Never Say Never

I have a confession.

You'll never guess what I did.

It could really be bad but we're in Japan so . . . I mean "when in Rome", right?

If I tell you, you can't think I'm a bad mom. Okay?

Here it goes.

I sent all of my kids to the park. . .by themselves!! Crazy, I know I said I would never do that but it wasn't so bad. In fact it rocked!

We were going to have company over later and I needed a minute to straighten up before they came so I took advantage of this honest country and sent my kids out On. Their. Own. I told them what time to come home. Alexandria watched the big park clock while she played with friends from school and it worked! My darling babies, who were much more darling after giving momma a minute to herself, were home when I told them to be. AMAZING! I felt so Japanese. We have integrated into the Japanese culture. Well, except we still speak English and we have four kids. But anyway, it was great! They had a great time! And I got stuff done. Now, please don't think I'm a bad mom. I promise everyone here does it. Besides they were watched over by angels because in my defense, we were having very special guests over and it was all for a very good cause.

See, these awesome missionaries, Elder Heaton and Elder Eyring (grandson, I know you were wondering) and investigator were our company. See, totally justifiable cause.

The Elders are teaching a Dominican investigator and we told them we would love to help them out and have him over for la bandera dominicana (Dominican cooking). We ate and partied. Then they gave us a lesson on the Plan of Salvation. The kids loved that. It must have been a little louder and kind of crazier than what the Elders are used to in Japanese homes because when they left Elder Heaton, the one on the end, left us a cute note. "Thanks for the Dominican party! Your familia is the bomb!" Aww, thanks! It's always a party at the Cesar house. Except now that I've learned I can send the kids away it may start to get a little quieter around here.

A Piece of Two Histories

Nagoya Castle

History 1: Originally built in 1612 by Tokugawa Ieyasu. The site of the construction was carefully picked to secure an important position in the middle of Japan and to ward off attacks from the direction of Osaka.

History 2: During World War II the castle was used as an army head quarters and as a POW camp. In May of 1945 during an air raid this historical castle and it's surrounding buildings were burned almost completely to the ground. A few towers and three gates that were made of metal and the paintings on the sliding doors of the palace survived.

Today you can tour the rebuilt donjon and walk the grounds of this real property of Japanese history.

(Maybe I'm the only one but I had no idea what a "donjon" was so I had to google it. I learned that it was built with castles. It was sometimes used as the dungeon. Donjon, dungeon . . . oh yeah that makes sense. And it could also be used as the fortress or residential hall. It was the most defended area of the castle and so it probably contained the wells, food, armory and anything else that would be needed during a siege. After I realized what a donjon was it amazed me at the amount of architecture and delicate Japanese details that went into building this fortress.)

Among other things, the items that set the Nagoya Castle apart from other Japanese castles are the golden dolphins that grace it's roof top as a symbol of the feudal lord's authority. Although the original dolphins burned in WWII they reappeared in 1959 when the reconstructed donjon was complete.

The two dolphins are slightly different. The one on the South side is female and is a little smaller than it's male counterpart on the North side.

On the third floor of the main donjon you are taken back in time to the 17th century when bookstores looked like this.

And laying the foundation for palaces and castles was done like this.

Actually these three guys weren't strong enough to pull that big stone on their own. They had a little help.

Amazing how strong the Cesar kids are when they want to be.

Had you have been a visitor in the palace at that time you would be fortunate enough to sit on the floor adorned by your beautifully decorated kimono in a room like this and admire the delicate paintings while you sipped green tea and discussed the aspects of the feudal society and maybe bartering your chickens for access to the drawbridge . . . or something.

Nagoya Castle really was intriguing and I would have loved to stay longer. We'll have to make another trip just to walk around the gardens and hopefully learn a little more about Japanese history while we're there.

To finish the day we decided to extend the historical Japanese cultural experience to modern day culture by eating at a typical Japanese noodle restaurant.

The perfect ending to our cultural field trip day.

Hit It!

With a title like that you thought this was a baseball post didn't you?

SURPRISE!  It's not.

We had a dance off tonight.  Hit it!   Papi and the girls versus Mommy and the boys.

Papi's idea.  I love him.  Bet your husband doesn't dance.

Guess who won.

Okay, it was a tie. 

But really DJ, AJ and I know our routine was way better.  We had break dancing.  Who doesn't love break dancing?

FYI

Japanese toilet + 3 year old girl  = very big mess!

(And it doesn't help that her mom has no experience with one either.)

The Bad and The Good

The Bad News:  Papi ran into the wall trying to catch a high fly ball and dislocated his shoulder last Friday.  It's back in place but there's a lot of healing to do around the shoulder joint so he had to take a few days off.

The Good News:  Because Papi is rehabbing he's had some extra time to play with us!  The kids are loving it and so is Mom.  I kind of think he got injured on purpose just to have some time off with the family. Ok not really but it's still been fun.

Here's pics of our outings to the Higashiyama Zoo and the Port of Nagoya Aquarium.

Super close look at the kangaroos.

Pedal boats.  

Note to parents: Do not take your kids who can't pedal on the pedal boats unless YOU want a really good workout for that day.

Mr. Gorilla's hand print

The koala, the only animal in the park with adequate space to roam.

Nagoya Port

Hello little penguins.

Did you hear about the boy who stole a penguin from Sea World?  This little guy was just begging to go home with us I know it.  If only we would have had a backpack to put him in . . .

Humongous sea turtle fossil found in Venezuela.  That turtle must have been King of the Sea Turtles.  How old do you think it was before it died?  Sorry I don't have the answer, just wondering.

There you go my picture post which is actually better that my wordy posts because if a picture speaks a thousand words than I've already posted 12,000+ words!  Whew, no wonder I can't think of anything else to say.

Memory Monday

Without a dishwasher I get to be the dishwasher.  This allows for long periods of time for me to stand at the sink while doing a mindless task and dream, contemplate or remember . . .

Last night, I remembered this little cutie when she was three.  She loved skirts and dresses that "spin".  One day while shopping around she made me buy two cute little dresses that "spin" to wear when we went to go see Papi.  I remember thinking that was cute but I didn't think she would remember to wear them when we saw Papi so I bought the dresses but forgot about her special reason for buying them.  A few weeks later we were on the road to Tijuana to watch a series that Papi was playing there.  She had picked out her own clothes and I was happy with her selection.  After crossing the border into Mexico we drove up next to Papi.  He opened her door.  Alexandria wrapped her little three year old arms around his big shoulders and said, "Papi look at my pretty dress.  I wore it just for you.  It spins."

Not a big memory, but a darn cute one that I didn't want to forget.  So I thought I would document it and bring back Memory Monday, at least for this week and maybe next week too if some random memory comes to me while washing the never ending pile of dirty dishes.