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! :)