Hawaii Vacation

Well, we survived our whirlwind tour in the U.S. and we finished it with a relaxing week in Oahu on Waikiki! It was a blast as we just played the whole time. We drove around the island to find some awesome (and sometimes pretty scary) waves and we just played in them. It was just what we needed to wind down a bit before heading back to Japan for school. The kids had 3 days to recover from jetlag and we sent them off to school. Erika will be homeschooling this year with me. Her seizures are almost rare these days, but we cannot be assured of their absence so we will stay at home. Taylor will be 13 next week! Two teenagers, OMG! I know many of you are wondering when we'll be coming back. No one knows the answer to that right now. Just pray for more jobs in Seattle, namely one for Eric, so that we can come home! Much love to you all!

Shannon's Haircut

As you can see from the picture, Shannon had her hair cut as soon as we arrived back in Seattle! She asked when we left Seattle last year that she wanted to donate her hair when we came home and that is what she did. She donated it to "Locks of Love" for patients who have gone through chemo and lost their hair. So there will be some very fortunate people with some beautiful hair!

Shannon's 8th Birthday Bonanza

Well, all I can say is that we survived! We had 30 kids and 6 adults here for the extravaganza. God came through with the weather. They were calling for rain and that would have meant trouble for our outside party. We prayed hard for days and God answered our prayers, we had sunshine. The ironic thing is that night after the party we had a torential downpour! For these things we are very thankful! Shannon has told me it was the best day of her life, so it was worth it. We invited both classes of the 2nd grade at NIS, as well as some neighborhood kids. We ordered a cake from Costco and had it shipped from Osaka. It is the only place that makes a cake that big. Japanese cakes seem to all be about 5-6" in diameter, definitely not enough to feed 36 people! Her theme was High School Musical. We had a friend bring some party supplies from Party City in Seattle. We created some games special for Shannon. My favorite was "Pin the Ponytail on Shannon!" Eric enlarged a picture of Shannon from Guam and we laminated it, then Eric found a blonde ponytail online, stretched it to make it "Shannon size," printed out 30 of them and voila! Everyone thought it was hilarious. We made our version of a cake walk into a "Candy Walk." Eric printed various pictures from High School Musical, put them in plastic sleeves so the kids could walk on them, turned on the H.S.M. soundtrack and they were all walkin'! Erika and her friend Dani were in charge of that and also the water balloon toss. That was a hit as well. The Japanese kids had never done anything like this. Taylor and his friend Luke were in charge of H.S.M. Bingo. We also played a few games that we remembered from Awana Sparks gametime. All in all, it was a hit, and no one wanted to leave (except for me and Eric)! We have sent Shannon into her 8th year of life with a huge bang!

Beauty Salon ~ Oh Boy!

You haven't had a haircut until you've had a haircut in Japan! It is an experience unto itself. I have a new "do" (yes, again) and so will share with you the experience. Taylor told me I was weird because every time I get a haircut I do something drastic. Oh well, we change what we can, and I like it! When I enter the salon they hand me a key to a locker in this back room. On the shelf of the locker is a note card welcoming me by name, expressing hopes of a relaxing visit. I put on the slippers that are waiting for me, put my own shoes, jacket, purse and whatever else in the locker, lock it and they put the key away for me. (You may think, "that isn't safe" they can steal everything," not a worry here, they are so honorable, people return everything they find, without taking what's inside!) After the stylist sits down with me and I tell him what I want he sends me off with an assistant who does the first wash, yes I said first, there are more to follow. She leads me to a massage chair, turns it on and puts a light blanket over my lap. They don't just spray your hair to get it wet. They start with a warm towel wrapped around your head and slowly start to wet it down. Once it is all wet and warm, they slide it off and start the scalp massage. They eventually work in shampoo and for 15 minutes, it is pure heaven! Then they rinse you, comb out your hair and send you back to the stylist. The haircut is relatively the same as in the U.S., but then they send me back to that massage chair! Once again, for 15 minutes, I get a little slice of heaven, while my hair gets another washing and a deep, steam conditioning, and of course the massage. The assistant then escorts me back to the stylist and offers some tea, water, or juice. Then she gives me a shoulder massage for about 10 minutes! The stylist then dries my hair, (when Erika goes he has his helper dry also, so that there are two people working it at once! Talk about spoiled! You may be thinking "I don't want to know how much this costs!" It is only $55 and more than worth it! It isn't just the salon I go to. I have heard from other friends, that other Japanese salons do the scalp massage thing, but I don't know if it is to the extreme that this place does, and I don't care enough to give it up to try anywhere else! What an experience!

