Our Date!

Yesterday was our wedding anniversary. The last couple of years I would say our anniversary celebrations have not been the best. Last year we both forgot to get money from the bank and had to settle for a cheap dinner at a fast food place. This year we did a little more planning and we had a really nice evening. Lane and I have not been on a date for months. I think that last date was in July or June; too long basically. We had our good Friend the Sasakis baby-sit. Big thanks to them.

For our date we decided to go to Akiu. Akiu is very famous in Japan for their Onsens. Onsens are special mineral fild, from the earth, all natural hot springs. This was my first time to the Onsen, so we rented a private spa. You have to go naked so this is why we rented our own and so we could be together. Men and Women have to go into the Onsens separately.

We ate dinner at a restaurant in the Hotel which served good traditional Japanese food. I had Curry rice and Lane had fried Oysters. It was very good. Then we went and sat in the Onsen. We rented it for an hour and it was such a neat new experience. The water was so hot, but the outside air was so cold, so you quickly get use to the hot water. We were right along the river and we could just look up at the stars. I had really hoped it would snow, but it did not. It was a great date and a fun new experience.

I know what you are thinking- who took that picture? Don't worry we took this picture using the timer on the camera.

The Dance

winter musical

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Winter Musical

On Saturday was Grace’s school winter musical. It was the cutest thing in the whole world. It's amazing what the teachers at Grace’s school can get three and four years to do. Grace did a dance with six other girls and they were dressed as rabbits. Grace did a really good job. I am so proud of her. After the performance we asked her if she had been afraid or scared to dance in front of everyone and she said, “No, it was so fun”. I think we might have a performer on our hands.
After that we had a big luncheon with all the parents and kids at an Italian restaurant, and Grace thought that it was the neatest thing to eat out with all her friends. We had a nice time getting to know more of the parents and other kids in Grace’s class. We even found out the one of the little boys really likes Grace. Our little girl is growing up too fast.

Silly photo with Grace, Akari, and Sophia at the restaurant.
Grace and Takuto. He is that one that likes Grace and she is also like a foot taller.

The Dinner!

We were fortunate enough to celebrate Thanksgiving this year. Our church/ward decided to have a Thanksgiving dinner because of our family. They asked me to create the menu and cook the turkey. While I have never cooked a turkey before, I was sure that is was a really simple thing. I called on Sister Karlinsey (she is the half of the senior missionary couple who are in the Sendai, Japan mission) to help me out. After coming up with the menu I decided to just go and get the ingredients myself. So last Monday, Sister Karlinsey and I went to downtown Sendai to do all the shopping. It took us about 3 ½ hours to do, but we did it. I thought we did a great job, seeing how food in Japan can be rather expensive. Between the two of us, we knew which items where a bargain and which items were not. We now had everything we needed for the dinner and we just needed help making all of it. So on Tuesday night during the beads class at the church we passed out all the pie and Jell-O ingredients. Now none of the women helping had ever made a pie before so we had someone translating to one of the women on how to do it. She then wrote it down and gave it to the others. The next morning, the morning of the dinner, we went back to the church to try to hand out more things for people to make. The problem was that no one showed up and we still had the five casseroles to bake. I took one home and the sister missionaries took one home. With three still left at the church we decided to come back at 4pm to finish before the 7 o’clock dinner. I then went back home to check on the Turkey that I was baking and it was still so raw. It took my oven all day to cook mine; which was bad because I still had to bake two pies and a casserole. So I just stove topped my casserole and left the pies to be baked be Lane. When I got back to the church that afternoon we had so much help there to get everything ready. We made the stuffing, mashed potatoes, salad, and set up the tables. As stressed out as I felt, everything came together perfectly. The food tasted great (the women did an excellent job on the pies) and everyone loved it. This was the first Thanksgiving for many and the first time they had ever had stuffing, turkey, or pumpkin pie. I am truly thankful for all of my blessings and the opportunity to be here in Japan. Just for the record this is my first and last time that I will ever bake a turkey.
The Turkey that I baked.


Looks can be deceiving, the turkey was still not cooked on the bottom. A good thing people couldn't understand the conversation going on between me and Sister Karlinsey



The dinner in all of it's glory.


Lane and the Missionaries enjoying the meal.

Wig Time

We went to our friends house for dinner a few night ago and she had a white wig that she wore for Halloween. We decided to try it on Grace and Sophia. I think it looked pretty funny. What do you think?

Brilliant colors!

I can’t believe we are almost half way through the month of November and I have not posted anything. About a week and half ago we decided to go and visit a popular spot in the area for checking out the trees as they change colors. This spot is also home to the only 5 story pagoda in Northern Japan.

We invited some friends to come with us and we had a really good day. The air was crisp and fall was everywhere. The leaves on the trees were brilliant reds, yellows, and oranges. It was so beautiful. All the kids had a lot of fun playing together. Our friend Maria who came with us took really great pictures. While I have not been able to locate my camera since, she was able to take hundreds of pictures of the day. So the pictures I have posted are from Maria. I have to give a big thanks to her.
A Happy Sophia!

