We Back and Busy

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

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 : (

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

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!!

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.

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

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.