Playing Catch Up

I just looked at the calendar and noticed that we have now been home for 9 weeks. I can't believe how fast time has flown by. Sometimes Japan just seems like a dream...

We lived in the basement of Brad's mom and step-dad's house for the first few weeks before moving into our own apartment a week and half ago. Our 440 square foot little beauty is small, but comfortable and most importantly our own. It has been so nice digging out all of our clothes, shoes, and barely used wedding presents. I like having everything that I need to make pretty much whatever I want (i.e. I have an oven now and pans to make a cake, or muffins if I want to). I also have a dishwasher to put our amazing dishes in after 2 years of not having one! We are also sleeping on our own BED, not on a futon! Really, it's just the simple things in life... :)

One thing that Brad and I joked about though is at least this time around our landlord wasn't trying to use Yahoo translator to explain certain aspects of our lease agreement to us.... haha!

My former employer asked me to come back so I have been working since April 12. It has been nice, but has kept me extremely busy! Brad is still looking for a job but has a couple of interviews this week so hopefully he'll be starting soon.

As far as the long run goes--I am taking the GRE at the end of the summer and taking an Anatomy and Physiology class at CU Denver in the fall. I will also be shadowing physical therapists this summer and applying to PT school in hopes of starting school next summer.

Brad has decided that he would like to be a high school English teacher after his experience teaching in an elementary school here as well as his experience in Japan. In order to achieve this he is going to take prerequisite classes to get a Masters in English this next year at Metro before beginning an education program next summer. After getting his license to teach he is hoping to work towards getting his masters in English part time while teaching.

We are also starting to train for the Denver Rock and Roll Marathon on October 9th. In doing so we are celebrating our 2nd anniversary by running the Bolder Boulder on Memorial Day.

And that in a nut shell is "The Anderson's Return to Colorado". Not so exciting at the moment, but we have enjoyed catching up with everyone and are looking forward to seeing what's in store for us.

And...We're Back!

I'm sorry I've taken so long to post something on here. I started writing one during our last night in Japan but never finished it. A lot has happened in the last 3 weeks so let me fill you in. We decided late on March 17 to come home, booked a flight, and started packing up our lives Friday in order to check out on Sunday. Let me tell you it was a very busy/stressful time. Thursday night there was a black out so we started to pack things up with the light of our computer and a couple of tea candles. Friday I worked a half day, and Brad a full day but somehow we got it all done by Saturday night. I was surprised how hard it was to get rid of all of our appliances. I would have loved to have donated it to people displaced by the tsunami but the only charity drive that we knew of was only accepting brand new items.  We had originally sold all of the stuff but people weren't going to pick them up until the next weekend. But our plans changed and so did theirs. Luckily there was a couple with a truck that came and picked up most of our appliances along with some of our trash to haul to the dump for us and saved us a world of money, stress, and time. We also got lots of stares from people on the street because of the massive trash pile in front of our place. Usually they are very strict about trash and you can only put certain things out on certain days, but we didn't have the time so it piled up. (And it's amazing even knowing that you're only going to be in a place for a year what you can collect!) We only mailed 3 boxes home (and one of them still hasn't arrived yet--hmm...) and we were able to fit everything in 4 suitcases and 2 carry ons. I seriously don't know how we did it, and I know it would have been hilarious trying to see us make it through all the busy train stations with our bags.

Everything we brought back with us. We had to leave a lot there, but guess what that means? SHOPPING!

We made it home to Denver after a long 12 hour flight to Washinton D.C. along with a lot of military families that were evacuating Japan as well. You guessed it, that means a lot of moms with young, tired, crying kiddos. Not fun. 

But we were welcomed by our entire immediate family at the airport and it was so meaningful to have everyone there (minus Cindy who was in Belize on a mission trip but we were very excited to be able to talk to her on the phone at the airport). I think the most amazing thing was seeing how much our 17 month old niece, Ziah had grown. She is such a cutie! My parents also brought us wonderful Chipotle burritos and had my favorite chocolate satin pie and blueberry buckle waiting at home. 

Then we got sick. Boo!

Then we went to Hawaii with Brad's family. Yay! (more on that later)

Then we bought a new car. Yay! 

'09 Nissan Versa that FIL Don helped us find that we'll hopefully get on Friday.

Then our computer died. Boo!

And I'll start my old job up again as an administrative assistant at a pediatrician's office on Tuesday while Brad works on selling his old car and following his job leads. 

We will also be going to South Dakota to visit Brad's family as well as Arizona to visit part of my family while my other Grandparents come to visit us in Colorado. 

Whew! It's amazing how busy we've kept ourselves in the past couple of weeks! 

