July 12-18, 2010
Tuesday night I had Taiko practice as usual. I can't believe the festival is only a few weeks away!! On my way to practice I saw an amazing sunset out my left hand window... so I pulled off the road to enjoy a few quiet moments with the sun, while overlooking the ocean. I felt bad about being late to practice, but when I got there they hadn't started yet and everyone else was standing around comparing sunset pictures too. I love Japan!
This is what my Tuesday nights are like! You'll have to imagine some seriously loud music. behind me are the drums!
Wednesday of this week the baseball team from Eric's school played in the playoffs for "state" Championships. His whole school went on a field trip to support them and I got to go with them! It was such much fun to see all the students supporting their team! The team put up a good fight but lost 5-4 :/ 
Thursday morning I got a very cute little friend in the mail!! 2 of my lifelong best girl-friends mailed me a bear from the Build-a-Bear factory:
Her shirt says Love, Hugs, Peace and as you can see she has an American Flag, which certainly makes me think of home :) The best part of it all is her paw has Rachel and Amanda's voices recorded on it saying we love you and we miss you. It's very sweet and perfect for homesick, lonely days! Thanks girls. You really truly are wonderful friends! I can't wait until I get to see you next!
While in Hirosaki I picked up Pizza Hut and we had Genevieve over for pizza! I'm so sad she is moving soon, it's not going to be the same after she has moved on to Taiwan :(
Thursday night we were supposed to go to Japanese tutoring but decided to take the night off because we were taking care of things around the house to finish getting ready for Glenn and Patti's visit, and we did it!! Which means, my giant to-do list from weeks ago, is finally DONE! After we finished, we went to the beach for a bit and played with fireworks :)
We've been doing little home improvements ever since we got here and I think we're finally finished, now we can just enjoy it for the next year. It really feels like our home now! Here are pictures of the apartment, now that we've made it ours:
Living room, now with family photos and a fancy t.v. and no more ugly rug!
The other view of the living room, showing off our shelf of some of our favorite Japanese treasures: 
Our Tatami room with a Japanese style table, the Fusuma doors and Eric's new Bonsai tree.
The other view of the room: 
The dining area and kitchen:
Our bedroom with our futon bed: 
The guest room: 
On Friday we decided that while Eric's parents are here we want to take a road trip around Hokkaido, which is the big island just to the North of us. On Friday evening, our friend Mika came over and helped us plan a good route and also helped us make all the necessary reservations to take our car on the Ferry and booked sleeping arrangements. We're really excited for our trip next week, it should be a lot of fun! After 2 hours of playing travel agency, we took Mika out for dinner and she showed us a restaurant in town we've had our eyes on. We will certainly go back, Eric had a grilled cheese and vegetable pannini and I had "Tomato Chicken" was actually very very close to BBQ Chicken and really delicious!! It was a great change from the standard Japanese food.
Eric had to work on Saturday, but at least he wasn't stuck at his desk! The high school had a dance competition of traditional Japanese style dancing, after which they paraded through the main street of town (stopping for the occasional bus) performing their dance.
Where's Waldo... I mean Eric? Yep, that's him in the white Yukata with the camera!
Boys will be boys... When they saw me taking pictures they kept acting so silly! 
Sunday we headed to Aomori city to pick up a few house hold items necessary for doubling our occupancy capabilities and we had lunch. We had also intended to go to a "festival" at the port, mainly because of their famous ice cream stand serving up extraordinary flavors like, corn, garlic, squid, scallop and sea cucumber. But, believe it or not, I was too hot and tired for ice cream! Shocking, I know. It was incredibly hot and humid and all I wanted to do was be in a swimming pool!
Only one more day until Glenn and Patti will finally be here for our fun filled adventure!
Happy Summer!! We're finally having real summer weather! It's been in the mid 70's and very humid, with rain every other day, rainy season is so nice :)
This was a very busy week for me, and I loved it! I felt like my old self again. On Monday night I had a meeting with the new and old committee members of a philanthropic organization in our region of Japan that currently supports 2 schools, one in Nepal and one in Cambodia. Our organization is called Everest of Apples (We are from the Apple growing region and with our little donations and support we can "build mountains" for the schools we support in the Everest region). The meeting was very encouraging and I'm confident and excited about the future of E of A. This year I'll be serving as Co-director with goals of increasing involvement of community members and exceeding our fund-raising goals for the year. I'll tell you more about E of A as things come up.
