Hawaii Day II

Due to the exciting events of the first day, Fuzuki actually slept until about 8 am. (His usual waking time is 5am-ish.) We woke up feeling rested enough to go on a day trip to the Polynesian Center (kind of a mini expo/theme park for the islands of the pacific) on the North side of the Island. (Random trivia fact for those of you who haven't been... it was started by university students to make money to attend the uni of Hawaii and pay for living expenses.)

We decided to go Yukata style. The initial plan was to walk around the center with everyone from the wedding (who was also there) but we had troubles keeping pace and keeping Fuzuki interested in the shows and explanations taking place. In the end we ended up just playing on the grass most of the time.

After dinner there was a 2 hour evening show that was pretty impressive... except Itsuki was so tired by then that she slept through the flame jugglers' and fire walkers' performances.

The Wedding

Nishi and Nishi and Merri's Wedding was wonderful!

I have always wanted to run for a wedding chapel shouting out something like "Stop the wedding!" so it was kind of a a fun start, other than that I was profusely sweating right before walking down the aisle with a bridesmaid in tow. Ah well, the church was air conditioned.

It was a pretty small little gathering but really sweet and full of family and good friends. We took some pictures at the end, the hopped on a bus and headed across town to a sweet resort where the reception was. I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story.

The Plane Ride Over

He slept... almost the whole way... which is more than we could ask for.

Not wanting to disturb his sleep with a diaper change in the toilet of an airplane (yes they do MAKE YOU do it in there) Fuzuki was carrying around a pretty full resevoir by the time the plane was in its landing pattern and we were no longer able to do a change before deplaning.

From deplaning we were ushered directly to customs with no chance to stop at a bathroom... and if you can see where this is leading... yes... in the lineup for customs Fuzuki's diaper finally gave way to the awesome forces of osmosis that had until that time been held at bay.

The lucky holder of Fuzuki at the time was... ITSUKI! YEAH! I got pretty lucky on that one. Anyways customs was no biggie and we finally made it to the baggage carousels where we could change and wash everyone up. And that... was our flight over.

Arriving in Hawaii

After getting into Honolulu Airport at 10:30 am. collecting our bags and doing all the other things neccessary to leave the airport we finally arrived at our Hotel just before 1pm. Check-in was delayed because house cleaning was running behind and we could get into our room until sometime past 1.

The wedding we were attending started at 3:30 and so although 2 hours may seem like a lot of time, when you've got to unpack your bags, iron your clothes, take showers put on make-up (Itsuki not me) and get your baby and all his eating and playing goodies ready - after an 8 hour plane ride - it's not.

We left our room just after 3pm and made it to the front lobby in moments only to find out that, because of construction, the taxi stand for the hotel is a 5 minute walk to the other side of the grounds. The taxi we finally got was great because the guy ran red-yellow lights for us and we arrived in the general vicinity with about 9 minutes to spare before the start of the ceremony, however there was a problem...

We jumped out of the cab and saw a huge church across the street. We crossed the streets, ran up to the entrance and looked inside... it was EMPTY! It was 3:24 and there was no-one there!

My mind was spinning... wrong time? Wrong day? Wrong church!!! We checked the name on a plaque next to the door and sure enough we were at the wrong church and had only 5 minutes before the wedding started!

The next 5 minutes consisted of running around (literally about 1/2 a Km... with a baby, in wedding clothes in 32 degree weather) in circles following (incorrect) directions from construction workers and so on, until finally someone pointed us the right way. Crossing another intersection, Itsuki spotted the green bridesmaid dresses of Merri's wedding party and we had the pleasure of running across 6 lanes of traffic towards the church shouting out "Don't start the wedding yet!" Part of the reason being that I was one of the groomsmen.

Aloha!

Well... we're back from beautiful beautiful Hawaii!

To give you a quick summary, we went to a wedding, visited the Polynesian Culture center, hit up the major shopping mall, did the pool, the ocean, Waikiki Beach, the zoo, lounged around the hotel, and of course (because we're Japanese) had many delcious meals.

Teeth

Tooth update...

He has six, two lower and four upper. These front two really bite hard.

Fireworks

Last week was the summer fireworks festival in Toyota. Our best viewing spot is (same as last year) from the roof parking lot of the local grociery store. This year we brought special guest KENJI with us. Inviting Kenji along includes the bonus of being able to use all of his BBQ and picnic equipment.

First we went shopping for snacks down below.

Then we came up and set up the table and chairs.
Finally it was fireworks time. But someone couldn't stay awake through the whole (2 hour) show.

Summer

Well summer vacation is upon me. It has been upon me for almost two weeks now, however this is my first post. Sorry. I got sick last week (with some kind of nose and throat bug) and have not been feeling very good since then.

A couple of updates to mention

1) Fuzuki can pull himself up to stand, and walk sideways holding things! This is pretty exciting at first, and then soon after very very difficult to control. In the first couple of days he spent every second of his waking day trying to stand up using anything near him, and about 5-10 seconds later would fall sideways or backwards and hit his head. We couldn't be more than 1 meter away from him the whole time! The solution was to bring an extra futon out to the living room (so when he falls its soft) and build a wall around it.

2) We are going to Hawaii! Yeah it's our friends' (Nishi and Merri) wedding! We'll be there for 6 days, staying at a super nice hotel! We've got Fuzu's swimsuit and everything ready! Stay tuned...