I do want to say how much I appreciated all of the well wishes and thoughts from everyone during our last couple of weeks in Japan. Japan will always have a special place in our hearts and it was sad to leave a country that we have come to love as well as some great friends in an environment that is struggling. It was heartbreaking not being able to say goodbye to some people but I hope they know how much they meant to us and that we will be back again someday. As far as the issues that Japan is dealing with now, I know it will be a struggle each and everyday for some people, but one thing that I learned during our year there is that Japanese people are very strong. I have no doubt that Japan will return even better than what it once was, but in the meantime I know they appreciate all the help they are getting from the U.S. and other countries. 

Quick Update

I just wanted to give everyone a quick update. Brad and I decided yesterday that we are ready to come home so we have a flight for Monday and will be back in Colorado Monday night. We are so excited to get home! Right now we're just trying to use the last of our energy/motivation to get everything packed and taken care of so we can get out of here. While nothing significant happened today, it still seems to be a little unstable so I feel like once we are on the plane I will be able to relax a little bit.

I'll give you a full update a soon as I can! Thanks again for thinking of us through this difficult situation! I'm really sad that we have to leave Japan like this, but all we have is good memories despite this past week.

the big IF

I haven't been sleeping well. It seems like I wake up to some tremor or another every morning. This morning I actually slept through one but Brad didn't. And I woke up soon after and then we just didn't go back to sleep. So I'm tired, and it's getting more wearing than I thought it would be. This whole day it seems there is good news and bad news. We kept with our media timeout today and it definitely helped. I wasn't as anxious today as I was yesterday. It probably helped that we had regular classes today to keep me busy too. Although my teacher was doing some sort of demonstration today where he kind of knelt down in front of his desk like he was getting under it and my stomach flipped and I almost dove under the first desk I saw. That would have been a little embarrassing. :)

We are getting all of our information from the US Embassy in Tokyo. Because the media is completely sensationalizing everything and none of it is really relevant to us. Again, all we need to know is if we're safe right now, and if something bad happens, what do we need to do? Unfortunately those answers are hard to come by and it seems like they are keeping up to date on everything that we might need to know at the embassy website. (We are also registered with the US Embassy here to receive alerts and so they know we are here/where we are in case anything happens.)

Brad has continued to bike to work (25km each way) until he was finally able to take the train home last night, although it wasn't very convenient since not every line is working, and there aren't very many trains working. He tried to use the trains this morning but we had a scheduled power outage so he ended up taking a bus, and fortunately got a ride home from a coworker tonight. His commute is still a guessing game but luckily he only has 3 more days of school left. We have also been lucky in that it hasn't rained, although it has gotten colder.

I talked to some of my teachers today who are worried about the gas situation. Brad also passed a lot of cars waiting in lines at the gas station today. People wait for hours, and are lined up for miles just to get a little bit of gasoline. My teacher said the price is 150 yen per liter ($2 a liter). Now does $4 a gallon seem so much?

They have been giving schedules for mandatory power outages since this problem began but this morning was the first time they actually shut the power off. It was out from about 6:45 am to 9:45 am. I'm hoping they don't shut off the power like they have planned tomorrow from 4pm to 10pm because otherwise we're having a cold and dark dinner!  But we went to the grocery store tonight and things actually seem to be looking up there. They still don't have everything yet, and people are definitely still panic buying but we were able to get some bread and eggs! It still seems like they're running low on the bread, eggs, water, rice, and cup of noodles. Unfortunately because people are panicking around here it seems that it's making it harder on the people up north who really need the food.

Some people looking at the limited train schedule for the night, while a station employee waits to give directions. 

The usually full cup o' noodle aisle at the grocery store. 

OUR "PLAN":

This is our big "if" situation now. If this hadn't have happened, we would be moving out of our apartment on April 2nd with Brad's family. If the situation stays the same as it is now, we will be ready to leave sometime next week. We have already sold most of our furniture, but we still haven't started packing most of our stuff. People are picking up our things this weekend. If the situation gets better, meaning they get the nuclear reactor under control, there isn't any radiation leakage and the public transportation gets better then it would be nice to continue with our trip. If the situation gets worse, and with no regrets whatsoever, we will drop everything and leave.

I really hope that doesn't happen.

For many reasons...but this is a really sad way to see Japan and have it be one of your last memories of an all around great year.

I really want to thank all of you for your emails, calls and messages. It is really comforting to get all of the messages and helps make this whole mess a little easier. I hope you don't feel like I'm neglecting you by not returning an email to you. I'm trying! But I'm also kind of busy/preoccupied. At the very latest we will be back on Colorado soil in less than 2 and a half weeks, and we are so excited to see all of you!

