I have a request...

Deana and I have been discussing ways to scrapbook this awesome year that we have had and we've decided that with 12 months of activities, a kajillion photos, this blog, Avery's school yearbook, and all the other stuff we have, it would just take forever and would contain as many pages as Webster's dictionary. What are going to do is figure out a way to publish this blog into a book and let it serve as our scrapbook. This blog really highlights our biggest adventures and would be a couple hundred pages. There are services out there that will do it, I just have to figure out how.

Anyway, I'm getting off topic... Since we are going to keep this blog in hard copy for ever and ever, we would love to have the names of all of you that follow us. My best guesstimate is that there are about 20 or so of you that read frequently. It may sound vain, but 10 years from now when Avery is flipping through this book (or we are looking through it ourselves), I would love to have a list of people that followed us on our journey. Which brings me to my request...

If you follow this blog, regardless of frequency, please leave your name as a comment. You don't really need to put anything except your name. First name, last name, first and last name, name with comment, name with no comment, it doesn't matter. I have it set up so you can leave a comment without an account, so no excuses!! Thanks everyone!

Mt. Fuji 1/2 Marathon

THEY DID IT!!!!! Today, Curtis and my friend Masumi completed the Mt. Fuji 1/2 Marathon. We started our journey to the world famous Mt. Fuji yesterday (Saturday) at 10:00 am and arrived at Fujiyoshida Station at 2:30 pm. We checked into our hotel and set out for a little sightseeing and fun.
Me, Avery, Masumi & Riko at the train station.

As always, Curtis is the hit of the crowd....loved by all!

When in Rome... Curtis is so goofy! Gotta love him!

Of course the girls wanted in on the action as well!

Avery's first sleep over....does it count since it was in a hotel????

This was a Mt Fuji at 7:30 this morning. As the crow flies, Fuji was about 6 miles away from where we were at the start of the race. By the time we left this afternoon at 1:30, the clouds had moved in and you couldn't see it any more. It really amazes me.

Curtis and Masumi are registered and getting ready to RUN!!!! this was Masumi's first race, so she was a little nervous and Curtis was his usual giddy self and ready to go.

AND THEY'RE OFF!!!! There were about 5000 runners for this race. It consisted of the 1/2 (pictured above), a 10K, a 5K, and Youth run. It was funny....they did an organized exercise warm up in the middle of the track field before the start.

This picture is from Curtis's GPS of the elevation of the course they ran today. Curtis said it was the toughest run he has done. Up hill for a full 3 miles, down hill for 3 miles.....and so on....and on.

Avery was so excited and proud of her daddy! She was such a good cheerleader and it really pumped him up for that last little bit.

Curtis crosses the finish line!!! That is not his time on the time clock. That clock was actually for the 10K that started 20 minutes after the 1/2. He came in at 2 hours 2 minutes.

This is Masumi going across the finish line! She came in at 2 hours and 40 minutes.

I loved watching the runners and the excitement of Curtis and Masumi participating! I know it isn't in me to run like that but I can really appreciate the passion and commitment it takes to run 13+ miles. No matter what time you finish at, it is an accomplishment to finish!! Way to go guys!!!!

Odawara Castle

We had a big week of shopping. We went to Kitchen Town where you can find ANYTHING you want for your kitchen, commercial or domestic. That was just one of the 100 shops we hit in the past week. So, we decided we needed to be "tourists" for a day. On Saturday, we went to Odawara Castle. It was originally built in the 15th century but was restored in the 1960's. It was used by feudal lords to keep watch for war attacks, but now serves as a museum with pieces of the original building construction, samurai uniforms, swords, ninja suits, clothing trunks and many other artifacts. I wish I could have taken pictures of those things, but there were guards everywhere and signs showing NO CAMERA...so, I thought maybe I shouldn't try to sneak a picture this time. Stay tuned...we only have 5 more weeks left and you never know what we may get into!

Honmoku "Omatsuri" Summer Festival

This past weekend we participated in our community, Honmoku Wada, summer festival. The festival started at 7:00pm Friday evening with dancing, food, and games in the park. Saturday morning there was a ceremony of taking out the "horses" to sea. Legend is, the community leaders take the handmade "horses" to the ocean to float out to sea. If none of the horses come back to shore then that means good luck. If any of them come back to shore...bad luck. The last time a horse came back to shore was in 1923 and, for you history buffs, that was the year of the "Great Konto Plain" earthquake. The Konto Plain is the plain that Tokyo is located on.

The picture above is of a "horse" that is going to go out to sea...lets hope we don't see that again, huh?!? Not looking too good since we have had 2 earthquakes in the past 3 days!

