Odds and Ends

This weekend (so far) hasn't been a great blogging adventure. However, we did go to many local shops today (in preparation of our family coming to visit) and we did some shopping. We bought some furniture at a local shop where everything was marked from 30 to 80 percent off. Here are the items we picked up today...

This is a seat used to change your shoes or something. We'll likely use it as a plant holder...

This is a mirror that Deana fell in love with after seeing it. How could I say no after that?

This evening, we had some friends come over that we have come to know through Avery's school. He is American and his wife is Japanese. Their daughter is adorable.

Lucky for me, Mayumi-san came with supplies to teach Deana how to make Sushi rolls (or California rolls). This is not legit sushi, BUT, it is pretty darn close. It tastes GREAT, so I am not going to complain. Here are some photos of my chef in action.

And of course, the end product:

It tasted GREAT!! Oshikatta desu yo!!

But, that is not the whole purpose of my post. My primary reason was to share with you Avery's ability to make her own bed. We have started a "chores"list for Avery...

Click here for the Youtube Link Cute huh?

We also got to experience the first snow of 2009 for the Yokohama area

Click here for the video

Tomorrow (Sunday), we are going to Shin-Yokohama for a monthly Flea Market. We are hoping that it will be a good one, but we'll see. If we come across any fantastic finds, we'll keep you posted.

Have a great week!

Curtis

That Is How Much?!?!?!

This weekend we just did a little shopping. We started out at a flea market that was located in one of the subway stations. We find only a few things. We bought Avery a little Japanese tea set for 100 yen (about $1.00) and us a sake set for 200 yen (about $2.00).

We then set off to look at some shops in Motomachi. Just for kicks, we went into a jewelry shop called Charmy Tanaka. I thought maybe I would drop a hint or two on some diamonds that I thought would make a nice 10 year anniversary present to my dear husband. He "uh hu" and "that's nice" me enough that we made our way downstairs to the watch section. Let me tell you...those diamonds weren't NEAR as expensive as some of those watches we looked at. One of the watches had a leather band and nothing real spectacular about it....guess the price....keep going....keep going.... that thing was about $84,000!!!! Don't adjust your bifocals...you're reading right...$84,000 BIG ONES!!! I don't remember the name of the watch, it was a brand I had never heard of and will never see around my wrist so it really doesn't matter but OH MY GOODNESS!!! I should have taken a picture of it but I was afraid that James Bond would come out and tackle me for taking a picture of this apparently top secret watch that was misplaced by some type of secret society. I mean...for that kind of price surely it can direct satellites and land planes or something....right?!?!

A Day at the Beach!

Sunday after church, we ventured to Umi no Koen for some fun in the sand and a flea market! It was a little cool but we had a good time. I found a really neat vase with Japanese writing on it for about $4.00 and a Japanese knife for fileting fish that has Japanese writing carved in the blade for $10.00.


After some shopping we went over to have some fun in the sand. We had some magnificent finds there! We found medium sized conk shells, starfish, some unidentifiable creatures, and 2 octopus. We weren't sure if they were actually octopus but when we poked it with a stick it squirted out purple ink. It was really neat! We can't wait to go back when it gets warmer.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hello everyone! We would like to wish everyone a Happy Valentine's Day! Avery had a Valentine's party at school friday...here is a pic before she left.

In Japan, it is tradition that the female gives a gift to the male. This is a way of her showing her interest in him. So...keeping in the tradition, well.... Curtis and I decided to do nothing for each other.

So since today was a FABULOUS day (weather was PERFECT), we rode our bikes to the zoo that's free to the public and walked around. Then we went to a store called "Homes" and bought a grill for 3900 yen (about $40.00) and came home and grilled steaks! They were so good!

