A very busy Sunday...

We started the day by banishing snakes from the house - like St Patrick did with the snakes from Ireland, the snakes were cut out of paper and Ebi-kun used a fan to waft them out of the door, that kept him busy as I made breakfast.

Which were lucky shamrock pancakes! That was about the extent of our St Patrick's day celebrations as we had aikido class to attend. After that we went to the store to order his gi and then had okonimiyaki for lunch.

After lunch we headed to the park to meet up with S-kun and his family. S-kun was Ebi-kun's best friend at yochien. Sadly, Ebi-kun has connected with anyone the same way at school and still says that S-kun is his best mate. We arrived a bit early so they boys had a kick around whilst we waited...

Once S-kun arrived, they were off laughing and giggling, even though they haven't seen each other for months, it was if yesterday was the last time they had been together. 

It was a lovely sunny spring day until the windy started, then it was horrid. It was blowing dust everywhere, by the time we left for home, we were all filthy! The boys really enjoyed themselves though, so that was good.

As we followed them around the park, I spotted this little fellow in a tree stump, not sure why he was there, but he looked quite at home. He is a tanuki, a Japanese raccoon dog and are common in Japanese folklore, they are supposedly mischievous and masters of disguise and shape-shifting! If you want to learn more then Pon Poko is a great animation, it is one of Hayao Miyazaki's - the guy who did Totoro.

I also came across this little God, I'm not sure which one he is, but he looks like a very happy fellow and stylishly dressed in his hat and bib, he looks like he is enjoying the spring weather!

We left the park late afternoon, all grubby and dirty and headed home for a bath and a quick dinner (thanks to Jamie Oliver).

So, that was our weekend, did you get u to anything exciting?