Riku's trip to Kanagawa

On the weekend we rented a car and drove about 90 minutes to Chigasaki in Kanagawa prefecture to stay with Toru's mum. Part of the reason for going was to celebrate Riku being 100 days old (actually he reached 100 days on the 19th), which is a significant milestone in Japanese culture and is marked by a ceremony called okuizome which means "first food". The traditional meal is a rice and beans dish called sekihan and a baked snapper which are celebration foods in Japan- the baby doesn't actually eat anything of course since 3 months is still too young for solid food, but there is a little pair of chopsticks at the table for him/her.

Riku was a bit fussy that afternoon and evening, but we got a few pictures.

Sekihan (red rice) and tai (snapper)

Riku prefers to eat his hands :)

The 7th of July is Tanabata in Japan, and one of the customs is to write a wish on a piece of coloured paper and tie it to a bamboo tree. Even though it was a couple of weeks past the 7th Toru's mum had prepared the papers and a branch and we all wrote a wish on our pieces of paper- mine and Toru's mum's wishes were for health and happiness for Riku, Toru's was for his allergies (he seems to be allergic to his mum's house) to get better.

On the way back from Toru's mum's we stopped at Chigasaki beach for a few hours. Chigasaki tends to get a lot of garbage (plastic bottles etc) wash up on it so I was pleased to see that it was relatively clean that day, although there were big piles of sticks and some kind of reed probably from last week's typhoon. I took Riku to have a look at the waves and put his feet in the water- he wasn't too impressed with the waves even with me carrying him but didn't mind having his feet in the water too much.

I was hoping before he was born that he would inherit his dad's skin colour so I wouldn't have to worry too much about him getting sunburned but unfortunately he is as pasty as me so will have to put up with hats and sunblock just like I have all my life! Looking forward to taking him to Tairua when we go to NZ in December and he will be old enough to go for a swim and play in the sand properly :)