Easter

We had a most unusual Easter, but an enjoyable one nonetheless. We spent our afternoon at a sports bar called Shooters. They actually allow any age persons here in Japan in bars, but it was actually just a family event for the day. They have American food and it is a great restaurant for families! They had a special lunch for Easter followed by an easter egg hunt in the park. Eric's friend Jeff, the one in pink chenille pants and bunny ears, is the manager. He put on quite a production for the kids. After this we went to church and had a wonderful Easter service followed by a potluck, where we met many new friends that share our love of Christ. We hope you all had a wonderful Easter and above all remember the sacrifice that Christ made for you!

Deer bowing to Taylor

The Temple

One Big Buddha

After feeding the deer we made our way to the temple, which houses the largest upright Buddha in the world! This is the largest wooden temple also. It was a breathtaking sight as we turned the corner. The craftsmanship is incredible. At the entrance to every temple there are always "Oni" (Japanese word for monster) to guard the temple. One is named "Ah" and the other "N". These stand for the first and last letters of the Japanese alphabet, sound familiar? I think I mentioned this in another blog also, the similarity with the Christian terminology for God, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last..." (Rev. 22:13) These statues are carved of wood and must be at least 20 feet tall! As you enter the temple the Buddha is very impressive. Looks like gold, but I was told it is bronze. Everything around it symbolizes something important to their faith, down to the tiniest lotus petal. At the end of the tour of the temple one of the upright support beams has a hole carved out of it at its base. Eiichi told us this hole is the same size of the hole of the Buddha's nostril, and that the belief is that as children crawl through, they will now be happy. I immediately ordered my kids to go through! Darn it, it didn't work!!! The hole was rather small, Shannon made it through, and Taylor made it after he took off his coat. I actually saw two full-grown Japanese women make it through! Oh, to be soooo tiny!

Deer of Nara

Feeding The Deer In Nara

What an experience we had! I never once in my wildest dreams would have expected to enjoy our trip there so much. We created memories there that will stick with us forever, and the best one is when Eric was running from the deer trying to bite his butt! I haven't laughed that hard in a long, long time and I will never get that picture out of my mind! We met up with Eiichi, the Japanese man who showed us around Kiyomizudera (a friend of the Stuart's) and his son Hokuto. The ironic thing was that the weather was sunny the entire week before and has been sunny since then, but on that day I think they must have set a record with the amount of rain that fell. We were hardy Washingtonians and continued on. There are little stands that sell these packets of crackers that are especially made for the deer to eat. The minute we bought some, the deer converged on us (or rather, Eric). While he was trying to feed the deer in front of him the one behind him took a bite out of his butt! We all couldn't stop laughing, meanwhile Eric is doing this dance to avoid another bite. He didn't, they must have gotten him about 8 times I think throughout the whole time we were there! I asked Eiichi how the deer could possibly stay so thin with so many people always feeding them these crackers. His response about killed me, "They are Japanese!" The other completely remarkable thing these deer do is they bow, yes, I said they actually bow to you before taking the cracker! Again I asked in wonder, "How did they learn this?" To which Eiichi answered once again, "They are Japanese deer." So true. I think I'll be bowing to everyone for a long time when we return to the U.S.! I have promised myself I am going to submit a video of this bowing to America's Funniest Home Videos and Animal Planet!

Scene from Hamlet

Taylor's 3rd Play

Taylor was in his third play, Hamlet. I am sad to say I didn't take any photos of the second one. I was hoping to get photos of him from a friend, but haven't. So, with great regret, I will tell you I also don't have any pictures of him in this play either! No, I am not a complete idiot, it's just that I was so focused on videoing it for Eric, that I forgot to take photos. So that is why I've included the video on the blog, and no photos. Taylor played the part of Hamlet's father's ghost. He loved it and really got into his part. There was a moment of hilarity when at the moment of his first appearance, he didn't come out at his cue, which was the word "midnight". So the character Hamlet said to someone else, "Are you sure it's midnight?", then when no Taylor appeared, Hamlet said, "I guess we'll just have to wait." We in the audience were smothering our giggles when Taylor finally appeared. I couldn't wait to ask him what happened because he new all his cues and lines perfectly. It turns out that the school photographer was behind the scenes taking his photograph. When I gave the photographer a hard time about distrupting the play and making Taylor miss his cue, his reply was, "It's okay, I got a great shot of Taylor." As the French would say, "C'est la vie!" (That's life!)

Spring Break

We began our Spring Break with a day out in Nagoya. The kids waited in line for over 2 hours to get their portraits drawn by these art students for free. It is in the typical Japanese anime characters, the kids loved it and will treasure them always! Although Erika was upset with the fact she looked younger than the other two in their pictures! They were very cute. Erika's friend Dani came with us for the day. We also saw the building called "Oasis 21". It is a weird artform, basically a clear enormous platform with a pool at the top, with about 5 inches of water in it. The fountain is located at Central Park and was beautiful also. We visited Nagoya Castle, which is the largest wooden castle in Japan. It even had huge rock walls surrounding the acreage, which was originally the moat, impressive!

