A visit from distant relatives

Reina's Japanese hat

Chris' cousin, Yuko, came down from Tokyo this weekend to spend time with her family, Uncle Ken and Aunt Nobuyo.  They got the whole family together, to include lots of cousins and aunts: Cousin Futoshi and his family of 3 kids (10yo Itsuki, 7yo Akira, and 1yo Jyun), Cousin Sou and his girlfriend, Yuko and her family of 2 kids (Exactly the same ages as Reina and Kaiya, except the 3.5yo is a boy), Aunt Setsuko, Hiromi, Meiko (and John), Yoshiko, and Obachan Kuniko.  I think I got everyone.  What's crazy is they had us drive down to Naha for dinner with everyone on the eve of our big typhoon.  Everything turned out great, despite getting poured on.  Reina loved playing with Takuto, Yuko's 3.5 year old and it was fun passing around Kaiya and Minami, and comparing them, as they are only 4 days apart.

The whole table - lots of relatives.

The next morning, the typhoon was in full swing.  Again, this typhoon came with a lot of hype; originally it was a super typhoon, but I think by the time it hit us it was a category three.  It was definitely the worst of the three typhoons we've had since we've been back.  Honestly, I'm a bit over typhoons. We get stuck inside and its just boring.  Oh, and for the first time since high school, we lost power for a very hot, three hours.  It made me appreciate things like air conditioning, hot meals, and of course the internet.

Yuko's family (kids the exact same age)

Takuto (Yuko's son)

Yoshiko with Kaiya

Oba-chan and Kaiya

John Pitt & Kaiya

Futoshi & Jyun

The Grandparents: Ken and Nobuyo

Playing at home

With all of the time we spent at home, I finally got some new, good shots of Kaiya.  I wasn't able to get any of both girls, as Reina just hangs all over Kaiya, which Kaiya doesn't really care for.  Due to the typhoon, we didn't get to see Reina dance, but it was re-scheduled for next weekend, so we're all looking forward to that.

I did the best I could to arrange the pictures, but blogger is notorious for making that difficult!