Oh the hords!

Well, today we discovered just what happens when you take 18 little girls out into what can only be called a mass of humanity.

Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City were awash with people. We set out at 9:30, but didn't hit the square until well after 10, even though it's a 20 minute walk away. It takes the bus about half an hour to get through Bejing traffic and get anywhere near the Square.

From the second you step off the bus, you're approached by people selling hats, water, Rolexs, flags, little red books. And it isn't long until you join the throngs of people, Chinese and foreigners alike, who have come to step foot on one of China's most well known landmarks. Beijing is a popular tourist destination for Chinese tourists, including all the school kids on summer holidays. We saw dozens of school groups, many of whom stopped to peek in on the babies.

Tiananmen Square itself is indescribably huge. The pictures can't possibly give you a real impression of the scale of the place. Suffice it to say, I finally saw a portrait of Chairman Mao. Knowing the history of this country over the last 50 years, it was fascinating to see the pilgrammage to this place that so many Chinese make. Of particular interest was the huge queue of people streaming along to see Mao's mausoluem - where the Chairman himself lies in state - indefinitely- encased in a crystal coffin thanks to the wonders of modern preservation. Unfortunately, with the crowds, the heat and trying to steer strollers through the throngs, we didn't get enough of a chance to truely appreciate the magnitude (and message) of the place.

Interestingly, despite the surroundings, the babies still drew a lot of attention. Anytime we stopped with the stroller, you'd get a handful of people come up to play with the babies. It was almost hard to get moving again when Marui told us to "move out". It was particularly funny when Marui arranged to have a group picture taken in front of the famous Tiananmen facade. While we were being organized by the photographer, a group of Chinese tourist crowded around to take our picture (picture on the right). Guess we were quite the spectacle with the strollers all lined up in a row!

At the end of Tiananment Sqaure and underneath the massive portrait of Mao, is the entrance to the Forbidden City - the past home to the Emperors of China and their entourage, including Empresses and concubines. The name was taken from the fact that the common people were "forbidden" to enter the place, and it operated as its own little municipality within what was then known as Peking. However, following the communist revolution, the Forbidden City was opened to the masses, and today, is one of Beijing's biggest tourist attractions.

Once again, the scale of this place needs to be seen to be believed. Courtyard after courtyard, that seem to go on for miles and off-shoots of smaller courtyards that create a maze of courtyards. Walking through, it is easy to see why it's called a "city" rather than a palace. I'll post some of the more intersting pictures, but they don't really do justice to the scale and beauty of the place. Admittedly, we - once again - were in no position to truely appreciate the majesty and artistry of the place due to the crowds and our preoccupation with the babies in 30 degree heat. For anyone considering a trip to Beijing, I would highly recommend heading to the Forbidden City very early in the morning, to avoid the crowds (if that's at all possible).







Unfortunately, the bus was fairly late to pick us up and we all wound up waiting on an incredible busy sidewalk for 40 minutes with 18 hungry, thirsty and tired little girls. Probably fair to say that everyone was a bit of a wreck by the time we got back on that bus, and incredibly grateful for the air conditioning. As for Kiyomi, well, she just seemed to take it all in stride. It's amazing what that girl will put up with as long as she's out and about and has a cookie in her hand!

As we learn more and more about Kiyomi, we learn more and more about the perils and challenges of parenting. One of our finer moments was when we picked up the cookie that Kiyomi has dropped on a Beijing sidewalk, reasoning that she only seemed interested in putting a cookie in her mouth on her own the day before, so she won't possibly try it on a bumby sidewalk... Fifteen minutes later we looked down to see cookie crumbs on her fface, and palming a half eaten cookie. It's ok though, because that was totally eclipsed by today, when I was giggling and playing with her on the bus, and she tossed her head backwards... against the window ledge! Sure hope our kid survives us!

Tomorrow is a bit of a rest day. There are a couple of shopping excursions planned, but being a little shped-out, we're planning on taking it easy. It will be a relief not to have to be up, fed, ready, and on the bus by a certain time. I tell ya, you start to develop a bit of a love-hate relationship with that bus on trips such as these.

Tonight's parting shot is, shockingly, not of Kiyomi! This one is of Hope and her dad, Dave. Seems to just be one of those shots that are worth a thousand words. Good night from Beijing!

