Let's Meet up with Brett

One morning I woke up and decided that "today- I want to travel with 2 small children on a train."
And I did. It really wasn't bad. On the Bullet train one adult can take up to 2 children under the age of 5 for the price of one ticket. But you just get one seat. So we each enjoyed our own seat for one stop until the others filled up and then the rest of the time we enjoyed walking up and down the aisle. Later we found a "multipurpose room" to hang out in. It wasn't easy though, I had to sucker the conductor to let me "nurse Mina" in there. It was so nice to sit down. Marie could have sat by herself in the chair while I held Mina in the hall, but she looked so freaked out sitting next to the Japanese business man, and frankly so did he. I don't know why they gave me a window seat. I kept coming back to my seat and asking the man next to me to "pass me that bottle" or "pass me the little girl in the seat to me" or, my favorite, "pass me that diaper sitting there, I promise it's clean." I stopped coming back after I got the diaper I needed.



Anyway, two Fridays before Christmas we girls packed down to Tokyo to meet up with Brett who was working down there the previous week.

Meeting up in a town of 13 million people was kind of scary, but we said, "meet me next to that one shop that serves rice" and we found each other without a hitch.
We actually planned this trip in October, but even 2 months advance isn't long enough to get a good reservation in Tokyo so we stayed 3 places; US Army's Hardy Barracks, US Navy's New Sanno, and good ol' fashion Hilton.

Between The Hardy Barracks and the New Sanno is a 10-minute walk to the temple. Saturday we took turns going to the temple and hanging out with the girls in the Hardy Barracks watching Muppets or playing at the playground.

On the way to the Temple I found this sweet deal on a Christmas tree. Y42,000=$ 537.63.
What a STEAL!

On the way back from the temple I spotted some cute kids at a park. Here's Mina sitting on top of a slide. And below is Marie holding on tight.

Later that night, we went looking for some food in an area called Omotesando.

We didn't eat here.

(hahaha, I am still laughing at this sign)

And tried to take a picture of the bustling streets of Tokyo before Christmas.
It was a nice little beginning to our trip. Sunday morning we headed to the church service (in English) right next to the temple. It was Marie's LAST time in Nursery so SHE insisted she stay for the entire time. I headed back to Hardy Barracks and walked our luggage to the next hotel and checked in while Marie enjoyed the last fun time at Church. Sorry Marie, but you will learn so much in Primary!

Big in Japan

Turns out the Misawa City Hall has a new magazine to distribute.  Yes, they have misappropriated the image of our child.  No permission or notice was given.  We're thinking of suing.  And what would we ask for in compensation?  I don't know, probably 100 copies of the magazine.




Yes, that is Marie in a kimono.  We think it was at Japan Day, I guess there were a lot of photogs walking around (this was the same day we did the Salmon Festival and hosted the Hirosaki girls).  Maybe we shouldn't be too pleased.  After all, we don't even know what the words on the magazine are saying.  Perhaps they were terribly demeaning.  But either way, it's still super cute.

Hirosaki & Anmon Falls

 

The namesake of the Chrysanthemum Festival

Mt. Iwake

Marie on the top floor of the castle checking on her vast empire below.

Who in their right mind doesn't love fall?

 

Welcome to Hirosaki !

It was a fun weekend. We stayed overnight at a Route Inn, which is a great japanese motel 8 type. They had a onsen on the top floor that Marie just loved and you can't argue with a free breakfast.

Until next year Hirosaki!

Big Turkey & New Years Goals

Do you remember you New Years goals this year? I do, and I think I may have accomplished it. Yes, I said I would blog once a week, but that was mostly for my family, and so when I was in the states with some of my family I considered the "point of the goal" to be met- that is, keep up with family. So there. However, I still better do a few more posts to get my quota in. Therefore, enjoy the following random post.




This thing weighs about 5 more pounds than Marie. Muhahaha I am so proud! We are having Thanksgiving with 3 other families and I assigned myself to cook the Turkey. It's so big I have to capatilize the word: Turkey. Turkey by Rachel.
This should be good.

Other news on the cute home front:

The girls took a nap, then Marie tried to help me take a picture of her:

Things are good. Getting very excited to enjoy the holidays, and find out when Matt is getting married. That means a whole month in the good old U.S! Yee haw!


 

Oh boy. What did I get myself into.

Rokkasho

And this is the story of last Saturday....

We woke up on a Saturday morning and our friends called with an invite to join them on their fishing adventure. They were going to try and bag a salmon, and dared us to do the same.  It was a challenge.

Rachel was busy having arts-and-crafts time with some Japanese visitors (post below), so Marie and I sharpened our fingernails and teeth and jumped aboard.  We only had 3 minutes, so we had to act fast.  I barely was able to touch any for the first minute and I thought all hope was lost.  But alas, turns out that salmon can only spaz out at high speed for about 2 minutes.  They were huffing and puffing at the end, especially the fat, pregnant ones.

Like this one!!! I wanted to sink my chops into it right then.  The whole crowd was chanting,

 "Eat it!  Eat it!  Eat it!"

I think everybody remembers the first time they saw a fish gutted.  It was a great life lesson for Marie.  That's right, they gutted it for us and packed it away in an ice box.

Sorry for the blood (and nudity). Until next time Rokkasho Salmon Festival, until next time.

Meet our new girls!

We adopted!

...two teenage girls from Hirosaki.

Well, for the weekend at least.

Every year our Branch hosts an English Speaking Club from a Hirosaki High School.

We decided to join in and let two girls stay with us. They come on Saturday and then leave on Sunday. It's a whirlwind of fun, broken English, pityful Japanese on my part, and all around a good time.

As I said, they arrived Saturday and the ward hosted a craft. I helped them make caramel apples (which later was to my detriment as my crown broke as I was eating one... errrgh!- anyways).

After that I took them home to meet Marie and Brett.

Brett, being the great host, showed them how to play Battleship. They were such good sports.

Later we took them mini golfing. It was hard to think of things to do because if we wanted to keep them on the American base so they could hear more English. They were really cute and fun. They taught me a few things in Japanese and I tried my best to make simplified small talk in English.

Here is Marie as I caught her trying to reset her ball.

What is this face all about? 

Marie kept calling our girls (Ririko and Arisa) "The Ladies."

Later we took them to a Haunted House on the base. It was gory. The girls said that Japanese Haunted Houses are scary, but American Haunted Houses are the MOST scary. I would have to agree that at least the one on base goes a little nuts with the blood and gore.

And then to help them recover, the next day we took them to church :)
It was really long for them, but they were such good troopers. They didn't understand a single thing, but they tried really hard to sing and listen. They had never heard of Christ before, so it was cool to be the first person to tell them about Him.
Very cool.

And I have to mention the cutest part of the weekend was when I was showing the girls their bathroom, Marie casually offered, "and you can use my pink soap if you like." Her pink soap is the Mr. Bubbles bubble bath we only break out on special occasions. What a great host she is.

We'll Miss you Ririko and Arisa! Come back anytime!