We went out for lunch today and I had fun playing with my toys. But I wanted more toys. I wanted to get a capsule from the machine but I was told that I couldn’t. I didn’t like that. I took a self-imposed timeout. I was able to calm down and then enjoy a good lunch.
For snack I wanted popcorn and we had a fun way of popping it.
I found some filler that fell out of one of my old pillows. I quickly turned it into a mustache and beard.
We went out for dinner for Mommy and Daddy’s anniversary! It was delicious and fun!
While waiting for the subway, Daddy and I had a bit of fun!
Sometimes after I come home from school I just want to hang out outside. Today I chilled in the car with Mommy.
Like I mentioned earlier, we had birthday parties at school last week! Happy birthday to me!
Most people don’t like rainy days, but I don’t mind them so much. I like to use my umbrella. If there is even the slightest chance of rain, I’ll bring my umbrella to school.
Daddy and I like to play on our way to school. Today we were hiding and surprising each other. I did a better job of hiding than he did.
It was still rainy on the way home.
Just peeing standing up like a big boy.
Relaxing sleep.
Worm in the house.
Watching my shows.
Heading home after school and straight to driving practice.
I spent most of the day with Daddy today. Mommy and Daddy’s friend visited and then Mommy and she went out to dinner. So it was just Daddy and me. After we dropped them off at the subway, we went to pick up some dinner. While waiting for our order, I had a lot of fun on the coolest spinning stool. All chairs should spin!
I like walking to school. It is a much shorter walk than before and I walk the whole way by myself without asking to be carried.
We have different events at school. This week my friend and I had our birthday parties at school!
I often ask Mommy and Daddy whether it is a school day or not a school day. it is not that I don’t like school. I just prefer not school days. I have a lot of fun at school and work up quite an appetite.
Mommy took a half day off so Nana and Papa were able to do some last minute omiyage shopping while I was at the park with Mommy.
We took Nana and Papa to the airport but didn’t have dinner together. I wasn’t keen on the choices they had there. Also, Nana and Papa would get food in the lounge and on the flight. So we decided to say our goodbyes and let Nana and Papa relax in the lounge a bit before their long flight home.
Bye bye Nana and Papa! Have a safe trip home! Thank you for visiting us and taking me to USJ! Love you!
Us boys arranged to take Mommy and Nana to a special Mothers’ Day lunch! I wasn’t in the best of moods because I was a bit hungry. But I became more agreeable when we sat down and I could play with my cars and explore the restaurant. It was really cool and had a lot of interesting plants and decorations to look at.
They didn’t have a kids’ meal, but I had no trouble eating a regular-sized lunch. It was a wonderfully healthy meal.
We all had a very pleasant Mothers’ Day lunch.
After we got home we played a bit then hopped back in the car for some driving practice again.
After practicing driving we placed inside. We played all kinds of things and then ended up playing hide-and-seek. We played so many rounds that I think we hid in every possible hiding place. But then we added a modern twist to our hide-and-seek and played while using FaceTime. I had so much fun!
We had to do some grocery shopping, so everyone hopped in the car to go buy some food. Even though we were all shopping together, Daddy and I managed to secretly get some Mother’s Day presents for Mommy and Nana.
Happy Mothers’ Day Mommy and Nana! Thank you for everything you do for us every day! Love you!
For dinner we went to an onigiri restaurant. They had several different types of rice that we could enjoy. I couldn’t tell the difference between teh rice, but I ate everything and enjoyed the meal!
After we dropped Nana and Papa off at their AirBnB and we got home I realized I didn’t say goodnight to Nana and Papa. So I had to let them know I was thinking about them. I sent them a quick goodnight before I turned in.
Even though I already had my awesome birthday party, today was my real birthday. It was full of a lot of smile and fun! And some tears as well. But “It’s my birthday and I’ll cry if I want to.”
Yesterday was a rainy day, but today was a very nice and sunny day! We went to the park. Nana and Papa had fun watching me run around, drive around, and play! I used my brand new USJ bubble wand and filled the park with beautiful bubbles.