Another Day in China

Actually a rather uneventful day today - but of course that didn't stop us from taking alot of pictures. The perils of travelling with a Suzuki, I tell ya!

We woke up early to head to the clinic for Kiyomi's medical appointment. It was a fairly cursory exam, aimed primarily at fulfilling the requirements for Immigration Canada. We're happy to report that all seems well. Given the wailing we heard from the other girls who went ahead of us, we were expecting a full out wail from the little nipper, but she mostly just looked puzzled!

We went back to the little Szechuan restaurant we discovered last week for lunch. Let me tell you, this time, we got a lot more attention. Well, ok, not "we" per sey, so much as Kiyomi. It would seem our little girl knows how to work an audience - she was making funny faces at the tables around us and at the wait staff (she and Alex will be able to put on some pretty impressive shows in the future). So much so, that when we got up to leave, we had 3 waitresses and the hostess crowd around us in order to hold Kiyomi. All I can say is that we are in such trouble. This one may just take after her uncle Brahm with that rare ability to charm the skin off a snake!

We then wandered a large shopping mall looking for some clothes for the little nipper (a performer after all needs her wardrobe and clothes/shoes here are really inexpensive), where she drew more attention. Just call us Kiyomi's sherpas - we carry the cookies. In fact, all the babies here draw a fair bit of attention. Chinese culture really seems to embrace their children, and it is not uncommon to have people come up to you on the street to coo or hold the girls. They enjoy their smiles and are always kind and gentle with the babies.

This afternoon, we actually ventured outside on our own and explored some of the streets around our hotel. Our hotel actually sits on a major road, with large government and financial buildings all along it. Other than the occassional more traditional Chinese architectural influences, it seems like any major big city anywhere. However, the streets behind the hotel are a little more what one would expect from a more typical Chinese city - small, narrow alleyways with scads of pedestrians and bikes, and the occassional car. There were homes, small shops, litlte markets, restaurants lining the small maze of alleyways, with people hurrying here and there. It looked like some of the local vendors had just set up shop in order to catch the afterwork crowd. Also, unlike in the hotel, I was the only white face around. Interestingsly, while there were a few smiles at Kiyomi, we drew less attention.

This evening, we headed out with some of the group to a local restaurant. Our guide ordered for us and we sat at one of those huge tables with the biggets lazy susan I've ever seen. Food kept spinning around, and it was an occassional challenge to keep up. However, it was all pretty good, and amazingly cheap. A full meal, plus drinks came to a grand total of about $7 Cdn each (and this was on the expensive side for a local restaurant).

By the way, Kohji tried to post a link to video on the previous post. We're not sure if it works or not. We're having trouble accessing it, but in theory, it should be accessible. If not, just ignore it. Also, we are still getting all the comments that you're posting, so keep'em coming (and for those of you who have asked Zumu and Zufu are my crazy parents!)

Tomorrow is Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. I think it will be the first time that I actually see a picture of Chairman Mao since I've been here. However, before I go, a parting shot:

Kiyomi's first online performance

And now for something completely different! Thanks to Kohji's family and their gift of a video camera, we bring to you our first boring baby video!

Just click on the link below. It'll take you to a site called "streamload.com" where the video is stored. You just have to click on "kiyomi.mpg". It'll take a while to load since it's 5MB in size.
http://mediamax.streamload.com/kojtam/Links/DBCFE136E1

Enjoy. 

Day (oh, I've lost count)

Climbing the walls - literarlly and figuratively - is the theme for today.

After a couple of great nights, where Kiyomi went down like a dream, tonight we learned that there's more than "umbas" to this little monkey. She was in full scale, man the torpedoes, all lungs on deck wail this evening. We think she may have been overtired as she really didn't get a proper nap today (more on that later). Worst of all, just when she had finally nodded off in her crib, we learned of a traitor in our midst. Seems "sheepy" (previously referred in this blog) has a little short circut. As some of you may know, "sheepy" baas when you squeeze his little belly. Well, I was ready to ring his little neck when he went off without prompting just as Kiyomi was finally snuffling to sleep. Sheepy, at the moment, has been banished to the little hotel fridge - we're hoping he'll either freeze or the batteries will conk out as the blasted thing keeps baaing every few minutes.

