Leaving and Returning

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

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

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.