Konnichi-wa! This month we traveled to Japan, which we all enjoyed so much it may be hard to top! Our important focuses going into this travel were art (poetry, origami), nature, and respect. Henry is in a total sassy threenager stage right now so there's been many discussions on being respectful and how to be kind with your words and actions.
I wasn't able to get all the books I had planned, but it actually worked out well as these 3 took us a while to get through. Our favorite book, which we enjoyed so much we plan on buying, was All About Japan. This book was awesome - it gave us haikus to read, recipes, history, a language guide - everything! We especially liked learning about the homes, schools, and food. Did you know that school children take turns serving lunch to their peers? A fascinating bit, considering our current Covid times, is that they wear masks while doing this to help prevent the spread of germs. They also spend every afternoon cleaning up the school together. I love these signs of respect towards each other and their surroundings.
My First Book of Japanese Words had Henry's attention the entire time and we've enjoyed practicing our new phrases we learned: waa!and yatta - meaning "wow! I did it!"
I Live in Tokyo was our final book, it went through month by month which was fun.
We were able to watch one of my favorite childhood movies, Kiki's Delivery Service. We happened to stumble across a new kid's show that we all enjoy, called We Bare Bears. The creator is Chinese, but there's a fun episode where they go into a Ramen shop in Japan - check it out!
Tyler and I enjoyed watching Anthony Bourdain's Japanese episodes. He did such a good job covering the food and culture of the countries he visited. I had forgotten how into baseball the Japanese are until we watched.
Which leads me to our favorite part of the whole month... the food! Oh man, the food!
I actually found this selection of treats, a Dagashi, and let Henry pick one treat a day. He loved them! Seriously, he loved every single treat, including one that was a pork katsu flavored potato puff. Tyler's favorite was these little sweet tart like bits mixed into pop rocks and I liked the marshmallow stick.
We made Chicken Katsu and Ramen, both of which we'll share here soon. It was our first time having authentic Ramen and it's a new favorite. Henry was not so much a fan, but Leo loved it.
Lastly, we did a little bit of crafting, getting the idea once again from Mandy on Momma Society. We made Koinobori windsocks using recycled toilet paper rolls, some gel crayons, and string. Koinobori are traditionally made to celebrate Kodomo-no-Hi (Children's Day) and they symbolize courage and strength. Black is used to symbolize Dad, Red or pink for Mom, and then blue and green for the children. Each of us made our own, Leo even colored part of his own - his first time using crayons. I love how they turned out!
Sayonara! I hope you'll come along with us as we travel to...
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