However, other than the occassional little meltdown (which we're starting to figure out are mostly a result of our errors), she's doing great. We're learning what she likes to eat (steamed egg - popular with all the girls - and noodles) and starting to come up with solutions to the liquid intake (other than watermelon). We've also started to see her less serious side, and killed ourselves laughing with her when she's in full funny-face mode. We've alos made the pleasant discovery that if she's gotten the requisite naps during the day, she will happily chortle herself to sleep in her crib for the night, giggling to herself and playing with her toes. Hope we can figure out how to maximize that, especially after having to have cold pizza on the floor tonight because we were too fearful of making any sounds that would stir her or get sheepy going!

Her referral also said she was a very active little girl, and today she proved it by climbing the Great Wall of China. Yup, the little nipper went all the way to the top with no complaints. It took a few pieces of cookie on the way down, but generally she was content the whole hour and a half up and down. She also drew a number of comments and cooes from other passers-by, including a couple at the top who asked to have their picture taken with Kiyomi. Here are a few pictures of the adventure:

On the way up

At the top

Coming down

As you can tell from the pictures, it was a fairly overcast and foggy day, so we didn't get much by way of views up there. However, the Wall itself in an engineering marvel. The stairs go on forever, and it was a particularly haunting effect when they dissapeared in the the fog. There were thousands of people climbing today, despite the damp and light occassional rain. Young and old alike scaled the stairs - some to the first few towers, others all the way to the top. It was particularly impressive to see an elderly Chinese woman make her way up. She was moving slow, and resting every few steps, but you could tell she was determined to make it. I think Kiyomi, and a little girl from our group, Jenna, were the youngest to make it to the top that I saw.

Yesterday, a few of us took a freelance wander over to an ancient observatory that's just a hop, skip and jump away from our hotel. It was an interesting place, and provided a calm oasis from the constant traffic noise of Beijing. The instruments, for the most part, seemed to have been crafted in the 1600s, and were beautifully intricate metal casts. Unfortinately, the guide there didn't speak English (and I couldn't wrestle the phrase book away from Kiyomi in time), so I couldn't find out is the instruments still worked. The girls were a little less impressed with the instuments, but Kiyomi seems to love getting out and about, so it was definitely worth the trip.

Well, blogger seems to be causing me some problems tonight, so I best post this before I loose it (I've already had to rewrite about half of it when the program crashed). Tomorrow, it's off to the Western clinic for medicals. Hard to believe that we only have 4 more days left before we leave for home. Good night all.

Airplanes and other fun things

Whew! In Beijing and back on-line.

I know you're probably all tuning in to find out how Kiyomi's first airplane ride went. Well, let me tell you, it was completely and utterly... uneventful. In fact, yesterday was her best day yet. She had no realy fussiness, napped well and was generally in a good mood all day, even on the plane. This, despite the fact that she had dinner of leftover egg and ham in the airport (waiting for our delayed flight) and didn't get to sleep until 11:30 at night!

Our morning started out pretty easy, although she gulped down a huge breakfast. We headed for the Security Office at 10:30 in order to pick up the girls' passports. Needless to say, given that it was paper, Kiyomi took a huge interest in the passport. It only took a few minutes to get all the passports, but we had to go as the officials needed to see us and the babies. With that, we had finally completed all the paperwork to get her OUT of China. Now, we need to do all the paperwork to get her INTO Canada.

At 3:30, we all met in the lobby in order to get to the airport for our flight to Beijing. In some ways, it was a little sad to be leaving Kiyomi's birth province. We didn't get to experience much of Nanchang, but we at least have some stories and photos to take away with us. Unfortunately, once we got to the airport, we found out our flight was delayed an hour. Let me tell you, killing time in a waiting area with 18 babies is an experience. Luckily, we had brought some dinner for Kiyomi, so we entertained her with food while we waited. It was really entertaining though, when some announcement was made in Chinese, and all the Chinese people in the waiting area started to scramble away. We were convinced the announcement said - "if you want to get away from the babies, head to gate 5 NOW!" We caught on though, so they didn't escape us.

Our guide, Marui (on the right), has taken a bit of a shine to Kiyomi. We think it's because Kiyomi tends to scrunch up her face at people to make them laugh. Kiyomi likes Marui too, and will reach out to her when she comes by to say hello. We got a picture of Kiyomi with both our guides, Jenny (Nanchang) and Marui (Nanchang and Beijing). They are very sweet ladies and try to make things as smooth and comfortable for us as possible. They are also trying to teach us a few Chinese words. One we've heard a fair bit is "piao- liarng". It means, "beautiful", and many Chinese have come up to Kiyomi to play with her a little and cooed "piao-liarng". She generally just stares at them or makes a funny scrunched up face!

