AJ's tickle tackle

It's the question that many parent ask- is their son or daughter ticklish. Well after extensive testing here's the footage that puts this to bed once and for all.

What do you think?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oGFbYY_kEg

Millie - 4 months old

Millie continues to grow and change. She's now 4 months and is begin to hit some milestones- apart from generally being too fat for a lot of her first trousers- She's got a solid belly!!! She's still quite a laid back little kid compared to Archie but I'm sure that can all change.
After a few false alarms where we wasted time filming she finally rolled over on the 22nd of December. Of course she then stares at the carpet for a while and then releases that's boring and then cries. Sure she'll soon realise that staring at the carpet is better than seeing her Bro'.
She also got her first tooth in December (24th) at the bottom front so she's a bit of a dribbler these days.

Weight - 7.0Kg

Height - 66cm

Christmas Day pt 2- 29th December!!!

As if one Christmas wasn't good enough we actually had a 2nd as half of the presents from the UK arrived later!!! Lots of books about Brunel and Bridges for John- Aiko is tres excited about it as you can imagine!!

Christmas Day pt 1.

Christmas in the Henington Household while they are in Japan is a slightly strange experience- We got the decorations up (6 of them) and we had presents but in Japan the atmosphere isn't quite there.

Archie was more interested in the CD that had just been burned on the PC rather than the pile of presents on the sofa. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vI_g1FYDoJ8

Archie and Millie got lots of nice stuff and Archie got a mini Scalectrix so Daddy was very happy about that.

Archie also got a playdoh suitcase thing and so far is just happy to pull it around and doesn't seem to relaise that there is something in side to play with- maybe thats a good thing at the moment....

Not such a traditional thing on Christmas day but we went to Costco and picked up some nice meat for Christmas dinner and luckily we didn't ruin it- phew what a day!!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Utsumoniya Trip- Twin ring Motegi

On our second and final day ' in the sticks' we decided to go to a Honda sponsored racing track-Twin ring Motegi!

It was a cold winters day and Archie was too small to use many of the rides so ultimately there wasn't much we could do but it was a nice drive and day out. Archie had a drive with both Mummy and Daddy trying to get a license and we saw some cars race around the circuit...ooh I would love a Porsche 911 RS!!!

We left early to make the journey home but on the way found another small shop full of nick knacks and stuff so did a bit more shopping!!!!

Utsumoniya Trip- Day out at Mashiko

Matt had been ill the night before so he volunteered to look after Alen AND Archie while John and the Henington girls went to Mashiko. To be honest none of us felt top notch but we made the trip anyway and after a bit of bad Sat Navigation we found the centre of Mashiko- a little town that specialises in pottery.

It was nice to take a stroll and it was refreshing not to have Archie with us- we could take our time for once. Despite the 10's of pottery shops nothing much took our fancy but on the way home we drove past an Antiques shop and, as they say, the rest is history...

Well we didn't really buy much but we will before we leave Japan or get more space in our place. Lots of old stuff, foreign and Japanese so we spent a good half an hour there- hey also had a great display of old Japanese toilets there as well.

In true Japanese fashion despite the fact we only spent a few quid there the owner still came out to make sure we backed onto the road OK- top Japanese service!

The only other point to make (aprt from apologising for John's pointless posing in the photos) is that we saw a man dressed a bit like Doctor Evil but who finshed his 'look' off by have an Acupuncture needle stuck in his head- bobbing around. We were too busy unloading chldrenadn laughing to get the camera out but if you hear of any tales of terror involving "lasers" in Japan you know where to look....

Utsumoniya Trip- Staying with the Cooks

We were luckily and kindly invited to a weekend at the Cooks (who John knows through work). The Cooks (Matt, Ayumi and Alen- age 3) live North of Tokyo near to a City called Utsumoniya which is a small city relatively and in the countryside for us!!

The trip up was quite tedious as we caught a lot of traffic also trying to escape Tokyo (looking to enjoy the long weekend) but once we hit the express way it soon felt like driving on a motorway in the UK- Fast road and moving through the countryside.

On the first day we were treated to lots of good food , drink and also a music extravaganza. The Cooks were/are great cooks and certainly know their coffee- we brought stuffing, cheesecake and some homemade crackers hence the photos with the obligatory bad hats!!!

What was really great apart from the company in general was that Alen and Archie really hit it off. Alen was brilliant sharing his many toys and Archie wasn't too bad in demanding to borrow them. Considering their ages and the time they spent together it was amazing to see.

Ayumi was in a concert so we all went along to watch- very impressive venue and performance- Archie waved his arms along but him and Millie were generally quite a handful. We were quite a way back so any photos or videos we took wouldn't do the event justice.

Bonenkai- End of Year Party

A bonenkai is a traditional end of year party- usually companies organise big ones but not this year so Master of Ceromonies, George Ohsawa, organised a meal out at Tsuruya. Tsuruya is a yakiniku place but a special one. It's still BBQ meat but this place specialises in Matsuzaka beef- where cows are fed beer and massaged so the meat is very nice and expensive.












This night though we didn't have Matsuzaka beef as it wasn't available so we had even more exclusive Suzuka beef- the cow was called Kazu-chan and the paper shows her family history and also a nose print to prove authenticity. Very nice meat - even had raw (Sashimi) beef and it went down a treat under the careful guidance of George.

