EYB Photos & Design

A Look Back and a Start

2012-01-19T09:29:00.026+09:00

2012 is off and running. Right now we are dealing with a sick little girl. Maika has been throwing up for the past two days and now is also having diarrhea. It's tough to see her sick, but we know she is in God's hands so that gives us comfort.

This post is a look back on the past couple months.

New Year's was spent with family and friends. On December 30th we were with Yoko's dad, her brother and his two girls. The 31st we were with some friends of ours. The 1st was spent at church. It was a busy but enjoyable time.

When you're cold you do whatever it takes to stay warm. Let's see, how dirty can I get and still be cute?Peek-a-boo, do you like my pink top? I got it for Christmas from my friend Karin.Christmas Day here was an enjoyable day spent at church celebrating our Savior's birth and afterwards opening presents. Maika has no problem tearing into paper.We hosted a Christmas party for some of Yoko's mommy friends. This is a picture of some of the food and decorations.Erik's school had 7 Christmas parties in total; one of them was for the preschool students and Maika was invited. Erik was Santa, but Maika didn't like him much at all.Erik's school also had a Halloween party for its preschool kids. Maika was invited to this one too and went as a ballerina angel. Erik was a strongman. Not being on top off our posting, here are some pictures from the end of summer and fall.

The Bentley Family’s Christmas Letter 2011

2011-12-24T21:40:00.001+09:00

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! It is a wonderful time of the year for us as we celebrate the birth of Jesus and look back on all that transpired this past year.
This year was a one of a tremendous first for all of us. For the first time in our lives we experienced a major earthquake. The March 11th earthquake will leave a lasting memory and constantly serve as a reminder of how fragile life is. We still are experiencing occasional aftershocks, but we know that the Lord is in control and our lives are in His hands.
In April, Sarah, Erik’s sister left Japan to return to the U.S. It had been so nice having her near. July saw Maika celebrate her first birthday. She has been a tremendous joy to us. Raising her has taught us so much about ourselves and has given us a new perspective on how the Lord must see us. In October and November, we were privileged to have Erik’s parents visit us for a total of 11 days. Maika took to them right away, and she had a lot of quality time hanging out with her grandmama and grandpapa.
In terms of our daily lives, Erik’s work continues to go well. We are so thankful for this relaxed, flexible job. Yoko’s full time job of taking care of Maika and Erik is never short of some challenge. However, we are thankful that she is able and wants to stay home to carry out this noblest of professions. Maika is to put it simply, Maika. She loves to be held when she wants to be held. Outside of the house she as independent as one can be, but inside, she can be very needy. She enjoys music and dancing to it. She has 4 music books that she plays many times a day. She is very expressive and has a lot to say. We have been teaching her some sign language so that she can communicate with us until she starts talking. Everyday is a treasure, and we are so thankful that the Lord has blessed us with Maika.
As this year comes to a close, we look back at all that took place and see how much we have to be thankful for. This year has been a joyous one as the Lord is helping us be content in whatever state we are in. Because of the March 11th earthquake, we saw even more how much we need to have a light touch on the things of this world. Everything here is so temporary. Even the families and the things we hold dear will not last. We see even more clearly that we need to be “accumulating” things that will last forever.

With love,
Erik, Yoko and Maika

They Came, They Saw, They Bonded

2011-11-24T13:37:00.007+09:00

It's been a while since we last posted, but it hasn't been for a lack of things to share. Life is a daily test in what we will make a priority, and as a result, some things get put off and put off. The last 2 months have been filled with Maika developing more and more, and us as parents growing more and more. We so want to be godly examples for her. We want our faith to be absent of hypocrisy and something that will bring her into a very close and intimate relationship with Jesus. Please keep us and her in your prayers.
For 6 days in October and 5 days in November, we were blessed to have Erik's parents with us. We were the bookends of 3 weeks they spent in Taiwan. We talk with them quite regularly via Skype, but we weren't sure how Maika would react to them. We were all quite pleased how she very quickly warmed up to them and within a day or two was hanging out with just them. They had a great time together, and it gave Yoko a chance to get a few things done, too. While they were here, we took two day trips; one was to an aquarium and the other was to Narita Temple. We had a wonderful time with them and were sad to see them go.
Getting ready to go for a walk.Reading time with Grandmama and Grandpapa.Fun with Grandpapa in the park. Grandpapa loves Maika and calls her "Maika Sweet Cheaks".At the aquarium. Grandmama loves Maika so much.

Some Enjoyable Things

2011-10-02T22:10:00.004+09:00

Even though we have a pretty regular routine each week, it doesn't mean that things are boring. Each day is a gift from God and with Maika around even more so. It is funny how the simplest things impress us. Maika has some flash cards of various fruits and veggies that she was going through the other day with Yoko. When she came to the banana card, she promptly picked it up and walked over to where we keep the bananas and pointed to them letting Yoko know that she wanted one to eat. A simple and small step in her development, yet a great thing to witness.
Maika's increased mobility and dexterity has opened up a whole new world of enjoyable things for her. Here are some of the latest: opening zippers, banging on the closet door, climbing on the baby gate, going to the park, feeding herself, dancing to music, seeing herself in pictures and videos, trying to use the telephone, picking on her toe nails, putting her fingers in her nose and ears, banging her head with her hands and against anything, moving furniture, opening dresser drawers, falling onto piles of blankets, getting out books and flipping through the pages, sitting in Baba's (grandma) chair and noticing dogs. The pictures below capture of few of these moments.
At the park with Mommy and Daddy, and my first time to go down the slide without being held. Yeehaa!!Sleeping in the blankets after repeatedly falling into them.Lounging in Baba's chair. This is one of my favorite places.Mommy took this picture with her phone and sent it to Daddy. She titled it "Wild Monkey Eating an Apple".

Daddy's Little Helper

2011-09-11T09:20:00.006+09:00

Crawling is officially a thing of the past. Maika is up on her feet walking whenever she can. This is great for us as we don't have to carry her all the time, but it is not always good for Maika. She had her first face first dive into the ground this past Friday. Normally she catches herself when she falls forward, but she was moving at top speed and couldn't get her hands out in time to prevent her face from meeting the ground. Thankfully it wasn't pavement or concrete she dove into; dirt was her landing place. A few little scratches and some tears but no worse for the wear.
Watching a child's development is a great thing. The other day Erik told Maika he was going to change her diaper and asked her to get one for him. She went straight to the diaper box, got one out and brought it back to him. It was a great moment and would have been even better if she had willingly allowed her diaper to be change.
Seeing Maika's need for repeated correction is helping us see more and more how it must be for God concerning us. We so much want to be godly examples for her and at the same time know we have so much to work on ourselves. Thankfully, God is patient and His love and grace never run out.
Styling, now if I just had some place to go.Full speed ahead. I know I can get these legs to move faster.Daddy told me to do something, but I'm not sure what he wants.PDA makes me want to run away. How can I get out of this?

Getting Out and Going for a Walk

2011-08-17T21:20:00.013+09:00

Since the report on the birthdays, we have welcomed two great additions to our home, gates. They do a wonderful job of keeping Maika out of her "off limits" places. She is now fully walking and that is making life more and more interesting. Today Yoko took her to the kids' play area at the mall, and the space that used to contain Maika is now of no use as she has found that anything but the kids' area is way more fun. A funny thing about Maika's walking is that it seems she wants to run at times but just can't figure out how to do it. She then resembles a mini Frankenstein. Oh, the endless entertainment that a baby provides.

Erik got a few days off from work, and we all headed to the western side of Mount Fuji for our church's kids' camp. It was held at a YMCA lodge (English website) (日本語 website) (video of the lodge). We were there 3 days and 2 nights. Maika was the second youngest kid attending. There were 70 people in total with about 40 of them being kids mostly between the ages of 4 and 15. For half of the events we were divided into small groups according to the age of the child for activities that were age appropriate. Maika fell into the preschool/kindergarten group. The other half of the activities were mixed age activities where the older kids had to be in charge and help the little kids with what we were doing. We went on hikes, made curry, had a bonfire, watched the sunrise (twice), made kites. The theme of the camp was that everyone is a "wonderful treasure" because God made them. It was a great time in a very nice setting.
Maika found a way to keep herself entertained at kids' camp. Mount Fuji prior to sunrise.Waiting around for the sun to come up. This day the clouds rolled in just before sunrise so most of us went out the next morning to see the sun rise right over the top of the mountain.Can't say Maika enjoyed getting up at 4:30 to go hang out outside.Sleeping in the stink bug position.

Birthdays and Memories

2011-07-26T23:29:00.006+09:00

It's official, Maika is one year old. It is amazing that a year has gone by already, but we imagine that most new parents say that. We celebrated her first birthday with a Japanese fruit dessert for Maika, a citrus birthday cake for us and bagels. Yoko made them all, and they were great. We had a little party before Erik had to go to work. It was a simple event, but a memorable one at the same time.
Walking with a walker (see video below) and standing unsupported are Maika’s most recent developments. She has also learned how to lower herself off the bed in a very controlled manner. Once she starts walking we are really going to have to be on top of her movements. Right now she gets around really well on her hands and knees, and that keeps us busy. Thankfully, the space she has to move around in is not all that big, but every day she tests the barriers we have set up to keep her out of the kitchen and the bedrooms. She is one chatty little girl and now has 5 discernible words in her vocabulary: mama, papa, baba (Japanese for grandma), bye bye and amen (she says it with us when we pray). She also likes to give “high 5s”. She holds up her hand with a grin on her face and waits for us to give her a “high 5”. It has been a great joy to watch her develop.
Erik also had a birthday 9 days before Maika. Yoko and Maika treated him well and made sure he wasn't forgotten.
The birthday party: citrus birthday cake (Maika needed some help blowing out the candles), opening presents, eating homemade bagels, Yoko's beautiful and tasty bagels, the birthday headband that Maika would wear for a maximum of 1 second. The testing of the barrier. As you can see we are into "use what you can to keep her out" barriers. We have since added something to beep her from getting on it. Super active B.O.B. wears out eventually and Mommy takes advantage and gets a little rest, too.

Learning to be Flexible

2011-07-03T21:43:00.003+09:00

With hot and humid being the norm, we are finding that Maika has no problem sweating. The heat and humidity doesn't seem to bother her much during the day, but it does seem to affect her sleeping. This doesn't come as a surprise as we struggle with it too. Sometimes there is a nice breeze at night, but we often have to use a fan to move the air.
We are learning that even the best laid plans are of no certainty. Erik got a day off so we could go hiking, and the day before we were to go, Maika came down with her first fever. It wasn't all that high, but it was enough of a concern that we canceled our outing. The fever subsided, but it turned into a cough and runny nose. It lasted about a week, and she was back to her normal self.
Father's Day was nice for Erik. In the morning before church, Maika and Yoko gave Erik two shirts and a pair of exercise shorts. After church, we went to our favorite bakery where we had a tasty lunch. In the evening we were joined by Yoko's brother and kids and we all went out for pizza.
Yoko had a birthday recently. We celebrated her with presents, ice cream at Baskin Robbins and tasty coffee latter in the week at our favorite coffee shop. Good coffee and dark chocolate keep Yoko happy.
Maika sporting her nursing student outfit on a recent outing with Mommy.Give me a high 5!
Am I ready for the beach or what?This past week Yoko organized a 1st birthday event for the kids in her "mommies group". This group is composed of 7 women who gave birth within 2 months of each other and at the same birthing clinic. There was good food, ice cream cake, sharing time, a gift exchange and a foot/hand print activity. Here is Maika's masterpiece. The origami shoes were made by Erik's students at the airline college.Everything is not always giggles and cute faces.

A Month Late but Better Than Never

2011-06-12T19:59:00.005+09:00

We finally got our anniversary picture taken. We have been taking one each anniversary since we got married, but this year's took a month for us to take it. It also happened to be a day in which we took a lot of pictures of Maika, that is why she is in the same outfit in all the pictures.
Since our last post, we have been trying to find our own place to live. Since we are only able to look on the weekend, it has been a slow process. We are also finding restrictions we have to deal with. Today we were scheduled to look at a place only to find out that the owner did not rent to foreigners. It is far different from renting in the States, so we are learning as we go and trusting the Lord will guide us where we should be.
Maika is becoming quite skilled at holding on to something and walking like a crab in a sidestep. She has recently started to raise her hand, so we give her a high 5 which brings a big smile to her face. Today she ate a whole banana in one sitting; we didn't know she could fit that much in her tummy. We are continually amazed and thankful that the Lord would choose us to care for this beautiful creation of His.
4th Year Anniversary Picture

There's a kid's room in our complex that we like to take Maika to. In it, there is a shelf of books that she likes to get into.
Mommy: "Maika! What are you doing?"

Maika: "Just looking for a book I like."

Maika: "This is the one I was looking for; it tastes the best."
Mommy: "Can't you find something better to chew on?"

Maika: "Is this better?"

Oh how can one face change oh so very quickly.

10 Months and...

2011-05-22T21:00:00.006+09:00

Maika is 10 months old and growing well. We are growing too. God is using this precious little creation to teach us a lot and help us grow. Since we don't know what lies ahead, as Maika must depend on us, so we must depend on the Lord. He is faithful, and we look forward to what He has ahead for us.
With our daily lives consisting of taking care of Maika, work, and the numerous other daily activities, we keep busy. Sometimes, it seems our week was a repeat of the previous one, but it never gets boring. We enjoy the time we have together, and thank the Lord for each day.
Maika's is now fully crawling properly, eating a variety of solid foods, and resisting confinement. She used to be okay with her car seat and stroller, but lately, when she doesn't want to be in them, she lets us know in a very clear way. It's always especially nice when we are in public.
Here's a collage of pictures we took on Saturday.

