We are headed home...

As I write this, it is 7:00 am Friday morning our time, 4:00pm Thursday US time. We are gathering our stuff together and are about to navigate through morning rush hour with a 4 year old and 6 suitcases. ARRRGGHHHH!! It will be worth it though.

We'll be home in about 24 hours and we are looking forward to seeing everyone!

For those of you that follow this post but will not see us over the holidays, I do hope that you have a great Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Curtis, Deana, and Avery

What I like and dislike about Japan…

OK, we are coming home in a week and are preparing for that currently. Consequently, we don’t have a whole lot to blog about, so I thought I would take an opportunity and use this “blog” for what blogs were originally intended – rants and random opinions (at least I think that’s why they originated). Anyway, here are a few things that I have enjoyed during our short 3 months and a few things that grate on my nerves…

Enjoyable stuff:

History. This place is filled with it. I was riding my bike through a residential area yesterday and right in the middle of what seemed to be nowhere was a shrine. It was beautifully decorated. Probably hundreds of years old. This stuff (as you can see from previous posts) is EVERYWHERE. The age of these places just does not cease to be impressive. Considering that our country was founded in 1776 and I have actually touched things here that were built in 1540 (ish) is awesome.

Acceptance. I am yet to run across a person with a “why don’t you go back where you came from” attitude. Furthermore, people seem to try to speak MY language, not force me to speak their language. When I do speak some of their language – things as small as “thank you” or “may I pet your dog”, they fall over themselves complimenting me (and Deana and Avery) on our ability to speak the language of the country we reside in.

So often I have found myself looking at a Mexican or Asian or other nationality person trying to ask a question in Wal-Mart or some other store and I’ve thought “If you can’t speak English, what the heck are you doing here???” Those days are about done for me. I realize that we (in America) have a slightly different problem with illegal immigrants than the residents in Japan have, but this stay has at least forced me to see the argument from a different perspective.

Convenience. I have no means of transportation except a bicycle and public transportation (buses, trains, and taxis). With that being said, I have no problem getting to the grocery store, work, hardware store, souvenir shop, China Town, amusement park, beach, and so in one hour or less. ALL of those can be reached within the hour mentioned via bike (a.k.a. FREE). I have never spent this amount of time in an area that is SO convenient to everything. While it is annoying (see annoyances below) at the lack of personal space, it is super cool to be able to be practically anywhere in practically no time.

Not so enjoyable stuff:

Language. Japanese is HARD to learn! Deana and I are taking 2 hours of lessons per week and after the New Year, we will be taking 4 hours per week (or at least I will be). It is so terribly tough to learn and it can be extremely discouraging at times. Just when I think I am getting the hang of it, I try to carry on a conversation with someone at the convenience store or at work and I get reminded of how much I don’t know… It can be terribly frustrating at times.

Religion. What do you think of when you hear the phrase “Non-Christian”? If you are like me, you think of someone in dark clothes, maybe a hooded sweatshirt, grim-reaper-esc. maybe. Well, this country is largely non-Christian and it is full of super nice people. That’s tough for me to deal with. My religion says that if you don’t believe, you’re damned.
“Too many people suffer from an ignorance of God. When they die and come to judgment, they will not be able to plead ignorance. Ignorance will be no excuse. The Bible says we should recognize God "through what has been made." The Bible therefore says of all people everywhere, "they are without excuse" (Romans 1:20)”. (http://dailywisdom.gospelcom.net/archives/2008/06/29/index.html) REALLY?? What if I were born in Japan and worshipped Buddha because it was how I was raised? I’m going to Hell because I don’t know any better? I have a VERY hard time with that now that I have been in an area where MILLIONS of people don’t believe simply because they don’t know any better and they have never been shown any different. It’s one thing to CHOOSE not to believe…

Cost of living. Oh my word!!! Skippy peanut butter (the small jar) for $4.50? Really??? A six pack of beer (the cheap stuff) for $7.00? COME ON!!! It is insanely expensive over here to do anything except breathe (and bike :)). Deana and I have a tough time going out of the house sometimes just because it is SO EXPENSIVE… The tanking value of the dollar certainly doesn’t help…

Lack of space. I know, I just finished bragging about how convenient everything was, but I REALLY miss living in Tullahoma, where we had a 2 car garage and a big yard. Sometimes the compact-ness (is that a word?) of this place gets under my skin.

OK, that’s enough for now. I really could go on and on, but i won't. Thanks for letting me get that off my chest…

All that being said, we are REALLY looking forward to coming home this Friday. As all of you are surely aware, we only have about 13 days and have TONS of people to see and things to do. Please be understanding (I’m sure all of you will be). Our priorities will be seeing family, visiting our church (and small group), visiting friends (we’ve had some new additions that we HAVE to see), hunting (that one is just for me – Deana won’t be in the woods), playing soccer (another one for me), shopping (since the US is on meltdown mode, we intend to capture some deals), and whatever else we may have time for.

We’ll plan on seeing you in few days!