Whilst the meat was good it seemed that some people weren't too excited by the whole thing and one guy even managed to fall asleep at the table. Wish I had caught the moment where he woke and his elbows slipped off the table!!!

A few beers were consumed and then afterwards we went on to another ar or two and then teh more resposible of us decided to turn in- yes that includes John.

Henington Palace Facilities

It's been a long time coming but thought it might be a good time to talk toilet- well actually the toilet and bathroom here at Henington Palace.

Bathroom

It's important to understand that the Japanese practice for bathing is different from the UK so here a bath is for soaking only not cleaning and you need to scrub yourself well before hand. This allows the bathwater to be reheated and reused although with Archie's loose 'cannon' I often wonder how sensible the Japanese way is...

So with this knowledge in hand it (in some ways) begins to justify the fact that you can fill the bath up/reheat it from the kitchen control panel and also in bathroom itself. You are also able to set the water level and temperature that you desire and hey presto sometime later you will get a chime and will be told it's ready. Actually with John's memory this kind of automation is very handy as it doesn't matter if he bimbles off to tinker with his fantasy football squad and completely forgets about it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNTVSSJ9wL4

Our bathroom also has another control panel with other functions like ventilation, heating and drying so it can be used as a drying room when it's too wet outside....if you knew how to use it...another good excuse to distance myself (John) from a household chore!

Our toilet is not state of the art here in Japan but it does have a heated seat, deodoriser and a variable pressure, heated jets for 'fore' and 'aft'. Actually it's all very useful but I also just like the fact that the seat lid gently comes down so no slamming seats waking up children here. No remote control panel though- like I said it's not state of the art...of course you can have toilets that have a remote controlled lid!!!

Millie's Song

Here is AJ and Daddy dancing to Millies song- Of course the original song has nothing to do with Millie but it's been a mini theme tune to get us through the sleep deprivation madness. Isn't it meant to be the kids who embarras themselves in things which comes back to haunt them in later life- this just seems embarassing for Daddy!!! moves
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVZ28RbTMz0

Peek-a-Boo !

Hang on what's that? Just a Santa's sack?















No it's Archie in a bag!

Football time

Just to prove their is life in the old dog yet John wheeled himself out for a game of 5 a-side footie for the office. However after approximately 43 seconds of play he discovered that there wasn't that much life in the old dog afterall and was soon looking for a gentlemens exit.

he then took the lead role in introducing the Japanese to the British way of play by shouting obscenities from the touch line - generally not understandable for most people although was certainly one of the loudest on the side lines. Came on again in the second half to put in some dubious challenges and underbreath comments critiquing the opponents game..

After losing the first game and a break I discovered I could run (in the loosest sense of the word) again and didn't appear to have a hole in my throat- which is how it had felt...We still the 2nd game lost though and it came down to a titanic 3rd game when I lasted 3/4 of the game and we scraped a draw 3-3 and then won on penalties.

If I was going to win any awards it would be for the most unfashionable, uncool trainers- black plastic look with red laces- what were they drinking when they decided that? still they were cheap!

Look ! I am practicing rolling !

By this age Archie had already rolled over, rolled off the bed etc but Millie is a bit more laid back and taking her time- like a lady!

Of course when she does get put on his back it's not too long before she gets restless but Archie tries to help by "entertaining" her with his large metal tonka toy- only a matter of time before we find an imprint of "AKNOT" on her forehead and track marks up her stomach!

Yes, I am helping mummy!

We're getting him trained as early as possible so we can spend more time blogging!!

Outlet village

Don't let the photos fool you- this was a classic trip out shopping for us. We achieved 10% of the tasks we had but with 200% effort and involving a lot of flailing arms and sweating- Sounds like John in his youth at some cheesy disco...come to think of it if he was brave enough now I think the picture would be the same but the arms would move slower.


















This was Yokohama's outlet bayside village but in shopping terms wasn't that great. In letting your children get soaked on a December day by random jet fountain it was right up there. Most of the damage was done by parents egging their kids on to put their feet over the nozzle not realising (or did they?) that when the spray came it would spray anyone who was near. I did think about it but knew I would get told off....

In the end we had to sidetrack Archie by taking him on the train - John went as well and the girl who joined us didn't even pick up her tambourine for a singalong! Am I that scary?....no answers please...

Michael rowed the boat ashore, kumaya my lord etc etc

Listen ! I am talking to you !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru7XhJ83otw

I can entertain you !

Actually a gift for Archie Millie took to these maracas for a while- not sure whether she was playing magnifying glass, microphone or some kind of martial art but she seemed to enjoy it!

Brother & Sister

Sure we will look back on these kind of placid photos in years to come wondering how it all went so horribly wrong!!

Love the Rain

Archie's always been a big fan of umbrellas although he calls them 'Ame' which means rain and he calls rain....err 'Ame' as well!

Also not sure if this carboot coat is waterproof yet but that sounds like a good project for Henington senior - still it does make for a colour co-ordinated outfit for Master Henington!

Monkey Family

Just a bit of larking about at home- Archie takes as many opportunies as he can to climb on Daddy. This time it was just after Millie had a nappy change and it looked a bit like a monkey family....