All the Kids playing in the Koi fish pond.

Rock, Scissor, Paper.

Grace and Her friend Akari jumping. These two girls are best friends at school.

This tree was so beautiful, we just had to take a group photo in front of it.

Just as we thought the day was over, we came across a park with a huge roller slide. These things are so fun. Lane took all three girls down at the same time.

Here is a picture of Mika, me, and Maria. We all had really good time together. I am grateful for the good friends we have here in Japan

Halloween!

So this year for Halloween we dressed the girls up as Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. Yes they are princesses, but that is exactly what they each asked for this year. Before I even told them that I was going to buy them costumes. While the Japanese do not trick or treat; they do like to have Halloween parties. So we got to go to three this year. The most fun one was of coarse our ward Halloween party. One of the American Missionaries had his mom send so much Halloween candy and treats. It was great. Here are some pictures from that. Lane and I at the last minute decided to go to the party as each other. I put eye shadow on my face to look like a beard and Lane shaved and I put make-up on him. The Japanese loved it. The girls also had a really fun time. This was the first Halloween that they actually got to do something.




I had to add this too. We have now been in Japan for one year now, so it is traditional to give flowers on one year aniversaries I guess. Any how Our dear friends the Kosekis gave me this huge Orchid plant that is beautiful. I love it. It is so pretty. Its taller then Grace too.

Birthday Weekend! The big 24.

This last weekend for my birthday we had the opportunity to go and celebrate in Tokyo. We took the girls to the Studio Ghibli Museum, the Tokyo tower, and Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo Disney Sea. We had such a fun weekend, but not before starting out on the wrong foot. We left our house Friday afternoon to go and stay in Yokohama with our very good friends the Griffins. I was so happy because we were making really good time and then I realized when we were about 45mins out side of Tokyo; I had left the tickets to Disneyland and the Studio Ghibli Museum at home. This was a very costly mistake. So we pulled off the expressway to figure out what to do. I didn’t want to drive all the way back home with the girls because they would have been so sad and confused. And driving all the way back home was expensive for not only gas, but paying the 80$ toll for the express way again. So we ended up putting Lane on the Shinkansen (bullet train) and he went back home by himself to the tickets. We got to the Griffins that night at 10pm and he got back to our house at 12 am. Just so you know the distances from our house to Tokyo it is about the same as the distance SLC is from St. George. So I was so mad at myself. I could not believe that it happened. So instead of Lane meeting us at the Griffin’s house he met us at the Studio Ghibli museum.


The Studio Ghibli museum is a very popular museum in Japan. You have to buy tickets in advance and it’s for a certain time so I was worried when Lane called the next morning and told me that he miss the 8 am train and couldn’t get to the museum until 1pm. Our tickets were for noon. So I navigated my way through Tokyo with the girls and I never got lost. I was proud of myself. Lane ended up making it to the Museum safely and they let us in. We had a wonderful time there. Now the Studio Ghibli is hard to explain so here is the link to the wikipiedia site http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghibli_Museum Hayo Miyazaki is the most famous anime movie maker in Japan. He has made great films that our girls love. They are also becoming very popular in America. One of his recent films won an Oscar. So basically we were very excited to come here.

That night we met the Griffins for dinner at Outback steak house. It was so good. I really miss American food. Tokyo is about the only area in Japan that has good American restaurants. I got the Alice Springs Chicken. It was probably one of the best meals I have had all year. After diner we went back to the griffins and had birthday cake. It was so good.


On Sunday we left the Griffins house to head into Tokyo and on over to Disneyland. We spent most of the day at Tokyo tower (Japan’s version of the Eiffel Tower). They even built it 300m taller just despite the French. It was neat and had great views of the city.




At about 3pm we headed over to our hotel in Chiba for a nice relaxing evening before our big day at Disneyland.
On Monday morning we headed out to Disneyland. To save money we decided to take the train. What an experience might I add? We had to catch the train going into Tokyo and boy was that crazy. The trains were packed with people, so packed that the train conductors were pushing people into the trains so that the doors would close. I could see people’s faces just shoved against the windows. So we ended up wait for a couple of trains to go by before we got on a less crowed one. We finally made it to Disneyland an hour later and had a wonderful day.



The girls were awesome and had such a fun time. Grace is tall enough and still free so she can go on all the rides. She loved thunder mountain railroad and Space Mountain. Sophia loved the Jungle Cruise and of coarse meeting all the princesses and different characters. She is just in love with anyone dressed in a costume. It’s funny because Grace is terrified of Mickey and the other characters.





I am so glade that we have little girls to take to such a fun place. Lane who use to be against Disneyland now loves it because it makes his little girls so happy.
After the long day the girls so graciously left with us and fell fast asleep on the train. I don’t think they complained once the whole day or even cried. They were awesome troopers.

On Tuesday we took them to the Disney Sea Park. It is a whole other park next door that is geared towards an older crowd. We went and it was so fun. They had a little mermaid themed land and the girls loved it.