Spring Break

Snorkeling in Tumon Bay, Guam

Archery @ the P.I.C.

Challenge Course @ the P.I.C.

Windsurfing

Erika

Merry Christmas!

We got out of Japan for the holidays! We were actually on U.S. soil, the first U.S. soil that the sun rises on every day, Guam! Watching the weather station was rather hilarious, as it was the same every day: high of 88 degrees, low of 77 degrees! (It is only 12 degrees above the equator.) We had a blast and never actually just laid out in the sun and relaxed, we were too busy having fun! The first five days we stayed at the PIC (Pacific Islands Club), highly recommended if you ever go to Guam! The bedrooms were actually really crappy and rather disgusting, but the rest of the hotel (water activities, etc.) more than made up for it! Everything is included so you don't have to pay for any activities, snorkeling, windsurfing, tennis, racquetball, archery, water slides, and much more. The next five days we stayed at the Marriott because Eric has a load of points from living there for more than a year! The rooms were of a much higher quality and I must say, we slept much better! That is the only thing they have to recommend them, as they have no activities at all and it was very boring. So we took the opportunity to tour the island. The first day of touring the north end of the island we got a flat tire and waited over an hour for the tow truck to come and change the flat. Surprise, the spare was almost flat as well, not a good start! The north end beaches weren't really accessible due to the strong current and waves. The south end of the island was much prettier and had some very interesting history from WWII. The staff at the PIC invited us back for the Christmas party, carolling, and lots of fun and games. What a great time we had. We ate as much American food as we could: BBQ ribs, hamburgers, steak, etc (Yummmm!) The kids are just pros now at snorkeling. Eric even found a brilliant blue starfish! I will have to add those pics later as they must be developed from the underwater camera we bought. Windsurfing is very hard! I have no problem standing on the board and raising the sail, it's when the wind starts blowing the sail that I just can't hang on, and can't pick which direction to go! All in all, Guam was a fun break and most of all, it was warm!!!

Sweet 16

For Erika and Rachel's Sweet 16 I took them for a special Japanese cultural day. We spent an afternoon of cultural exchange with a group of lovely Japanese women. They dressed us in traditional Japanese kimonos, walked through a Japanese garden and went to a very serious tea ceremony. We now know how women felt back when they wore corsets! Man were we bound soooo tight inside those kimonos! It took two people to fully dress each us and it was difficult to walk, and we didn't even wear the traditional Japanese shoes! To our untrained, American eyes, the materials that they laid out for us to choose from didn't even match, but when put together looked just beautiful and "just right". During our walk through the gardens and feeding the enormous Koi, we met some other women dressed in kimonos also. One of them had a friend that served tea in the tea house, which was closed to the public for the day for a private, very important tea ceremony. She invited us to join the ceremony, after she asked permission from the master of ceremonies, and we happily joined them. We had a "sweet" from one of the finest Japanese bakeries in Nagoya, and had very green and foamy green tea (Yuck, with a capital Y!). At the end of the tea ceremony the man even made a couple of jests about Boeing, the American dollar, and even Ichiro, for our benefit. We returned to the ladies who had dressed us to have our scheduled tea with them, and they proceeded to present us with gifts and sweets and tea. It was a most wonderful experience!

Taylor's play "Semper Veritas"

Asuke, Japan: Autumn Splendor

Taylor's play, "The Semper Veritas"

Taylor was in a play in November called "The Semper Veritas", or "Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire!" (The words are latin for truth, or something along those lines.) The play was written by two of the teachers and it was hilarious! Taylor was one of the "Right" brothers, they were the heroes of the story. The conquered the villians by inventing a machine which determined whether or not you were telling the truth. We laughed so hard; one, because the lines were so funny, and two, because the kids were! This was Taylor's first acting role as well as his first lead role. Today I actually watched Taylor play out his second acting role as "Terysais" in the Greek Tragedy "Antigone." Everyone was very impressed with Taylor's ability to really "get into his role." He had all his lines memorized after a couple of days and performed them with great aplomb! Cheers for Taylor!

Asuke, Japan: Autumn Splendor

We have witnessed one of God's truly awesome creations! The place we visited, Asuke
(ah-sue-kay) was soooooo beautiful, that I couldn't stop saying "Oh, that's so beautiful, take a picture!" Every direction we looked was breathtaking. We hiked up this huge hill (or mini-mountain, depending on your point of view!) and there were Japanese women hiking this trail in 4" spiked high heels and skirts! I will never understand the Japanese prediliction for wearing high heels without regard to where you are walking. (They even wear them while riding their bikes!) Back to the point of this blog. We saw many shrines, an old village, and of course the beautiful red bridge. It was lit up at dusk and looked like it was on fire. I can't wait to go back in the spring when the cherry blossoms are in bloom; I am sure it will be just as spectacular.

