The Smiths In Japan

We tricked the Smiths into coming to visit us! I don't know how- but THEY CAME! YIPPEE!

Actually, in 2009 when we first learned that we would be headed to Japan Maysen (then only 10) said she wanted to come visit. And they came! It's so cool. I've had many people say they would like to come, but the Smiths you can count on!

Mike, Steph, and Maysen had to be adventurous.  I wrote them a 3 page email on how to get from the Haneda Airport in Tokyo to Tokyo Station and to the Bullet train 3 hours up to Misawa. I met them at the train station 30 minutes from my house. I was pretty stoked considering we don't have cell phones. Mike did call me from a Japanese pay phone in the morning and  it was like Christmas morning! I don't know how to convey it, but when you have visitors when you live far away............ it's AMAZING!

It was about midnight for them when I made them eat lunch at one of our favorite little hole-in-the-wall joints, Cheese Roll!

Stephanie enjoying some greasy yakisoba.

Then I took them back to the house to sleep until Brett came home about 5pm.

They were so impressive with handling their jet lag. They only slept that afternoon and then managed to get up early each morning and retire "semi-early" at night.

The next day we took them to the fish market where we found a ball pit and played funny Japanese arcade games.

Then we hopped over to Shirahama beach in Hachinohe.

It was a pretty classically over-caste day. But still warm enough to spend a few hours here.

Jet lagged and still happy!

Finally, someone else to take our picture together!

Awesomeness:

Craziness:

Sweetness:

Happiness:

I spent a lot of time getting Mina's naps in, which I didn't mind.  It was cool to let Brett have time with his family and MARIE is in love with Maysen. 2 months later Marie still talks about "my cousin Maysen who brings her own toys," referring to the DS Maysen  plays. Or if Marie sees something pretty, occasionally she'll say, "My cousin would LOVE this."

Having the Smiths was awesome. They put up with us taking them to the Sea Gull shrine. This is a gross, yet sacred place where seagulls flock to hatch their eggs. It would be cute if you didn't have to use an umbrella to avoid being crapped on. Yes, I said crapped on.

Birds, birds, birds.

My favorite parenting lesson from here is that sometimes it's necessary to lie. Marie got a pink heart-shaped ball  from the buffett we had just ate at. When I opened the car door at the seagull shrine it rolled out and a seagull snatched it and began to eat it. Not only did I lose Marie's toy I think I killed a seagull. When I gasped, Marie asked why, and all I could come up with was that the Seagull was eating Mina's diaper that rolled out. Yeah, I'm a crappy liar too.

The next day we took them too........

HORSE PARK!!!!!!!

Try to find the horse in this picture:

Steph was giving me the kind of picture I love!

Then I took Maysen and Stephanie too my day care to help me teach my class of 21 4 year-olds. Last year I only had 12, so it was lovely to have 2 helpers.

They love visitors. Here is Maysen helping take off name tags at the end of class.

When Maysen grows up she wants to be an Author and a teacher who teaches French to American kids or English to French kids. Oui! Oui!

Marie adored her Aunt and would talk to her 24 hours a day. I don't blame her because Stephanie smiles and laughs at everything she says!

Marie sneaking into every picture. We have her well trained.

Oirase Gorge. Yes, you want to come here!

...oh the joys of family pictures

And that was Friday of their visit.

For the fantastic full version see Steph's blog :http://smithsonians.blogspot.jp/2012/06/orise-gorge.html

If you are a blogger you need to take a look at my post and then at hers. MINE is what happens if you WAIT TOO LONG TO BLOG! It's boring, less detailed, and you forget alot of details. Oh well.

Thanks Stephanie! Can I pay you to keep a blog for me?

Up next: Sacred Spots and Tokyo!

My 3 Bears

My 3 Bears

Mama Bear

Marie Bear

And Mina Bear

 All at a bear party!

Sweet Marie

The many faces of Marie.

She turns 4 tomorrow. Oh, how I can't believe it.
Little did I know she was the happiness I waited for my whole life. She lights up everyday for us.
She sweet. She's smart. She's full of love.

Marie, thank you. Best 4 years of my life.


Marie has had a lot going on this summer. We are so busy. Busy learning and playing.

I need to blog SERIOUSLY. So this is just a bookmark really.

Marie, we love love love you.

West Coast is the Best Coast!

Awkward photo to start out with? I just can't help myself. We had THAT good of a time.

4th of July week we went on vacation with the Wonderful Watsons and the Awesome Glaziers to a place called Ajigasawa and Juni Lakes on the West Coast of Japan.

We knew Brett had these sacred days off for a few months so I was hoping for something "pretty good"  and what I got was FANTASTIC! I hope this blog does it some justice.

On July 4th we left for Earth Village playground.

Complete with a suicide slide it was a great way to start off the trip.

We decided to replace our car with this...

Riding to Church on Sundays will be so much more fun!

 Then we headed to Ajigasawa Village.

Arrival was interesting. My friend Jeana knows about 100 words in Japanese.  Me and Lyana, my adventerous-Ukrainian-travel-planning friend know about 3 Japanese words. However, what we lack in Japanese vocab we make up for in friendly gestures. Hence we begin our journey of making Japanese strangers into good friends.

