Our Anniversary

It's hard to believe that it has already been a year! I can probably safely say that this year has gone by faster than any other. Maybe this is because of all the big changes that we decided to pack into a short amount of time.

Anyway, we are so glad to have each other here in Japan. I can't imagine what it would be like doing this alone. Its so interesting that even in a city full of people how lonely it can be just through the simple act of conversation. It is so nice to come home at night and have a fluent conversation without the fear of being misunderstood.

Our wedding one year ago was one of the funnest experiences that we have ever had. More than anything we loved having all of our close friends and family there to help us celebrate. Thanks again to all of our parents for making it possible!

To celebrate, Brad and I went to a huge mall called Sunshine 60 in Ikebukuro (a part of Tokyo). This building used to be the tallest building in Japan and houses a mall, an aquarium, a planetarium, and many, many restaurants. We decided to go to a sushi restaurant on the 59th floor of this building which had panoramic views of Tokyo. It really is amazing to see lights stretching in every single direction. I read that Tokyo is unique for a bigger city in that it doesn't have any natural barriers (besides the ocean on one side) to keep it contained. It is one of the only places that you can see lights in all directions. In order to get to the 59th floor we had to take a special elevator. It took about 20-30 seconds to go up almost 60 floors. It actually made our ears pop! [Side note: I just googled it and apparently the elevator travels at 600 meters per minute and is the 4th fastest elevator in the world.] The sushi was delicious and the views were amazing!

After dinner we decided to go play some claw games. Claw games are addictive, but so much fun! And you could literally outfit an apartment with some of the things they have including, trashcans, alarm clocks, mixing bowls, waffle irons, tea kettles etc. Of course they also have the stupid little knick knacks that just take up space, but its interesting to see what they stock the games with and watching people trying to win something. When we got to one place we saw a couple trying to win to huge stacks of candy bars. They probably spent about  $20-$30 each over the course of 15 minutes trying to win the candy before they gave up. Then Brad and I saw that it was so close to falling. We spent less than $10 and got about 25 candy bars and some miscellaneous candy. All in all a good deal! Now we just need to share some of the sugar! haha!