Having lived for so long in New York apart from people we know. Now, we want to update our family and friends on our adventures as we now make a life here in Osaka with our son, Akira and daughter, Hannah. Still quite on our own, my family being from the Philippines and Rinka from the Kyushu area.

Blog is the best way to show photos we've taken or actually been in it. I hope you guys enjoy them.



Visited Countries Map

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Never running out of new things to do is what I always cherished living in a big city. I am sure there are still some temples here and there left unseen and definitely still a lot of nature sites in the bustling city of Osaka left undiscovered by my itchy feet. In my 3 years of living in this city, I intentionally left 2 places for a later visit, namely the Osaka City aquarium and Universal Studios Japan, mainly because I'm waiting for the kiddies to grow up a bit more so they can better appreciate it. We went to the [View Full Entry]

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What a tedious 4 hour flight from Osaka to Manila via Cebu Pacific. The air feels hoarse, our throat became sore and dry. But the airfare was a measly $180 for 3 passengers and not a single dollar for my infant daughter. We didn't have previous plan to travel to the Philippines, but who could resist such an offer. Should we fly Cebu Pacific again?..... absolutely! We arrived home 30 mins past midnight. And no matter what time of the day you arrive in the Philippines from abroad, there will be a bounty waiting for you. We dined with my parents [View Full Entry]

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Always wanted to see the panda. But zoos that housed those seemingly cuddly and cute pandas are very far from our home. But we have exhausted all interesting places around our neighborhood. So we braved almost an hour and a half with our two kiddies, to Oji Zoo in Kobe. Luckily my kids are in a good mood and seemed not to mind the long train ride. We arrived at the zoo just half past nine and were so happy to see one of the pandas enjoying his meal. And the other one came close to the crowd and slept in [View Full Entry]

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Our family can't stay home for more than 12 hours a day. We need to constantly be away from our house, or our kids will go berserk. But we can't travel very far as it is very inconvenient for me and my wife, as we need to rush back home for our kids afternoon siesta. And traveling far is not really a great option for parents with a baby and a toddler. So we always ended up going to the same mall, which is a 2 minute bike ride from our house. God knows how we detest malls, no matter how [View Full Entry]

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It took a while for me write about my trip made to the Philippines last August for a very sad reason. We travel for a lot of different reasons, and for whatever it is, it will be always be an enriching experience. Living abroad for most of my adult life, an untimely call from my home country always sends anxiety attacks. But on the early morning of August 10th, the message was sent by my sister in an incoherent and chappy manner through my Yahoo Messenger. It says "Kuya (Tagalog for older brother), si Mama (our grandmother), please call". It only [View Full Entry]

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We were supposed to stay a total of 22 days in the Philippines. That meant endless family reunions and outings. I love, love, love spending time with my family but this also our chance to have willing and trusted people to look after our kids. So wifey and myself wanting to have much needed alone time, left our kids to the loving care of my family and flew for a 3 day vacation to Bangkok. It was our second time in Bangkok, and we're not really out in Thailand for some heavy traveling. We just want to enjoy some solitary moment [View Full Entry]

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There was the still the slight chill of winter as we left Osaka for the Philippines. Thus, the humidity in Manila was a bit uncomfortable. But nonetheless, all is well as we drove up to the cool mountain of Tagaytay as soon as we arrived. There we stayed overnight, viewed the Taal Volcano and Lake, dinner at Jospehines and called it a day. The next morning we passed by the Good Sheperd convent on our way down to Manila. The convent is famous for its delicacies so we bought coconut pie and ube jam. This would eventually be our lunchas we [View Full Entry]

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I wanted to document for friends and family my Japan experience when I started this blog. I also planned to travel abroad a lot, which have now been put on hold indefinitely. Surprise, surprise a second baby is on the way. Whew!!! as if carrying a baby and a stroller up and down subway stairs, changing nappies on a tight airplane lavatory are not enough detriment on traveling, and not to mention the cost of having children. No complaining here folks, but I guess its now time to move this blog to the kiddie-playpen-at-the-mall-for-5-consecutive-weekends-blog.com. Although there were no exciting traveling involved, [View Full Entry]

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There are three wonder of nature one cannot experience growing in a tropical country, that is, snow, changing autumn leaves and cherry blossoms. I'll talk more about it later, here are the pictures though. [View Full Entry]

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I haven't been sleeping right for the past two weeks. Well yeah I'm having anxiety attacks combined with my retrospective mode, which automatically switched itself on and I can't figure a way to turn it off. I hope I am still living in America wherein I can just run to a specialist and easily claim psychological imbalance and get a prescription drug to calm my nerves. I now feel sorry for my bias on taking prescription drugs to help induce happiness or relax the mind, hehhehe. When I turned 30 last year I didnt have time to reflect on the wee [View Full Entry]

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