Millie - 1 year old

Hasn't the year gone quickly- Millie was 1 year old on the 28 August and is a very different child to her Bro'. She already spending time in front of the mirror (like her mum) but so far is limited to banging stuff and throwing it in the sink.

School

It doesn't seem that long ago that he was a little (almost) baby and now he's going to school. With our stay in Japan coming to an end it wasn't posible to get him into Japanese school so he's going to an international school. He's only going to be there for one term but it's a good chance for him to catch up with his English a bit.

He seems to like school although he has had a few yellow cards and it's hard for us to know what he's doing as he still struggles to explain what has happened.

Every day Daddy takes him to the bus at 7.40am and Mummy collects him at 5pm- it's a long day for such a little lad!!!

Swimming School

With Archie getting out of nappies it was much easier for us to get him into a swimming club. As normal in Japan it's all very organised- Archie has his own swimming bag and trunks that you have to buy. Luckily bargain hunter Aiko got him signed up so they were included in one deal!!

He really likes swimming and seems to be progressing well.

Hokkaido - Biei and Furano

This was another great day out- quite a long day but spent a lot of it pottering around the Hokkaido countryside.

We went to see a few famous tree that have been used in adverts (Tabacco) and then had a cheese fondue lunch and a nice break. After lunch we went to see Flowerland where Archie and John had a ride on a tractor, Aiko made a lavender pillow and it was all finished off with some lavender flavour ice cream- not as bad as it sounds.

Next stop was Furano Cheese Factory; Aiko made some cheese whilst John looked after the kid- luckily there was a tractor that Archie could play on to pass the time.

Hokkaido - Sapporo

Didn't have much time in Sapporo as for some reason we had to go to Otaru to pick up a pot (sorry). Not content with the hand made glasses John decided he needed to buy some more souvenirs although perhaps he was trying to change the justification for returning?...
By the time we left Otaru and got to Sapporo we only had time to take a very quick look at the beer factory…from the outside and also have a ‘jenghis khan’ barbeque, of course with a Sapporo beer. To be honest it was just lunch and I think some of the lamb we cooked on the Barbeque whilst camping was just as nice if not better….

Hokkaido - Otaru

Otaru is not far from Sapporo and this was one of our favourite days out. After a bit of navigation we arrive at our starting point- a cycle hire shop. With Millie carried by Aiko in here carrier and Archie and I testing the strength of the bicycle off we went. With over 100kg on that bike it was a rather wobbly ride but people seemed to get out of the way quite quickly. First stop was for lunch and an Otaru Weiss beer and then off we went around the town!

Otaru was quite touristy but it did have a lot of old buildings and that made it feel quite different from Other Japanese towns and cities,. First there is the famous canal with its old building but there are lots of other relics dotted around.
Opposite this one was a glass blowing shop we stopped at but we eventually went to K’s Blowing and made 2 almost matching glasses- it was great fun but a very hot place!!!
As always we managed to find the junk shops and Aiko purchased a lovely enameled tin….which John then left in Otaru and only realized once we were over an hour through our journey back to the campsite….

Hokkaido - Asahiyama Zoo

It was a late start for this and we hadn’t planned it so rather a lot of confusion as we drove…somewhere! Eventually we agreed to go to the zoo but it was still quite a drive and is life ever that simple. As we neared the zoo we noticed a smell in the car. It was that familiar baby poo smell but when I turned round to confirm my suspicions they were more than confirmed we had a poo explosion and Millie was sat covered in the stuff with one hand in the air. Archie learned the new phrase ‘Oh my God!’ and used it for many surprising situations thereafter.
There then followed an hour of team cleaning – Aiko handled Millie by the side of the road (and Archie needed to go as well!!!arrgh) whilst John added to the weird westerner myth by washing seat cover in front of the nearest 7-11.

After all that happened we didn’t have a lot of time at the Zoo so we rushed round it as quickly as we could- We did ‘swim’ with the penguins and also saw a seal in a tube- fantastic!!

Hokkaido

Since we’re returning to the UK next year it was time to knock another Japanese location off the list and we chose Hokkaido- For those who don’t know Hokkaido is Japans northern most Island. Due to its position is nice and cool and a really welcome change from the hot city heat of August in Yokohama.