We weren’t sure what to do for lunch, so we stopped by a bento place on the way home to pick up lunch. I had fun playing with Nana and the door.
After lunch I did some driving practice with Nana. I showed her how to drive our car in Japan. There were a lot of things that her car in Hawaii doesn’t have so she learned a lot. Especially about the GPS.
We had to stop after a bit as not to waste gas. Then we played indoors for a while
Since it was my birthday I wanted to have a birthday cake. So we made plans to go to pick up a birthday cake for me and eat it before we ate yakiniku for my birthday dinner. I was very excited about that plan. So we all walked over to YouMe Town to get me a special birthday cake. But then I got in a mood.
I didn’t want to smile for a picture, sit down with everyone, or anything. For some reason I was being very selfish, forgetting that I was getting to eat cake before dinner. I threw a tantrum. Daddy was very angry with me because I was getting so much special treatment but I was being so selfish and demanding everything to go exactly the way I wanted without consideration of everyone else. It had been a while since my last tantrum, so the frequency was less, but the severity was still high. At one point I said, “I don’t like Daddy anymore.” Mommy took me for a walk to calm down.
I finally calmed down and was able to apologize. So, I of course did not get my birthday cake. Everyone was hungry so we just headed to the restaurant and try to save the evening. Luckily we did. We had a great dinner!
And after we got home after dinner, I got my birthday cake, since it was my birthday after all. Everyone sang happy birthday and I took pictures.
After a trip, it is sometimes nice to just take a break and have a relaxing day at home. Nana and Papa came over and we just hung out. Mommy had to go to work and Daddy worked from home. So I spend the whole day being taken cared of by Nana and Papa. We read some books, watched some TV, played with toys, and we played card games as well.
I showed them how we play matching games and they really enjoyed it! They had never played the card matching game with so many dice!
It was a rainy day, so relaxing at home was kind of a given. That doesn’t mean that we stayed in the whole day. I enjoyed putting on all my rain gear and splashing in the puddles.
After leaving USJ, we picked up our luggage from the hotel, grabbed some dinner from a convenience store and hopped on our train. When we transferred to the Shinkansen we ate dinner and enjoyed a smooth ride home.
It was a wonderful trip to USJ! I had such a great time! Thank you Nana and Papa!
But our vacation is not finished yet! I still have a few days with Nana and Papa in Japan!
I woke up in a great mood ready to get going to USJ…after some morning TV, of course.
Since we had half a day yesterday to check out the park, I knew right away where I wanted to go to. There was no need to wander around.
Yesterday, I was urged to drive at Elmo’s Little Drive, but I was a little scared. I think I still remembered last year’s slightly traumatic experience at the LegoLand go kart. I worked my way up and at least sat in one of the model cars just to get a feel for it.
Then we headed to the Universal Wonderland play area again. I played at Grover’s Construction Company for a bit and Daddy made me a cool car out of the building blocks!
Then it was back to Elmo’s Bubble Bubble again. Even the second time it was a lot of fun. The nice thing was that there were no surprises so I could enjoy it even more the second time.
Then it was back to Big Bird’s Nest. I went through the tunnels a lot again, but I also tried out the net as well. I didn’t go all the way up to the top, but I did go pretty high.
Then it was back to Elmo’s Bubble Bubble again, this time with Daddy.
I also wandered around a projection mapping pool for bit.
When I finally left the Universal Wonderland area, I wanted to to visit Hello Kitty. She had her own boutique and fashion museum where she was doing a photo shoot.
I had a great time at Hello Kitty’s Ribbon Collection but at one point during the wait I got in a mood. Even though I was excited to see Hello Kitty and was all smiles before, my bad mood really dragged me down. It was really unfortunate because Hello Kitty was so nice and I really really was excited to see her.
I guess my mood might have been effected by me being hungry. We popped across the street and got a Hello Kitty snack, then I felt much better. But still hungry.
So we got lunch. We had really good timing and found a table without problem and even got our food without much of a line. The food was pretty good and everyone was reenergized.