Media Timeout

I'm constantly checking my phone all day and the TV at work is always on. I feel like I'm on information overload. Obviously I want to stay on top of the news because the situation could get really bad, really fast but I feel so on the edge that a false alarm about the radiation almost made me lose it at work today. It's really frustrating because I can't understand what's going on in the news and the English news that I look up on my phone is not as fast to update or isn't very relevant for people living in Japan. (i.e. when the power outages will occur, which train lines are running, which prefectures are being affected by the radiation...)

People are definitely on edge now. We had our graduation ceremony today (which I will have to write about in another post) and teachers had little yellow "disaster" flags for people to follow to safe areas in case an earthquake hit. For decorations they had covered 4 out of the 6 doors leading out of the gym with these sheets. You could still duck under them if you needed to but it definitely would have been bad in case they needed to be used. They still made sure to mark where the doors were and pointed them out to everybody along with where to go in case we had another earthquake though. They were supposed to turn off the power in the middle of the ceremony the luckily they held off the power outages for another day.

It didn't rain today but it's still on the forecast for the next couple days. It's also supposed to get cooler which is really bad for the people up north who still don't have power. I didn't go to the grocery store today but  I saw that McDonald's was only serving a limited menu and more restaurants were closed than normal. It said on facebook that the government had assured people that the food supply wasn't running out in the Tokyo area so hopefully that stops people from panic buying. We're trying to finish all the food we have piled up anyways because we're leaving soon but it's really hard to do that when you know you don't have enough to last 2 weeks.

So anyway, things still seem kind of dicey with the reactor but I figure if something really bad happens I'll know about it. But I get more worked up about things if I'm constantly monitoring things so I'm putting myself on a news media timeout. And now I just need to stay busy...and hopefully get a good nights sleep.

Acid Rain Tomorrow?

Hi there. Nothing too much has changed in the past couple of days. The trains weren't running today so Brad had to ride his bike 25km to and from work. There was also a small earthquake this morning. Brad felt it more than me. We had the TV on at work all day today and they would sound an earthquake warning every once in a while. It's kind of unnerving, and to be honest with you, we've felt so many little earthquakes in the past few days that sometimes I'm not sure if it's real, or if I'm just dizzy and imagining it.

Tomorrow is our "graduation" ceremony. I put that in parentheses because they're really just going on to high school but they make a bigger deal about middle school graduation because it's the end of your compulsory education. All the students have been practicing for the ceremony for the past couple of weeks. (I'll bring my camera tomorrow but I'm not sure if I'll be able to get any pictures. They're kind of weird about it.) We were in the gym for about 2 hours practicing this morning and the teachers were going around the gym checking for cracks in the walls. I think there are cracks on every column but our school is 30 years old and kind of shabby anyway so I'm hoping they were already there. But still, I was bored so all I could think of was "Was that another after shock? Are the lights swinging? Where will I go if I feel a big one coming?" People were definitely more on edge today. Anyway, I hope that we're able to have the ceremony tomorrow as planned.

I guess there was another explosion at the power plant and the evacuation area seems to be getting bigger. I checked on google maps and it looks like we're 150 miles from the plant--except that apparently the aircraft carrier, Ronald Reagan detected radiation at 100 miles out to sea. I hope nothing more happens with that. It is supposed to rain tomorrow and there is a chance of rain the rest of the week. I think the thing that I'm most worried about now is the possibility of acid rain because the only way for me to get to school is by bike and I usually get a little wet whenever it's rainy. And if the trains are down I definitely don't want Brad riding 25km in the rain. So we'll see what happens...

I went to the store again today because I saw someone that I work with had posted on facebook that the only thing he could find at the grocery store was potato chips...I don't know where he was looking. I went to the store by us and they are still out of eggs, bread, and almost out of instant noodles but that's about it. I didn't look for water because they say it's still safe to drink out of the tap. We did get some non perishable food though because they are planning on doing mandatory power outages. We were supposed to have one today but so far they haven't cut the power. We put a couple of 2L of water in the freezer to stick in the fridge during the day in case they do cut the power.

So that is all the updates I have. I continue to be amazed and saddened by the pictures that are on TV and hope that we don't have any more earthquakes or aftershocks so people can pick up their lives a little bit.

UPDATE: I guess the radiation that was detected 100 miles out in the ocean was from a smoke cloud that drifted out there, it wasn't emanating from the plant. Also Brad just checked and I guess acid rain is more of a long term thing so we probably won't get that tomorrow. We are still unsure as to whether or not radiation can be carried in rain though... But still, let's hope it doesn't rain tomorrow!

