn't go with them that day :P
although on the 27th, i started off my GW by having a goodbye/welcoming party with some coworkers after we all finished work. it was for my Saturday eikaiwa job. one of the teachers was being transferred to Tokyo, and they'd found a new teacher, who just happens to be a friend of a lot of the other teachers at my school. normally, there'd be a welcoming party along with a goodbye party, but because of time and other circumstances, we combined the two. :)
we went to the same izakaya as we did last time for our end of the year party, where every plate of food is 280 yen and it's all you can drink for 2 hours. i don't drink, but i sure love the food served at izakayas ^_^ since the school was hiring someone they already knew, it didn't take long for everyone to start having a great time. the new guy is from Las Vegas and has been living and teaching in Japan for the last five years. he was hilarious during the party and really had a great sense of humor :) not a dull moment, i tell you. ^_^
i got home and it was around 10:00, and hubs and Kay still weren't home then. i got a text later saying that they had just gotten on the train and would be home around 11:00. they did just that and basically showered and zonked out on the futon ^_^;; talk about playing hard, right?
so Sunday, i took Kay out to run some errands, and we went to the department store where Kay's Mother's Day pictures were being shown. every year, some of the nursery schools around the area submit their art to places that will exhibit them. i was really curious since she's been getting really good at drawing ^_^ then, i was really surprised to see what she drew:
lol!! since when did i ever have blonde hair? XD Kay's explanation: "you're wearing a wig!". that totally cracked me up, and i can't wait for her to bring that back home, so i can put it in the art folder i keep all her drawings and stuff in. :)
after resting for a day, i took Kay out on the 29th to get some new shoes. i'd been wanting to get some new sneakers since mine were getting pretty worn. i also wanted to get Kay some new crocs, so i decided to take her out to Marinoa City, which was having a GW sale during that time ^_^ we spent a good afternoon there looking through the stores and even treated ourselves with Krispy Kreme ^_^ i also got Kay her first pair of sunglasses, which she totally loved and wouldn't take them off until we got home ^_^;;
here are the shoes we bought. i was really glad that i had found a pair of sneakers that resembled my original nike ones, but after a week of wearing them, i realized that they were a bit too small for me. :( can't take them back now, but i guess i'll just have to spend extra time breaking them in and stretching them out more. good thing i didn't throw away my old nikes ^_^;; Kay picked out her shoes. they weren't my first choice since they were a bit more expensive than the ones that i wanted her to get, but i've learned that if i get her something that she doesn't like, she won't wear it ^_^;; she has another pair of crocs i got from an outlet without her and since they weren't pink, she never wanted to wear them, and now they're too small for her :P
the three days that Kay was at school, i had pool duty on the 30th, and then went on a "me" day on the 1st to watch Iron Man 3. Thursday, i spent getting all my work finished before the big Hakata Dontaku Festival days and then a Space World trip on Sunday. i also ran some errands before picking Kay up from school. it was nice picking her up from school those three days since hubs usually does that. i was surprised that the other teachers at the school even knew who i was since i rarely ever pick Kay up from school. :)
once the second half of Golden Week came rolling around, there was something happening every day, so the time just flew by! Friday, i took Kay to the Hakata Dontaku Festival. i also was able to meet up with a friend that i met online! well, she found me through this LJ and lives in Fukuoka as well. we have similar backgrounds, and she's got kids too, so we got along great when we met. :) since she'd been out the whole day with two kids (both under the age of 3 ^_^;;), we didn't have a lot of time to chat, but the next time we meet, it'll probably at her place so that we'll have plenty of time to catch up ^_^ i just wish she lived closer, because it takes almost an hour for me to get to her place :P
Saturday, Kay and i went to the Dontaku again and watched the whole parade from the beginning to almost the end. i was also able to buy some food from the vendors and food stalls that were set up there. :D i was actually surprised to see a lot of the stalls selling things i would find at a normal Taiwanese night market! they had the candied fruit (fruit dipped in a sugar coating that hardens and becomes a shell around the fruit), and in the yakitori stands, i found chicken butts!!! XD lol!! yes, i love eating fried/bbqed chicken butts, a.k.a. "tails" here. :P although, the ones that i found in Japan were de-boned, which i was disappointed about, because that's what makes them crunchy :P lol, okay. i'll stop grossing you guys out ^_^;;
Sunday was the big Space World family trip! we hadn't had a family day since the last time we all went to Ohori Park last year, so Kay was super happy to be with both mom and dad at the same time outdoors ^_^;; it was such a fun but TOOOOTALLY tiring day!!! just like last Saturday, all of us had to wake up at 6:00 in the morning and be out the door by 7:00 in order to catch the trains going to "Space World Station". the theme park is big enough to have a lot of attractions in it, but small enough to get everything done in one day. :) we got there a little after 9:00 AM (park opens at 8:00), and we were surprised to see there were long lines at all the roller coasters already! hubs wasn't expecting all those people, because it wasn't like that last week. i guess the rest of Fukuoka wanted to end their GW with a bang as well and decided to come to Space World just like us ^_^;; it didn't really matter since i was kind of happy that there were a lot more people than what hubs described. to me, it adds to the whole experience. i mean, i'd rather be in a theme park with long lines and lots of people than a park with no lines and wait but feels like a ghost town, ykwim? the weather that day was really nice too. a little warm, but not warm enough to break into a sweat or anything, so pretty nice ^_^ we stayed there the whole day walking around, going on rides, people watching and didn't get home until like 11:00 at night. i think the worst part of the trip was trying to get back home, because both hubs and i had about 6 hours of sleep the night before, so we were really struggling to stay awake on the train going back ^_^;; Kay had zonked out even before the train left and hubs had to carry her the whole way back. by the time all of us hit the futons, we were pretty much sore from our necks all the way down to the soles of our feet ^_^;;
Kay and i were so tired that we slept for 12 hours last night!! we didn't wake up until 11:00 this morning, which has been a first for me in the whole time we've been in Japan ^_^;; talk about being exhausted! so, we were all glad to have today just to stay home and get our minds and bodies ready to go back to the grind tomorrow. :)
in the end, this GW was a heck of a lot better than last year's since i was able to have the entire time off. ^_^ here are some pics and vids from my facebook and youtube channel :)
Hakata Dontaku Festival Pics
Space World Pics
hope everyone's GW was as fun and eventful as mine! it's back to work and school for us tomorrow. hopefully, i'll be recharged enough to get through these couple of months working 7 days a week again ^_^ wish me luck and enjoy the videos!
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