We got to meet Ariel and that was the high light of the day. My favorite part was the tower of terror. It was so fun. I really loved this park better then Disneyland. We didn’t have to wait in line for anything and it was just so much fun. If anyone comes to visit us I am taking them here. They have the Mediterranean Harbor which had gondola rides which was so cool. Each themed land was so brilliantly done. I felt like I was in Arabia and America. It was great. Unfortunately our camera was about to die here so I was really skimpy on pictures so google this park for better pictures. Well it was an awesome trip and I wish I could go back again soon.

Catching up.

So I want to catch up on the last two weeks really quick. Two weekends ago the same one as the sports festival we had out town festival. It is called the “Hotei Festival”. Now I am not sure what that means, but that have a parade with the Murata man on top of one of the floats. The old main street was shut down for shopping and the Parade. It’s funny because the parade is so short that it circles the town all day. So you won’t miss it. We got to watch it and it was neat. Kids from the different schools in town performed different dances in it and played the drums or flutes while marching in traditional outfits. It was another great cultural experience for our family. And lucky us, we got our heads bitten by the Dragon in the parade. Yes, 5 years of good luck for each of us.






Then one week ago my very good friend Fumii left for her mission. I am so proud of her. She joined the church just 4 years ago and is the only member in her family. She will be serving in the Japan, Nagoya Mission. I will miss her so much and I know she will be a great missionary. Go Fumii.
Fumii with her sisters. She is in the middle holding Sophia.
Ok I think that is all that has happened. Tonight we are going to Tokyo for 4 days. I am very excited. I will post our Tokyo trip when we get home.

Sports Day!

This last weekend we had the opportunity of going to an activity at Grace’s Yochien (kindergarten). The activity was sports day. It was a fun packed day with lots of different events. This is a very popular day at the schools. It is almost like a track and field day event in America, Just geared towards 3, 4, and 5 year olds. I was very excited to go since Grace had been giving us little sneak peaks at home. When we arrived at the school (half an hour early) the school was already packed with parents and relatives all staking out their clams on the sidelines of the event. Kindly everyone moved and shifted so that we were able to have a front row seat. Now I had no idea what to expect, but I had my video camera all ready to go. Right at 9am the kids all paraded out onto the playing field and were lined up by classes.
Then a bunch of old people gave speeches and people were introduced and then the games began. Up first was a race for the five year olds. At this age everyone is a winner so after they were done they all got medals the said good job. Grace’s first event was a ball throwing contest.
Her class of 30 kids was divided into two teams: the red team and white team. Grace was on the red team. As a team the kids tried to throw tennis ball sized balls into a netted hoop. The team with the most balls in the net basket won. Unfortunately Grace’s team lost both times. But overall she did a good job herself. After that it was her classes turn to race. So they had four kids run against each other at the same time. She was in the last group to go and she did pretty well. She came in second place.
We were proud of her because I don’t think that she truly knew what she was suppose to be doing. It was cute. The last activity that Grace participated in, was the Mickey Mouse dance. Her whole class did a dance routine to the Mickey Mouse song. It was the cutest thing I had ever seen, all these three year olds doing a dance and doing it well and in sync for most of the time. I was amazed at all the effort the teachers put into this short two minute performance for these little kids. After Grace’s event were done there were still two more amazing performances performed by the 5 year olds. They did a whole cheerleader type routine where they we all in groups of three or five doing pyramids and different stunts. Now these kids were doing amazing things with no adult behind them to catch them if they fell. It was the neatest thing I had ever seen. These kids really had a lot of talent. Shortly after this event it was the final performance. It was again the 5 year olds doing a marching band formation routine while playing their instruments. I could not believe it. I thought the whole acrobatic performance earlier was amazing, but this was even more impressive. The kids played their tiny kid sized instruments while marching around on the field. There we girls twirling flags and one lucky girl was the conductor.
They played two songs and in total their performance lasted 15mins. I was impressed. It was a very fun day and I am so glad we got to have the wonderful experience. Its days like that which make me want to stay in Japan and raise my kid. If Grace could play the piano and march in a band at five, what else would she learn to do? I wish everyone could have been there to see it.

"Bennyland"

So Last weekend we decided to take the girls to the local amusement park. Some one gave us free tickets so we thought, "great a fun outing for us and the girls." So when we got to “Bennyland” we found out that the tickets were only to get into the park and you had to pay separately for the rides. It was a total bummer. Not only that, but the rides were a rip off and lame. Unfortunately you can’t take kids somewhere fun with out participating in the action. So we gave in and bought 30$ worth of tickets that lasted about four rides. Over all the girls had fun and what ever makes them happy, makes us happy as well. Right? So here are some pictures of the girls at “Bennyland”.
Riding on the kiddy coaster with dad.


Driving the yochien bus. Yes these 1$ rides seemed more amusing to the girls then the big rides


Riding some high flying, going in circles ride


An amusement park would not be complete with out a ride on the merry go round. So that was a must for the girls.