We've also discovered that Kiyomi likes to dance and bite (although not at the same time). If you hold her under her arms, and stand her up, she'll shimmy like crazy and laugh while doing it. The biting was an accidental discovery. We'd notice she liked to nuzzle against our forearms, and kinda suckle, usually when she's getting tired. However, if you nuzzle into her neck, she reacts by laughing and searching for something to chomp down on. I've actually got a Kiyomi bite on my chin, when she grabbed my chin in her teeth and pulled. The little nipper's got a strong jaw I tell ya! We also heard her first laughs yesterday. She gets a big kick out of watching her mom and dad turn into blubbering idiots making faces and silly noises. She's also getting snugglier.

Once the flight finally left, she was tired and fed, so she fell asleep for most of it. Kohji had to quickly learn how to eat rice with his left hand. He didn't do too bad considering (only dropped a couple of mouthfuls on the sleeping baby). Kiyomi did take a souvenir from her first flight and it's become her new favourite toy (yup, that's a barf bag - nothing's too good for our little girl).

By the time we made it back it to the Beijing hotel it was almost 10 o'clock. Most of the babies were tired, but generally doing ok considering. I can't say the same for the parents. Watching our group walk in, I can honestly say, I've never seem a more wasted bunch of travellers in my life. What does it mean when our daughters are all better travellers than we are?

This morning, the Canadian paper chase has already begun. We took all the girls down to the lobby this morning to get their visa pictures taken and Kohji is in the process of doing immigration paper work with the group downstairs as I type (while Kiyomi naps here in the room). The visa shoot was hilarious - all the babies had to be held out against a white background, while about 12 adults stood around them trying to get them to look at the camera. I swear these kids must think we're all nuts.

We're planning on taking it easy today, as tomorrow is a big day - we head to the Great Wall. I've been looking forward to this, and Kiyomi seems to do better when we get her out and about during the day. I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow.

A few more

Sorry, but I've just discovered a much faster way to post pictures, so I'm testing it out. This has the potential to cut the time it takes me to blog in half! Very excited...
 

A few more pictures

As promised, here are a few more pictures of the little rugrat, including one where she is kinda smiling. Note the paper clutched in her hands while sleeping in the stroller.


 

Day four

It's hard to believe it's only been four days. Every day, there are huge gains, and some pretty noticeable challenges. I'm opening today's post with a picture of Kiyomi holding her latest favourite toy - we think she's trying to hint something to her new parents.

The little nipper's personality is coming out more and more every day. It's amazing the difference over the last few days alone. Initially, she was withdrawn and suspicious, but she's very slowly coming out of her shell. She reaches for toys and food easily now, although she's not exactly sure what to do with it once it's in her hand. She chatters away to herself happily and regularly, although she's still a pretty serious baby. It's a bit of work to get her to smile, and you're never guaranteed success. We were also pretty excited to see her imitate movements today - moving her head to copy Kohji or lifting a ball in the air after we show her how. She ate a good breakfast and lunch, but the drinking thing is still slow - so we made sure to include watermelon with every meal.

There were some challenging moments today as well. She had a major meltdown this afternoon/evening that lasted about two and a half hours. Everything we tried was fruitless. Finally, out of exhaustion, Kohji put her in the Snugli - first facing in, to no avail. But then we turned her so that she was facing out, and she started to calm. Needless to say, we've had every single meal in the room today. We suspect that part of the problem may be that she didn't really nap much today - she seems to like a couple of naps, 2 hours each, in the morning and afternoon. Today, we only managed half of that. By the time she finally feel asleep at 8:30, she was spent (and so were we).

This morning was a trip to a state-run porcelain store. Once again, we were quite the spectacle on the street when we all streamed out of the bus with babies in tow. JiangXi is known as the porcelain capital of China, and is promoted heavily in the area. The pieces ran the gamut from traditional Chinese designs, to almost modern colours and textures. The really fine China was lighter than air. I was scared to pick it up for fear that I would crush it. I didn't realize porcelain could be made so thin and delicate. I think every one in the group bought at least a few pieces, but we've become legends among the group for how much we picked up. We really wanted a few special things from Kiyomi's home province.

