Exercise, Exercise, Exercise!

"Exercise! -- Exercise! -- Exercise!" That's what the loud public announcement system shouts 10x a day all over base during our frequent training exercises. The announcement follows with directions like "Code Black!" or "MOPP 4!", but our girls interpret it as a call to do jumping jacks. Michelle captured one of our most intense exercise sessions on tape, for your enjoyment below.

Happy Halloween

This year Ryan and Helen worked together to make her Halloween costume. I am not sure who had more fun of the two. It must be noted that they were not painting in the rain, as Helen's poncho would suggest, rather Ryan is trying to keep her from becoming red from head to foot.

Here Helen is showing you the neat trick of how she can disappear into a Lego. My favorite thing that Helen said while in costume was, "It is hard for Legos to walk down stairs."

Helen was the only Lego that we saw during our two trick-or-treating events. In fact, Ryan commented on the "surprising lack of box costumes." To which I concurred, but didn't understand. I confessed that I had been a box for most Halloweens except for the time I was a stick of gum. Ryan said that hardly counted as not being a box, since I was two boxes put together.

Jane got to be a crocodile for Halloween. She was so excited. Jane has watched Helen dress up in this outfit for most of her life. I have to admit this is the first time the costume has been used for what it was intended, by the correct sized child.

Curtain Project

I have to admit that I have been known to start big projects, but I think this was the first time that the scripture Luke 14:28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and ^acounteth the ^bcost, whether he have sufficient to ^cfinish it? would apply. In this particular interpretation of the scripture my "sufficient" would include all of the following, a. expertise, b. fabric, c. time to finish in less than a month.

In my defense, we needed curtains badly and they had to be lined. There is no daylight savings here, and the sun in the summer rose around 3:30am. Hence the aluminum foil you see in the window. Mothers are desperate when it comes to their children's sleep. The sun now is up before Ryan comes home from work at 5:30am, but I'm not sure the exact time.

How to make curtains in Japan. 1. Check out all the books (two) at the library on curtain making and hope no one else decides to make curtains over the next year. 2. Measure and remeasure the windows and then convert everything to centimeters. 3. Go to fabric store and practice the Japanese words you have practiced for the event. 4. Buy the fabric and make sure you have extra. 5. Whoops, they don't have black-out fabric in Japan. You should have ordered it a month ago from the States. 6. Combine panels of fabric and then lining. 7. Sew pennies in as weights. 8. Attach fabric and lining together by hand. 8. Add heading tape. 9. Gather curtains using sweet trick with thread and twine. 10. Insert hooks. 11. Hang curtains. 12. Threaten children with adverse consequences if they touch the curtains. Note: Any and all of these steps will likely be repeated until you become proficient, which is just as well because the master bedroom needs curtains next.

The girls love their new curtains. They are hot pink with Japanese fans on them. What is not to love?

Camping at Lake Towada

Last month we drove half way across the island and up the mountains to Lake Towada (largest crater lake on Japan's main island) for a camping trip.

The road snaked through the Orise Gorge, and you can pull off and hike up to different waterfalls as long as there was a) room enough and b) warning sufficient to pull over. We didn't actually find this map until we left the park which, would have been helpful in finding said waterfalls.

Here is Ryan's favorite sign. I don't know about you, but I think this particular bear looks more menacing than a grizzly bear and it seems more than likely that he knows karate.

We found a great nature center by Lake Towada where you could push buttons next to the names of birds (written in Japanese characters) and the birds in the display sang. The girls could have spent hours there.
Here is the view from our campsite. We were the only ones camping that night, so we choose the flattest spot with the most picturesque view.
This is what it looks like to wake up after freezing all night. We took a page from the book of Lucinda Johnson's Guide to Camping and wore all the cloths we had packed to stay warm.

Here we are at our Japanese picnic table. It was a little tricky with no seats for the girls, but they had fun 'bellying up to the bar.'

This picture affirms that these are Ryan's girls. Before we were married Ryan always thought it was fun to close his eyes for pictures. Somehow this trait has been passed on genetically regardless of all the fine nurturing I give these girls.
Here we are along the Orise Gorge trail. I asked Helen if she liked camping and she said camping was okay but she liked hiking better.
Helen and Michelle at a waterfall.
Ryan and happy Jane. We don't really know what this sign says, probably please stay on the trail and don't litter.
Happy, happy hikers.

Happy Columbus Day!

In honor of Columbus Day we made boats based on the pattern we learned from reading Curious George. We didn't have any frogs, ducks or bugs to put in the boats, so Helen grabbed some elephants.

Sadly it was raining outside so we had to launch the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria in the bathtub.

Pear Picking in Nanbu Village

In September we went on a "field trip" to Nanbu, a little village up in the mountains. In order to pick fruit first you report to this little visitor center. Then you tell them which fruit, of those in season, that you would like to pick. Then they give you a map and show you the Japanese characters of the farmer's name so you can recognize their names on the signs outside their farms.

Here are some of the varieties of pears we could choose between. Although some of them look identical they all taste vastly different. It took the farmer to let us know which ones were which.
Ryan and the girls at the farm with Mt Nakuidake in the distance.
So I thought pear picking would be like fruit picking in the US where you go and pick all the fruit you want and then pay for it and go. Here you pay to eat all the fruit you can in an hour and they give you a bucket and knife and let you go to town.
Helen shows off the Japanese pears.
It started raining while we were there and we had to move inside. Don't worry, that didn't slow Jane down at all.
Jane got all juiced up on this adventure.
Here is a view of one of the farms we drove past.

