Ela's first OSC Outings

Back when I first arrived in Sasebo, my first ever OSC event was tomato picking on Oshima Island. I seriously considered not going because it was a really wet, nasty day. Upon arriving, I discovered the tomatos were in greenhouses and was very glad I had come along. They were, by the way, the very best tomatos EVER. So when the OSC invitation to go tomato picking came out this time, I knew I wanted to go, but wasn't sure I should with a child who wasn't yet two weeks old. It seemed like quite an undertaking. Luckily, Mom's here, and she said we should do it. Mom knows best! So we caravaned with a few other families out to Oshima Island and found the greenhouses on a much nicer day:

Mom picked the tomatos...

Ela and I looked for good ones to pick... okay, Ela didn't really look very hard...


After that, we all went for a nice lunch at a nearby hotel, then Mom and I struck out on our own for a park in the center of the island that turned out to have a lovely view from this lookout tower....

Ela slept through most of the trip and chose really convienent times to eat, so we deemed her first event a great success. The tomatos were again excellent. I'll be enjoying them for a few more days yet.

Then today OSC did a recycle shop trip. This one I really really wouldn't have done without Mom, but with her, it was a must. Recycle shopping, for those of you who don't know, is like thrift shopping in Japan. People donate the stuff they don't want anymore, and these shops sell the stuff. Only since this is stuff they would throw away otherwise, they call it recycling. You can get a lot of neat Japanese stuff for relatively good prices if you know where the recycle shops are. Today, we stopped by six of them, and found some nice things to add to our collections. We didn't, however, take pictures. Ela took the whole thing very well. She was awake for the first stop, then fell asleep and only woke up to be fed occasionally throughout the day. Another very successful event. So now when Mom goes home, hopefully I won't be too wussy to take Ela out on my own. It will be a lot more work, though...