Actually it’s not that surprising when you consider it’s about a 1200 drive mostly north with a 4 hour ferry (north) thrown in for good measure. It was a long drive and with fuel prices high time to do some economical driving. The kids were fine most of the way and did much better than expected.














We took the car as we planned to camp originally to keep the cost down- to make that statement even more nonsensical we also invested in a new tent, dining tent, table BBQ, tent mat, light, bin bag holder (*2). You would have thought we were quite over prepared but we completely forgot to take anything other than shorts so it was a bit chilly in the evening and our legs proved a tasty meal for the various insects!!
It was a nice campsite but basically a [park and hence no showers and the most basic of toilets and facilities Not a big deal as we had an Onsen nearby and Archie really enjoyed that and for John it’s a great change to be the center of attention- sure they’ll be talking about the fat white naked man for some time!!!

Beach

Since its summer surely it’s time for a beach visit!! Well we weren’t the only ones to have that idea so we had quite a long wait for the car park and then not much time to enjoy the beach. Archie and Mummy went to the sea and Daddy and Millie tried to remain up wind of the people smoking nearby!

Kamakura

Kamamura is south of Yokohama and at one point in time was the Japanese capital- Actually the capital moved around quite a bit because of all the internal clans/wars that went on. Kamakura is famous for its giant Buddha and various temples but also it’s a quite nice town/city and it felt quite refreshing to be out of the city. Its somewhere you can see some older building and the average height of buildings was much lower so it felt less enclosed..

It was quite a hot day so by the time we got back to the car we were pretty tired but it was a nice day out.

This is JAPAN

Japan is such an organised place- Yes it's crowded sometimes and you have to queue but generally they do try to think of many things to make your lives easier....


1. Organised kids shopping trollies- this is at the new shopping center near us. There are often a few of these at most shopping centers but at Tressa they have a lot of them and here's the parking area!!














2. Refriderated lockers. After you've done your shopping why not pop your goods in these to keep everything cool whilst you go to HMV! Or why don't you just go to HMV first and shop afterwards?....bizarrely they were quite full so a lot of people must have decided the first option!!


















3.A ticket that you pick up to remind you where you have parked- Gone are the days of wondering around a car park looking for the car- well in John's case probably not!

Tired Millie

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=1DkQTT7svOY

Honestly we haven't been giving her sedatives.......

Mobile Millie

May was the month that Millie really got going under her own steam.By the end of the month she was crawling normally rather than the 'army assault course under the nets, clean the floor' style she had started with. So now there are lots of 'where's Millie? ' moments and of course Archie follows her and makes her follow him!!

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=hzInUbv0EzI

She's also a lot more vocal as you can see!!! Got a way to go before she's as loud as her Bro!

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=908Gt_iX6A0

Meeting Mako Tanaka

John's old friends from Hiroshima (who really got him into the runnign bug a few yearsback) came over with their yong duaghter Mako-chan. She's a simialr age to Millie but was a bit more mobile. With Archie being such a fat monster when he was young we've been living thining that Millie was so dainty but meeting Mako-chan put things back into perspective as she was so cute and petite compared yo Millie. When Millie ate she looked like a little monster chomping a full plate of Mummy food.....

It's AJ's 3rd Birthday!

What a day!! Well it was a long time ago now as we've got bogged down with life but Archie's Birthday was a big day for the Heningtons.

John took the day off and the big plan was a day at Tokyo Disney...Hooray!! It was a weekday and not even Summer but it was still pretty busy- not that queues for the big rides were a concern for us!!

Despite Daddy being a bit of a cynic it was a great day and we all had fun and ate a lot of caramel popcorn. Archie got on his first rollercoaster- From the queue below he was quite happy watching the scared people but once faced with the carriage he went very quiet and tried to run!...

The rest of the day was sadly missed as the camera ran out of battery power so the nightime parades are just our memories although we will go again!!! John wants to beat his high score on the Buzz Lightyear ride- to infinity and beyond!!!

Archie's Birthday also meant lots of cake and presents! There was a lot of Thomas so Mummy and Daddy got Spencer for his railway but he was a way behind his real steam Thomas with highly annoying jingle....we look forward to those batteries running out.

All in all it was a great Birthday and the first one that felt truly real with Archie- lets just hope he doesn't get more hyper from now till his next!!!

