Christmas Festivities in Japan

Dinner Party at the Wakayama's home - Dec. 17

After Joanna and Giancarlo left, we had less than a week to prepare for our home leave to Canada and the US. Besides the packing, I needed to run a bunch of errands and of course some last minute shopping. In the midst of it all, we were invited to a Christmas dinner at the Wakayama's, which was a delight. Wakayama-san's wife, Miyuki-san (far right in the above photo), is a fabulous cook!

Markus was attentive as Wakayama-san demonstrated a wooden firestarter contraption. He couldn't get it to work...fortunately perhaps!

In addition, I decided to throw a sort of last minute holiday luncheon with some close friends - most of whom were children from Markus' Jidokan class, including their moms.

Markus was elated playing with seven other toddlers running rampant in our small apartment. All the mothers brought a variety of dishes to add to the potluck so of course we had a plethora of delicious food! Rodney unfortunately missed out on the festivities since he had to work. He did however contribute by creating a DVD slide show presentation of collective photos taken from Jidokan classes and play dates. Everyone enjoyed watching it. Kudos for Rodney!

Back row, from left to right: Mihoko and Chihiro; Amanda and Addison; Hiromi and Taro; Sayaka and Kotaro; Shoko (Amanda's Japanese tutor); Markus and I.

Front row: Emi and Moe; Ayuki and Riko; Yoko and Aiumi; Keiko

After the party, we found Addy and Markus chilled out on his sofa. With all the hard playing, I guess kids need to unwind too!