Update on the Earthquake

It is now just past noon on Sunday, almost 48 hours since the earthquake. Later on Friday night, we walked to the convenience store down the street and to check out the train station nearby. They had completely closed the station, which was really weird to see. On the way back to our place we noticed an awning over a mom and pop fruit stand was twisted and falling and there was a crack in the side of the building but that is the extent of the damage that we've seen around us. 

We talked to friends that live and work in Tokyo and they were part of the many people who were stranded away from home when the trains shut down. One friend had to walk home 25K (about 15 miles), another waited for a bus for 3 hours and after it never came decided to walk about 15K home (about 9 miles). He said that people and businesses were handing out free snacks, hot tea etc and that it was incredible to see all the people walking, trying to find their way home. 

We went to bed at about midnight on Friday night just feeling exhausted after everything that had happened that day. We were still feeling aftershocks every 15-20 minutes. I woke up a few times during the night because our futon was "swaying" back and forth. At around 4am I woke up the earthquake alarm and someone coming on the PA system to warn us about it. I thought it was just a strong aftershock, but it was actually a separate earthquake that happened around Niigata (where we went skiing last February). Needless to say, I couldn't fall back asleep for a while so it was kind of a rough night. 

Yesterday we were still feeling aftershocks but since we are leaving in 3 weeks to come home, we had plans to say some last good-byes to some people. So we walked around and found out the trains were working again (although there were a lot less of them running). So we went on an adventure into western Tokyo...I have to say that little earthquakes are an interesting thing. You can definitely feel them when you're sitting or lying still, but for some reason you can't feel them standing up (if they're small). So it was kind of nice not feeling some of the aftershocks yesterday since we were standing up most of the day. The only damage we noticed the whole day was some roof tiles falling off of a roof. 

We had dinner in Akishima and noticed that there was a looong line of people waiting to get into the gas station. And when we went into the grocery store there were some bare shelves, but there was still plenty of food and drinks and it wasn't terribly crowded either. After that we headed to Nishi-Ogikubo where we stopped into a convenience store which again, had less food than normal but still had plenty of food. Every convenience store that we went into (about 3 or 4) were like that. But most restaurants and retail places were open already yesterday.

I have been reading on various news sources that there is damage to buildings in Tokyo, and that people are stocking up on food, water, and gas but I think the pictures that you see on the news are much worse than anything that is around Tokyo. I have not seen any major damage to the outside of buildings, even though I'm sure offices and homes were quite messy after the earthquake. I'm guessing most of the injuries that happened in Tokyo were caused by things falling off of shelves.  And because of the nuclear plants having trouble I have heard that they might turn off power to some places at certain times but so far we haven't experienced that. I guess I just want to reiterate that Japan is a bigger country than a lot of people expect, and they were amazingly well prepared for it. Nobody could have guessed an earthquake this big would hit but considering that the whole east coast isn't a pile of rubble says something to the way Tokyo has been built and the people's knowledge of how to react when an earthquake does occur. Unfortunately tsunamis are another story and that's where most of this devastation has come from. 

Thank you all for keeping us in your thoughts during this time and I will try and keep you updated on things happening around here. Hopefully we don't have any more big aftershocks and they get the nuclear plants under control. Here's a link from CNN for ways you can help, if you want to.

UPDATE: Here's a map that shows where we live in relation to everything that is going on in Japan.
Click here. 

Earthquake in Japan

So today something scary happened. There was an earthquake...and numerous aftershocks. I just want to update everyone on our story and what we've experienced. Brad and I live in Higashimatsuyama which is in Saitama prefecture north of Tokyo (not near the ocean so we don't have to worry about a tsunami). The big earthquake happened at 2:45, which was during cleaning time at our school.  I was putting paper in the copy room, talking to another teacher when it hit. At first I didn't think anything of it because I have felt numerous earthquakes since moving here a year ago. However instead of going away after a couple of seconds like I'm used to it kept going and kept getting stronger. After a second my teacher started yelling at me and the other students in the room and ran over to the PA system to tell people to get under cover. So I sat under a desk and watched as papers and things fell off the shelves and desks around me. It finally stopped in which case I got out of my desk and immediately went to my phone to try and get a hold of Brad. Then the teachers started crowding into the teachers room to talk about what the plan was with the students. Luckily classes were already finished for the day but there was supposed to be club activities after school. Soon after that we felt our first after shock.

Other people, including Brad told me that they evacuated their school during each aftershock but nobody at my school moved. The students were in the process of leaving when the first aftershock hit so maybe that's why we didn't evacuate. I'm not sure though.