Our first task was to find out if we could have a fire and if they sold firewood. After several "interactions"  the manager, whom I was afraid was so sick of trying to communicate, brought out a bundle of firewood. He then ran to get these two nice ladies who translated that the wood was "no charge for American" in honor of the 4th of July. They only had 2 fire pits for the whole campground, so we invited them all to come and roast marshmallows with us that night. They did and it was lots of fun. Turns out the mother & daughter (translators) and husband had been living up there for a long period since the Great East Earthquake. They are wary of the radiation so they are trying to find another place, northern, to settle.

 Near the cabins is a roller slide- YAY!

Katya and Mina

Also, we learned by the size and placement of fecal droppings, that monkeys inhabit the area. Ew.

CRASH! 

Having had lots of fun, we thought the girls were worn out. However, Mina wouldn't eat all day, so she decided to wake up at 3:30AM for breakfast and stay up until 7. Not fun.

We headed down the coast to find this structure of seaside that was formed by an earthquake/tsunami a long time ago.  

Here we are discovering the Sea of Japan... or the Korean Sea (depending on who you talk to ;)  ) 

That's MY girl!

Look closely to see carved shrines and some offerings. Next time we will be prepared to leave the shrine some red bull.

Daddy's girl!

Famous Helmet Rock

Can you imagine eating squid all the time? Yikes. I can take it a few times a year, but not enough to eat at a place that has this for a sign. Cute- but highly unappetizing.

 Marie... LOVES this girl. LOVES. We are going to miss her very much!

Then we headed further down the coast to swim at this natural swimming cove.

As natural as the cove is, it's surrounded by lots of concrete. We heard the Japanese mafia owns the concrete factory, so that's why you see it everywhere... hmmm...

I have no words for how beautiful it was.... except to say I have no words for how beautiful it was.

Then we went to settle at the Refresh Village, with Swedish themed cabins!

Marie was in love! It's like a "bunk bed room." She slept on top and Mina actually slept the whole night on the bottom.

Mom and Dad got to sleep up on the loft... 

in these funny boxes. It was like being a in can of sardines. Our 6'1'' friend Robert was offered his own cabin so he could "stretch out" by himself. Once again, we met a very nice Japanese man, willing to give us this for free, because he wanted Robert to be comfortable! Can't beat Northern Japanese hospitality.  

This is Mina having one of her daily freak outs. Sorry Mina, it must be blogged. 

 Lastly, our goal of the day was to view "A JAPANESE SUNSET ON THE BEACH!"

We went with all our might to execute this goal, but lo and behold all our maps were in Japanese...

So we drove... and drove... until we spotted this Japanese lady. Who somehow told us how to get to our destination. Very nice. She didn't say one English word, but we got her "gist."

No sunset though... too cloudy. Waan waaaa......

Apparently I'm still crazy excited though.

Oh well, back to the Swedish cabin.

Our last day starts with some ball, headed up by B man!

And we celebrate the 9th Birthday of Katya!  

She got a Harry Potter book! Funny though, I had the same look on my face when I saw the quality of lavatory in our cabin:

 Complete with a dryer! OOO LA LA !

 Now I know why they call it the Refresh Village!

Anywho... on to Juni Lakes...

Aokie Lake is small, and not very deep, but it's noted for it's deep blues and greens.  

Simply beautiful!

These pictures do NO JUSTICE~! It was like looking into a hologram!

 We had to run to beat a bus load of elderly tourists to get the best shots of the lake. So worth it.

Afterward we went looking to use some paddle boats, however, Alex who is 7, had been bitten in the night by something. His ankle was swollen upon awakening. Throughout the day it became more red and began to bubble with blisters. The owners of the paddle boats looked at it, and talking in very rushed Japanese, ran to get some ointment to apply to it. They talked fierce-fully about what it was, but of course we had no idea what they were saying, but glad for the help.

 But Alex still wanted to get out on the boats... and so did this guy!

Mina did not. It was time for her daily rage. So when she got back to shore the boat owners gave out snacks to feed to the Japanese carp and motioned me to entertain Mina with feeding them.

Them was some big-mouthed fish.

And it worked. Mina was calmed.

So calm she fell asleep in my arms on the way to Nihon Canyon (Japan Canyon).

By then the trip was over. We had planned to do an onsen (a hotspring) that was right next to the sea. However, they had a women's onsen and a "mixed gender onsen." The boys weren't up for that. And Alex's leg was bubbling more by the minute, so we decided it was time to call it good so he could see a doctor. (Don't worry, he's fine now).

This is the onsen. We were ok without. It kind of looks like a dump at first glance anyways.

We finished up our trip at Komaki Onsen (that means nothing to you now, but if you come and visit us, let us talk you into going- trust me, it's awesome (STEPHANIE!). 

 And Marie was sad. She loves hotsprings. She loves vacations. But most of all she was sad to not sleep in her bunk-bed cabin.

Life's tough!

And that was our great trip. We will miss you Watsons! We hope to follow you to England someday. We will see you again!