Starting a 1:00pm on Saturday, people in the community help carry a portable shrine, that had to weigh at least 400 pounds, throughout the streets of the area. Tradition and legend is that a god of sort would come out of the temple into the mini shrine and the shrine was carried to the homes of elderly people that could no longer travel to the temple to worship. LET ME PREFACE, that we did not take part in any religious ceremonies. Curtis was asked to help carry the shrine through the streets as part of the festival, but there was no worship involved. They marched with the shrine for 3 1/2 hours through the streets of the community as a way to keep a tradition, not worship. So, for 2 days (Saturday & Sunday) starting at 1:00 they did this for 3 1/2 hours. Curtis was HURTING!!!!! (click here to see him in action) The kids got involved also! They had a mini mini shrine on wheels for the kids to "help" pull. Avery did a great job! (Click here to play) The whole "parade" was lead by a moving cart that had drums on it that were played by kids. I was impressed that the kids could keep time as the cart was moving. (click here to play)

Not sure what this man's title is, but he seems to be an "officiant" at the temple behind our house. I thought he looked cool!

Avery is in her yukata ready for the evening's party in the park. She LOVES her yukata and she was READY to try some traditional Japanese dances.

Ok....so let me explain the next picture! The man in the picture, Kan, is one of the community leaders that seemed to really like us. He was the "DJ" for the night and loved the fact that we were American and seemed to be really involved in their festivities. He came up to me and asked me "can you sing?" and of course I told him "not really". Next question "do you know Staying Alive?" My response "of course"....what was I THINKING! Next thing I know, I hear the music and he is pulling me to the stage in the middle of the park!!!!! YES YES...you see right...me and Kan in our "Travolta Stance". I not only had to do this one time, not two times, but three times during the night!!! By the third time everyone was joining in.

Your eyes are not deceiving you....I am back on stage the next night performing my famous "Travolta" moves on stage. This time EVERYONE was participating and loving it!

This is Avery and a Japanese boy dancing along with us...too cute huh?!?!?


Last but certainly not least, I had to post these last two pictures because Curtis is making me. They have NOTHING to do with the festival. Last night the three of us went for a bike ride to a grocery store called Saty to get some essentials. We had parked under the huge trees that line the outside of the store. We were waiting on Avery to get her protective gear on when all of a sudden.....PLOP!!!!! Something hit my head and arm!!! Did you think CROWS!!!! You guessed right!!! A nasty crow decided to use my head as its personal toilet!!!!! After living here for almost a year, they choose now to orchestrate a personal attack on me! Needless to say...I went straight home to the shower, but not before getting some wonderful photos! Enjoy!

A Typical Commuting Day...

Okay, I know... We've been pretty lazy on posting lately. We only have 7 weeks left here in Japan and most of the weekends are repeats of ones that we have already done... We'll try to post at least once per week for the next 7 to 8 weeks , but don't kill us if we don't...

It recently dawned on me that most of you have taken part of the places that we have been, but some of you have not taken part in the fun of actually getting there... My family, Amy, and my co-workers that follow this blog know what travelling in Japan is like. However, the vast majority of you have never been on a mass transit train in Japan. Well, fasten your seat belt...

I took the camera with me on my way to work one morning and made my very best attempt at narrating what was going on. I will be the first to say that I have NO FUTURE in filming and the narration that you are about to receive is worth EXACTLY what you are paying for it...

At any rate, this is the entrance at Negishi station, which is where I start my journey every morning. Actually I have to ride a bus to Negishi, but at any rate, this is where the train journey starts.

Arriving at Negishi Station (click to play)

Getting on the train at Negishi Station (click to play)

Once on the train, I ride about 20 minutes to Yokohama Station. It is here that I change trains to another line (I transfer to the Keikyu line for those of you familiar with Yokohama). Getting off the train is more like "going with the flow" instead of doing your own thing. Most people transfer at Yokohama because of the multiple lines that come into (and leave) the station. Yokohama is big, but it doesn't even compare to some of the ones in and around Tokyo.

Getting off the train in Yokohama (Click here to play)

Many of you have heard of people getting crammed onto a train and some of you have seen crazy videos supporting that. Let me reassure you that is happens on a daily basis in Japan. However, I could only capture a somewhat crowded train in Yokohama. I can guarantee you that trains MUCH MORE CROWDED can be witnessed in Tokyo on every work day during the week.

Getting on the train bound for Tokyo from Yokohama. (Click here to play)

Well, that's basically it for this week's post. I hope it is as entertaining as some of the past ones have been. Maybe some of the people who have witnessed this in person can comment and attest to the accuracy of the post (HINT HINT)...

Seriously though, we will be heading home in about 8 weeks and are looking forward to seeing everyone again. It has been nearly 10 months since we have stood on American soil. I am off of work for the following week (this is the Japanese Summer Shutdown - similar to the U.S. automotive tradition of shutting down during the week of July 4th.) We'll spend this week collecting last minute souvenirs and items that we will cherish for a long long time as Japanese mementos. We will try to post on the blog as much as we can, but like I said earlier, most all of it is beginning to sound like a broken record. (We do have a couple NEW places to go this week though - stay tuned).

Have a great week!

Curtis