Mason Shoma

When we get home from school I know that Mommy has to cook dinner so I usually find ways to entertain myself. Sometimes I watch some shows, but usually I just play with my cars until dinner is ready.

We love our books at school. Especially vehicle books. My friends and I just love reading vehicle books and looking at all the pictures.

By the way, I’ve been talking a lot more at school recently. I call my friends’ names, “–kun” which is the boy version of “-chan”. Also when going for our walk I told my teacher “Densha mitai” (“I want to see trains!”). When we finally saw some trains I said “Gatan goton” which is the sound a train makes on the tracks. On the way back to school we passed by a takoyaki stand so I repeated “takoyaki” over and over again.

Did you know that cheese comes in string form? It was fun to eat and it was very delicious!

We heard that the McDonald’s Happy Meal toys were trains so we went there for lunch. While they were getting the food ready my toy arrived. I was very happy to find a Kagayaki Shinkansen! I played with it for a bit but then put it away when my food arrived.

I was very happy about my Happy Meal.

I wanted to practice using the potty again today. I didn’t do much except sit there, but it is a start. I did pretend to wipe and I flushed the toilet paper away. Practice makes perfect.

I’ve been borrowing this particular book from school quite a bit. Since I like it so much, Daddy said that he would buy it for me. We went online and found it on Amazon. It should be here in a couple of days.

We stopped by a beer festival for dinner while we were out in the city. The weather still wasn’t great, but despite the rain there was still quite the crowd. It was a bit late so Mommy and Daddy were only able to grab a beer each, but they made sure that I had a lot of food to eat. The food stands had a lot of tasty meat for me, but I really enjoyed the rice noodle salad that we picked up at a convenience store. I ate a lot of kikurage which is a kind of crunchy mushroom. Mommy and Daddy were surprised that I liked the slightly vinegary flavor of the salad so much.

I got this awesome Lego train from my cousins for my birthday and I play with it all the time. But I always refuse to turn on the motor that makes it run on the tracks. I’m not a big fan of motors on my vehicles. I prefer to push them around on my own, which is how I have been playing with my Lego train all these months. But Daddy finally convinced me to turn the motor on and I discovered all the cool things my Lego train can do. There are these markers that you lay on the track and when the train crosses over them there is an action. It turns on the light, makes a water pouring sound, reverses, or sounds the horn. It was quite a nice discovery!

After a while I turned the motor off again and played with it the way I normally do.

We stopped by what will possibly be the last summer festival of the year. It was very close to our house so we were able to just pop on by even though the weather wasn’t very good. It was a bit rainy, but still there was quite a crowd. We grabbed snacks here and there, and my favorite was the gelato that I shared with Mommy.

We went to the city to have dinner with Daddy’s junior high school teacher who was visiting Japan with her husband and friends. We had a great dinner, even though I was shy at the beginning. I warmed up in the end. The were very friendly and kind and even brought me a pack of HotWheels as a gift! That really won me over!

After a great dinner we headed back on the subway and I was still in a great mood. While walking home Daddy started skipping and I did my best to copy him. Mommy thought it was really funny, but I thought I did a pretty good job.

Now that I’m a big boy, I no longer eat baby food or even have my own food cooked separately. I eat what Mommy and Daddy eat. But every so often I notice that they get to eat or drink something that looks a lot tastier than what I get. Today Mommy had a McShake. It looked special. I was very curious about it and asked for a sip. It turns out that even though it looks like a drink it is pretty much ice cream. Mommy was having dessert for lunch! Even though I helped her finish it, I can’t help but feel that it is a bit unfair that I wasn’t even offered a shake. I didn’t even know that was an option. But, to be fair, Mommy and Daddy don’t get toys with their meals, so maybe we can just call it even.

Today we had ramen for lunch. It is always a treat! We go to a ramen place that is really cheap and has great tasting ramen. I’m always at risk of burning my mouth because when it arrives I just can’t wait to start eating.

Daddy was happy to come home to the sound of laughter today. He found Mommy and me sitting on the couch laughing up a storm. I was having fun messing around with her phone and being silly. There was a picture of a person that I jokingly said was “Baaba”. It is fun to mess around and joke around.