After the porcelain place, we stopped for a wander through the People's Park. It's a nice park in the heart of Nanchang. If it weren't for most of us being caucasian and the strollers (they don't seem to really use strollers here), we may have possibly blended in at the park. There were mainly families, with kids in tow, wandering the paths. Again, we drew many inquisitive looks and comments. One group of women started speaking to me, and I looked helplessly over at our guide, Jenny. She said that they were wondering whether Kiyomi was a boy or girl. Apparently, they thought she was very beautiful, but thought she might be a boy as I had dressed her in shorts! The drive back from the park was interesting as we drove past a market area. While some of the shops seemed pretty typical, I was intrigued by the people who laid down blankets or baskets literarly on the street and sold their wares - usually few. It reminded me that outside the city, th is province is primarily agricultural and poor.

The rest of the day was pretty low key. It was a bit cooler and overcast today, so I tried venturing out of the hotel. Everytime we got organized and I made it downstairs, it had started raining, so we had to abort. We need to get quicker on the draw apparently. I'm told that there will be a time when it doesn't take us half and hour to leave the room!

I was going to try to leave you with some extra pictures of Kiyomi as I don't think I'll be able to post much, if at all tomorrow, but blogger isn't cooperating right now and I'm too exhausted to wait it out. We get the girls' passports and leave for Beijing tomorrow afternoon. I don't expect we'll get to the hotel in Beijing until 9 or 9:30, so we'll probably all crash (or at least I hope we will). I'll try to add a few more pictures in the morning.

Good night, and wish us luck on Kiyomi's first plane ride. Should be a doozy, as she, and a number of the other babies, don't seem to know how to suck from a bottle (it's supposed to help with the pressure changes). I already feel bad for the other passengers on that plane!

Day three

Two steps forward, one step back.

Kiyomi had a great sleep last night - about 9 hours and her fever was down this morning, and seemed back to normal this afternoon. She had a good breakfast, although we're still struggling with the liquid intake. Can a kid survive on watermelon alone? All in all, she had a good day, and was making some progress with grasping at things and babbling ("dada" and "aya" seem to be the biggest part of her babbling repretoire). We were thrilled to see her grow particularly attached to a piece of paper, although she also has a soft spot for "Sheepy" - a stuffed toy from her grandma. She even spent some time down in the playroom with a few of the other kids. She loves being around other kids, and seems espeically responsive to some of the older girls who are here with their families.

Now, however, she's having a minor meltdown. While we have no way of knowing, we think she's probably going through a period of missing her foster family. She wails when she looks at us. Kohji is currently walking back and forth with her, so that she can't look up and he's turning so she doesn't see me. It seems to be working, so keep your fingers crossed.

This morning, we headed to the country side to visit an 1000 year old village, Loutian, about an hour drive from Nanchang. It did seem to be a place forgotten in the past (although some of the homes seemed to have electricity), and we've been told the government aims to keep it that way for tourism. Even though many tour groups like ours have probably been run through the place, the girls attracted a fair bit of attention when we got off the bus. With a high of 36 today, there was a mass scramble to get hats and sunscreen in place. The locals (or peasants as our guide kept refering to them) were interested in the girls, and in these ridiculous tourists who brought a small army of strollers to an 1000 year old village! Needless to say, most of the babies were taken out of the strollers when we all realised that the walkways were what one would expect from an 1000 year old village - large uneven stones (note the empty stroller being dragged backwards).

The locals were much amused, and patient with us. While the town looks like a museum, for all intents and purposes, it is a functional town who's inhabitants are primarily farmers. It was hard to truely appreciate our surroundings, what with our proccupation with the heat and the babies. However, it was a pretty amazing place to see. The homes are sparsely furnished and the people seem to live fairly simply. They were all very friendly, and a little curious about us, and were happy to humour our feeble attempts at "ni hao" (hello in Chinese).
















The highlight of the tour was an enormous camphor tree that sits in the middle of the village, and is said to be 1000 years old. It is huge and magnificent, and offered a cooler repose after wandering through the rather stiffling alleys that make up the village.

In the afternoon, mommy headed to Walmart, while daddy and Kiyomi snoozed and headed to the play room. Walmart was... well, pretty much like any Walmart you'd find anywhere, only they sold a number of things I couldn't recognize. I wanted to pick up a few household items for Kiyomi to see as she gets older, and Walmart seemed the perfect place, so I joined a couple of other families making the trip.