We have a favorite bread shop we go to, and this week when Yoko was there, she asked the owner about when he thought it was okay to start giving bread to kids. He said that in France, parents give infants pieces of a baguette as a pacifier. So if tiny French kids can chew on bread, why not Maika. So, this weekend, Maika got her first taste of bread and finished the whole slice.

Lets talk about sleeping, or the lack there of. Maika has recently decided that she doesn't want to seep more than 3 hours at a time. This wouldn't be that big of a deal if she was in a sound proof room as her waking up is accompanied by very unhappy crying. This of course is a great burden on all those who live with her. She is also a very active sleeper; she moves around enough during the day that you would think she doesn't need to do it while she sleeps. Last night we found her in this position.

Looking out the window is fun, but do you know what else is fun? Putting my mouth on it.

Maika snores. It's not like her Grandpapa, but she is sawing logs. Have your volume up.

Enough Hair to...

2011-05-12T12:58:00.000+09:00

The rainy season has started. Fortunately, we had some nice days that coincided with a few national holidays. On the 3rd (Constitution Day) we visited an herb garden and had a good time getting out. On the 5th (Children's Day) we celebrated our wedding anniversary with a tasty lunch at a nice restaurant. Maika stayed home with Grandma (Baba), so we were able to relax and take our time. Yoko's first Mother's Day was a little busy with church, but she did have time to open her presents in the morning. Maika felt bad that she had ruined so many of Mommy's shirts, so she gave Yoko some new shirts for Mother's Day.
Maika's eating solid foods is improving day by day. She really enjoys bananas and strawberries. She will soon have four teeth to bite with as her two top teeth are coming in. She likes to stand up and has recently learned how to get herself down. This is very good because she used to holler every time she stood up. She is getting better at crawling properly. She often crawls a yard or so and them plops onto her belly and scoots around. Her hair is getting longer resulting in... bed hair and

Daddy's great styling.

M&M at the herb garden.

I found a rock, and I will try to eat it.

You'd think my parents could put some socks on me, but they let me go barefoot all the time.

Why sleep on a nice soft pad when you can sleep on the floor.

9 Months Old and Already Making Boys Cry

2011-04-21T07:42:00.004+09:00

It's been nine months since we were blessed with the arrival of Maika, and each day we have with her is a gift from God.
The aftershocks continue but will less frequency. We had a good sized one last Saturday, but it has thankfully been pretty quiet since then.
Yoko keeps plenty busy taking care of Maika and making sure Erik is well fed. She continues to work her way through the cook books we mentioned on Feb 15th.
Erik started a new school year (it begins in April in Japan) and has been busy with his new class schedule.
Maika made a boy cry for the first time. The other day Yoko and Maika met a lady who has a boy that is 10 months old. He is very mellow and is content to just sit in one place and play with whatever is in front of him. Maika scooted quickly over to him and in her boisterous voice said "Aaaah". All of that was just too much for the little fellow, and he started to cry. Needless to say, Erik is one proud daddy.
Winter is on its way out, but I need to keep warm when I go out in the evening.

Do I want to be a ballerina? I don't know yet.

Sporting some of the latest Spring fashion.

A day in the park.

I miss Aunt Sarah (she returned to the States on April 8th).

Mommy's the best! I love her!

Doing exercise in the park. 1-2-1-2-1-2-1-2

Daddy says I am pretty like these cherry blossoms.

I can put anything in my mouth.

Several New Milestones

2011-04-09T18:08:00.005+09:00

It's been a little while since our last post, and as a result, we have several things to share. Concerning life here after the March 11th earthquake, we are still having occasional aftershocks; the 7.1 the night of the 7th gave us a good jolt. We are able to get pretty much everything in terms of food that we used to buy, and we have not been affected by the rolling blackouts. Our building is being fixed as the pictures show.
Actually, we don't know when they are planning of repairing the damage.
We had Sarah with us for little over a week before she returned to the States on the 8th. Her contract had ended, and we are glad we were able to have her visit. We will miss having her close by.
Maika has been one busy little girl lately. She experienced grass and dirt for the first time and enjoyed the dirt much more than the grass. The morning of the 8th, she pulled herself up into a standing position in her crib for the first time. The same day, her first tooth showed itself. Today, the 9th, she is getting herself up on her hands and knees into the proper crawling position. We are continually amazed by her and that the Lord would bless us with a child such as her.
One other thing that seems to have happened, although we cannot officially verify it, is that Maika got into a fight. The event was captured below, although a punch actually being thrown could not be verified.
We don't know what set it off, but something was going on between Maika and Annie.

With her hand in a fist and her arm cocked, it looks as if Maika is ready to give Annie a knuckle sandwich.

Annie on her back, and Maika acting like nothing happened.

Maika upon being confronted about this, exclaimed that Annie fell over all by herself.

Recent Events and Thoughts

2011-03-22T09:38:00.003+09:00

March 11th's earthquake reminded us how fragile life is on this earth and all we have can be gone in an instant. It gives us all the more reason to have a light touch on our possessions and to have the right perspective concerning everything, "don't sweat the small stuff". Jesus said to store up treasures in heaven, not here on earth, and we see that even more clearly now. Our church is taking an active role in helping with the relief effort. If you would like to give financially to them or just follow what they are doing, here is the link to their site Japan Earthquake 2011.
The aftershocks have subsided quite a bit. We do have a few a day, but they aren't as big or as often as they were. The power outages we were told to prepare for never happened. A current challenge is deciphering the news concerning the nuclear power plant. There is a lot of fear that has been created by the media. Gas is still somewhat limited, but we have been able to get back to our daily activities with quite a bit of normalcy.
Sunday, Maika reached 8 months. She gets more and more mobile everyday. It is entertaining to watch her scoot/crawl around, exploring her ever expanding world. The weekend before the earthquake, we took a road trip to see Sarah. The drive over was an all day event as we detoured off the main route to drive the scenic Mt. Fuji route. It was a beautiful, clear, sunny day. We were in the car about 6 hours, but Maika did great. Staying at Sarah's was also the first time for Maika to sleep in a new place, and she had no problem with that either. The day we were to drive back, we awoke to find 8.5 in/ 22 cm of snow on the ground. Thankfully the roads were cleared by the time we left mid afternoon.
Mt. Fuji and Maika's stuffed Mt. Fuji

Getting stuck at Aunt Sarah's

Enjoying the fresh snow in Suwa

March 11th's Earthquake and Subsequent Events

2011-03-15T12:07:00.002+09:00

As of 2:46 pm on March 11th, things here have been a little uneasy to say the least. We are thankful for all your prayers and our Lord's hand on us and our entire family. We are all safe and doing well. An amazing story from all of this comes from our church. There is a lady who is from one of the coastal towns that was entirely wiped out by the tsunami. She had no word on the status of her family until this morning (Tuesday 3/15) when her uncle was able to get through to her and let her know that all of her family is safe including her grandparents whose house was a short walk from the ocean. Needless to say, all of us in our church family are rejoicing over this news.
On the 11th, Yoko and Maika were at home, and Erik was at a hotel on the other side of town for his school's graduation. After the earthquake, our cell phones did not work so we were not able to make contact with each other until we met at our designated evacuation site around 5:00 pm (Literally, the day before the earthquake we decided on where to meet if their was an evacuation; God's timing is great.).
We are about 200 miles or 320 kilometers from the epicenter. Yoko and Maika were in the apartment which is on the 9th floor. It is reported that the quake was around a 6 here, so for them, it probably felt more like a 7. As you can imagine the whole building was really moving, so Yoko grabbed Maika and ran down the stairs. Upon reaching the bottom, Yoko realized that she had nothing with her, so with Maika under her arm she raced up the stairs and grabbed essential items. Yoko's mom was having lunch at a nearby restaurant, so Yoko and Maika found her there. They then went to the evacuation site to wait for Erik.
Erik was on the second floor at the Narita Hilton for his school's graduation which was to end at 3:00pm. The hotel was evacuated with limited panic. The bus which was to take the students and staff back to school wasn't able to leave until around 4:00 pm, so they all just waited outside. Some students are from the hardest hit areas, so there was quite a bit of anxiousness. The bus made it back to school around 4:45, and there was a joyous family reunion soon after that.
Our building has sustained exterior damage, but we are assured that there is no structural damage. The picture below is from the ground floor. There are a number of places on the building that have similar damage. Because of the frequent aftershocks, we spent the first night in an evacuation shelter. There are so many aftershocks that we feel like we are moving even when we aren't. It's as if our equilibrium has been affected.
At this time, rolling blackouts are happening, but we have not been affected yet. All of the classes at Erik's school have been canceled this week. There is no gasoline available, the supermarkets are bought out of many Japanese staples (rice & instant noodles). We have stocked up a bit on diapers and dry food that we do not need to cook. The nuclear power plants that are a cause of concern are about 120 miles or 200 kilometers away. The public is being encouraged to stay inside as much as possible. Life here is a little uncertain, but we know God is in control and this is just one more sign pointing to His soon return. Please continue to pray for us and Japan.

Scoot, Swim, Scoot, Swim

2011-03-03T07:24:00.003+09:00

It's not crawling that gets Maika around these days; it's scooting. She gets on her belly, holds her legs up, and pumps them to move herself around. Yesterday she discovered our portable stereo which is nice; now she can put on her own music instead of telling us to do it for her.
To provide a positive outlet for all of Maika's energy, we signed her up for swimming classes at the sports gym we go to. They have a class for babies as young as 4 months. The class is held 3 times a week, 45 minutes each session. Monday was Maika's first class, and she did great. There was no crying even when the teacher dunked Maika under the water. Her second class, Wednesday, was a little different. There was a point in the class where the kids were passed from parent to parent. The farther Maika got from Yoko, the more she cried. Oh how she loves to be in Mommy's arms. Once she get used to the pool a little more, Erik will be the parent in the pool when he can.

The music that is on this video was not added by us. It was what was playing at the sports club.

Waking up from a good nap takes a little time as we all know.

Valentine's Day, Cooking and Going Out

2011-02-15T15:45:00.009+09:00

Happy Valentine's Day! We found some tasty chocolate and went out for dinner to one of our favorite restaurants Nico Cafe.
Recently we watched the movie Julie & Julia, a story about a woman in New York who cooked all 500+ recipes in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking in one year. From watching this movie, Yoko decided she wanted to try something like that. We don't cook French food all that often, so Yoko found two cookbooks that better suite our diet: Rachael Ray's Look + Cook and Everyday Harumi. Yoko has done several recipes from each book so far and found them easy (she is a great cook to begin with) and pretty quick to put together. Everything has been おいしい (oishii-delicious).
It's been pretty chilly lately so going out with Maika means getting bundled up. Here in a little sequence of events.
Makia thinks her pajamas on her head will help keep her warm, but we convinced her otherwise.

Now Maika wants to use her bib to keep her head warm. Silly girl.

Finally everything is on as it should be. All bundled up and ready to go out.

Attached to Daddy and ready to see what lays outside our door. Let's go out!

200 Days

2011-02-05T17:03:00.002+09:00

Today marks 200 days of Maika being on this earth and being a blessing to us. We are so thankful for everyday that the Lord gives us with her and know that she is in better hands than ours.
Other than a number of "amazing" events for us as parents, the past couple weeks have been mellow. We had Sarah visit last weekend, which we always enjoy. We will miss her when she leaves Japan in April. Erik's work continues to go well, and we are continually thankful for this job that God placed in our laps. Yoko stays busy with Maika, but she does manage to get in at least one ballet class a week. In addition to ballet she attends 3 or 4 exercises classes and takes Maika for walks regularly. She also meets other new mothers a couple of times a month.
Now for the "amazing" events for us.
Maika started solid foods. We feed her rice cereal mixed with a fruit or vegetable in the morning. She is a good eater and already wants to take control of the spoon.

She is now grabbing her feet. At times she seems to be thinking; "How can I get these things into my mouth?"

Sleeping on her belly. We never encouraged it, and she just did it on her own. Who every thought something so simple could be so incredible : )

It only took 6 months and a few days, but Maika finally fell asleep in Erik's arms, and yes, he was able to lay her down without her waking up.

Maika's Recent Activities

2011-01-18T10:26:00.004+09:00

As all parents know, a baby not only keeps them busy but also entertained. We are continually amused by Maika's movements, noises and moods. It is a joy to watch her develop and discover the world around her. We try to cherish each day as we know they go by so quickly, and she will soon be off on her own. In this posting we have put up some of Maika's recent activities.
Maika playing with her friend Rody. Rody has been with Maika since she was a new born.

Hanging out in the laundry hamper, no telling how she got in there.

Maika's best pirate impression so far. She even has the sound to go with it.

Maika and Daddy riding the train. Mommy never misses a photo opportunity.

Maika's first snow this past Sunday. She wasn't all that impressed.

Maika showing off her big smile for the camera.