Like I said before I immediately grabbed my phone after the first earthquake hit to try and get in touch with Brad. I sent him a text and then went onto facebook where I saw that he had posted something about the earthquake and knew he was ok. I stayed at work until 4pm and then biked home like I usually do. Brad rides his bike and takes the train for his commute and usually get's home at around 5:20. I had initially seen his post on facebook but he hadn't responded to any of my texts/emails/fb messages etc (ok, I'll admit it, I was getting worried) which isn't like him at all. He didn't end up getting home until almost 6pm because he had to ride his bike home since the trains stopped working. Apparently the cellphone service was more spotty than I originally thought because I still haven't received any of the texts Brad tried to send me.

Now we are sitting at home watching the news, which is incredible. I have basically watched it since it happened and saw the tsunamis hit live. I can't believe some of the damage that happened in Tokyo. After seeing all that I realize how lucky Brad and I are. While the earthquake was definitely really strong and scary, we definitely escaped the brunt of the damage. The only thing that happened at our apartment was some things falling off of shelves, but nothing broke.

Our friend Chris, works in Koenji which is in the middle of Tokyo. We talked with him around 7pm and he said that he was handing out fliers at a train station when it hit and he said it was like the loudest thunder he had ever heard. He said he started running right away because he thought it was a train that was going to crash through the station. Right now he is stranded in the part of Tokyo where he works. The trains aren't working and everyone is depending on taxi's and buses to get home. He posted a picture on fb of his office and it looks like someone went through and overturned everything.

It has now been about 5 hours since the earthquake and we are still feeling pretty significant aftershocks every 15 minutes or so. I have to say that earthquakes can be kind of fun to feel but when you're not sure of how strong they're going to become or what the damage might be it is definitely not fun.

Anyway, we're doing good. Lucky that we aren't hurt and nothing of ours was damaged. And I hope these stupid aftershocks stop soon.

Fukaya 10K

As you know, I've been running most of my life. My brother and I would ride our bikes while my parents ran when we were younger, I ran my first 5K when I was 8 years old and then competed in track and cross country in high school. I tried cross country in college, but got burnt out. I filled the void that running left with teaching cycling classes and personal training in college but didn't really start running again until I was told that I was teaching a marathon training class my last semester of college so I figured I would train for a half marathon along with some of the people who were taking the class. I loved the half marathon but still didn't stick with running on a regular basis after that. I've learned that I need a partner, and a little structure to stick with running and after nearly 9 years together I think the running bug has bit Brad--and I have a running partner!

Some teachers from Brad's elementary school like to run and asked if he would like to run a relay race in January and a 10K in February with them. He said yes and I asked if I could join and so we started training last November.

On a side note: it's hard not to be somewhat healthy in Japan. You're forced to walk a lot and the food, while not quite as good, is probably a little healthier than the US. (Except I'm writing this after Brad and I ate McDonalds for dinner... ) I don't believe I have lost or gained weight this year, except that I do not have access to a gym here so I'm sure I've probably lost a little bit of muscle. Brad on the other hand has lost some weight. So much so that he can't even wear his wedding ring anymore because if he makes a big gesture with his hands it will fly off and might hit someone on the face. It also almost got lost on the soccer field during a pick up game one time.

Anyway, despite the fact that I thought I was in decent shape from all the walking that we do here and the 20 minute bike ride to and from school everyday, I was surprised how difficult it was to get back into running. It was hard! But we made it! The 10K was 2 weekends ago and it was so much fun! We did pretty well and are already looking forward to our next race.

This was the first time the line for the bathroom was longer for men than for women. F

This guy ran the 10k with barefeet and in a bath towel. 

Happy to be finished!

Brad beat me and finished in 50:22 and I finished in 50:43. I came in 15th out of 103 women though! We're already planning on running the Cherry Creek Sneak on May 1st and the Boulder Bolder on our anniversary (May 30th). Let us know if you want to run any of them with us!

Tokyo Sky Tree

A few weekends ago we went with our friend Ringo and her friend Juri to visit Sky Tree. Sky Tree is a tower that is currently under construction but is on track to become the tallest tower in the world when it's finished later this year. And already it is a popular site to visit around Tokyo. I asked some of my 13 and 14 year old students where Brad and I should take his family when they come to visit (specifically mentioning Brad's 15 year old step-sister Lauren) and of all the places in Tokyo, Sky Tree was at the top. And I have to say that I do not understand why. It was definitely a cool site to see, and already it's amazing to see how tall it is, but if I had one day to see Tokyo I would definitely recommend something else. But regardless, we had a lot of fun talking with Ringo and her friend, taking pictures and walking around Asakusa.

