The Week #169

  • šŸ‚ Autumn suddenly arrived this week. One day the low was 25 and the high was 33. The next day the low was 19 and the high was 27. This summer was very long and we didn't have but one typhoon to bring some relief from the heat. Very very glad it's over.
  • šŸ„ā€ā™‚ļø We visited the Enoshima area for the first time since...March. Leo and I splashed a bit in the still warm water. Afterwards we all went to the aquarium to check out the sharks. Despite us visiting on a regular basis over the years, I don't think we've ever looked slowly at the entire aquarium...it's always a bit of a rush.
  • šŸšŸ As we walked to ride the monorail home we saw a homeless person. Leo didn't see him. But as we got close, he said "kusai" (stinking/smelly) aloud. After we crossed the street, Leo got small talking to about learning to think things without saying them and that not everyone has a home to go home to each night and not everyone can take a bath every day. He seemed like he understood.
  • šŸ® Our local shrine took out the mikoshi for the first time in since 2019. The last time they did it was actually the day we moved in to our house. Along the road leading to the shrine is a small festival with games and food.
    Vendors selling food on the road leading to the shrine

    We bought some yaki-soba (stir fried noodles), tako-yaki (octopus balls), and some cotton candy. Leo's wanted to try cotton candy for a while so he was very excited to try it. A surprise to no one, he's a fan.
    Father and son making tako-yaki
  • šŸŽ¶ I made a great batch of Mexican style pinto beans and found a new favorite YouTuber, ArnieTex. His channel focuses a lot on cooking the food I used to eat in Texas. Why the music note emoji, you ask? IĀ  taught Leo a song that every kid should know about beans*. You know the one, it goes something like:

    Beans, beans the magical fruit.
    The more you eat, the more you toot.
    The more you toot, the better you feel.
    That's why we eat beans at every meal.

    And I'm quite happy / proud to say that he's memorized it and sings it too me a couple of times a day. His small grammatical mistakes are also cute. I kinda like his version "The more you toot, the better the feel".

    * I also learned there's a version where first two lines are "Beans, beans, they're good for your heart. The more you eat, the more you fart" from a co-worker. They'd never heard the magical fruit version and I'd never heard the heart version.