After lunch we wandered around a bit more and found some other cool parts of the park like the water garden.
I gave the Cookie Monster Slide a try!
Even Mommy and Daddy had fun riding Elmo’s Go-Go Skateboard. It looked a bit too scary for me so I sat this one out but took pictures for them.
Water break.
Then back to the tunnels at Big Bird’s Nest. After a few dozen runs through the tunnels I was finally convinced to give Elmo’s Little Drive a try.
I had a great time driving the car and I was the best driver out there! I’m glad I gave it a try! But when asked if I wanted to ride again, I passed.
I was getting hungry again so we went in search of some popcorn. We found some and a nice spot to take in a musical show. Not only was the popcorn really good, but it was just fun to hang out a bit and be me. Nana and I had fun goofing around.
We wandered past some carnival games and I gave one a go. I did okay, but I did miss the table a few times. I didn’t get the hug stuffie prize, but I did get a cool little badge.
We walked through the whole of the park and I found the buildings and design fascinating! I thought it was all really cool and I had a lot to say about everything. After taking a look at everything I was asked if there was anything else I wanted to try, but I said I was good. We had to leave soon anyway because we had a train to catch home.
On the way out Papa bought me an awesome Hello Kitty bubble wand! As you can see I loved it!
That was a wonderful experience at USJ! I had a great time! Thank you, Nana and Papa!
We headed off to USJ for a half-day! I was both excited and a little anxious. There were a lot of people and I don’t really do well in crowds. Also, it was pretty sunny so I couldn’t help but look a bit angry during the pictures we took in front of the Universal globe.
I cheered up a bit when I saw Hello Kitty! There were other characters greeting us near the entrance, but I had no inclination to take pictures with them. But I definitely had to meet Hello Kitty!
While walking through the park there were some interesting rides, but I was still a bit nervous and hesitant. So my first ride was more low key, but right up my alley.
I rode the Hello Kitty Cupcake Dream with Mommy and Daddy. The cupcakes were cute and looked really delicious! And they spun around and around.
It was a lot of fun and the perfect entry ride for my USJ experience!
As we ventured further into USJ we got to the most age appropriate area, Universal Wonderland. There were play areas, slides, a mini ride, large blocks, and an awesome jungle gym. This is where I wanted to be!
I mustered up some courage and rode Elmo’s Bubble Bubble ride, which was like a watery roller coaster. I have to admit, I was a little scared, but ended up enjoying it a lot.
I visited other areas, but ended up in the jungle gym area. And that is where I stayed.
There were these tunnels at Big Bird’s Nest that I just couldn’t get enough of. Daddy tried to count how many times I went through the jungle gym tunnels but stopped counting after twenty.
We eventually left the Universal Wonderland area and looked at some other areas in the park. There were a lot of other attractions, but a lot of them were for older kids. We finally settled in at the Minion Park. There were so many Minions around! It was so cool and funny. I enjoyed finding them hiding around the park and plastered on so many buildings. While we were there we tried out another ride, Freeze Ray Sliders! It was kind of like the spinning Hello Kitty cupcakes, but with more spinning and sliding! It was a exciting scary that left me not knowing if I enjoyed it our not.
After the ride, we did some shopping and I found an awesome Minion Tomica to commemorate our first half day at USJ!
Then we started to head back to the hotel, since the park would be closing soon.
There were still a lot of cool things to see on the way back. We even caught some awesome performances.
Oh, but the crowds on the way out were a bit overwhelming. Overall, I think we came at a good time of the year when the park wasn’t too crowded, but it was still a bit much for me.
It was a bit too much to even stop to take a picture. We still had a full day to enjoy the park so we saved the picture for tomorrow.
With the outgoing crowds, the restaurants in Universal City were all full. Since we were all quite full from lunch, we did take out and enjoyed some nice sandwiches in the hotel rooms.
After dinner I got ready for bed. Mommy and Daddy headed out for a mini date so Papa came to baby sit me. I had the iPad and TV so I barely noticed Mommy and Daddy were gone.
It seemed like they had a good time. I was still awake when they came home.