AJ's Birthday Cake

Unable to pop down to Tescos to buy one and having left it a bit late to buy one Aiko decided to do it herself!!! Scroll down for a step by step guide to how Percy (Perthy-in Archie speak) was made.

Solid food

Because Archie is so active there's always a lot of news and things to write about but for Millie just looking cute or filling nappies isn't much to write home about. Now though she's really beginning to do stuff and this milestone is her first proper meal. As you can see it looks like the human dustbin gene has been passed on by Aiko. After a few 'mmm this is different' expressions Millie gets down to some serious eating- even the spoon...

http://www.youtube.com/v/K9tLQ436fL4

This photo has nothing to do with her first meal but is a spectacular bogey bubble- it's amazing the amount of fun you can have with a young child and some dishwashing liquid...that's a joke of course- it's just a bogey..

Terminal 5

What could possibly go wrong?....well going through terminal 5 on the opening day was always a recipe for disaster but intially it all seemed great. We met John's Uncle Paul who had flown in from Hong Kong to visit his Mum/Johns Gran for breakfast and then after a lot of hassle got throgh to departures- we ended up having to be escorted through as Millie ticket had issues- or rather they thought it did but as it turned out it was no problem.

We then moved through to the lounge and enjoyed that until we realised we were late for out flight and ran sweating to the gate...only to find no anouncment and no boarding. We had to wait 3 hours in the end.



The delay was quite frustrating- they had nice wine in the lounge but as we had no idea how long it would be we couldn't risk going back.....shame.





Still in the end we got the flight, Millie had a box to sleep in and T5 wasn't as bad as waiting for out cases for over a week- Also it's not often you see Gordon Ramsey in the flesh is it?....

Wilstead

One final and important

stop off before our return to Japan!.. John's Sister family. It's been quite a while since we saw them last so Rhonnie, Kit and Ivan have all really grown up.
Ivan conversations were very philosophical and entertaining- like asking us if Millie would learn to walk like he (and Rhonnie,Kit, etc) did. He was also very generous in allowing Archie to play with all of his toys- toys being a restricted item on our flight over!

Rhonnie was the older, wiser and generally taller than everyone else- not that hard in our group it has to be said but next time we return she will be taller than John.

Kit was a ball of energy and almost pulled Johns ears off during a spot of wrestling...ooOh referee!! Also outside

tactical 'I'm just taking a photo' recouperations were needed so John could keep up the footballing pretence whilst chasing Kit around the garden!

On the day before we left John Parents came down for a trip to the Whipsnade Zoo. It was bloody freezing as one would say in the UK and the Zoo Railway was more like the trans-Siberian crossing. Warmed ourselves up with a nutritious meal - burger and chips!!
Back at Paulas we had the obigatory group photo- rather a odd mix of people almost out of picture, too close or too far...Ahh the joys of self timer photos! All we had to do was pack our cases...just and then what else could possibly go wrong.....

Cholwell Hall

The last times we have gone back to the UK there has usually been a wedding that pulls all Johns friends together for a lot of eating, drinking and late nights talking rubbish! This time we had to organise a one off event as no-one was getting married!

Thanks to some brilliant organising (by Charlotte) we secured Chorwell Hall nr Bath and had a great weekend.

There are some good cooks among us so we ate well and then in the evening we retired to the party room. Chorwell Hall had a Piano which was quite out of tune but that didn't bother Archie, Flo and the other children.

Outside in the garden was a good play area as well -

it was a bit chilly but a good way for the children to burn up some of that excess energy.....bit too tiring for John though!




On Easter Sunday the Easter Bunny paid us a visit so there was a big egg hunt so having tired the children out we fed them chocolate to get them hyper again!!





Despite it being quite manic it was great to see everyone in one hit and fun to see all the children of different ages getting bar the odd incident of things getting out of hand. Meal times were certainly interesting-!








This was a first night bath with Otto- before Archie got carried away and almost took Otto's eye out whilst playing who can push the table football handle the most- Sorry about that!! Two boys in the bath a recipe for disaster- especially as Archie is used to a no holds barred wet room in Japan. A lot of towels and calming words got us through!!


We generally stayed around the house but on the Sunday we did find a local steam train to ride on and quickstop at a pub. Thanks to Uncle Marcus Archie even got to stand on a real train..whilst their backs were turned!!