Looking Back at Christmas and New Year's

2011-01-08T14:49:00.005+09:00

Christmas was two weeks ago, but better late than never on some pictures and a report. Maika's first Christmas was relaxed and peaceful. We went out for Christmas lunch at one of our favorite cafes. In the afternoon, Yoko's brother and his daughters came over. We had dinner and gave them some presents. Yoko's mom told the girls the Christmas story in a way to keep their attention. After they left, we had our present opening time. Erik had a week off from work for New Year's. Sarah came and stayed with us for part of it. New Year's Day itself was spent at church (we have a New Year's Day service). We didn't do anything overly exciting during the holidays, but we enjoyed the time we had together as a family.
Maika opening her first presents (yes, after she tried to eat the paper)

It's not if the clothes fit; it's if they taste good.

Presents from Maika's Grandma and Grandpapa on the left and her Aunt Sharlene and Uncle Phil on the right

Maika's first ornament from Grandma and a pile of things from Sarah

Sarah gave Maika this giraffe; he has been named Jerome, and Maika regularly tries to eat him

We thought you might enjoy seeing a decent family picture after the last one we posted

Merry Christmas and A Monumental Moment

2010-12-24T20:43:00.006+09:00

Merry Christmas from all of us. Today is Christmas Eve and we have just had a nice family day together. Erik took the day off from work so we could have a little longer Christmas celebration. Christmas Day we will have Yoko's brother and his two daughters over. We are glad we can spend Christmas with them. Maika keeps being a good sport for us as we try to capture her showing her Christmas spirit.

Erik was asked to tell the real Christmas story at work as part of the college's Christmas festival. This was an answered prayer as most of the students had no idea about the birth of Jesus. Erik and one of his students, who is a Christan, did a news report skit to tell the Biblical story. Yoko and Maika came to watch, and the next picture was taken by one of Erik's students at the festival.

In winter we have nice sunshine that comes in the apartment, and Maika found a comfy place to catch a few zzzs.

A monumental moment in our lives as parents happend the day before Maika turned 5 months when she rolled over on her own for the first time. She is doing it quite regularly now but has no idea what to do once she gets on her stomach. We think you might get a kick out of one of Maika's less graceful rollovers. Make sure your sound is up; there is a funny sound at the end.

Fall was Beautiful

2010-12-12T07:58:00.010+09:00

Fall was beautiful. We didn't get out to enjoy it as much as we would have liked to as we had quite a few things keeping us busy. Maika is a bundle of joy; she laughed for the first time, and we both were there to hear it. She is becoming more verbally expressive with noises that might be found in the jungle.

We are excited as always for the coming of Christmas. We are so grateful for God reaching out to us through Jesus. It is one of our favorite times of year, and we see this year as an opportunity to share the "true" Christmas story. Most people here do not have any idea of Christmas being Jesus' birth. We pray that the Joyous Message of Jesus' birth will touch some hearts around us this year.

On Dec 5th Erik's school had Christmas parties for the kindergarten and elementary school kids. It was a long busy day but a lot of fun. Erik was Santa and had an unexpected visit from Maika.

Sarah visited us, and we asked her to take a family picture. This is the best she could do with the subject matter she had.

The Great Outdoors

2010-11-22T10:15:00.003+09:00

We took our first hiking trip as a family to the top of Tsukuba Mountain. It is about a 2 hour drive north of us. The hike was only 4200 meters or 2.6 miles round trip, but it was quite steep, so we got a good work out. Maika did very well in her carrier, but she got quite a few concerned looks and comments from older women. Other than there being a mass of people on the trail, it was a very nice day. In the evening there was an illumination of the fall colors which was pretty.
Maika had a check up a few days ago and is now 62 cm or 24.5 inches and 6.1 kg or 13.5 lbs. Some days she is very needy and wants to be held all the time; other days she is independent and can just hang out by herself. Today is one of those very needy days. Thankfully the Lord gives us the patience necessary for these moments in life.

Hiking Tsukuba Mountain with a unique moment; there are no other people.

Near the top. Can't say this is easy to get used to.

Break time for Maika on the way down.

Keeping warm in the evening.

Hanging out in my birthday suit.

Maika in Her Bumbo

2010-11-09T10:24:00.003+09:00

Since baby goats are some of the cutest creatures on this planet, we measure cuteness with the "baby goat cute" scale. As the blessed parents of Maika, we feel that she is "baby goat cute" and of course want to share her cuteness with the world. Maika enjoys sitting in her Bumbo chair, especially in the morning. After waking up, she is quite energetic and ready to be part of everything that is going on around her. Today she helped Erik with the laundry; she sat near by, keeping an eye on what he was doing.
We included Maika's thoughts with some pictures to let you in on her side of the picture.
Why are you always pointing that camera at me?

I am so tiny.

I am so big.

Hello, are you just going to leave me here in the hallway?

When I am tired, my head gets really heavy.

My dad was a cluster of grapes for Halloween at his school, and he thought I would enjoy being in a picture with him.

I got to watch the World Series with my dad. Next time I sure hope St. Louis makes it.

3 Months and Then 100 Days

2010-10-30T15:31:00.004+09:00

October 20th marked 3 months, and October 28th marked 100 days for Maika. 100 days is an important time in a baby's life here in Japan. At this time there is a ceremony call "okuizome". At this ceremony the baby is pretend fed with the hope that he or she will never have to worry about food. As it turns out, there are quite a few ceremonies and traditions in Japan for newborns.
At pretty much the 3 month mark, Maika began to hold her head up herself. We celebrated this by getting her a Bumbo. She really enjoys being upright now, so this helps her do that. Some mornings she even joins us for breakfast at the table. Coffee with sugar is her favorite drink.

Maika showing her other side.

Oh Say Can You See...

2010-10-16T16:36:00.004+09:00

Maika is now officially a U.S. citizen. On October 8th, we all made the trek to the U.S. embassy in Tokyo where we turned in the paperwork for Maika's U.S. citizenship. Surprisingly, the process only took 45 minutes and was stress free. Yoko did a great job getting together all the documents and forms required. In about 3 weeks, we will receive Maika's U.S. passport. This is the photo we used for her passport. After our time at the embassy, we went for a walk around the Imperial Palace. This is where the royal family of Japan lives. We wanted to go in, but it is closed on Fridays, so we walked around the site.
We had Sarah visit the 10th and 11th; she is a great aunt and would be a great baby sitter if she was closer.
Things have been quite busy for Erik at work as he been assigned several new classes in the last few weeks. Even though there is the increased work load, he is still able to get home for lunch everyday. It is truly a blessing for all of us to have Erik's work so close to home.

Yoko and Maika near the main gate into the Imperial Palace in Tokyo

Dad and Daughter

Family picture on October 11th

Maika has some very talented family and friends. All of these items are handmade.

Grandma & Grandpapa visited

2010-10-06T09:03:00.008+09:00

After months of planning we were blessed to have Erik's parents visit us. They were with us 7 nights in total and had a great time with Maika. One day they got to babysit all by themselves for about an hour and a half and pulled it off like pros. We did a little sightseeing, but our time was mostly spent just hanging out. They were also able to spend several days in Suwa where Sarah lives. Having more people around didn't seem to bother Maika all that much, but since her daytime routine was a bit out of whack, she would wake up once through the night. Now she is back to sleeping a good 9 hours each night for which we thank the Lord.

Grandma made Maika a Raggedy Ann

Grand"papa" with his "Maika Sweetcheeks"

A bath picture for a future boyfriend to see

Sleeping in the sling is very cozy

Lounging around before bed

Sleeping is Good

2010-09-11T20:22:00.007+09:00

Over the past several days we have been blessed with Maika sleeping through the entire night. Yoko feels so much better getting a full nights rest. Maika has also started "smiling". We don't know if it is intentional, but it sure is cute.
Erik's parents will be coming to visit on the 16th; we are very excited to finally have them come visit. They are of course looking forward to meeting their first grandchild.

I think I'm smiling; I think I'm smiling

It's shower time

I'm all clean

Maika's Dedication

2010-08-31T10:29:00.001+09:00

On the 15th Maika made her first trip to church in Tokyo. On that day we had her dedicated to the Lord as she is a gift from Him. Below is the video of the dedication and the translation of the Japanese part.
Lord, thank you for this morning. We thank you for Maika Sophia being here with us today. You have given this life to this couple so help them raise her and watch over her. First of all, please bless this couple so they can support her in all areas, so that Your blessing will flow through them into her life. When she is grown, may people who have witnessed her life say, “Who is like the Lord?” in a testimony to the meaning of her name and that they would also see her life overflowing with Your wisdom. We dedicate this child to You today. Please bless her and guide her for the rest of her life. With thankful hearts we pray, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

A few new pictures from the past week which included Maika's longest stretch of sleeping through the night-6 hours; Yoko got her hair cut,and Erik got pooped on.

One Month Old and a DL

2010-08-22T19:21:00.003+09:00

Maika survived her first month here on earth (with Yoko involved it's not a surprise, but the fact that Erik is in the picture makes it a testimony to God's great grace). In terms of some of the things we were doing prior to Maika, Yoko is back doing ballet once a week; we are getting in evening walks again, and we are making the trip to Tokyo for church.
A major event this week was Erik receiving his Japanese driver's license. Much to his chagrin, this has been a 5 month process which involved 6 trips to the DL center and around $200.00 in fees (which is far better, I must admit, than the $2,000.00 that Japanese have to spend for driving school in order to get their DL.) Nonetheless, all that was experienced has given him a great appreciation for how he got his DL in Arizona.

A 4 Day Weekend

2010-08-15T21:06:00.006+09:00

A short work week equals a long weekend and there were no complaints about that. We had some good family and enjoyed having Sarah visit. Sarah spent 3 night with us and had a great time hanging out with her niece. We watched a couple movies (at home), ate Indian curry and supper tasty pancakes, went for a walk, went shopping, and had an all around relaxing time.
Maika caused a bit of a stir at the mall when a shopkeeper asked how old is was. We told her that Maika was just over 3 weeks old, and the lady was greatly surprised. It is not typical for infants under a month old to be out and about.
Today Maika took her first long car ride. We headed to Tokyo for church and had a great day. Maika traveled so well and was great at church. She seems to adjust to new situations well and doesn't seem all that disturbed by external distractions as she slept through most of the service.
Below are some new pictures from the past week. The picture in the "Picture to Enjoy" is of a quilt that Sarah made and gave us while she was here. It is absolutely beautiful.

Some Firsts

2010-08-08T20:34:00.005+09:00

At the time of this posting, Maika is a full 19 days old. She's not much of a conversationalist yet, but she is a pretty good listener. All members of the family are doing well, a little short on sleep but doing well. Maika is a pretty good night sleeper. She tends to only need 2 feedings during the night. This is something we are grateful for. At least once a day, she goes through a period of time where she doesn't want to sleep. She lays there kicking her legs, waving her hands and making noise. Sometimes there is crying that goes along with it, but it is just a time of being awake that lasts longer than her normal wake time. As a result, when she does get to sleep after this wake time, she sleeps like a rock.
This week Maika did several things for the first time. She walked her dad home after work; she went for a stroller ride, and she went to church. All of these events were approached with some question of how it would go, but it turned out very well. She did great. Yoko has a sling that she puts Maika in when they are going out for a short time. Maika seems to have really taken to the stroller. Erik took her out for an hour and 15 minute walk yesterday while Yoko was at dance class. She didn't cry and slept pretty much the whole time. Today at church she fussed a little bit, but Yoko fed her, and she went to sleep. It is a real blessing, especially for Yoko, that Maika is doing well on going out.
Here are some new pictures. So far, everyone here says she looks like Erik, but we think she is God's unique creation.

The Birth and the Place

2010-08-01T15:21:00.014+09:00

We thought we would give you a little picture into where Maika was born and how all that went on for Yoko.

The morning of the 20th, around 5 am, Yoko started to have contractions. They were getting closer so we went into the birthing clinic around 12:00 pm. They checked her out and she was dilated to 5 cm, so they sent her to the room where she would give birth. Around 2:00 pm, Yoko was hooked up to an IV to help move along the process, and for the next 3 hours her contractions became closer and and more intense. Around 5:00 pm the real pushing began, and at 5:41 pm Maika was born. Maika was born at Matsugishi Ladies' Clinic. It is extremely clean and modern. However, the main reason we chose it was for its location. It is literally across the street from where Erik works and is only a 5 minute walk from where we live. When Maika was born, she had a little fluid on her lungs, so they put her in an incubator and kept her in the nursery for observation. While she was in the nursery, she was the biggest baby until a 9.25 lb/4200 g boy showed up.
At this clinic, they have the mothers stay for 5 nights if they have had a natural birth. If they have had a c-section, they stay longer. The room Yoko had was very nice, and they fed her very well. Erik would come over before work, at lunch, and after work to visit.

Saturday the 24th, we check out and headed home. All in all it was a good experience, and one in which we learned a lot. The Lord is good and again had His gracious hand upon us.

Maika Sophia Bentley is Home

2010-07-27T07:20:00.008+09:00

Thank you all for the great comments you have given us on the arrival of Maika. She and Yoko came home Saturday morning and are doing very well. As everyone knows, this is a great learning time, but the reality of it can't be fully understood until it is experienced. Currently it is a blessing to be where we are as there are so many things conveniently located. We have a a baby store, supermarket, shopping center, birthing clinic, and Erik's work all within a 5 minute walk. Another blessing is that we just got renters for our house in Arizona. We are having the wonderful experience of seeing God's hand at work. Again, thank all of you for your prayers. More pictures to come soon.

