Japan Night

Mike and I always tell Grace she's our "Japanese baby" because she was born there.  But we moved when she was only ten months old so, unfortunately, she doesn't remember.

We have been looking forward to the William and Mary Japan night hosted by the international students in the MBA program.   I even taught Grace how to say hello and introduce herself in Japanese (the ONLY thing I remember in Japanese despite my nearly three years there).  And to my untrained ear, I think she does an exceptional job.

The evening did not disappoint.  There was a fashion show, a sumo wrestling demonstration, a taiko drum performance, and lots of food.  We dressed Claire in Grace's Hello Kitty jinbei (traditional Japanese clothing) that she wore for her first birthday.  Both Grace and Claire's favorite thing was the taiko drums.  I was afraid that Claire would be freaked out by the loud drumming, but the child loved it.  She was bouncing along on her daddy's lap and waving her hands like a maniac.  And Grace had just as much fun air drumming along with the performance.

The whole event made us very nostalgic about our time in Japan!

Thirsty after all that bouncing!

The girls in their Japanese clothes- Claire in Grace's old jinbei, and since we didn't have a larger one for Grace, she just wore Hello Kitty.  Hello Kitty is Japanese, after all!