Outside the city limits

Back in September we took the girls on a picnic to Swan Park which is about a 20 minute drive from our house. Have I mentioned that driving in Japan is terrifying? Not because the roads are filthy and unorganized, but because we drive on the left side of very small streets. Ryan and I have discovered new things about ourselves from taking turns in the front passenger's seat. I am sure this counts as some sort of marriage therapy to go through near death experiences together.

The girls love bridges as a general rule and are always looking for trolls underneath, but Jane was terrified on this one. Probably because her legs fit between the wood.

We finally drove to the east two miles and found the ocean. We don't know if the beach was like this before the tsunami or not.

In Japan it appears that there are vending machines everywhere filled with all sorts of beverages and addictive substances at the push of a button. I had heard about an egg vending machine and was dying to see how the little eggs rolled out the bottom without breaking. To be honest, my expectations were dashed because all Ryan did was open a little door and pull the bag of fresh eggs out. I would have probably paid double the 200 yen just to watch them tumble down a ramp. Oh well, it's probably cleaner this way.

Home Sweet Home

We live on base with all our closest friends here. I can't complain at all since there are sidewalks everywhere for the girls and I to go for long walks. We also live a 30 second dash from arguably the best park on base. It is 4:30 in the following picture, how do I know, we have stopped to listen to the Japanese followed by the United States national anthem. Our neighbor Sophie helped concrete the hand over heart learning for our girls. Now Jane stops whatever she is doing, puts her right hand over her heart, sways back and forth and hums along with the anthems.

Here is the front of our house with the plants before the slugs started munching on them. We have since bought a potent pesticide with lots of dead bugs on the label. There is nothing like being illiterate to increase one's appreciation for pictures.

Here is our side/backyard. We didn't get a picture of the girls favorite parts of the yard -- the storm drains and the great sledding hill.

What are my favorite parts of the day? In the morning when the girls wake-up and giggle with each other, when the girls read by themselves, when we go for walks and Helen skips the whole way, when Jane talks about umbrellas, Daddy and word (I think she must have seen him taking an umbrella to work), when everyone eats dinner and says thank you. I have the best job in the world. Clearly the weather has improved and caused a dramatic increase in my feelings of well-being.

Misawa Festival

I realized today that we are about a month behind on our pictures and updates. These picture come from a parade we went to last month. We found some sweet seats along the road where there was not another American to be seen. It's fun to really feel like you live in another country, but is often hard to capture when living on base. From what I learned beforehand, this parade was the dance parade. Groups like this one below danced in unison to Japanese or American pop music while walking down the street. It was like being in a musical or perhaps watching a boys band.

Helen and I were lucky enough to meet this large headed person. Jane was really excited, as you can see from her lunging position in her stroller.

Here is a group of boys eating street food that were across the street. They had a ton of fun eating their street food and cat-calling to all the people in the parade. I had initially felt guilty about taking people's pictures here, but at the air show a couple weeks ago we had our pictures taken enough that I was curious as to what we had done to deserve the paparazzi treatment. Had Ryan started a successful singing career? maybe acting? some sort of night job with lots of hype?

Here is another dancing group, most of the groups we made up of children. This was probably my favorite one.

I love these hats! It's like carrying your umbrella with you all the time.

This float, one of only four that I remember seeing, carried a bunch of big white root vegetables. The man at the back handed them out to spectators. I guess that we didn't look like we would know what to do with such a gift, so we didn't get one. I think that it would be really great if in the US they had floats where they handed out vegetables, you know, like eggplant, or turnips. Probably it would just end up a giant food fight though.

This float was the loudest float. There were people banging on big drums and a wild man with a sort of tambourine setting the rhythm for them.

Here is one of the other floats. You may not know it, but Miss Veedol, the red plane you see in replica was the first plane to cross the Pacific Ocean non-stop back in 1931.

Tours Around Town

Last month when we arrived in Japan we got to go on a couple of tours around the area. Here the girls and I are in front of an old Samurai home.

Helen demonstrates how to cook fish inside the Samurai house. This is part of a Shinto Temple that we visited. Here are Helen and I in front of the Shinto Temple. Did the girls appreciate the fine architecture, lovely paintings, impressive bell or beautiful woods? No, they were most impressed by the fish. Yep, they would have jumped in with said fish along the gate if we had let go of their hands for even a second.

This is a Buddhist Temple we visited in Misawa. Luckily we practice being reverent every Sunday at church so the girls happily folded their arms instead of touching momentos that families keep in the temple.
We got to go to the indoor fish market in Hacinohe. I have never seen such varied fruits of the sea. Jane and I took a quick turn down the fruit and vegetable aisle instead of exploring the fish. I couldn't handle the though of Jane grabbing on to the various squids right at her eye level (we hadn't brought a stroller) and the smell did not agree with me. Ryan and Helen happily volunteered to explore and take pictures for us.

What are these? I don't know. Will they bite Helen's finger? She doesn't know. It's always better to err on the side of caution.

Helen found more octopus! They always bring a smile to her face.

These fish heads were particularly exciting because Ryan taught her to look inside and see what was in there. It also appears from this picture that Helen has her eyes peeled for flying fish as well.