Just Because Someone Has a Birthday Doesn't Always Mean They are More Mature

2010-07-17T17:52:00.005+09:00

Last weekend Erik had the great thrill of turning 36. Sarah came to help celebrate, and Yoko's brother and his 2 daughters came by, so we had a full on birthday party. The main dish was a super rich chocolate cake that Yoko bought from a local Italian restaurant. There also happened to be some other food, but the cake was what was eaten first.

Today is Saturday, July 17th, 2010, the official due date of ----- ------ Bentley, but nothing is happening. Yoko lost her mucus plug on Monday, but things have been quiet since then. Keep you eyes open for an e-mail from us as we will try to let you know as soon as it happens.

A Birthday and more Pictures

2010-07-03T15:30:00.006+09:00

Yoko officially hit the big 30. She took it quite well and is showing no ill effects from leaving her 20s. Sarah, Erik's sister, came to help celebrate. We all went to dinner at a tasty Japanese food buffet.

We are just 2 weeks from the due date, so these may be the last pregnancy photos we get up. They have been taken over the last month with the hydrangea picture being on June 27th. Our most recent check showed everything looking good, and Yoko has the go ahead to exercise all she wants in order to get the baby to drop. It is an exciting time. Please keep us in your prayers as we enter the world of parenthood.

We Can Almost Count the Weeks Left on One Hand

2010-06-05T20:38:00.003+09:00

It's been a month since we took pictures of the growing belly, so we went out today (Saturday 6/5) and found some new settings. Most people would frown upon a pregnant lady climbing in a tree, but when it comes to getting a shot we like, there's no limit.
Rice planting season is pretty much over, and the rice paddies are full of tender green shoots making for a nice background. Everything is so green, a nice trade off to all the rain.

We are doing very well and continue to be so blessed by the Lord. Yoko is still able to keep up her regular exercise classes and ballet. She is walking much slower, but that hasn't stopped her from getting out. Her continued active lifestyle raises eyebrows here.

Other than Yoko's growing belly and the kicking baby, things are pretty mellow. Work is going very well for Erik; he enjoys his classes and doesn't have to wear a tie for 4 months thanks to Cool Biz which started June 1st.

31 Weeks Down, 9 To Go

2010-05-15T17:02:00.006+09:00

Our little one has finally moved out of the breech position, and there is a strong feeling that we will be having a little girl. We have been blessed with good checkups and Yoko continues to feel great. She is enjoying her pregnancy. We have been picking up some baby things, and Erik's sister Sarah was very generous and got us a baby bouncer, a bath chair and some baby clothes.

Speaking of Sarah, she came out for a visit during Golden Week (Golden Week is a series of holidays in early May). With Sarah in town, we took in one of the local tourist sites, Boso-no-Mura. We also took Sarah to Costco for some shopping and enjoyed some tasty Indian curry. While Sarah was with us, she took some pregnancy photos and anniversary photos for us.

We celebrated our anniversary with a visit to Hamazushi which is a kaiten (conveyor belt) sushi restaurant. We had planned to have tiramisu (our wedding cake) after sushi, but Erik ate 20 plates so tiramisu will be enjoyed at a later time. We don't mind stretching out our anniversary celebration.

Visiting Sarah, The Baby, and A Full Time Job

2010-04-11T20:01:00.003+09:00

When a month goes by between posts, there must be a good reason; however, we won't give you any excuses. Now on to the latest update: Yoko's still pregnant, we're still in Japan, and we still love each other. Actually, there is a lot more than that to report. The baby is growing well, but we still don't know what it is. Our last check up showed us a healthy but uncooperative child. We have a check up coming soon, so we hope to have a real idea of what we are having. So far, the majority is saying it is a girl. Yoko's is keeping fit with ballet, stretch and maternity aerobics classes. She is still working 2 or 3 evenings a week for 3 hours at a time. Other than the continued itchiness, she is doing quite well.

We made a short trip to see Sarah (Erik's sister) and to celebrate her birthday. We took her a lot of food that she isn't able to get and made a Mexican food dinner for her. During the day we walked around where she lives, Suwa. It is located on a lake which makes for a nice setting. There are quite a few hot springs in the area, and along the edge of the lake there is a place to sit and soak one's feet. On a cool spring day, it was quite enjoyable. We have a long holiday coming up the beginning of May and will be able to see Sarah again as she will be coming to see us.

April first was the first full day for Erik at his new job. He is a full time English teacher at the Airline Business College of Narita (ABCN) and English House (EH). The two schools are under the same parent company and in the same building. He will be teaching 4, 45 minute college classes Tuesday - Friday. These classes are from 11:00 - 3:00 will an hour break in the middle. After the college classes, and on Mondays, he teaches kids ranging in age from 3 - 15 and adults. Most days begin at 10:30 and end around 7:30. The school is a 5 minute walk from where we live, so he gets to go home for lunch breaks.

This job is truly a blessing and an answered prayer from the Lord. In the process of applying for full time work, we sent a letter to to ABCN in December stating that Erik was looking for work. With all the possible work places we were looking at, we forgot about ABCN, and the end of January we heard from them. They wanted Erik to come in for an interview. After the interview and a short teaching demonstration, they offered Erik a full time position on the spot. After a night of prayer, we accepted it. The way God works in truly amazing. The job search process was not moving along at all and out of of the blue God dropped this in our laps. Just another demonstration of His faithfulness, and if we put our trust in Him, he will direct our paths.

A Date, Friends, and Our Bun in the Oven

2010-03-10T19:05:00.006+09:00

It's been a while since we did something we labeled as a "going on a date", but that's what we did the other day. Yoko's mom won two tickets to Disneyland, and since she is not a big fan of the place, she gave them to us. Yeah for us! It was our first time to go to an amusement park together. It was pretty busy, so we didn't get on as many rides as we had hoped to , but we had fun nonetheless. We were really looking forward to some of the food we would be able to eat there but ended up being disappointed. It was expensive as was expected, but on top of that, the servings were small and not that tasty. After 3 items we decided to stop buying food and wait till we got out of the park to eat something. By the time we left, it was past dinner time and we were quite hungry, so we stopped at the first place that had food, 7-Eleven. We feasted on fried chicken, onigiri, and makizushi. We ended up spending just a bit more than we would have on one item at Disneyland, and the quality was much better. Whenever we get to go to Disneyland again, we will definitely take food with us.

It's not all that often that we get to play host to friends, but a couple weekends ago we had some friends from church stay with us. He is German, and she is Japanese. They have a cute little girl that kept us entertained. Yoko put together a very delicious chicken pesto lasagna that feed us well. We enjoy our time with this couple and are sad as they are moving to Kyoto in a week. However, now we all the more reason to make a trip there.

Yoko is feeling good but is beginning to experience the side effects of the growing belly. Her regular pants no longer fit; she is noticing it is harder to reach her shoes, and she seems to be eating constantly. We brought a few maternity items from Arizona before we came here not knowing what we would find, but we have found maternity clothes at several different stores that fit her well and are not all that expensive.

With 23 weeks down we are looking forward to finding out the sex soon. Hopefully it will be at our next checkup. Once we know, we will send out the word.

All About the Baby

2010-02-11T18:22:00.005+09:00

Seventeen weeks down, but July 17th still seems quite a ways away. We have tenderly named the baby to be "Parasite" for now. He or she is around 4 inches/10 centimeters long with the head of an alien. We had a check up last Friday, February 5th and everything is looking good. Yoko has been doing quite well physically. She has an increased appetite and of course is more tired with headaches here and there. Weight gain in closely monitored here, so Yoko has been keeping active with walking and ballet. She is still teaching with an average 4 day week and 3 hours a day. She is beginning to show and finding some pants coming close to unwearable.
Erik does his best to keep Yoko happy; as we all know, "Happy wife, happy life" : )

We decided on a birthing clinic that is within a mile of where we live. In Japan, the majority of babies are born either in the hospital or in a birthing clinic. We chose Iwasawa Clinic for its size; it is smaller with a more personal touch. Another plus is that we can make an appointment to see the doctor where all the other clinics are first come first serve.

Thank you for your continued prayers; we value them greatly. God has been so gracious to us during this time and deserves all our praise and honor. The creation process is truly an amazing thing.

A New Find

2010-02-01T11:31:00.002+09:00

Saturdays are often very relaxing days for us. We have a quiet morning which is often followed by us getting out of the house. We may do shopping or just go for a walk. This past Saturday, we had a peaceful morning which was followed up with an hour and a half walk. It was such a beautiful day that we wanted to take full advantage of it. After lunch Yoko headed off to her ballet class, and Erik went for a bike ride. On this particular ride, he road in an area that he hadn't ridden before and ended up finding a really nice park. He was all jazzed about this since it was very large and had actual hiking trails. We didn't waste any time in exploring it. The next day, Sunday (yesterday), Erik's sister came to visit, and we all headed over to Sakatagaike Park. We had a great time walking around feeling like we were far away from everything. We look forward to visiting it again. Sarah, Erik's sister, was visiting us because she had a training session to be at in the Tokyo area on Monday, today. For dinner we took Sarah out to a great ramen restaurant that we found. Ramen here is an art form with secret family recipes. We had tantanmen which has a miso soup with chili sauce and ground meat in it. Oishii!
This coming Friday Yoko has a checkup. We are looking forward to seeing what we can and checking on the growth of our child. Yoko continues to feel well and is beginning to show a tiny bit. Look for photos and more info to come on this exciting topic. As always, thank you for your prayers.

Work, Play, and Dry Skin

2010-01-20T15:13:00.002+09:00

On this warm (it's 16 C or 61 F) but windy day, we did 3 loads of laundry. When clothes are dried outside, warm weather must be taken full advantage of. We are well except for Yoko's very itchy back. For about 2 weeks now, she has been dealing with very itchy and dry skin. She is keeping well lotioned which is resulting in Erik having nice and soft hands. The pregnancy continues to go well, and we will have another checkup the beginning of February.
We are working; it's not full time, but at the moment we will take what we can get. Yoko is consistently used at the cram school to teach English while Erik has been subbing for the same company he worked for last year. In addition to the subbing, he is participating in public relation events for Narita International Airport. During this time of year the airport contracts with a local English school to provide native English speakers to go to the elementary schools and promote English. The last school Erik went to gave him miso which was grown and processed by the 4th graders of the school.
Last Thursday we were treated by a friend to a live play in Tokyo. She took us as a thank you for us helping her with her English. The play was performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company and Japanese actors. It was about the first Englishman to come to Japan, William Adams or Miura Anjin as he was named in Japanese. The play was done in both English and Japanese with subtitles for both languages. It was a very enjoyable show and gave us a look into Japan in the early 17th century.

Entertainers

2010-01-06T11:53:00.012+09:00

In case you didn't hear it from us, Happy New Year! New Year's Day was spent with Erik's sister but more on that in a moment. Since Christmas we have found ourselves enjoying the company of family and friends. Christmas Day was spent with Yoko's mom, and Christmas evening was spent with her dad. On the 26th Yoko's brother and his family were able to come over. We had a great time playing with our nieces. Erik was all excited because they are now calling him by his name. On the 27th Erik's sister, Sarah, met us at church in Tokyo. Sarah is currently teaching English in Suwa which is about 2.5 hours west of Tokyo by bus. Sarah stayed with us for a week, and it was great having her around. A few of our activities included visiting Costco, bike riding, eating Indian food, attending the New Year's Day service at church, watching movies, having dinner with Yoko's dad, brother and his family, walking along Tokyo Bay, and driving a long the east coast of Chiba prefecture enjoying the ocean. Sarah returned to Suwa on the 3rd. That evening we had a woman from church and her 6 year old daughter come stay with us for 2 evenings. Yes, Yoko's mom is very gracious as her home was like a hotel. We had a nice time visiting with them and getting to know them better. Now we are back to "normal" life. On the 4th Erik applied for a job with the Narita city school district. We know that the Lord has a job for us, so we keep trusting in Him.

Merry Christmas

2009-12-21T16:27:00.003+09:00

Merry Christmas to one and to all. This year we don't have any real plans for Christmas other than remembering our Saviour's birth. Christmas Eve will be spent with Yoko's mom and one of Yoko's cousins. We will be cooking a stuffed chicken breast dish and not partaking in the traditional Japanese Christmas dinner of KFC. We will be getting together with other members of her family on the 29th. Cool yet sunny days have been with us for a while which allows us to get out and walk quite a bit. Yoko has been feeling well and enjoys getting in what exercise she can. Our two main priorities are finding a job and place to have the baby. The job search is going well and resumes are being sent. Finding a birthing clinic that we like is proving to be a bit of a challenge. Each one has some positives but also negatives that seem to outweigh the positives. One thing we are facing at some clinics is a "set in stone" system that does things one way and that way only. There is no room for how the mother might want things done. Other challenges come in the form of not being able to make an appointment; one must just go and wait to be seen by a doctor which may be up to 3 hours.
One thing that we are looking forward to is Erik's sister will be coming to visit us on the 27th. She will be with us for a week or until she gets tired of her brother. She is teaching English in Suwa, which is about 3.5 hours away by train. We don't know for sure what we will do with her, but we will enjoy osechi.