This was a very busy week for me, and I loved it! I felt like my old self again. On Monday night I had a meeting with the new and old committee members of a philanthropic organization in our region of Japan that currently supports 2 schools, one in Nepal and one in Cambodia. Our organization is called Everest of Apples (We are from the Apple growing region and with our little donations and support we can "build mountains" for the schools we support in the Everest region). The meeting was very encouraging and I'm confident and excited about the future of E of A. This year I'll be serving as Co-director with goals of increasing involvement of community members and exceeding our fund-raising goals for the year. I'll tell you more about E of A as things come up.
Tuesday night I had Taiko practice as usual. I can't believe the festival is only a few weeks away!! On my way to practice I saw an amazing sunset out my left hand window... so I pulled off the road to enjoy a few quiet moments with the sun, while overlooking the ocean. I felt bad about being late to practice, but when I got there they hadn't started yet and everyone else was standing around comparing sunset pictures too. I love Japan!
This is what my Tuesday nights are like! You'll have to imagine some seriously loud music. behind me are the drums!
Wednesday of this week the baseball team from Eric's school played in the playoffs for "state" Championships. His whole school went on a field trip to support them and I got to go with them! It was such much fun to see all the students supporting their team! The team put up a good fight but lost 5-4 :/ 
Thursday morning I got a very cute little friend in the mail!! 2 of my lifelong best girl-friends mailed me a bear from the Build-a-Bear factory:
Her shirt says Love, Hugs, Peace and as you can see she has an American Flag, which certainly makes me think of home :) The best part of it all is her paw has Rachel and Amanda's voices recorded on it saying we love you and we miss you. It's very sweet and perfect for homesick, lonely days! Thanks girls. You really truly are wonderful friends! I can't wait until I get to see you next!While in Hirosaki I picked up Pizza Hut and we had Genevieve over for pizza! I'm so sad she is moving soon, it's not going to be the same after she has moved on to Taiwan :(
Thursday night we were supposed to go to Japanese tutoring but decided to take the night off because we were taking care of things around the house to finish getting ready for Glenn and Patti's visit, and we did it!! Which means, my giant to-do list from weeks ago, is finally DONE! After we finished, we went to the beach for a bit and played with fireworks :)
We've been doing little home improvements ever since we got here and I think we're finally finished, now we can just enjoy it for the next year. It really feels like our home now! Here are pictures of the apartment, now that we've made it ours:
Living room, now with family photos and a fancy t.v. and no more ugly rug!
The other view of the living room, showing off our shelf of some of our favorite Japanese treasures: 
Our Tatami room with a Japanese style table, the Fusuma doors and Eric's new Bonsai tree.
The other view of the room: 
The dining area and kitchen:
Our bedroom with our futon bed: 
The guest room: 
On Friday we decided that while Eric's parents are here we want to take a road trip around Hokkaido, which is the big island just to the North of us. On Friday evening, our friend Mika came over and helped us plan a good route and also helped us make all the necessary reservations to take our car on the Ferry and booked sleeping arrangements. We're really excited for our trip next week, it should be a lot of fun! After 2 hours of playing travel agency, we took Mika out for dinner and she showed us a restaurant in town we've had our eyes on. We will certainly go back, Eric had a grilled cheese and vegetable pannini and I had "Tomato Chicken" was actually very very close to BBQ Chicken and really delicious!! It was a great change from the standard Japanese food.
Eric had to work on Saturday, but at least he wasn't stuck at his desk! The high school had a dance competition of traditional Japanese style dancing, after which they paraded through the main street of town (stopping for the occasional bus) performing their dance.
Where's Waldo... I mean Eric? Yep, that's him in the white Yukata with the camera!
Boys will be boys... When they saw me taking pictures they kept acting so silly! 
Sunday we headed to Aomori city to pick up a few house hold items necessary for doubling our occupancy capabilities and we had lunch. We had also intended to go to a "festival" at the port, mainly because of their famous ice cream stand serving up extraordinary flavors like, corn, garlic, squid, scallop and sea cucumber. But, believe it or not, I was too hot and tired for ice cream! Shocking, I know. It was incredibly hot and humid and all I wanted to do was be in a swimming pool!Only one more day until Glenn and Patti will finally be here for our fun filled adventure!
Miss you, friend!!! I love your house pictures. I wish I could have been there to see you play in the festival!
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