Then we all went to sleep to rest up for a full day of USJ fun tomorrow!
I woke up in a good mood and ready to go! We are heading to Osaka today to go to USJ. I’ve never been to either before so I was very excited. I got ready very quickly and even patiently waited until it was actually time to leave the house.
One of the reasons why I was excited about this USJ trip was that I got to ride the Shinkansen again, just like we did last year to go to LegoLand.
After a second breakfast at Mister Donuts at the train station, we went up to catch our Shinkansen.
We had great seats! It is almost as if the Shinkansen was made for us because we had 3 seats on one side for Mommy, Daddy, and me, and two seats across the aisle for Nana and Papa.
I had a great time looking at the scenery speed past us and I had a lot to talk about. I chatted about the cities we saw, the countryside we saw, and even the stations we stopped at.
Before long, we started hitting a lot of tunnels so I became more interested in playing on the iPad.
It was a fun trip on the Shinkansen without any problems. I enjoyed the ride, the conversation, the iPad and the freedom to snack a lot. Before I knew it we were in Osaka.
We had to navigate the station a bit to catch trains that took us to USJ, but things were quite well laid out and we didn’t have any issues or delays.
We got to Universal City, which was just outside the theme park and had our bags held at the hotel. We purchased half-day tickets for today so we had time to eat lunch before we checked in and then headed to the park.
There were a lot of options for lunch, but I wanted a hamburger so we went to get hamburgers. My hamburger was very good, but not as big as Daddy’s.
After some airplane flying around Universal City we checked into the hotel. I had an awesome hotel room.
I really like hotel rooms. It is like mini homes. The bed was huge and comfy. I almost didn’t want to leave. But USJ was waiting for us, so off we went!
We did not have any special events scheduled for today. Yesterday was my birthday party and tomorrow we leave for Osaka to go to USJ. So today was a relatively calm and non-eventful day. But that doesn’t mean we didn’ t have fun. As soon as Nana and Papa came over in the morning, I interacted and played with them. We played with some of my new toys from my birthday party, read books and just hung out.
It was a day full of fun! But it so natural and normal that we didn’t take many pictures or videos. It was just a lot of fun to spend time together. Every visit, either when Nana and Papa come to Japan or we go to Hawaii, it becomes easier and quicker to just pick up where we left off. It gets to the point that we forget that we don’t see each other for most of the year. One thing is for sure, I am much more active and at the end of the day much more tired.
After my birthday party we helped Nana and Papa check into their AirBnb. It was closer and roomier than their first hotel room, but was only available for today. As usual, I enjoyed exploring the new place.
Then we went out to dinner. There was a yakiniku restaurant not too far away so we walked over. We had a great meal! I was also very helpful. I had fun guiding Nana and Papa to the restrooms. It’s nice to be helpful.
After dinner we headed back to Nana and Papa’s AirBnb. I had a lot of fun on their bed and helped break it in for them. I chilled with Nana and Daddy and I pretended to be dead bugs.
Then it was time to say goodnight. I had a great birthday party and Boys’ Day!
Thank you for the Tokyo Banana omiyage, Ojisan! Let’s play, Obachan!
https://vimeo.com/1101279394/abbc64d9b2
Is it present time yet?
What an awesome looking birthday cake!
https://vimeo.com/1101280115/e94eef1ca1
https://vimeo.com/1101279413/6eb267cd1e
Happy birthday to me! Now I eat!
Okay, now I’m ready to share. Everyone, dozo.
https://vimeo.com/1101279452/e8e9f0d995
https://vimeo.com/1101279477/0d61e01234
Office chair fun!
https://vimeo.com/1101279502/13a228db58
Present time!
Thank you everyone for all the awesome presents!
Time to play.
And reconnect.
Best birthday party ever!
Sending off Baaba and Jiiji.
Hey, Ojisan, thanks for coming all the way from Tokyo!
I had the best birthday party ever! Good food, good people, and good fun! Of course, we can’t forget the delicious cake and awesome presents! Thank you everyone for celebrating with me!