Leaving and Returning

2009-12-12T14:18:00.003+09:00

Much to the delight of all involved, we made it safely to Japan. Our flights were fairly uneventful except for a little turbulence on the San Francisco-Tokyo leg which upset Yoko's stomach a bit. Upon our arrival we found it to be much the way we left it 3 and a half months ago. We have settled back into "our" room in Yoko's mom's apartment (our address is under "About Us", to see video and pictures of the apartment go to the Sept 17, 2008 post) and jumped back into life here by going to Costco to get stocked up on necessities: bagels, peanut butter, fruit, cheese, and cereal.
Our time in the U.S. went quickly which might have been due to our having 30-40 "get togethers" with friends and family. It was great to see so many of you. Erik enjoyed being back at Yavapai College with many of his former coworkers filling in wherever they needed him. We both also enjoyed doing some manual labor for a friend; it had been a while since we had gotten that dirty. We enjoyed staying with Erik's parents ; it gave us some quality time with them. Our time at our church, Calvary Chapel of Prescott, was sweet and encouraging. We are so thankful that we have wonderful churches in Arizona and Japan.
Yoko has been doing and feeling well since we have been back. She had a couple of very tough days right before we left, but she is feeling "genki" now. Today, Saturday, Yoko got in a 3 hour nap which should help make up for some of the lost sleep due to jet lag.
Next week will be spent deciding where to have our baby. We have a great friend here who did research on local places where Yoko can give birth. We will be sure to keep this blog updated on how the pregnancy proceeds.

It's Freezing

2009-10-08T08:03:00.005+09:00

Here we are in the midst of October, and it is already freezing (that would be a literal freezing). The other night it was under 32F or 0C. Nothing like a sudden change in the weather to keep one on their toes. Enough about the weather. We have been doing quite well and have been able to meet with a lot of friends. Since we have been back, we have had 15+ official get togethers. These are not just meetings at church and having a chat. These are real scheduled events that have blessed us in many ways. It has been great reconnecting with so many people.

We have also been blessed with a good amount of employment. Besides Erik's working with Yavapai College, we have had the opportunity to help a friend or Erik's sister get a house ready to sell. It has been a while since we have done such demanding physical labor, but it has been good. We have been clearing brush, planting bushes, painting, cleaning, all in preparation to get the house ready to sell.

We had some fun the other day taking pictures. First Yoko and Erik's sister Sarah got dressed up in Japanese yukatas. After that, Yoko got into her wedding dress. Since our wedding, Yoko has seen wedding picture moments that she wanted to catch. Below are a few examples of what we took.

We Back and Busy

2009-09-07T07:05:00.004+09:00

For those of you who might be wondering, we safely returned to Arizona on August 25th. Our trip back was very uneventful and went very well. Yoko's mom and brother, and a friend saw us off, and Erik's parents and sister met us upon our arrival in Phoenix. We only had minor jet lag which was good since we had to jump right into things here. Erik started work on Thursday, the 27th, with the same program he was with at Yavapai College before we came to Japan in 2008. He is teaching/assisting/helping in whatever capacity he is needed. We signed up for a couple exercise classes at the college, and Yoko has restarted ballet which is something she greatly missed while in Japan. We went for our first mountain bike ride a few days ago which was another activity we are enjoying doing again.
On top of the physical activities, we have had a number of opportunities already to meet friends and family. Living with Erik's parents is giving us a lot of quality time with them. It is also giving Yoko some insight into why Erik is the way he is. A week ago we had a real nice time with the people who are renting our house. We got to meet their newborn baby for the first time. One of Erik's uncles and a cousin visited last week and we had a great time talking with them. On Saturday, a friend of Erik's from high school was in town, and we had a good time visitng with them. That same night we had dinner with friends from church. It was a great meal and a sweet time of fellowship. Speaking of church, we have been welcomed back with open arms to our church which has spiritually grown so much in the last year. We are so thankful we have a church we can jump right back into. We are looking forward to learning more of what God is doing with and through our church in Prescott. We are still connected to our church in Japan via the internet.

Summer Vacation Doesn't = More Free Time

2009-08-06T21:16:00.008+09:00

Summer vacation is officially here for Erik. He has two weeks off from his subbing job. Yoko has vacation, but it starts next week. Even though time not working has diminished, it has been replaced with many other things that keep us busy. Throughout Japan towns are currently holding their "summer festivals". These festivals usually involve music, traditional dance and fireworks. Saturday night we took in fireworks at one of these festivals. The clouds were fairly low resulting in some interesting "half" fireworks on the higher flying ones (see picture). Yoko wore a summer kimono called a yukata; she sure is cute.

Monday was spent taking pictures at Sengawa's summer festival. Sengawa is the city where our church is located. Our church's worship band was invited to play at the festival, and Yoko was asked to document the day on film. She did it very thoroughly 800+ pictures worth. She ended up with around 500 good images that she was able to give the church. Our new lens that we talked about in the last post made taking evening and indoor pictures a breeze. We have included a short video of a traditional dance from the festival. This dance is called the bon odori

Don't Miss the Last Train : (

2009-07-28T17:31:00.004+09:00

When traveling by train is your only way home, make sure you know when the last train is. Sunday we were in Tokyo for church and stayed for an evening concert. Yoko's instructor from one of her aerobics classes joined us for our church/cafe's monthly Gospel Fest. A good time was had by all, and we left around 10:30. Due to the distance that we had to travel combined with the time we left Tokyo, we soon realized that we may not make it all the way home. That is in fact what happened. In our journey back we got the last possible train that runs from the outskirts of Tokyo to where we needed to go. We were very thankful for that, otherwise we would have been stranded 10 or more stations from where we live. Nonetheless, we still didn't make it all the way home. Since we were on the last train of the night, its last stop was 4 stations from ours. Thankfully, Yoko's mom in very gracious and came and got us at 1:00 am.
Our church has a number of events and recently Yoko volunteered to take pictures at one of them. Due to the low light, she had to use a high ISO to compensate and ended up with grainy pictures. She touched them up as best she could on Photoshop, and they turned out okay. The church staff really liked her composition and has asked her to take pictures at a community event next week. So, all this to say we bought a new lens. It is a Sony 50mm F1.4. We chose this lens due to its low f-stop which will enable us to take pictures in low light with out having to use as high an ISO. This lens will be put to good use especially when crumb crunchers come along.

A Year Older, Immigration, and Tokyo Tower

2009-07-21T13:15:00.005+09:00

How time flies! We all know that fact of life. Erik turned 35 recently and realizes that he is now closer to 40 than 30. Yoko put together a nice day for him. It included pizza, root beer, fruit tart, and friends. Erik has never had a better wife than Yoko. She is definitely his best wife.

We mentioned in our last post that Yoko took the TOIEC test. Today she received her score, 850 out of 990. With this being the first time she took the test, she is happy with her score but wants to try again in the future.

Last Friday we spend the day getting a new passport for Yoko and renewing Erik's visa for Japan. All said, it wasn't as time consuming as we thought it would be. The immigration office, as with the ones in the States, is a great place to people watch. Some of the husband/wife combinations sure are interesting (take us for example: )

This past Sunday we headed to Tokyo Tower after church. Just as we arrived at the tower, we were blessed with a full rainbow. We rode the elevator to the main observatory and found where most of the residents of Tokyo were. This past weekend marked the start of summer vacation for school kids; Monday was a national holiday, and a lot of people like to see the night view of Tokyo; all this contributed to a lot of people hanging out in and around the tower. Despite the crowds we had a good time there.

Yeah for Costco!!

2009-07-02T13:01:00.005+09:00

With it being a rainy Thursday morning and a couple hours before work starts, what would be better than getting a new blog post up? Our last post created quite a few responses which we are always glad to get.

Last Friday Erik had a one day teaching job at JFE Steel, Japan's second largest steel company. He had posted his resume on-line, and a company that provides teachers for business found him. Erik will be back at JFE in early August to teach again. While Erik was working, Yoko went out with her mom and a friend of theirs who has a membership to Costco. That's right; Costco exists here in Japan. What did Yoko come home with? A Large block of real cheddar cheese, bagels, 2 very large jars of chunky peanut butter and cereal brought a big smile to Erik's face. Yoko said that the food section is twice as large as what is found in the U.S. due to there being most of the foods found in the U.S. plus an enormous selection of Japanese foods. The above purchased products can be found in regular supermarkets, but they are extremely expensive and in small quantities.

Sunday we unfortunately had to miss church due to Yoko taking the TOEIC test which is only offered on Sunday. This is a English aptitude test that is widely recognized throughout Japan. She feels she did alright, but we will have to wait ONE MONTH for the results. With all the modern equipment, bullet trains, high tech cell phones, and robots in Japan, one would think they could get the results out a little quicker. Lord, help us accept those things which we cannot change : )

We are currently in the midst of the hydrangea season. The flowers found in Japan are quite beautiful.

2009-06-24T10:05:00.005+09:00

As of June 22nd, Yoko is now another year closer to 30. Yet, you would never guess it if you observed her in her Body Pump class. When it comes to the leg portion of the workout, she lifts more than anyone in the class. Seniors, house wives, business men, 20 somethings, and even the instructor cannot keep up with her. Needless to say, Erik is proud of Yoko.
We officially have a date set and tickets purchased for our return to Arizona. On August 25th we will be back in the land where the humidity does not stay above 80% for weeks on end. However, our return to Arizona will be short lived. We are returning to Japan in December and will be here for at least another year. There are 4 primary factors that lead us to this decision, and no, it’s not because Erik has started liking natto, playing the shamisen, or practicing kendo. 1. We feel the Lord wants us to be here to continue reaching out to Yoko’s family and others that we have contact with. 2. Erik needs to keep working on his Japanese. The Japanese language turned out to be a greater challenge than he originally thought. He had high expectations for himself but soon found out that it’s going to take some time. 3. Yoko would like to give birth here in Japan (no, we are NOT pregnant at this time). 4. Teaching jobs that provide housing are plentiful. If you would keep us in your prayers, we would greatly appreciate it. On the right side of our blog we have a section titled “Prayer Requests”. There you can find specific things to pray for.
Other than the above news, we don’t have anything major to report. June 23rd was the 3 year anniversary of our engagement. Yes, we are still newly weds and keep track of all those meaningful days. The below picture was taken from the spot and right before Erik proposed to Yoko.
Recently Japan has been very wet. We are currently in the rainy season which will soon give way to the hot, humid, typhoon season. Even when the weather man says it is only going to be cloudy, we must be prepared for rain at any moment. Erik has learned this the hard way.
The Japanese government gave us money to help stimulate the economy. We were pleased to receive a notice that Yoko would be getting 12,000 yen (about $120), but we were really surprised when we found out that Erik would also receive the same amount. Thanks Aso!

Learning About Japan Through Us

2009-06-06T20:33:00.007+09:00

Here are a few interesting things that one may not learn about Japan without having spent some time here; this includes knowing what kind of garbage you have (see picture and #2).
1. In the Japanese baseball league there can be ties. If the game is tied at the end of 12 innings, it ends in a tie. One explanation we heard for this is that most people come to the games by train and if a game goes late into the night, the fans may not be able to get home.

2. You as an individual separate your garbage. There are various colored bags that need to be bought, each colored bag is for a certain type of garbage. Then you put your colored bag with bags that are the same color in a specific place to be collected. They are then loaded by hand into the garbage truck by the sanitation workers. There are no dumpsters.

3. One cannot buy a car without having a parking space for it.

4. Women tend to stay in the hospital/birthing center for a week after having a baby.

5. School kids clean their own classrooms and schools. After the classroom is cleaned, each student has a part of the school to clean.

We have been pretty busy since we last posted, mostly with work. Despite our schedule being full, Erik was able to get some sort of stomach illness for one day (thankfully not on a day with work) resulting is him not doing much other than just laying around. Yoko has had the opportunity to get to know one of the instructors at the sports club we go to and as a result Yoko has invited her to a church event that will be happening later this month. We are praying that she will be able to come with us. At church we had John Scott Evans, a very talented guitarist, visit us and bless us with his music. If you visit his website you can hear some of his music. Erik's mom had another birthday this week, and Erik had a chance to wish her a happy birthday by phone.

Erik and Yoko's Yokohama Tour Service

2009-05-23T08:53:00.005+09:00

Since we turned down the offer for Erik to teach in China, we have seen an influx of teaching opportunities for Erik. This week he started a long term sub. It will last 2 months and is 3 days a week. He also acquired a new private student that he meets once a week. On top of this, he will be teaching 2 all day classes (one in June and one in August) for Japan's second largest steel company. The Lord is truly blessing us. This increase in income is coming at a prefect time as it will provide for our plane tickets back to the U.S. Also, the long term sub teaching does not fall on days that Erik has his Japanese classes. God sure is good to us!

Last Monday we had the opportunity to give 10 college students from the U.S. a tour of Yokohama. These students are from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University and are in Japan for a summer study program. We have this connection with ERAU since they have a campus in Prescott, and the professor that heads up this Japan program, we know from church. If you came to our wedding, he is the Japanese man who did the translating during the reception. We had a good time in Yokohama. Yoko did a great job getting us all on the correct trains and translating anything the students couldn't read. The 10 students we had were great. There were no attitude problems; nobody got lost; and they all were happy to try food they were unfamiliar with at a Japanese restaurant we went to for lunch. We went up to the top of Landmark Tower; it provided a great view of the Yokohama area. We had hoped to take the students to the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Museum , but it is closed every Monday. So, in place of that, we let the students loose in a local mall.

In our last post we mentioned that we would be going out to eat for our anniversary. We did that and had a great meal. It was a buffet, and we took full advantage of that. We hope to get a link up for the restaurant so keep an eye out for that in our "What and Where We've Eaten Recently" section. Below is an "anniversary picture" we took to mark our two years of marriage. Aren't we cute in the matching shirts. FYI, that wasn't Erik's idea : )

Going to Work in China!!!!

