For those of you who don't know Yugioh, it is a Japanese cartoon show where the hero is (apparently) the reincarnation of some ancient Egyptian prince and has to play this weird card game to save the world from his arch enemy.  (And I probably got most of that wrong. But, please, no nasty emails from Yugioh fans out there. Allow me to wallow in my ignorance. Besides, Yugioh is already passe here.  Everyone here is now into Konjiki no Gashuberu. So Yugioh is just a vague memory!)

A picture of Kevin with his Millenium Puzzle cake.  Yugioh wears an inverted pyramid pendant around his neck.  It is a piece of the Millenium Puzzle.  The cake looks white, but it was really yellow frosting with strawberry butter cream frosting.  I couldn't add much food coloring cuz Japanese don't like food coloring.  Bottom two layers were chocolate and top was pound cake.   Thank you Kazue (one of my assitants) for helping me finally get the top of the pyramid to work out.  (Ok, I admit that I am geometrically challenged.)

Before everyone headed home, it was time for a group shot. 18 Little Japanese friends of Kevin.  Most of them from the 4th grade at Miharu Elementary School.

One of the games we played was Yugioh Bingo.  I made Black and White photocopies of 40 of Kevin's favorite Yugioh cards (20 per sheet, had to reduce them slightly), then cut them out and made a mini deck for each guest.  The guests selected 9 cards from the minideck and laid them out 3 x 3 on the floor.  Then, as Kevin called out the cards, they turned over a match until they got BINGO.  Simple, but popular game.

Kevin's present from Mommy was 3 American karaoke CDG CD's containing songs like "Hey, Juliet" (LMNT), "Bounce" (Aaron Carter), and of course "Amish Paradise" (Weird Al Yankovich).  He loves to sing, and we frequently go to Karabox, which I don't think you have in the US yet.  Anyway, he sang a couple of numbers for his guests.  Mommy also got him a small home karaoke machine (which my friends Hiro and Ayako had to haul back from the US for me, because they don't have CDG compatible machines in Japan anymore).  Kevin was very surprised and pleased!

Balloons by Mrs. Yaginuma always complete the festive mood.  The kids really enjoy them, too.  Here is a final shot of Kevin with his best friends Casey and Emi.  And Makoto and Kosuke.  (Kevin's good friend Shogo was sick after tonsil surgery and couldn't come.  We missed you, Shogo.  And his little girlfriend, Ayako, couldn't come up to visit from Tokyo this time. We missed you, too, Aya.)