Anniversary lunch

It's near the end of the semester for me and so I was lucky to have Friday off this week. We had decided to go for lunch to celebrate our fourth-year anniversary. We went into our local town where there is a famous eel restaurant. Eel is my favourite Japanese food and so we were both looking forward to this meal. We arrived at the restaurant 10 minutes after it opened and it was almost full. We had asked the waitress to take a photo but she had shaky hands and we got a blurry photo. So instead, I'll show you our individual photos with our yummy eel on rice meal:
By the end of the meal, the restaurant had many people waiting for tables, so I'm glad we got there early. The meal was good, although not our favourite place in the end, but we still enjoyed having our anniversary lunch there.

Third-year Anniversary

Ayako and I celebrated our third wedding anniversary on Tuesday, but actually went out to celebrate it on Thursday. We went to the Kanzanji area near our house, which is where we celebrated our first anniversary. This time though, we ate lunch and enjoyed an onsen (hot spring bath) at the priciest hotel in the area, Kokonoe Hotel.
We had lunch first which included tempura and sashimi:

The lunch was very delicious and we had a lovely view of Hamanako lake:After lunch, we had our photo taken outside the restaurant:
Since we were so full, we decided to go for a walk outside before going to the onsens. We found a long deck leading out into the lake and we took a photo together there. Here was our first attempt when the self-timer went off sooner than expected:
The second one was the shot that we were aiming for (although I'm not sure which I like better):
Afterwards, we went to the separate male/female onsens. Mine was wonderful with 9 types of baths and a sauna. Since it was early afternoon on a Thursday, I had the whole place to myself for two hours. Definitely one of my best onsen experiences.

Second wedding anniversary

On Monday evening (July 13th) Ayako and I went out to celebrate our second wedding anniversary. We went out to dinner at Torizen, which is where we had lunch with our families last May. This time, we ate in the main restaurant. Here is Ayako patiently waiting to start eating her food:
We arrived there early and so we had the restaurant to ourselves for the first hour. We had a nice table next to the window overlooking a garden and the lake:
Here is a bird we saw bathing in the small pond:
After dinner, we went for a small walk out in the garden and had our photo taken by one of the waitresses:
We went to see where we had eaten lunch last year and were surprised to find that the room had been renovated. It is now a larger room with wooden floors and tables and is for small wedding receptions.

Anniversary dinner

Ayako and I don't often go out for dinner since Ayako prefers cooking good homemade meals, which I have no problem with at all. But we decided to go out for our 3rd anniversary (since we started dating). We went to same restaurant that we went to on our first anniversary, Ume-no-hana:
As you can see, it's a tofu restaurant. We had a different course than last time, and with so many small courses, I was quite full by the end of the meal. Here's Ayako patiently waiting for the photo to be taken before getting to try all the yummy dishes:

Beach party

The whole summer, I haven't been down to the beach or been into the sea for a swim. So finally we got people together for a beach party to enjoy the last days of summer. Here's Indigo with Rory and Keiji playing in the sand:

Ayako, Christine and Julia playing in the water:
A nice sunset:
Keiji cooking on the BBQ:
Heather, Jack and Hiromi eating dinner:
Then we started playing with some sparklers that Heather and Eiki had brought. Here's Eiki and Emi lighting the sparklers:
Christine & Sam:
Satoko:
Eiki:
Ayako & me:
Then we enjoyed a big bonfire that we got going:
We camped overnight, only to be woken up at about 5:30am. There were already 30 surfers in the water and lots of vans with more surfers were driving by our tents. I tried to sleep again, but by 6 o'clock, it had started raining. Finally by 6:30, we decided to get wet and pack up the tent and head home. Now we've got lots of camping supplies drying in our house. Still, I'm glad we could have another beach party this year.

Family visit to Japan - Part 2 - "Wedding" Day

Since Ayako and I got married last year, this day was for the 2 families to meet each other for the first time. Ayako's family came over early and Ayako's mother helped Ayako put on her kimono and and helped me put on my hakama:
We decided to go to Garden park (which is close to where we live) to have photos taken of the 2 families together. Unfortunately, in the morning, it was raining a bit:
Here's a shot of Ayako's 2 nephews under an umbrella:
Even with the rain, Barbara got some photos done in the park:
Early in the week, Ayako and I had gone to the park to find the best place to take photos. There's a nice part of the park called Monet's garden, which is where we decided to have photos of the families together. Luckily, by the time we got there, the rain had stopped. Here are some of the pictures that were taken with various groups from the 2 families:






Finally, we had some more shots done with just the two of us:

And one last photo with Jason and Barbara:
We then had a short drive to a nice restaurant, Torizen. Some of us rested on the ride there:
Here we are at the restaurant before the meal:

We had a very delicious meal. Luckily by that time, it was a sunny afternoon and so we could go outside afterwards and enjoy the weather. There was a nice large window facing the lake from our room and a door led to a nice veranda overlooking the lake. Neo and Rio enjoyed playing in this small garden area:
Here's me preparing a ball toy that Rio received so that he could go play with it:
We all enjoyed the weather out on the porch area:
And even had some nice photos taken there as well:

Canada trip - part 3 - Barbara's wedding

On Friday, we drove down to Toronto for Barbara’s wedding:

The weather had been cloudy all day, but luckily it was bright and sunny for the wedding in the evening:

I even got a small part in the ceremony:

Mom and Jason’s mom, Cecile, had trouble with the wind while they tried to light candles during the ceremony:

There was also a Philippine tradition done, where the couple had a veil wrapped around them, then rope, and then received coins passed down through the family:

And then they were married:

It was nice to also see lots of family and friends whom I haven’t seen for awhile:

The room for the reception was very nicely made up:

Dad piped in the couple:

Tony and others made speeches:

And we all ate delicious food:

There was even songs sung and golf balls putted to get the couple to kiss:

After dinner the was the cutting of the cake:

And the first dance:

As well as some Scottish dancing done:

We had a wonderful time on our trip and now Ayako has lots of new names to remember.