2009-05-09T14:43:00.004+09:00

Since our last post was two weeks ago, you'd think we'd have something to write about and a matter of fact, we do. Before we get to those details though, we are doing well. Yoko had 4 days off from work due to the Golden Week national holiday. She spent time with her mom and put in some good time working on her web site. When that is completed, we will let you know.
Now to the highlights, let's start with Friday, the 1st, at 10:00 am. Erik received a call from the English language school he subs for with the offer to go teach in Shanghai, China for at least a month starting on the 4th. Since it was to start so soon, we had to make a decision quickly. After some discussion and prayer, we decided to decline the offer for a number of reasons, the main one being that we will be seeing a friend from Arizona on the 17th and 18th of this month.
Tuesday, the 5th, was our 2 year anniversary. We had plans for the day, but due to it being a national holiday, Children's Day, and some scheduling conflicts, we didn't get to do all we wanted to do that day. As a result, we are celebrating our anniversary over a week or so. Tuesday the 12th we will go out for our anniversary dinner. Today, Saturday, we ate tiramisu and took anniversary pictures at a near by park.
Wednesday, the 6th, found Erik in Tokyo washing dishes at Kick Back Cafe; this is the cafe our church owns. Yoko stayed home so that Erik would not be able to depend on her. This was Erik's first time to take the 2 hour train ride (with 3 transfers) to our church/cafe by himself. Thanks be to God, he got there without too much difficulty and was on time. The day spent washing dishes was enjoyable despite the piles of dishes due to it being a very busy day for the cafe. Erik's prayer was that he wouldn't break anything, and again, thanks to God, he didn't. A few dishes were dropped, but nothing broke. Erik stayed for the Wednesday night service, stayed the night with some guys from the church and then came back home Thursday morning. Thursday morning was again spent on the train this time with the hordes of people heading to work (Click for a video of what it is like. I was already on the train so I didn't actually get pushed. Don't want to do that again. Japanese people are nice, but I don't need to be that close to anyone other than Yoko).
So those are a few of the highlights from the past two weeks.

What to Report?

2009-04-25T17:09:00.004+09:00

Since we last updated this blog, we haven't had all that much going on other than the "normal" everyday things: eating, sleeping, studying, reading, praying, cooking, cleaning, shopping, exercising. The biggest thing that has happened didn't even happen to us. A friend of ours from church and who lives is the building behind us, gave birth to her first child Friday. Today we were able to see the beautiful little girl. The clinic (click her for a few pictures) where the birth took place is something else. It reminded us of a resort.
One thing that was supposed to happen was that Andrea Crouch was going to be at our church from the 22nd through the 27th. If you are not familiar with who Andrae Crouch is, he is a major figure in the Gospel music scene. However, much to every one's disappointment, his time here had to be canceled due to him being admitted to the hospital on the 21st with severe pain in his feet. We are all hoping that he can reschedule and still make it in the near future. Andrea has visited our church before and his visit had been eagerly anticipated by everyone at the church.
Here is a video clip from our local park. This duck likes to hang out with people even when there isn't food around.

Sakura in Bloom

2009-04-15T18:01:00.003+09:00

We have been having a great Spring so far. The cherry trees or sakura were beautiful and we had a number of opportunities to get out and enjoy them. Last Saturday we spent the day with Yoko's dad, her brother, and his family. We were celebrating Yoko's dad's retirement. We started at Shinjuku Gyoen enjoying the sakura along with half of the people in Tokyo (to see a bigger version of our spring slide show, click here). We ended the evening with a meal of traditional Japanese food, Yoko's dad's favorite.
We also recently took a 23 mile/37 km round trip bike ride to see the Tulip Matsuri. One down side to all of Spring's beauty is that Yoko's allergies are in full swing. She has itchy eyes, uses tissues by the fist full and is very good at sneezing.
Some of you may have heard that Erik has been looking/applying for a teaching job. So far nothing has come about. Since we are returning to Arizona in August, it is hard to find something that is short term. However, he continues to substitute teach for a language school when needed. Erik's Japanese language learning has changed from formal language school to a community program that meets 3 times a week and is free. Also, with Yoko, he is reviewing the book that he studied in language school. This is helping reinforce those things that he learned some time ago.
For Yoko, in addition to putting up with Erik, she continues to teach at a nearby cram school and work on her graphic design/web development.
Sunday we had a wonderful Easter service at church. It was an all day event. We left at 9:00 pm and even at that time it was still going strong. After the "normal" morning service (11:00 -2:00) we had lunch and then there was baptism. This was the first baptism that the church has had since we have been there. In total 58 people were baptised. It was a wonderful time celebrating the new life the comes through a relationship with Jesus because of His Resurrection. After the baptism there was a break for dinner and then from about 7:30 on (we don't know when they finally called it a night) was a time of worship and sharing.

"Grab a Bunch of Food"

2009-04-07T14:57:00.004+09:00

The cherry blossoms are officially in full bloom, and people are marking off spots in parks all over Japan to take part in the cherry blossom viewing event called "hanami". We don't know if we will have a hanami this year, but we are enjoying the cherry blossoms.
Both of Yoko's parents retired last week from teaching JR high school after 35+ years of teaching. They both are really looking forward to what they will get to do now. Yoko's dad will be taking gardening classes at a community college, oil painting and working on ballroom dance (his hobbies). Yoko's mom will be helping a friend who is having a baby this month and working on getting her parents house sold.
The last day that Yoko's mom worked, the three of us went out to eat to celebrate. He had the buffet lunch at the California Restaurant at the Radisson Hotel. Now this is a nice hotel and the restaurant uses cloth napkins, the kind of place you wouldn't expect to hear from the waitress "grab a bunch of food". Much to our surprise that is what we heard. The buffet was closing and the waitress said to Erik in English (all three of us were at the table), "The buffet is ending in a few minutes, go ahead and grab a bunch of food." Erik didn't say anything back to her (partly because he was surprised by the choice of words and the fact that she spoke to him only) but looked at her like she had 5 heads. There was a moment of awkward silence then she repeated herself to Yoko and her mom in polite Japanese. Since then, we have enjoyed telling each other to "grab a bunch of food".

We Took a Trip

2009-03-27T17:45:00.014+09:00

For the first time since arriving in Japan, we traveled more than 2 hours from where we live. Saturday night we got on a bus in Tokyo and Sunday morning we arrived in Tsuyama. Tsuyama is the city Erik lived in 10 years ago. This was the first time for Yoko to visit this part of Japan, so Erik played tour guide and showed Yoko some of the local sites. This region of Japan is famous for Momotaro aka Peach Boy. Tsuyama in listed as one of the top places to view sakura (cherry blossoms) in Japan. With spring coming early this year, we were hoping to see the sakura in bloom, but we were about a week early. Here is how the sakura looked for us and how they look when in bloom (enlarge these pictures by clicking on them).
Most of our time was spent with friends. We had a great time catching up with them which usually involved a delicious meal. It was a quick trip as we left Tsuyama Tuesday night and arrived back in Tokyo Wednesday morning. We used the night bus for transportation as it is economical and day time is not used for traveling, but it doesn't provide the best night's rest. As a result, we both had to take a nap on Wednesday. We really enjoyed our trip and look forward to the next time we can see Tsuyama and our friends.

Common in Japan

2009-03-20T17:38:00.009+09:00

Here are a few images that you might find interesting if you have not been to Japan or are not from Japan.
This picture was taken on the train. The 5 "masked" women were traveling together. This time of year it is very common to see people of all ages wearing masks. The mask wearing say 1 of 3 things: A) "I am sick, so stay away" B) "I don't want to get what other people have" or C) "I am trying to avoid the pollen that is prevalent right now".
While these plants look like cabbages they are not for eating. They are planted in winter as decoration.

Broiled whole fish. Yes, you eat the entire thing. There are a number of fish here where you eat the entire thing. These are about 5 to 6 inches in length. Itadakimasu!!!

Sea World Fun

2009-03-13T19:48:00.004+09:00

Last weekend we went to Sea World in Kamogawa (this can be read in English) with Yoko's mom. Is in a great setting as you will see by the map, and has a lot of great things to see. We were able to see the Killer Whale (video below, Sea Lion (video below) and Beluga Whale shows. In addition to the shows, we enjoyed seeing all the marine life that they have on display.

Yesterday, Friday, was Erik's last day at Japanese school, but this is not the end of his studying Japanese. The past 6 months he has learned a lot, but the one thing that was lacking in the class was conversation practice. So we are currently looking for places where Erik can work more on his listening and speaking (good thing we are in Japan : ). This past week, Erik's class took the beginning level Japanese proficiency test. With much relief, Erik can say that he passed the test. Demonstrating his proficiency via a test is not a goal of his, but since everyone else in the class passed, he is sure glad he did too.
We continue to have dinner every Thursday night with Yoko's dad. It has been a real neat time for Yoko as she is really getting to know him again. Since she moved to the U.S. some 9 years ago, her contact with him had been very limited. These regular meetings have enabled her really connect with him on an open and personal level.

Yes, Most of Our Events Involve Food

2009-03-04T15:51:00.003+09:00

All is well in here in the Land of the Rising Sun. We are "genki". We had our first real snow of this winter yesterday. It covered the ground, but that was about it.

At our church there is a couple we have become friends with. He is from Germany; she is from Japan. They met in England, and their common language is English. The have an infant daughter who gets cuter every time we see her. Saturday they had us over to their home where we had wonderful fellowship and excellent German food (dinner and breakfast). We spent the night at their home and then went to church with them Sunday. It was the first time we have spent the night away from our apartment since coming here. It was a nice change. (German Dinner: Red Cabbage, Potatoes, Beef with Veggies and Salad -Oishii!)

At church on Sunday we had a special event after the service. A couple that was on the verge of divorce had a recommitment ceremony. About a year ago their marriage was basically over. She hated him because he was not what she had come to want in a man. He came to our pastor for marriage counseling (our pastor is a marriage counselor by profession). During the ceremony, our pastor mentioned how the husband was like "crushed tofu" when he first came to see him, but soon the love of Jesus touched his heart, and he was born again. In the mean time, the wife also came for counseling through the urging of a friend who attends our church. She stated in a session that she had no intention of changing her mind about divorcing her husband no matter what our pastor said to her. Needless to say, she did change her mind, a full 180 degrees. In seeing the change in her husband from his new found life she came to the Lord also. Our pastor said that the husband went from "crushed tofu" to "jelly" to "iron", and the wife now says that he is the best person for her. This change, especially in her life is a testimony to what only the Lord can do. It encouraged us about those we are praying for. It was a wonderful ceremony and celebration about the restoration that is found in our Lord and Savior, Jesus.

Who Likes Cold Wet Windy Weather?

2009-02-24T14:09:00.003+09:00

Let's talk about the weather. If any of you have extra sunshine or snow, we wouldn't mind some of either of those. A change to our cold windy rainy weather would be nice. Thankfully we can spend most of our time indoors although Erik's travel to school by bike results in wet pants.
Last Friday Erik went bowling for the first time in 3 years with a friend he teaches English to. 100 was broken by both of us, and the nice old ladies using the lane next to us applauded when we got a strike. Yoko is her same wonderful self. Over the weekend we were able to have dinner with a friend of hers. Yoko and her friend have known each other since Jr high school, but the last time they saw each other was 3 years ago.
At church on Sunday we studied Mark 14:32-39 and looked into the prayer life of Jesus. We were reminded of the importance of prayer. Prayer was a real and necessary part of Jesus' life showing us that if He needed it, how much more do we need it. Out of Sunday's message came a renewed commitment to prayer, so if you have a request please let us know. We would love to pray for you. Also, we thank you for your prayers; it means a great deal to us that you are lifting us up to our Creator and Lord.

Happy Valentine's Day

2009-02-14T22:23:00.005+09:00

Happy Valentine's Day!! With all the pressure to give a meaningful gift on this day, you would think that Erik would be spending a good amount of time to find something nice for Yoko. But to tell you the truth, he had no pressure all. In Japan, Valentine's Day is a day for women to give men gifts (but Erik is a rebel and gave Yoko something anyways). The primary gift is chocolate (which Erik gave Yoko). Today Erik did get chocolate and peanut butter, hot sauce, and 2 types of pesto. Since the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, Yoko definitely has Erik's heart : ) So, this seems like a good deal for men, but women, don't lose hope. In March, White Day comes around and men then need to give something in return. (The picture is of the chocolate we gave each other.)

Last week Erik's school had "Speech Day". All the students had to give a speech in Japanese. Needless to say, Erik was nervous and glad when it was over. Wednesday was a holiday, so Yoko and her mom were able to spend some time shopping, having lunch together, and working on a Bible study they belong to. It was good girl time. On Wednesday, Erik was able to talk to his folks. They are doing well and reported that the Prescott, AZ area got a real nice snowfall early in the week. Where live here in Japan, snow is rare. We had flurries a few weeks ago, but that has been it. It would be nice to see some snow.