Juri, Ringo, and me outside of Sky Tree

Brad and Sky Tree

Sky Tree--you really did have to look straight up to see the top. To get the whole tower in the picture we had to take the picture as low to the ground as possible. (I had to write that last sentence a couple of times so no one could leave a "that's what she said" comment--but who am I kidding, no one comments anyway! lol Thanks Mom!) 

That's a random building, the Sky Tree Tower, and the Asahi Beer buildings. The gold building is supposed to look like a foamy glass of beer and who knows what the other building is supposed to look like. I can tell you what me and lots of other people think the gold thing looks like though... :)

Ringo, Brad, and Juri on the train. By the way, that is Ringo's first Starbuck's drink ever! I didn't think that was possible over the age of 2!

Then we went to take Purikura pictures. They're basically like high tech photo booths and are extremely popular here. Before you take the pictures you pick the backgrounds that you want, then you take the pictures and afterwards you have about 3 minutes to add writing and other photo shop-esque things to it. (Girls get all decked out specifically to take these pictures here.) Only girls or guys accompanied by a girl are allowed to use the purikura booths but it was fun. I have to say that I'm not the best at posing for pictures but they turned our pretty well, and is definitely a fun keepsake!

Hakone and Snow

Friday the 11th was a national holiday so Brad and I decided to go on a little trip to celebrate the long weekend and Valentine's Day. We had tried to go to Hakone in fall since it is known for all the pretty colors but this was our time to do it and it was still incredibly beautiful.

Hakone is only about a 3 hour train ride from where we live so we left early Friday morning and got into Hakone around lunchtime. We couldn't check into our hotel until 2 so we walked around town and found an udon place where we decided to eat lunch. It was so good! After that we checked into our hotel. It was amazing! We had our own hot springs bath and a room with a view of the beautiful gardens out back. And Brad and I got to sleep on our first bed in almost a year. :-)

The view of the garden from our room. It was snowing like this the entire time we were there. 

It doesn't snow very often in Japan, especially where Brad and I live, but now is the "snowy" season in this part of Japan. Even though it's not a lot of snow, it is still COLD! I forgot how much I hated the weather this time of year. Wet cold is the worst!

But I forgot to mention the best part; even though it snowed the whole weekend, we got to experience some of that snow while sitting in the nice hot spring baths that Hakone is famous for. Perfection! This weekend was all about spoiling ourselves and I think we achieved that goal.

Even though we had our own bath in our room we still went to check out the hot spring baths that the hotel had to offer. Hot springs are called onsen in Japan and they have very strict rules to follow when enjoying them. Ninety nine percent of the time they are separated by gender. You can't have any tattoos, you have to shower completely before entering the springs, you have to be naked (the only thing that you're supposed to have is a little hand towel which you are to keep out of the water at all times), and you must never put your head underwater. The onsen at our hotel was amazing! They had 2 indoor pools and 2 outdoor pools (per gender). Usually I can only stand to be inside for a few minutes because it's so hot but the outdoor ones were perfect. They had a beautiful garden and it was snowing these huge fluffy white flakes. I think it was probably one of the most peaceful and relaxing times I've ever experienced.

The Hot Springs tub in our room.

(This is not my photo.) These are the women's outside hot springs pools.  I'm not even joking when I say it was probably one of the most beautiful and peaceful moments of my life relaxing in there and watching the snow fall...

My token foot shot--except no beach here!

Before we left the hotel we walked around the garden they had in the back. It was beautiful! I can't imagine what it would look like in spring or summer, but even in winter it was amazing!

There were so many koi in the pond! They would follow you when you walked around the pond hoping something like this would happen. 

The next day we decided to go to Owakudani which is famous for its sulphur hot spring pits. Unfortunately, because of the snow, we couldn't go see them but we were still able to buy some of Owakudani's famous eggs that turn black after being cooked in the pits.

Apparently they add 7 years to your life per egg--but beware(!) don't have more than 2 and a half! (Oh, and they tasted normal by the way, just like a regular hard boiled egg.)

The train we took from our hotel to the town of Gora. From Gora we had to take a cable car up a steep mountain and then take the "ropeway" or gondola to Owakudani.

It was snowing so hard that you could hardly see anything from the gondola.

The view of Owakudani from the gondola. 

So that was our short, relaxing and wonderful trip to Hakone. As always I will post all of our pictures on Picasa...check them out here. Brad and I had so much fun going on these little trips while in Japan. I'm going to miss them...

The End of an Era

I would like to preface this post by saying this: I honestly don't know how we got so lucky as to have such an amazing family all around. I personally could not feel more loved and supported by anyone in my family as well as Brad's family. And that is probably the most difficult thing about living abroad--not being close to family.

My Uncle Pug and Aunt Doyn at our wedding. 

