Summer Vacation Coming To An End

So… summer is almost coming to an end. The new school term, speech contest practice and taiiku sai (sports festival)  preparations will all kick-off next week. Normally, summer time means relaxation, reading, and more relaxation… but for all those out there who are parents… you and I all know that summer time means not a day of rest. It’s a time for challenging your parenting creativity and mental training. No school to save you for the whole hot sweltering sticky humid period. Still, I had a two-week break in London, Bristol and Northampton. Pacing yourself and stocking up on plenty of drink and ice cream will go a long way to making the children happy a long with plenty of games and activities planned both indoors and outdoors. My son was well pleased when he received his first issues of the Little Kids National Geographic magazine, but less can be said with the new 3D atlas, which by the third day had been the victim of a pin attack borrowed by yours truly – the ABC wall chart! Smile and breathe, smile and breathe. ^^

Last week, we took a drive out to one of my favourite places in Japan (Yokohama) to stay for three days. We visited; the Yokohama Zoological Gardens ZOORASIA, the Anpan Man Museum, China Town and the Egyptian’s Sunken Treasures Exhibition. All of them were fantastic, albeit the Anpan Man museum a little disappointing. The Zoological gardens were beautiful with Indian elephants, leopards, snowy owls, Amazon and African themes galore… a must visit! The highlight was most definitely the Egyptian Exhibition which showcased artifacts from the lost cities of Alexandria, Canopus and Heracleion. The children loved it and were happy to be able to recognize some of the gods/goddesses that were the same as the ones at home. Yes, you guessed right… I’m an Egytptomaniac and recently been telling my children about the different kami-samas. At present my likened pharaohs are Akhenaten and Hatsheput, and likened gods/goddesses being Horus and Isis.

On the weekend I took a trip into Tokyo to visit another Egyptian exhibition. These collections were from the famous Museo Egizio in Turin, Italy. The only other museum beside the Egyptian museum in Cairo, Egypt, dedicated to Egyptian history and culture. The collection was magnificent ~ canopic jars, statues, a real mummy, and an excerpt from the Book of the Dead…. amazing, stunning and well worth the visit! It is now my dream to visit the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Egypt.

Well, tomorrow it is swimming and more fun and games and then a two-day family trip to the beach to build sandcastles and bury daddy alive beneath the sand. Yummy!

And on another note… the new football season has started back in England. Come on you Gunners! Arsenal! ^^