Time Does Get Away

2009-02-05T13:05:00.002+09:00

Since we last posted, over two weeks ago (sorry parents and grandparents), things haven't changed much in our daily lives. However, when school (for Erik) and work (for Yoko) are not occupying time, we have managed to find ourselves with not a lot of free time. Erik has subbed as an English teacher several times recently and been involved in PR events at local elementary schools. The PR events are put on by Narita International Airport (20 minutes from us) and are to encourage the students in their English learning. English speakers are brought in, and we interact with the kids in whatever activities the school has set up. These events are usually an hour or two in length and provide a little extra income. Other than the very cold gymnasiums (that's where the events are usually held, and there is no heat in them), the events are fun and seem to be enjoyed by the kids. At one event they asked for our autographs.
Last Saturday Yoko got dressed up in a kimono. It was the first time for Erik to see her in one; he thought she looked beautiful, but then, he always thinks she in beautiful. Click here for a few more kimono pictures.
On Monday Erik didn't have school, so he was able to watch the Super Bowl. He had hoped for a different outcome, but the game was still a lot of fun to watch. We had pancakes for breakfast to make it an all-American morning.
On Saturday the 24th, Erik got to play chauffeur for Yoko's mom, our sister-in-law and our two nieces (Yoko had to work, so she stayed home). Our destination was Herb Island. Erik had fun eating good food and playing with his nieces.
In being here, Yoko has had a chance to get reacquainted with people she hasn't had consistent contact with for quite a while. One of them is her cousin, Keiko. Keiko goes to the same church as we do, and she and Yoko have been able to help support each other through various events since we have been here. It has been a blessing for both of them.

Getting in some extra work

2009-01-20T15:43:00.004+09:00

In our last post, we mentioned that Erik had so lovingly given Yoko his cough. She is fine now; however, Erik came down with an ear infection Friday evening that required a visit to the doctor Monday. It turns out that he shouldn't be putting sharp objects into his ears. Erik is now on an antibiotic to clear up the infection.

Last Thursday and Friday Erik had the opportunity to do some work for American Language School. Thursday's event was at an elementary school. Each foreign teacher, there were about 9 of us, had a group of 10-14 5th and 6th grade students, for around 30 minutes, to do some activities in English. After our break out time, all the kids sang for us. It was a lot of fun. Friday, Erik was able to substitute teach 5 classes. He had one adult class and 4 kids classes. One class was three 5 year olds and the others were 9 and 10 year olds. It was a good evening especially since none of the kids cried.

FYI, sumo is back on : )

Didn't get to wear a kimono

2009-01-11T14:40:00.006+09:00

As a married couple we have had to learn to share with each other; however, Yoko is not so grateful that Erik gave her his cough. She feels okay but sounds bad. As a result, she had to postpone getting dressed up in a kimono, and we weren't able to go to church today. Since we didn't go to church, we had church at home on the Internet. We listened to a good message by Greg Laurie about temptation.

Work and Japanese learning are going well. Erik is improving and communicating about daily things in a basic way. Yoko is now not only teaching English but also Geography and History. At the athletic gym we belong to, we have been enjoying the ofuro they have. An ofuro is a hot tub or bath. In Japan it is not used for bathing, but soaking and relaxing, and in the case of the gym, it is communal. Growing up using an ofuro, Yoko loves it. Erik is learning to enjoy the very hot (for him) water.

2009 Greetings

2009-01-06T18:49:00.003+09:00

2009 came for us without much fan fair. New Year's Eve, we stayed up till 11:30, but that was only because we had watched a movie. Our winter break was very relaxing and actually felt long. We were able to visit a friend of Yoko's and watch a few movies. New Year's Day was spent at church. Narita Temple, which is just 15 minutes away by bike, is visited by a couple million people over New Years, but we decided not to fight the crowds. Many people visit a temple at New Year's to pray for blessings (money, good test scores, marriage) in the coming year. Monday it was back to work for Yoko and school for Erik.
Being white, Erik stands out in Japan and recently had two amusing encounters with kids. The first was here at our apartment building, we were waiting to get on an elevator that was arriving. The people who got off were a mother and her 5 or 6 year old daughter. When the little girl saw Erik she said, "eigo no hito" which is "English speaking person". It was the first time Erik had been addressed that way. The other encounter was at the grocery store. We were waiting in line to check out and the people in front of us had a girl around 7 or 8 with them. When she saw Erik she started singing the ABC song. It was really cute especially as she mixed up the order of the letters. Being white, there is no way to blend in.

A Review of 2008 and Our Christmas Celebrations

2008-12-29T10:44:00.016+09:00

2008 has been quite a year for us. In it we have been given many opportunities to trust the Lord, and in all of them, He has been faithful.

This year saw the passing of Yoko's grandfather, in January, and her grandmother, in November. In both cases, she was by her grandparent's side as they passed away. After the passing of her grandfather, it became clear to us that the Lord was leading us to Japan. So started an 8 month process of praying that the Lord would work things out for us to come here, and as always, He did. It was amazing to see how He provided a way for Yoko to finish her Graphic Design degree, renters for our house, and a visa for Erik.

We came to Japan to be close to Yoko's family and share the Good News with them. Yoko's mother, Hisako, has welcomed us into her home with open arms. Since she is a Christian, it has been wonderful to encourage each other. Yoko's dad lives 5 minutes away by train. We have enjoyed our weekly dinners with him and are encouraged by his openness to us sharing about Jesus. Please remember him in your prayers.

Here are a few events that happened this past year:

-January- We started the year in Ohio visiting Erik's adopted Grandparents.
-January- Erik's parents were in Costa Rica when his mom had a heart attack. She received excellent care there and has since fully recovered. The Lord gave Erik great peace during this time (this was the same time Yoko was in Japan with her grandfather).
-February- A friend in Washington passed away.
-May- We celebrated our 1 year wedding anniversary. Being married to your best friend is a wonderful thing.
-June- Yoko completed her graphic design internship at Yavapai College and received her degree.
-May- We visited friends in San Diego.
-July- We visited friends in Oregon.
-August- Erik left Yavapai College after 7 and a half years of working there.
-September- We came to Japan
-September to now is in past entries in our blog.

This year had it's fair share of sad moments and joyful moments. No matter the situation, one thing remain the same and that was the Lord's love. We are so thankful we serve a God that does not change. Our verse of the year was James 4:8a and 10: "Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up." As these verses promise, so God has done. We look forward to what He has for us in the coming year, and sharing our journey with you.

Christmas this year was very enjoyable. It stared on the 23rd with a Couple's Christmas Dinner. We had great food and fun entertainment.
On Christmas Eve we had dinner with Yoko's mom and her mom's friend. Her friend had never heard the Christmas story before, so it was a joy to share that with her. Below is the Christmas cake we enjoyed. Christmas night we had dinner with Yoko's father and again were able to share the Christmas story.
Saturday, Yoko's brother and his family came our apartment for pizza, cake (below) and presents. We had a fun time playing with our two nieces (below). They are quite shy and have not completely warmed up to us yet.
Here is Yoko's mom, Hisako, our sister-in-law, Yumiko, and our 2 nieces, Mao who is 3 and Riko who is 5. They are watching the movie Chicken Little.

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-23T06:41:00.002+09:00

Christmas for us will be celebrated a little differently this year as Yoko has to work Christmas day. On the 23rd, we will be joining some friends for a couple's Christmas dinner. On the 24th, we will have a small party with Yoko's mom and a couple of her coworkers. Then on the 27th, we will be with Yoko's dad, brother and his family. We are not sure what we will be doing Christmas Day.
The Japanese Christmas tradition is KFC, Christmas cake, and a few presents on Christmas Eve. We will be having Christmas cake (we will provide pictures) but no KFC. Christmas day doesn't hold any real significance in the true reason for the day. It is instead a reminder that New Year's Day, the time when Japanese families get together, is a week away. We look forward to sharing the true reason for Christmas with those we will be celebrating with.
Other than Christmas, Erik is currently on winter break from school. Yoko is working during the day as students are also on winter break. Yoko spent Saturday morning at a kimono class that her mom attends. Yoko has never worn a kimono and will finally do so New Year's Day. Normally when a girl turns 20, she wears a kimono to a "coming of age" ceremony that is held in January. When Yoko turned 20, she was in the U.S. at school and missed out, so she will get to relive being 20 all over again.

Benkyosuru, Hataraku & Kaimonosuru

2008-12-18T14:20:00.003+09:00

For those of you who don't understand romanized Japanese, the title to today's post is: Study, Work, and Shop. That's what this week has consited of so far. Shopping and preparing for Christmas, working at the cram school, and studying Japanese for end of term tests.
We added more pictures to our Fall Colors album. We have enjoyed taking pictures and sharing them with you. Fall in Japan has been beautiful.

Glad We Had a Camera

2008-12-14T21:02:00.006+09:00

How often does it happend where you see something that is picture worthy, and you don't have a camera. We might have had that moment the other day, but we happend to have a camera with us. Isn't this picture something. They look so innocent, but if they had opposable thumbs, who knows what kind of mischief they would be getting into.
Our past week was a rather "normal' one. We still are using Japanese 95% of the time, but our conversations are not that deep at times.
We are thankful for the fitness club (the site is only in Japanese, but you can still see what is available to us) we belong to as this week was rainy at times.
We got out an took some more Fall pictures. Check back in a few days for those to be added to the existing ones. We have enjoyed Fall a lot as the weather has been good, and the colors were great.

Shocking! Oh so very shocking!

2008-12-08T15:56:00.002+09:00

Sunday morning Yoko decided that she would only speak Japanese with Erik. This sudden inspiration came about after she had gotten together with a Japanese friend of hers who helped her American husband learn Japanese by not speaking English with him. This is good for Erik, however, it came as a great shock to his system. It was so sudden and without warning. As a result he came down with a headache (don't you feel sorry for him, or maybe you should feel sorry for Yoko having to put up with Erik). A half an hour before going to bed and a half an hour in the morning is reserved for English; this is to make sure we know what the other really needs to communicate.
At church on Sunday we were blessed to have Linda McCrary visiting. She is a singer from California who has a wonderful voice and a tremendous story. Recently we have had several guests musicians visit and touch our hearts with their music. Kirk Whalum, who plays the sax, and Airick Arqese, a rapper in the group Chrstiside Souljahs were here a few weeks ago. The church/cafe has been celebrating its 4 year anniversary at the current location with guest musicians.
The church/cafe is hosting a couples' Christmas dinner on the 23rd. We will be attending it with some friends from church. Christmas here is a time for couples. The couple aspect is so strong that single people often say that they will be doing something with a "date" when they are not.

We're All Out of Wisdom

2008-12-01T14:54:00.003+09:00

For most people, with age comes wisdom. However, in our case, we are becoming less wise as we become older. Saturday, Yoko had the last of her wisdom teeth pulled. Erik's were taken out some time ago. Now don't go jumping to any conclusions : ) Thankfully the Bible tells us that we can ask for wisdom, and the Lord will give it to us. Now, either Yoko is the toughest woman ever or she found the best dentist ever, because she had anesthetic and teeth pulled in a half an hour without swelling or pain. She even had lunch right after the operation. If only all our trips to the dentist could go this well.
We are glad that you have been enjoying the pictures of the fall colors. We added some more, so be sure to check those out.
We are trying to get in the Christmas mood, but it is taking some time. Around where we live there are Christmas lights, but not like what we are used to. If we were planning on staying here a while, we would buy decorations to put up, but we don't want to leave Yoko's mom a bunch of stuff to store. We did bring our Christmas music which starting to sound throughout our apartment. Nothing like Mannheim Steamroller and Trans Siberian Orchestra to get one in the Christmas spirit.

Fall Colors

2008-11-26T17:05:00.001+09:00

Here's the link to see bigger versions of the Fall Colors slideshow

What, no turkey?

2008-11-25T16:25:00.002+09:00

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you in the U.S. No turkey for us this year. One of Yoko's relatives is married to an American, and they had a Thanksgiving party on Sunday, but we weren't able to go. That will be the closest we get to turkey.
All is going well. Things have been pretty quiet since our last posting. Yoko is back on the job search since a big source of income, taking care of Grandma, is now gone. We sure miss having her around. She was a joy to be with, and a good source of Japanese practice for Erik.
The last posting had a link to sumo. If you weren't able to watch the matches, we have provided a link to the last bout of the most recent tournament. It was a winner-take-all match and quite a match it was. The Grand Champion vs an up-and-comer. Earlier in the tournament the up-and-comer beat the Grand Champion.
Check out what and were we have eaten recently (to the right). We are blessed with a variety of good food. Needless to say, we are not going hungry.

A Hard Week

2008-11-19T15:26:00.005+09:00

Since our last blog post Yoko's grandma passed away. Last Wednesday morning , 11/12, she had a heart attack around 6:30 am and passed away around 8:00 am. She was 88. We are thankful that she did not have a time of prolonged suffering, but we are sad that we only had one week with her living with us. Since her death we have been helping Yoko's mom with all that surrounds a person's death here in Japan. The funeral was yesterday.
This was Erik's first funeral in Japan, and it was quite a cultural experience for him. Upon grandma dying, she was taken to her home where she remained until Tuesday afternoon. She was at home so friends and family could come by and see her. Tuesday she was taken to the funeral home, and there was a ceremony and dinner that evening. Wednesday morning, there was another ceremony. After the ceremony, she was taken to a crematorium. While she was being cremated, all those in attendance had lunch. Once the cremation was finished, in pairs using long chopsticks, we picked up a bone fragment and placed it in a ceramic jar. The jar was then filled with the remaining bones and ashes. It is kept for 49 days, at that time another ceremony will take place where the jar is placed in the grave site.
The ceremonies Tuesday night and Wednesday morning were basically the same. A Buddhist priest chanted for about 40 minutes. While he chanted, those in attendance came forward and burned incense for Grandma. Instead of burning incense, we placed white flowers demonstrating that we are not Buddhist. At Wednesday's ceremony, Yoko's mom talked about Grandma, but she was the only one who got to say anything. It is definitely a solemn time. The only funerals Erik has been to were for family in the States, and they had an element of joy to them knowing that the family member was with the Lord. In all, it was quite an experience for Erik.