Brad's Uncle Ron

Over the past year we have lost my Great Uncle Pug who was like a grandfather to me and most recently Brad's Uncle Ron to cancer. Being over here in Japan, I feel so disconnected from everything that is going on in the rest of the world. Yes, we talk on Skype and read the news but despite all that, there is an ere of isolation (that I feel, anyway). It is hard not to be with family in the good times and the bad and I apologize to people that we know if you feel like we've neglected or ignored you. I personally have not dealt with the death of a family member for a long time and in my world I am much better at giving hugs than writing. I never quite know what to say...

With that said though...Brad and I are coming home! Our contracts will be finished March 25th. Brad's dad, Terry will be coming to Japan around March 20th for business and then Brad's step-mom Randi and step-sister Lauren will be coming out on March 27th for a little vacation before we all fly back to the U.S. on April 2nd.

I know that Japan will always have a special place in our hearts and we will miss it a lot at times but I am so excited to be coming home! Brad and I are already making a list of things we want to eat and places we want to go when we get back home. At the top of the list: Chipotle!

As for long term plans go, I have applied to take a couple of classes at CU Denver in preparation for applying to PT school in the fall. Hopefully, I will be starting PT school in either summer or fall of 2012. Brad still isn't sure what his plans are but seems to be leaning towards going back to school in order to teach English to high school students. He still loves Japanese and would love to find a way to incorporate the language into his life in some way when he gets home though.

In the mean time Brad and I will be slowly be getting ready to leave Japan, and start our lives up in the U.S. again. Who knew there were so many things that had to happen for us to do that? Health insurance, car insurance, jobs, apartments, phones, etc. Not to mention how we're going to get everything we have here back to the U.S. And if you know of any good job openings let us know! :)

Sumo Wrestling and the Emperor

On January 9th we went to the opening day of the 1st Grand Sumo Tournament of 2011. This was the first time we had ever seen sumo wrestling so we got there early to take it all in. The tournament starts at 8am with the less experienced wrestlers and then culminates with the top bracket of wrestlers at about 6pm. We got to the stadium at about noon and stayed until the end. If you're asking "How can they sit for 6 whole hours and watch that?", I'll tell you. First, go with some good friends, second go to the conbini (convenience store) and get some snacks and drinks to last the day, and third make up names for the wrestlers and bet on who will win. I'll wait until the end to tell you who won...

One of the murals. All the sumo wrestlers live in compounds so we saw young "wrestlers in training" all over that area of Tokyo that day. 

It wasn't very busy when we got there. 

My bento box lunch. I'm not even sure what all was in it, but it looks pretty!

It was cold, hence the hat and jacket...

There's 2 different "leagues" in sumo. This was the top tier wrestlers from one league.

This is the board that shows all of the top tier wrestlers. The red highlights the name of the wrestler who won the match. 

Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko

Depending on if they're the main event or not, a match can last a minute, or 5 minutes. Most of the time is spent before they even compete. If you want to know more, check out this or watch the full clip I posted below to see it. 

McDonald's advertised at the meet. lol!

Now on to the videos! Brad and I have a very nice video camera and digital SLR but we usually just use my old point and shoot because it's a pain to be out walking all day with big bags hanging off of you. However, we were sitting most of this day and severely regret not taking either. So these are all the quality of my little point and shoot. 

Chris named this guy Tomato last year, for reasons you can probably see. I think he was maybe the least athletic wrestler there.



This was Emperor Akhito's entrance. Sorry it's at an angle! I can't figure out how to fix it. But still it was very cool considering he rarely makes public appearances. Most Japanese people that I've talked to haven't seen him, and it's funny that I've seen the emperor before I've seen the President! (We won't count when Obama came to CSU because it was before he was elected and I think I only just caught a glimpse of the back of his head.)


If you watch any video, you should watch this. It really is fun to see all the rituals that go into it, but also how flexible and agile these big guys are!

I'm not sure what the specifics of this exercise were but this was the very last thing to happen before everyone left. I think the belt that he's wearing is the champion belt, so maybe he won the tournament last year? Anyway, it's not very graceful, but then again sumo wrestling really isn't a graceful sport.

Afterwards we tried to got to a chankonabe restaurant (this is the traditional meal the sumo wrestlers eat) but obviously everyone else at the tournament had the same idea so we ended up having yakiniku (Korean BBQ) instead, which was still good.

The restaurant we went to was an all-you-can-eat place so they had all the raw meat and vegetables sitting out and you could help yourself to whatever you wanted. Most of the meats were seasoned and they had different sauces that you could dip it in after grilling. It's really good! And I'm not even a big meat person!

Waiting for the meat to cook. 