Curtis

Avery's Christmas Play

Deana and I had the opportunity to watch Avery and her classmates put on their Christmas performance. Thanks to the blessing of the internet and You Tube, you all can watch it as well. I experimented a bit with the download formats and video sizes because the first one I uploaded took FOREVER!! I hope it all turns out okay. The camera man is certainly NO professional, so try to keep complaints to a minimum please...

Enjoy!

Aunt Pat, you'll have to cart Masam down to your house this weekend so she can watch it. I'll post some photos below for those of you that don't want (or have time) to watch the videos.

Curtis

Avery and 3 of her classmates:

Avery, Mommy, and good friend Riko

Avery singing her Japanese songs:

Avery Playing her Christmas Instruments:

Santa's Helper and Rudolph:

YouTube Hyperlinks are below:

Playing Christmas Instruments

Singing Japanese Songs

The Christmas play (Part 1)

The Christmas play (part 2)

We Wish You a Merry Christmas

A Great Day for a Picnic

Well, this weekend was another beautiful one! We rode our bikes both Saturday and Sunday. Curtis was in the mood to shop this weekend so I jumped on that! Saturday we rode around and did window shopping. Sunday we went and tried a church in Yokohoma, Grace Bible Church. It is a fairly small church with a band and singers. All the songs were in Japanese but the announcements and sermon were in both Japanese and English. Many members of the congregation are Japanese with some foreigners. The preacher is from America as well. It was really amazing to me and Curtis how passionate the Japanese were during the song service and worship. They seemed to really soak in every word. We met some new people and overall enjoyed it. We are trying another church in Tokyo next Sunday.

After church we took our bikes to a pier for a picnic lunch. It was so nice and Avery was so excited about it. We then did more window shopping. See the pictures below.

Avery fell in love with this big bear sitting on the bench outside the Hard Rock Cafe Yokohoma.

Every Saturday, street performers do acts in the courtyard of the Landmark Tower and Queens Tower. This guy was pretty funny.

This is the view Yokohoma City on one side of the pier we picniced at. The pier was made of wood with grassy patches in the center.

This was the view of the Yokohoma Bay Bridge on the other side of the pier we had our picnic on.

This was a ship that was coming into port at the pier that was decorated for Christmas.

Curtis's head was getting a little cold, so he thought he would get himself some hair!!! He is now planning to join the Beatles.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

This past Monday was a national holiday in Japan. Sunday (11/23) was Labor Day and since it fell on a Sunday, the majority of the country was off on Monday. Since it was a holiday and it was pretty close to Thanksgiving, we took the opportunity to celebrate. The Japanese do not celebrate Thanksgiving for those of you who are wondering.

We got together with the other American families that we have become friends with while we have been over here and we ATE!! Overall, there were 16 people in our house (8 adults and 8 kids). It was full, but we had a great time. It was at our house because we are the only ones with a stove big enough to cook anything other than a burrito. We did manage to get a HUGE bird at Costco (can't find turkeys anywhere else). We got a 21 pounder for just over $50. This was Deana's first attempt at cooking a turkey and like many of you would imagine, she did a beautiful job. It was fully cooked, juicy, and flavorful. Good job baby!! Here are a few photos:

Deana and the "before" photo:
And just 4 short hours later:

I was the lucky one that got to cut it up...

We put Alvin and the Chipmunks Christmas on for the kids (Thanks Tessi!)

Here is the spread before we started digging in:

And the dessert table:

Last but not least, the women who helped make it all possible (Linda not pictured):

We have been super busy lately it seems with posting on the blog, but we have had so much going on that we wanted to post about. Things should start slowing down now, but who knows.

I hope all of you enjoy your Thanksgiving Holiday this week!!

Curtis

Video tour of the house...Finally

Our sea shipment has finally arrived and everything is put away, so it's time to share our home with you. Hyperlinks to YouTube are below. Please let me know if they do not work.

Video Tour of the exterior of our home

Video Tour of the interior of our home

Here are some miscellaneous photos from today's excursion. The weather was beautiful (as you can see). The high was about 60 degrees.

Overlooking Yokohama Bay:

Avery and Daddy playing on a play ground that we stumbled on while we we out today.

Avery and I continued to get TONS of looks and comments about her trailer. We had the rear cover removed so Avery could get some air and she found out she could stick her head out the top and wave at people passing by, which just made more people stop and comment.

This is the Red Brick Park that Deana was mentioning in her previous post.

Deana had to have a photo of this contraption. I don't even know what to call it.

Whew! What A Day

We started off the day with putting up our Christmas tree! We are having Thanksgiving dinner at our house with 3 other American families on Monday, so we wanted the house to be decorated. Our tradition, ever since our first year of marriage, is to decorate for Christmas Thanksgiving day or that weekend (depending on how busy we are turkey day).

As soon as the tree was done, Curtis was itching to go bike riding (imagine that). We rode our bikes to the highest point in our area to get a view of Mt. Fuji. This time of the year is a great time to view Fuji from a far, because the skies are very clear. Most of the time you can't see it due to the smog. In the picture below, Fuji is about 50 miles away (as the crow flies). You might think...it's just a volcano...big deal, but when I walked up the hill and turned around to see it..it took my breath away. I had never seen it with snow on top. It is so massive and really quite breath taking. Our God is so amazing to create the things He does.