Higashyama Zoo

Higashyama Zoo

The zoo was quite an experience, and one we wouldn't care to do again. I was astounded at the neglect and abominable conditions in Nagoya's zoo. I guess I figured that in a country that cares so much for its environment, that country would take as much care with the animals. I was wrong. If you look at the cages, they are all very small, rusted metal and concrete; on occasion you will see a random tree branch lying on the ground. Any and all of the enclosures that have water are probably the most appalling. I am sad to say the water was so filthy that you couldn't see through it, no matter how deep. The polar bears have a green tinge to their fur from the algae growing in their tanks. In Seattle, the seals are very playful and always swimming around, not so in Nagoya's zoo. The seals were laying out either half-way or completely and not even moving around at all, and no, it wasn't because of the heat, as it was a relatively cool day in October that we went. If I was a seal, I wouldn't want to be swimming, breathing, and drinking that sludge either. I have never considered myself to be an animal rights activist, after seeing this atrocity, I can see why people are motivated to such extremes.

The only highlight to our zoo trip was the amusement park that is attached to it. The Ferris wheel was huge and one of the pictures shows my brainless son hanging half his body out of it waving at me!

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! We won't be making a big turkey dinner this year, there is both good and bad in that. Good, because I don't have to spend the entire day cooking and cleaning! Bad, because we will miss having all that yummy food! We are going to a Thanksgiving Dinner that Boeing is holding at the Hilton Hotel in the evening. It promises to be a great meal, and I don't have to clean up!

One reason we won't be celebrating is that it is obviously not a holiday here in Japan and Eric has to work and the kids have school. The second reason is that they don't have turkeys in Japan. We would have to order it from the foreign buyers club. The cost of a 12# turkey is about $45, and 20# turkey is about $75!!!! Can you imagine? There is no turkey worth that much money! I will make some pies and have a chicken with mashed potatoes that weekend.

We will be missing you all and missing our day of celebrating that we usually have with Kevin and Tammy and other family members when possible. Eat some turkey for us!

Universal Studios, Osaka, Japan

The Golden Temple

Shopping at Kiyomizudera

The Golden Temple

Yes, it is really covered in gold! Apparently it used to be a shogun's summer vacation home hundreds of years ago. In 1408, after Yoshimitsu's death, it was turned into a Zen temple. Was breathtaking in it's surroundings and the gardens were beautiful to walk through. These places are supposed to be even more beautiful in the spring with the cherry blossoms blooming.

Kiyomizudera Temple in Kyoto

Kiyomizudera Temple in Kyoto with Eiichi

We had a wonderful guide to two of the beautiful temples of Kyoto. His name was Eiichi and his daughter Marina, they are friends of Rachel's; their son was an exchange student at the Stuart's house. We drove 2 hours to meet him while he drove one hour to meet us. We started at 10am and finished around dark, about 6:30pm. We started our tour at the Kiyomizudera Temple. The crowds were impressive and I am so glad Eiichi knew where to go! The temple entrance is "guarded" by two impressive statues. One mouthing "Ah" and one "Mmm". This is the beginning and ending letters of their alphabet. Alright you Christians out there, sound familiar? (Alpha and Omega?) Interesting....

It was fascinating to watch the Japanese do all the ritual stuff (washing hands before coming to Buddha with requests, writing the prayers on wooden boards and hanging them outside the temple, putting money at the Buddha's feet, rubbing the Buddha for luck...). This made me realize how truly blessed we are to have a savior in Jesus Christ, not a golden statue. It is one thing to read about other religions in books, I think it was very eye-opening to watch it in person.

The buildings and outlying areas were beautiful and impressive to see how they were built so long ago and still remain. The shopping area (market style) was a whole lot of fun!

Nagoya Festival 2008

Nagoya Festival

We spent four hours watching the Nagoya Festival Parade! The first 1 1/2 hours weren't so hot, kind of boring, parade of temples and young children and their "floats". The remainder was just great! Very beautiful, authentic, colorful costumes. Many of them were so excited to wave to the Americans. One man walked over to us and asked where we came from, and proceeded to try and play an American song on his conch shell! Everyone stopped and listened and cheered when he was done, then they all waved good-bye to us.

Halloween in Japan! A neighbor had a party to show some Japanese children what we do in America. It was mostly small children but my big kids helped out. We trick-or-treated to seven houses around our block (prearranged of course) and they had a treasure hunt and various costume and jack-o-lantern contests. Now for the irony. We dressed Erika up as a Japanese girl! Straightened her hair and spray painted her hair black. Well, it didn't wash out! No kidding, she cannot get the black out! So I don't know how long she will be a brunette!

Halloween Party

Halloween Party