Winter Holiday part 2

Well to continue from the first part;

The Flu.
I still had to stay another couple of days in my room, just in case I would infect Mayuko with it. But I guess it was alright, I finished my book about the daughter of a Yakuza boss (a very nice book, I might even write another blog entry about this book called "Yakuza Moon"), played "Prince of Persia" and "FF3" on my DS and got to see some movies that I downloaded from the net.

Unfortunately a couple of days later Mayuko also got sick and got 37.5 degrees. We were worried that she also got the flu, but luckily she got a normal temperature again the day after and it didn't go any further then coughing!

All together
On Saturday the 29th my Takuya, Aki-chan and Nana-chan came over from Osaka, to spend the new year together with the whole family. It feels great to be together with the whole family like that, even tough it also makes me miss my own family. The only one who was still missing was my sister in law Minako, but she would come over on the first of Jan.

Golf practice
On the 30th I played some golf with Takuya and Kimio, well not really playing but more practicing swing on the golf range. Because the two of them would go to a real golf park on the 31st and my golf level is way to low we decided to just go for some swings... It didn't went very well, maybe because I wanted to play golf so much I think I put too much pressure on myself and didn't enjoy a lot. My wife is telling me to stick with futsal because golf is too expensive for me... I guess she is right but still I would like to learn golf a bit more and go with them on the last day of 2008. A well, a nice target.

Baby sitting
Minako couldn't come before the 1st of January but she did got us some delicious fish (buri - yellowtail???), Ikura (salmon eggs), and some other stuff. Because Minako was living in Osaka one of us needed to pick it up from there, and due the fact that I still wasn't feeling 100% Aki-chan decided (forced by mom ;)) to pick it up.

So Aki-chan went to Osaka, Mayuko to the hair dresser, Kimio and Takuya to the golf court, and Akiko needed to drive from the station to the hairdresser. So there I was alone with Nana-chan.... HELP ME !!!!!! BABY!!!!!! No joke, I had a lot of fun taking care of the little one; watching anpanman together, playing with toys and walking around in the house together. She is growing week by week, and she is surprising us all the time. During this holiday she started to walk a bit more by herself, and can walk about 10 meters without any help from us. It was also great to teach her the high-5 (they call it high-touch in Japan for some reason lol)

New years eve
New years eve in Japan is totally different than in the Netherlands. No champagne, no oliebollen, en no Fireworks. I guess I could have bought some Champagne for the eve but I already spend a lot of money on Christmas presents so I was fine with beer! Oliebollen... well I though about making them but I do not have a big frying pan. Fireworks... a well guess its just the way it is haha.

So yeah on new years eve we ate some delicious buri (shabu shabu), drunk foreign beer, and watched the K-1 Dynamite together (some nice fights, especially "Kid" did well). While we were preparing for a count down with beer and toshikoshi soba (noodles) my mother called us to say happy new year and sing a new year song on the speaker (which was funny and very warming) So I (well Mayuko had the phone in her hand) spend the new year with my Japanese family and my mom.

After the beer, and when the little one went to bed we played some kachi kachi (Japanese card game, with 100 yen bets...I won about 4000 yen that evening) and went to bed around 3.

New years day
On new years day we had a traditional Japanese breakfast, watched the Down town Batsu game ( a TV game, in which some famous Japanese comedians were not allowed to laugh or else they would be hit on the ass with a slap stick...See here if you are interested), slept all together on the floor in the living room ate suki-yaki with again delicious beef, and played another Kachi-kachi game (this time Minako was there as well).

Obachan
On the second we left early for Ako, to visit Oba-chan (grandmother) with the whole family. We ate some very nice sushi up there and walked around with Nana-chan. Nana-chan was a bit scared of Oba-chan in the beginning but got in her mood later on the day.





Another golf game, and time to go home
On the third we practiced some golf again, which went way better than before (maybe because I checked some stuff on you tube how to practice the swing), played some wii, and visited a friend of Mayuko; Yumi and her husband. She has a very cute but small house (something we also would like in the upcoming years) In the evening we ate Okonomiyaki from Aki-chan (I think I ate Okonomiyaki 4 times in one month lol).


In the evening we went home again, which was a bit sad but we were happy to be home again as well... We had spend 2.5 week at the parents their house.

It was a great holiday, besides the fact that I fainted and got the flu. Nana-chan grew a lot in 2.5 week time and it was nice to spend time with the family. I can't wait to spend more time with the family again (next time will be in February or March though.

Tomorrow I got to go back to work again... hmmm... aaa well it's alright got to make money to support my family and work on my career the upcoming year.

Here is a video of me playing golf