Then we were off traveling through Yamashita Park and on....

Everyone was intrigued by our trailer for Avery. They don't have these in Japan. I rode my bike behind Curtis which was a bad idea. Everyone we passed were so busy staring at the trailer that they didn't pay attention to the fact that I was coming to. But it was fun to watch their reactions. They seemed to really like it.

We came up to the Red Brick Park in Yokohoma where a festival was going on. I found someone who spoke English and asked what kind of festival it was. Come to find out, it was the Festival of Modern Art that only occurs about once every 3 years. How lucky were we to come across that. There were some crafts, food, and dancing. Avery and I sat and watched several Japanese dances, Hawaiian dances, and a Hawaiian band that consisted of all females. I loved the Japanese dancing...it was really neat. One of the dancers tried to get Avery involved, but Avery would have nothing of it. So she just gave Avery a hand clapper thing to shake while they danced.

Then we biked home. Overall we biked about 12 miles and my rump is SORE!!! and my legs are aching. I need a lot more practice.

Our girl is a star!

I just got a copy today of the Japanese newspaper that Avery was in for Halloween. See the photo below. Can you find the adorable American child? Isn't she cute!

It's Here! It's Here!

Our sea shipment finally arrived today at 10:40 am. The movers were excellent and took such great care in handling our stuff. They laid blankets down on the floors, put bubble wrap on walls and door facings, and took their shoes off every time they entered the house...even when carrying heavy furniture.

I set Avery's room up first so she could be surprised when she got home from school. Once she saw her toys and stuffed animals, she was THRILLED! She played in her room with her stuff for about 2 hours before coming out to check on us. I think she is even excited about sleeping in her own bed in her own room. About 6:00 this evening she came out of her room and said "mommy, I got my bed ready for going to sleeping, come see." I walked in the room and she had turned down the covers as if she were ready to go to bed right then.

Curtis was also excited. He couldn't wait to take his bike for a spin. Literally...couldn't wait. The movers had been gone for about 20 minutes and he was off! Then once Avery took a break from playing... both her and daddy went for a bike ride. But not before organizing the living room!

As for me...well, I absolutely can not wait to climb into my bed with my beloved body pillow! I have set up Avery's room, all the bathrooms, and almost done with our bedroom. The kitchen...well...still has a lot of work to be done. They wrapped every little thing...including the box of toothpicks. I will be very busy this week!

Here Comes Santa Claus....

Yes, Santa even comes to Japan! Today we went to a fundraiser/ craft bazaar at a local international school called St. Maur. Avery was so excited to go see Santa until we got there. She wouldn't go up to him without me going too. But....do you blame her? He does have the "deer in the headlights" look doesn't he? Curtis said he must have just gotten parolled. Anyway, we explained to Avery that it wasn't REALLY Santa Claus, it was his "helper".


They had several food booths serving all different kinds of things from hotdogs to okonomiyaki and hot chocolate to beer and wine. Yes, beer and wine...what better way to get people to spend money than to get them all sauced up first.

The craft bazaar wasn't what I expected either. I expected all handmade crafts and goods with maybe a few store bought things. Most everything was store bought stuff. Everything from Gucci neck ties to pearl jewelry (the real thing).

They had some games for the kids as well. Avery played a raffel game and won a prize from the highest level. She actually won a doll house thing from Toys R Us with all the accessories. She was so excited and so were we! You would have thought we won the lottery or something! We really did have a decent time. At least we got to see "Santa".

This is the balloon flower daddy bought her at the craft bazaar....isn't she the cutest thing ever!

Avery's New Friend

So this morning, Avery and I were walking to her school when she spots with her keen eyes the biggest snail I have ever seen in the wild. It was inching its way up the rock wall that is below her school courtyard. When I picked her up today, what was the first thing she looked for....yep...the snail. Of course with the lightening fast pace of a snail it was still there. It was actually taking a nap. Avery asked me to pick it off the wall so she could bring it home and put it in the back yard. Being the compliant mother that I am....well....it is currently in our back yard. Here are some pictures for you to enjoy.

Take Me To Tokyo!

So can you guess where we went to today? You guessed it...Tokyo. We first made a visit to our good friends the Imperial Family at the Imperial Palace. they must have forgotten we were coming and went out of town since the gates were locked and we couldn't get in. Hummm isn't that strange!?!




So then we decided to go do some shopping in Ginza, which has the most expensive real estate in the world. That's right, in the world. Here, Curtis took me to Tiffany's and bought me a 5 carat diamond, then off the Giorgio Armani for a suit for him and dress for me, and finally to Gucci for a new purse and accessories. Sounds good huh?!?....Only if it were true!!!! But we had fun anyway!
Ohhh... and you can't forget the famous Shinkansen Train, aka "Bullet Train"!!!