Kiyomi had a dandy time hanging out with some of her buddies in the playroom here (although she was a little embarassed that she and Chloe had on the exact same outfit!)











She had mostly watermelon for dinner. We're a little anxious about it, but as we keep getting told - they'll eat if they're hungry. It's easy for us to forget that there girls are still going through a traumatic time, and we need to give them time to get comfortable, so we shouldn't be suprised if their appetites seem a little off.

Kiyomi finished the day with what was probably her first real bath. She seemed a little unsure at first, but once she realized she could splash, the bath seemed like an ok place. There are pictures, of course, but posting them here will make her hate me when she's 16, so I'll resist the temptation. Instead, I'll close with what we hope will become a bedtime ritual - the reading of a good book (thanks to Aunty Miyo, Uncle Martin and cousin Mika for the copy of "About Cats" - as you can see, it was a real page turner).


If would seem daddy's little trick worked, as the little nipper is snorfling behind me... oh, and Kiyomi is too. Good night all.

Forgot to mention

Oh ya, I also wanted to mention that we are getting the comments that everyone has been leaving on the blog site. This Anonymouse.org thing works great (a huge thank you to Jerry and Julie for that one), so we can view our blog and get your comments. Thanks to everyone who's been writing with good wishes. We make sure to pass them on to the nipper!

Also, we both seem to have email access, and are starting to crave news from home, so feel free to write to let us know what's going on in your lives. With the blog and a journal I'm keeping for Kiyomi, we may not be able to write you all back, but it's great to hear from the outside world!

Day two

I had thought that we got off pretty easy yesterday, and sure enough it was a bit of a tougher day today (and not just because both of us have biceps of jello right now, as it turns out Kiyomi likes to be held all the time).

Kiyomi slept well enough last night - from about 9 p.m. to after 6 a.m. She snorfled and whined at about 5:30, but was coaxed back to sleep with a little bum pat. In fact, she slept longer than I did!
However, once she did wake up, she seemed to have developed a wee bit of a cough. She didn't eat much at breakfast and its been hard to get liquids into her. We haven't yet figured out the right substance or receptical (sippy cup vs. bottle), and she seems resistant to whatever we try. Luckily, she loves watermelon, so we've been loading her up with that as much as possible. By the afternoon, the runny nose had appeared, and we knew she wasn't quite right as she seemed to be sleeping an awful lot, and has been a wee bit fussy. Sure enough, poor little nipper is running a low fever. So, she's spent much of her day sleeping, as evidenced by most of today's pictures.

We were shuttled to a local department store, where we experienced a little more shopping (I think we've already had our fill of shopping). We had to get a stroller and a few other baby essentials, so we negotiated our way around the place, primarily through hand gestures. Unlike the markets, there is no bargaining in department stores, so that made it easier in some ways. Of course, very little English is spoken by the attendents (and there are dozens of them), so it makes trying to figure things out a bit of a challenge and made me wish I had worked harder at learning just a few more Mandarin words. With 15 Canadian families (all of whom are caucasian except for Kohji) wandering the store with Chinese babies, it's safe to say, we drew attention.

It's a little embarassing to admit it, but we haven't ventured out of the hotel much. We would be more inclined to at least take a walk, but for the 36 celsius temperature and blistering uv. So we've pretty much cowered in the hotel, and tried to get to know the little nipper a little more. Of course, today, she slept most of the time, so daddy decided to join her.


Dinner tonight was in the hotel restaurant again. It had a special significance, but not necessarily a happy one for the nearby patrons. Only through this strange process is the topic of your kid's bowel movements something you would think to bring up to the strangers at the table next to you. I actually caught Kohji talking to a lady from the States with her two kids (also adopting) at the next table about how we had just fed Kiyomi some prunes as she hadn't yet 'gone', and that it didn't seem to take that long for the prunes to work their magic - ahh parenthood!

I'll leave you with two final shots - one of the river here in Nanchang and the other of Kiyomi's 'dinner' (yup, that's watermelon stuck to her cheek because she's snoozing).

















Tomorrow, we're going to see the country side and visit an 1000 year old city (assuming Kiyomi is up for the long bus ride). Right now, she and daddy are wandering the halls. Since she's been sleeping all day, she's a little resistant to it right now, so Kohji's taken her for a walk. Here's hoping it works.