saturday morning in miyazaki was quite cold! yoshi actually probably needed another blanket during the night! the camera crew was there early in the morning, but thankfully they didn't film us eating breakfast! (i guess i didn't mention it in the previous post, but they were from a japanese TV station for an on-going show about foreign wives in japan.) victoria had a speech to give that morning, and yoshi decided to go with her. her inlaws were going out and her husband had work to do, too, so she took her daughter to daycare and left her two sons with me and my kids. thankfully they are old enough to entertain themselves with minimal adult supervision because i had a terrible headache!! hiro was seemed to be out of it too (perhaps we stayed up too late the night before) because he was asleep by 11! very good for me to rest and try to deal with my headache, but i was in charge of the kids' lunch and it didn't get done.

no worries, though, because it was mainly to be the stew from the night before and bread (and cheese!! hahaha) which victoria heated up for us after she got home at one. yoshi had really enjoyed her speech, he said she was a great speaker! that was good, but it was a relief to have some help with hiro again.

the temple also does the blessing for a baby (something similar to what we didn when sasha was a month old), geared towards buddism of course. victoria kindly lent us a christening dress for sasha which she had bought for her own daughter. her husband performed the ceremony, it was very lovely. and filmed of course. afterward the producer/director took our picture. hiro didn't want to have anything to do with that, though, so i had to tickle him to get him to stay--and to smile.



our plan for the afternoon was onsen! yoshi brought up hiro's car seat from our car and put it in victoria's van. hiro saw him do it and followed him. then yoshi got something from the house and walked by me--without hiro. i had been nursing sasha on the steps of the temple and asked yoshi where hiro was. yoshi didn't know. i told him that hiro followed him--didn't he see him? no, no idea. so, we started calling for hiro. i looked in the van--there was the carseat, but no hiro! the search was on! how far could a two-year-old get?? the biggest worry was the river. yoshi went down there, but no hiro. victoria and her husband came down and helped us search. i checked in the van again...and there the little stinker was in the back playing with the curtains!! gah! well, it was a relief, though i really wish he would answer when we call his name...

the onsen was lovely. only victoria and her daughter came with us. yoshi ended up going alone because hiro cried so hard when we separated. it was relaxing--and nice to be away from the cameras! haha! the added bonus was victoria's husband did the cleaning up from lunch and prepared dinner (nabe, it was great!) after we returned from the onsen, the cameraman and sound guy said their goodbyes. apparently they were from kagoshima. it was nice but also sad in a way to see them go. the director/producer and his assistant, as well as the 'interviewer' stayed for dinner. i was feeling pretty run-down, and my headache had returned, so i took the kids down to bed. yoshi came with me, but after they had settled he went back up to the house. i fell asleep! very busy day.

we had put sasha on this red cushion for taking pictures, but hiro wanted to pat and kiss her. this is the best shot i could get!! LOL