Work, Play, and Dry Skin

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

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

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

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