we had so much going on last week! my birthday, my brother visiting, two holidays from school and a weekend in oita. we were so busy!!

i didn't have a great birthday, and i still don't want to talk about it...then my brother came to visit on wednesday. that night the kids and i went to yakiniku with him (yoshi had a drinking party). then we went home for ice cream and cake. ever since monday, when she found out it was my birthday, sasha had been asking about having cake. i finally made the cake on wednesday and every ten minutes she was asking about when we were going to eat cake. she was driving me crazy! yoshi was home for the candles and singing (in between work and the drinking party) so that was nice. after getting the kids hopped up on sugar and more sugar, it was time for bed! what fun....

thursday was a holiday (autumnal equinox) and we didn't really have any plans, but we thought we'd go to an onsen at the hotel. it turned out to be a really rainy day, so an onsen visit worked out really well. first we all went to lunch together (udon) and then drove to genkai.



on the way we stopped at the beach, but it was soooooo windy that we couldn't enjoy it. seriously, the sand nearly tore our skin off! yoshi spotted a baseball, though, so i put on my sunglasses and got it. then i saw another, so i started beach combing. i found four baseballs and all sorts of junk! it was so weird! the waves were pretty wild, that must have been why there was so much stuff. anyway, we went to the hotel and had a lovely bath. tommy and hiro went with the guys so it was just me and sasha in the onsen. HOW AWESOME IS THAT?? heheh. we pretty much just relaxed for the rest of the day, and had nabe (first nabe!) for dinner.

john was heading back to tokyo on friday, but not until the evening. first we took pictures, all of us together including yoshi. yoshi went to work, john and i put the kids on the bus, and then went to breakfast (me, tommy and my brother). then we went to japanese class, even john sat down to learn (he has studied japanese before). i think he actually really enjoyed it! then it was time for lunch, and then we went home to relax. after sasha got home on the bus, we jumped in the car and went to the school to get hiro. then we were off for the airport. we got there just in time, and the kids had a great time looking at airplanes. they were sad to say goodbye to 'unka john' but, he had to go. then we went home, had a quick dinner and then off to bed.