Mochi Tsuki Party

We went to a Mochi Tsuki party hosted graciously by our community (the Wada community)in a local park. Mochi is a Japanese tradition of pounding rice into a consistency that reminded me of marshmallow cream. They top it or coat it in various flavors such as bean paste and black sesame seeds. They are actually pretty good and rather sweet. They also served us curry soup and pork miso soup and all the beverages you wanted. It was sooo much fun and sooo neat to see. Curtis even got to join in on the fun of pounding rice (click to view).


The ladies cleaning up in the street using a hose as a faucet and the storm drain as the garbage disposal.


We also got to meet some of our neighbors and just have a good time. We can't wait for the next community gathering. Oh...did I mention that it was free!!!

On the right are our neighbors, Bobbie and Darrell, also from Nissan formerly in California. They will soon be new residents of Tennessee this fall. We have already started their "Tennessee speak 101" training.

Avery's school results and weekend details

First, let me tell you what we did today.

Deana and I have been searching for some flea market info lately and ran across a website saying that the Tokyo Salvation Army has a Bazzar every Saturday. GREAT! We head off this morning to find it based on this weblink (map link here) Easy right? Nope. The map is not drawn to scale (which really bugs me btw) and there is no indication of North. So, long story short, we (I) guessed and walked the wrong direction for about 15 minutes. When we found out we were going the wrong way, we turned around and trotted back. 20 minutes later, we found ourselves in the middle of a neighborhood thinking that we should give up and go home. Then, with no warning, wha-lah! In the middle of nowhere, there sits the Salvation Army. We found some pretty cool stuff, but I don't think it was worth the time (2hr each way) or the train/ bus fare (3000 yen) to get there. Anyway, Deana got a cool Japanese tea set in a wooden box for 1200 yen. In a retail store, it would have been much more. At least we didn't come back empty handed.

Now, on to the real reason for the post.

Avery has been in school for a little over 3 months now and is doing great! She really enjoys her time in school (5 days a week) and has made several friends that she like to visit and play with on the weekends (when we have time).


As proud parents, Deana and I wanted to put her on YouTube so you could see what she's learning in school. Enjoy!


Avery showing off her smarts...


We have a neighborhood Mochi-Tsuki party tomorrow. We will post pics and explanations tomorrow night when we get back from it. It should be lots of fun!!

Interesting stuff from this weekend

Neat information – for those who are interested.

We didn’t do a whole lot of tourist type stuff this weekend. It actually felt pretty good to feel normal and more like a resident instead of a visitor. I had a work function Saturday night and we went to a friend’s house on Sunday after church (one of Avery’s schoolmates), so nothing huge to talk about. However, we did have some cool stuff happen. We have had some seismic activity this weekend. We started with a 3.8 earthquake that woke us up on Friday morning at 5:00 (web link here). As we were getting up on Sunday, we were hit with a 5.8 (web link here). That was a good ‘un! Then another 3.8 on Sunday afternoon at 2:00 (web link here). I have to be honest – I did not notice this one, but it’s probably because we were out and about at that time.

I took a vacation day on Monday and while Deana and I were out and about, I bought a new set of brakes for my bike (I’ve got a frayed cable and decided I’d rather part with the $$$ and get it fixed than find out what happens when your brake cable snaps in mid-use). Anyway, I digress. I went to my bike to start working on it with parts in hand and noticed it was covered in dust – I even commented to Deana. It was just unusual. I wiped it clean and went to work and didn’t think much more about it. Later, I found out that the “dust” was actually ash from a volcano (Mount Asama) that erupted over 90 miles away (93 miles as the crow flies according to Google Earth) earlier in the day. No one was hurt or injured in the eruption, so it’s not TOO politically incorrect to comment that I think that’s pretty cool. 90 miles away. The distance from Tullahoma to Clarksville, or to Dalton, Georgia in the other direction. That is just amazing to me.

Related news stories

So, for those who care to hear about it, that was our weekend. No pictures to post or funny fish stories, but pretty cool stuff by my standards anyway.

Have a good week!
Curtis