"You look cute today. What happened?"

2008-11-11T14:53:00.003+09:00

The title of today's blog entry are loving words from Yoko to Erik. Good thing her love for him is not based on his looks or else he still would be single.

We have settled into life with Grandma living with us. At times, Erik is the only one at home with her. Needless to say, communication is a real challenge. Yoko is doing a great job in caring for Grandma. Her biggest challenge is cooking "right" in Grandma's eyes. Since Erik will eat just about anything, Yoko hasn't had to worry about getting things "right".

Right now a sumo tournament is taking place. If you are interested you can watch it on-line. It starts at 4:00 pm Japan time; that's 11 pm PST, 12 am in AZ and 2 am EST.

We have enjoyed hearing from many of you recently. Keep in touch.

Name this fruit and win a prize.

Chchchchchchanges

2008-11-04T16:19:00.004+09:00

Job changes, living arrangement changes, and hair style changes, all we can say is that the Lord thankfully remains the same. The last week saw an assortment of changes for us. Yoko no longer works at the photo development shop. She dropped that job in order to teach English at a cram school and to work the front desk at a conversational English school. Both of these jobs are part time and in the evening which gives her the time she needs to take care of her grandma during the day.
Grandma is now living with us. She moved in with us yesterday because her home is cold during the winter, and we will not have to travel in the winter weather to see her.
Erik has a new hair style; this is the forth is his adult life. While in the U.S., Yoko wanted Erik to change his hair; however, he politely refused and instead, agreed that Yoko could choose how his hair is cut while in Japan. So, if you would like to see how stylish Erik is now, click on the link above.
On top of all these changes, we also meet some relatives of Yoko's for the first time. We met Yoko's dad's two sisters and some of their family at a ceremony for Yoko's dad's aunt who passed away a year ago. This is a special ceremony conducted at the one year anniversary of some one's death. The aunt who died did not have any children, so her nieces and nephew took it upon themselves to take care of her arrangements once she died. It was great to meet some more of the family. We had a real nice time with them. One of the highlights is that we ate fugu and lived.

A Week in Review

2008-10-27T18:21:00.003+09:00

Great fall weather here, we are looking forward to the trees changing color. Yoko's grandma is moving in this coming weekend and once that happens, Yoko will be able to firm up her work schedule. Erik continues to enjoy class and is learning a lot. Look for a video clip of him speaking Japanese soon. Last Wednesday we celebrated Yoko's dad's 60th birthday with him, a very special day for Japanese people. We took him to dinner and had a real nice evening with him. Recently the Lord has given us many opportunities to share the Good News with him. It has been very exciting; please keep him in your prayers. Yoko's mom is doing well and keeps busy with teaching and making sure grandma is being taken care of. Look for more to come as we have a family event this coming weekend.

Can anyone help this seemingly lost tourist?

Something to eat and work for Yoko

2008-10-20T16:58:00.014+09:00

The other day we went to Mos Burger (click for the web site) and Erik had the Kinpira Rice Burger. Yes, instead of a bread, you see rice. The inside is burdock and carrot, a combination Erik really likes (I know what you are thinking Peter). As you can see, compared to a cell phone, it isn't all that big, but what it lacks in size, it makes up for in taste.
Yoko is set with employment. She has a part time job at a photo development shop right next to our appartment, and she will be taking care of her grandma starting in November. Grandma will be moving from her home to stay with us durning the winter. All of this is answered prayer. Thank you for praying for us.

Taiku no hi (Sports Day)

2008-10-15T15:21:00.008+09:00

Monday was a holiday, so we went a little road trip to Ibaragi prefecture (just north of where we live) to see a friend of Yoko's mom. It was a perfect fall day with clear skies and a gentle breeze. After visting with Yoko's mom's friend, we stopped by Osugi Jinja (click for larger slide show), a Shinto shrine. This site is around 800 years old, but has been recently refurbished. Being a nice day, it was a great place to snap a few pictures.
We went to a driving range the other night. You might never guess this was only Yoko's second time golfing..

Job, Japanese (food, people, language) & Jumping

2008-10-13T08:36:00.003+09:00

We had hoped to get a post on earlier than this, but the past week turned out to be pretty busy.
~On Wednesday we were able to join a friend from Tsuyama (the city Erik lived in 10 years ago) for dinner who was in our area on business. It was great to catch up since the last time we had seem him was at our wedding.
~Yoko got a part time job at a photo development store right next to where we live. She picked up the paperwork on Saturday and will be starting soon after a training session in Tokyo. Because this is a part time job, she is still looking for more work.
~Erik completed his first week of Japanese language school. He is really enjoying it and has learned the days of the week, the months, 15-20 new vocabulary, how to count and how to write in Hiragana to name a few things. ~We joined a fitness club very near where we live (did we mention that this is a very convenient location) and went there 5 times last week. There are a wide variety of classes offered along with the full assortment of exercise equipment and a pool. One of the classes that we really enjoy is Body Combat. We box, kick and jump around. In 45 minutes we work up quite a sweat.
~We are staying healthy and not going hungry. Currently there is an issue with food coming from China so shopping takes longer as we are checking where each product comes from. This is a little hard for Erik, because he is frugal and would rather take the risk than spend more money. Yoko is patient and helping him through this.
Look of a new post and for new foods in the next few days as we are going on a little trip today (Monday).

Shopping, 1st Class, Job Searching & Public Speaking

2008-10-06T13:58:00.006+09:00

-Since our last posting, we went shopping at Lalaport (for those of you in the U.S., if you have time to kill, have a look at the mall map and see how many shops you recognize.)

-Sunday we did some public speaking at church. On the first Sunday on the month, after the regular service, the monthly financial report of the church and cafe are shared. After that, there is a time of personal sharing. The pastor calls on individuals to share what the Lord is doing in their life. This Sunday we were called on. Erik spoke and Yoko translated. We were able to share why we are here and how the Lord has been leading and providing for us.

-Yoko is still hard at work looking for a job. Thank you for your prayers. We are trusting in the Lord daily for this.

-Today, Monday, was the first day of school for Erik. There are 12 students in his class: 3 from Thailand, 3 from Taiwan, 3 from China, 1 from South Korea, and 1 from Pakistan. Today he learned how to say はじめまして。わたしはエリック　ベントレーです。エリックとよんでください。　アメリカのアリゾナからきました。　2008ねん９がつ３みかにほんにきました。　おやこどんがすきです。どぞよろしくおねがいします。　This is a self introduction with name, where he is from, when he came to Japan and something he likes.

The half way point on the ride with Yoko's dad a couple weeks ago.

Sunday at Committed Japan

2008-09-28T21:11:00.012+09:00

Our Sundays are spent in an area of Tokyo called Sengawa. There we attend church, Committed Japan (click for the website), which is held in a cafe called "Kick Back Cafe" . The church started the cafe as a ministry, but they operate independently with the church renting the space on Sunday mornings. Sunday mornings have around 125 adults in attendance, more than the space can hold, resulting in people standing. Sunday morning service starts at 11:00 am and consists of worship (see the below videos, actually they are more for listening), introductions of first time visitors, individual prayer and pair prayer, announcements and Bible teaching. During the Bible teaching, when the Scripture passage of the message is read, everyone stands and reads it together. The service ends, around 2 pm, with an invitation for anyone to accept Jesus as Lord and Saviour. After church many people stay around for fellowship and lunch at the cafe. The cafe opens at 5 pm for normal operation. Since Yoko has been attending Committed Japan for the past 8 years, whenever she is in Japan, she knows quite a few people. Erik is getting to know people gradually. There are two other English speaking foreign men, who are married to Japanese women, who attend the church, so Erik is getting to know them. The message is translated into English, so Erik is able to listen to it. In spite of the 2 hour trip to get to church, we really enjoy our time at church getting fed on God's word and fellowshiping with other Christians.

A One Day Job, A Bike Ride, and Misc

2008-09-24T22:05:00.002+09:00

Yoko got a job. Well, a least a one day job. She worked on an assembly line making salads for grocery stores. She got to stand in one place for 8 hours, listen to the supervisor yell instructions for 8 hours, and she has to go to another city to get paid. Not the best way to kick off working. On the bright side, she has two interviews coming up, one is as a website manager, and the other is doing graphic design. Either of these would be great, but we know the Lord has the right job for her.
Yesterday was the first day of fall, so we went to Yoko's grandpa's grave to clean it and leave flowers. This is common practice on this day. We did this primarily for Yoko's grandma since she is not able to get out and do this. After clean the grave site in the morning, we spent the rest of the day with Yoko's dad riding bikes. When we started out our goal was Tokyo Bay, and we made it. In the end, we ended up riding 106 kilometers (around 65 miles), and it was all done on a paved bike path. Here is a link to a map of where we are, and you can see where we road. http://www.worldmapfinder.com/Map_OpenStreetMap.php?ID=/En/Asia/Japan/Chiba You want your map to be at the scale of 5km/2 miles to start, then you can zoom in and follow the bike path (1000 meters/5000 feet) to the end at Tokyo Bay. The bike path is designated by blue dots. If you start just to the left of Narita International Airport, at the number 51, that is where we live. We road from there to Shisui (southwest) where we met Yoko's dad, from Shisui to Inba Lake (northwest) where we picked up the bike path. We really enjoyed the ride but are a bit sore today. It was a beautiful day, and we enjoyed the time with her dad.
Today we signed Erik up for school. He will begin October 6th and will be attending 5 days a week, 9 am to 12:20 pm. He is looking forward to formal instruction.

This week we...

2008-09-21T20:37:00.004+09:00

had our first earthquake. It was this (Sunday) morning about 7:30 am and measured around 3 on the Richter Scale. We also had our first typhoon (the 13th of the season) come through Japan. Thankfully it went south of where we live. We have been having moments of sunshine but mostly clouds and rain recently. One thing we can count on is humidity. The other day we were out running and Erik's shins were sweating. No need to use lotion to keep our skin from drying out.

Yoko is doesn't have a job yet; she has resumes at several job agencies. We are waiting for something to open up. Erik had his first private English lesson on Thursday. Today (Sunday) he picked up another private lesson. If he gets enough students, Yoko won't have to worry about working.

In our free time (actually, all we have is free time right now) we exercise, listen to church services on the internet, read the Bible, watch sumo (Erik does that), ride our bikes around town, eat out with Yoko's mom, visit Yoko's grandma, and surf the internet.

Where we live

2008-09-17T22:11:00.005+09:00

The "mansion" where we live. Large apartment complexes with apartments that have 2+ bedrooms are called mansions. We live on the 9th floor. We park our bikes in assigned spots. When you have a lot of bikes, you get creative on how to park them.
A few pictures from our floor. Around us there are other apartments, the train station, and a shopping center with a grocery store in the basement. This is a very convenient locaton. Check out the video for a tour of where we live.

Today is Grandparent's Day

2008-09-15T21:03:00.003+09:00

Today is a national holiday, it is Grandparent's' Day. Yoko had dinner with her grandmother tonight. Erik did not go because he taught his first English lesson.
The big event of the day was that Yoko had a job interview. It turned out to be a very different job interview from what we are used to. First of all, there were 2 people being interviewed for the job at the same time. Secondly, Yoko had to do a psyche evaluation. Thirdly, this whole process took 2.5 hours. This job is as a reflexologist, and if she gets hired, she has to go through a month of training with no pay. We will know in a few days if she gets it or not. The are positives and negatives that we are weighing.

Sightseeing at Narita Temple

2008-09-13T20:36:00.003+09:00

Today (Saturday) we did a little sightseeing. We rode our bikes over to Narita Temple which is about 2.75 miles from where we are living. It is considered one of the top 3 temples in Japan. This video gives you a little look at the grounds, and this is just one part of the expansive grounds.

One Week Update

2008-09-11T11:29:00.001+09:00

Welcome to Erik and Yoko's blog. It is in the very early stages of development, so don't be surprised to see it's appearance change regularly.
We have been here in Japan a little over a week now, and we are getting settled in. The days since our arrival have been busy. We haven't necessarily done a lot of things; it's just that things take longer to do. Since Yoko has not lived in Japan for over 8 years, most things are a learning process for her too. What have we done since we arrived? (These are not in order of occurrence.) We have registered Erik with the city of Narita, set up insurance for both of us, bought bikes, found a Japanese school for Erik to attend, gone to church in Tokyo, visited Yoko's grandma, unpacked, exercised, Yoko's gone to a sauna several times with her mom, got cell phones, explored the area, looked for a job for Yoko, set up a private English lesson for Erik, had lunch with friends, and wandered around several malls looking for things for our room.

Yoko's mom has been great. She has opened her home to us, taken us places, let us use her car, and cooked for us. She is currently not working because she is recovering from a fractured pelvis, so we have had time with her. She will be going back to work the end of this month. Since Erik's Japanese and her English abilities are similar, they have short conversations when Yoko is not around to translate.

We are blessed to be here and so honored that the Lord has given us this opportunity. He has had His hand on so many things that it reassures us that we are to be here.

That is all for right now. Check back regularly, as we will be updating and adding to this blog.