Tokyuu in Tokyo

These last couple weeks I have done little more than clean, watch movies and go to work.　However, I did have 5 additional vacation days called tokyuu that would disappear unless I used them. So, this last weekend I traveled to Tokyo!

Cole, Port, Catera and I left early Friday morning after a quick breakfast of biscuits, sausage and not this...

Surely that can’t be right, but if it is then I think that’s a good price.

First, we went to the Apple store in the very expensive Ginza district. At its center, one square meter can cost up to 10 million yen...

I don’t really know how to preface this, so here is Cole climbing a wall...

We went to the Edo Museum, which was very enlightening. It was fairly dark (in order to preserve artifacts) so I did not take many pictures. That night we went to the Vampire Café for dinner. It was very creepy but very fun...

This is the very elegant red blood cell floor that led you to the seating area...

This was my Caesar salad. I was most impressed by the rose made out of tomatoes...

The next day we split up and my first stop was Sensoji temple...

This is taken from the temple (built in 645 and the oldest in Tokyo) looking towards the gate...

Part of Nakamise (a 250 meter stretch of shops between the gate and temple)...If you are even the least bit claustrophobic you might consider an alternate route to the temple...

We spent the rest of the day on the subway and shopping...

We caught a night train back to Mito and I must say it feels good to be home...

More Peanuts!

Last week we had summer training. We did not take many pictures because most of them would have themes like ‘sitting in a chair’, ‘standing up’ and ‘participating in group discussion’. However, on Friday we spent the day at the Mito City International Center.

We made our own lunch with lots of help…

and it turned out quite well…

The next day we picked up a TV from the Martins and also purchased all of the cables (in no less than 2 trips to different stores) to connect our laptop to the TV. Should have done it years ago.

Saturday night we were given free tickets to a Kashima Antlers game…

Marquinos! Marquinos! He is one of their best players and his name sounded like “more peanuts” when the fans chanted.

The Kajiyamas came over yesterday and brought us a watermelon and fixed the remote. I don’t know what we would do without them.

Yesterday afternoon we went to Sun Beach in Oarai with some friends. We saw a group of blindfolded teenagers hitting a watermelon like a piñata which apparently is a Japanese pastime called 酸いカー割り(suika-wari). Then the waves, some of which carried fish, washed away Staci’s sunglasses. We’d like to think they’re being put to good use…

Last night we went to America-Ya, which is supposed to be an American-style steakhouse. It was good food and a lot of fun…

There were 5 flags hanging up (Oklahoma, Illinois, USA, Iowa and California). Very random…

We have a car now and I just got permission today to drive to school! Staci also got her driver’s license! よくできました！

Bundle of Joy!

Our new baby is here.

Miss FunCargo or FunCargo Chan if you prefer..

She is so lovely.

Thank you Lord for this wonderful blessing!

Picky Eater of Handsome Face

A couple of weeks ago we went to Naka City to look at the Toyota Funcargo we were thinking about purchasing. Here’s what it looks like...

We decided to buy it and began the paperwork. To show his gratitude the salesman gave us this lavish box of assorted soups from a swanky Tokyo hotel...

We also had our friend Leana visit from Korea. She’s an English teacher as well, but our jobs are very different. It was difficult to be tour guides in Mito because a) we haven’t lived here that long, and b) we’ve been too busy working (or participating in other activities) to see much of the city and c) bikes and 85% humidity are not a great combination. Despite the obstacles we did have a lot of fun…

The weekend of July 4^th our group planned to go to the beach to celebrate Independence Day. Those plans quickly went south when it began to rain so we just had a cookout at the church. It was a great time of food and fellowship that evolved into an impromptu devotional. The only downside…no fireworks….

Last week I was able to participate in the Agape ministry, which caters to the needs of homeless people in the community. In the morning, I helped peel potatoes and cried uncontrollably as onions were being diced. The Japanese cooks kept asking if I was ok and I was trying to explain it was the onions. Oh well. We had a good turnout, about 25 people, who were given clothes, a care package, a meal and hopefully some encouragement. I will have pictures next time…

The other night we got a call around 8:30 from someone who only spoke Japanese. I take that back they did know a few words (UPS and teacher’s room). Using our very small knowledge of the Japanese language we deciphered they were asking for Staci and wondering why she was not in the teacher’s room. Teachers here stay very late into the evening so it was a valid question. Anyway, we somehow arranged for the package to be delivered the next day in the morning. And that is why Staci has a brand new Kindle…

We both had some humorous times at school this week starting with my realization that the door on my shoe cubby won’t close all the way.

We are also aware of and combating the fact that our English is getting worse.For example, I was playing a game with students and wrote the phrase “What’s your name?” on the board. Since I didn’t have a picture to associate with that phrase I wrote the word なまえ which is name in Japanese. Needless to say, I was feeling proud of myself for knowing some of the language and the students were impressed. My teacher then pointed to the board and said, “name”. “Yes”, I thought and said out loud, “なまえ means name, right?” She said, “No...name” and pointed again. I quickly realized that I had spelled ‘nam’ instead of ‘name’. I laughed, then she laughed (a little harder than I did) and we continued. We also found out that Staci is a picky eater of handsome face…

And this picture just reminds me of Karen. McDonald’s, Pauls Valley and yelling “I want a filet o fish”. Here they are Chicken Filet Os…sounds like a cereal...