Obon in Wakayama...

We spent a few days down at the in-laws, Ebi-kun was in his element getting loads of attention from Jii-chan. Ebi-kun had him playing all kinds of games...

While we were there we went swimming at the local baths and we also celebrated Jii-chans birthday.

We went bowling with jii-chan, who won (well he had to since he was the birthday boy!)

Birthday lunch was at an organic viking restaruant (viking = buffet, sadly there were no organic viking serving lunch!), Ebi-kun filled his boots and LOVED the chocolate fountain, he kept going back for 'just one more banana'.

In the evening Daddy-Ebi's brother and family turned up so we all ate dinner together, the brothers managed to drink the house dry in about 2 hours, a record, even for them! They had also bought some fireworks, I am not a fireworks fan unless they are done professionally and for me, putting two bravado drunken blokes in charge of the kids and fireworks is just down right stupid. Luckily the fireworks were pretty tame and the kids were very sensible, it is the first time Ebi-kun has had sparkerlers so of course he was excited. He was also super excited to go in the bath with his older cousin, I'm not sure there was much washing going on, sounded more like they were trying to drown each other!

The next day the dads had sobered up so they took the kids for a kick around, I didn't go out, it was far too hot for me!

The kids had a great time together, it is a shame we don't get together more often, last time we saw them was just after the quake when we went down to the in-laws due to the Fukushima nuclear scare, I am so glad that this time our visit was under better circumstances.

We introduced the family to Uno Card Game which turned out to be a BIG hit, I highly recommend it and is easy to play even with mixed langauges going on, I can't count how many games we actually played, this was the last game the night before we left.

It is good to be back though, I miss my own bed and comfy pillow and it is always a big thing about what they are going to feed me, I don't eat fish so I always feel like it is a big hassle for them as they are big fish eaters and don't eat much meat. They have a new modern supermarket nearby so at least now it is a bit easier to feed me!