Brad picking out what he wants to eat.

All in all, another memorable experience! 

And just in case anybody is curious...we only have 10 more weeks of work left! And 2 more weeks until we have officially been in Japan for 1 year. I can't believe how fast time has gone by!

My Christmas Gift!

As I posted before, Brad gave me a coupon for a piece of pearl jewelry to commemorate our year here for my Christmas present. Yay! So we went to Ginza to see the Mikimoto store. Mikimoto is famous because the founder, Mikimoto, was the first person to figure out how to make cultured pearls. And they have beautiful jewelry. I'm mean really, really pretty. I felt like I was in museum looking at some of the pieces of jewelry they had in there! Brad and I also commented that some of the necklaces were as much as a decent sized house. I can't believe people actually buy things like that! Crazy!

Anyway, we went and found a necklace that was not in place of our next house that we both really liked. I'm so excited! I love it so much!

The Mikimoto store in Ginza. Doesn't it look fancy?

Shopping after new years is like the American black Friday here. Lot's of sales and very busy!

The cute bag! I think this is the first (and only) time where I wasn't the only one walking around without a Chanel, Gucci or Burberry type shopping bag in Ginza. The funny thing though is that almost everyone has some sort of designer shoes or bag and they save the shopping bags that they come in for future use. It is not uncommon to see a very abused Channel shopping bag when you're out and about. 

They wrapped it up so cute I almost didn't want to open it. Almost.

I love it!

And now I have a necklace to match the beautiful pearl earrings my parents gave me for my wedding, a keepsake to wear for a long time to come and hopefully pass on to my (very, very future) daughter. And isn't it just perfect that pearls are June's birthstone? 

(I'll put up a picture of me wearing it later. But right now I'm in my pajamas.)

Thank you Brad. I love you.

New Years!

For New Year's we met up with Chris, his dad Greg who was visiting from Colorado, and Chris' girlfriend Aki in Shibuya. Shibuya is probably my favorite portion of Tokyo. It is home to the largest intersection in the world but it also has a very cool atmosphere. It's mostly popular with people our age and has a lot of restaurants and bars as well as claw games and a few shops (which I really want to go to but have been avoiding, especially after my purchase today...).

Anyway, Brad and I were really surprised when we got to the station in Shibuya how few people there were. Usually even when we're there late on a Sunday night it's pretty crowded... but not on New Years Eve! The reason is is that New Years is typically a family holiday in Japan. People take off of work around New Years and travel to their hometowns to visit family, celebrate the New Years, and travel to a shrine to pray for the upcoming year. To see what wikipedia has to say click here.

 We started out at a restaurant where everything on the menu, including drinks was 270 yen. These restaurants are pretty popular here and mainly have appetizer type food on the menu. After eating our fair share we grabbed some drinks from the conbini (convenience store--also drinking in public is legal and common here.) and headed towards hachiko crossing (the big intersection). This is when we noticed that it was getting more crowded. The crazy thing was that a lot of the people were foreigners. (Usually Roppongi is foreigner central, but apparently there were a lot of tourists and Shibuya's more popular for New Years. I'm just guessing though...) 

When we got close the Hachiko crossing it started getting louder and louder and definitely very crowded and a little rowdy. There were policemen up on top of cars and the Shibuya Guardian Angels were standing back to back waiting for something to happen. It was fun being surrounded by everyone for the New Years but it was also a little scary because you had to move with the crowd. There was no space to move around on your own at all. For all the hype that there was at the intersection, there was no Times Square-esque party and there was no countdown. So I'm not sure if it was exactly at midnight or not but we made our own little countdown after a few minutes and then moved a way a little bit. It was so much fun though! I have never celebrated anything like that in such a big crowd before!

The crossing

The Guardian Angels.

The crowd behind us.

New Years kiss!

After celebrating midnight, we headed to what we do best...karaoke!! (Well they did, I think I took a nap. :) )

Usually the trains stop around 1 or 2 in the morning but around Tokyo on New Years the trains run all night. Since Brad and I couldn't make it back up to our house (the trains do stop outside of Tokyo), we decided to head to Meiji Shrine after karaoke. It was amazing how many people were there at 4 am. It wasn't extremely busy but still more people than I was expecting. They had the the whole thing fully staffed too. There was a guard standing at attention, tons of police around, as well as gift shops, and a bunch of places where you can get your fortune for the new year.

These paper lanterns were all lit up. Very pretty!

The torii leading to the shrine. On New Years day it can take hours waiting in line to get to the shrine. I guess that's the benefit of going early--no waiting!

People throwing change and praying for the new year. 

Here's all the videos from the night. Sorry in advance for my bad video taking skills: