Christmas in Washington and JAPAN

Well it has been forever since our last post because we haven't been at home since Dec 20th. We had Christmas in Tri-Cities with Mike's family and then on Boxing Day, for American's it's the 26th, we flew to Japan for 3 weeks. So here are some pictures of all those things...Just to let you know this is the eternal post. We had lots of pics, what can I say...

Look at all the presents and the kids weren't even with us this year!


Bree very pregnant and adorable

Can you believe Peggy makes each one of these by hand! She is quite talented. I love mine the best of course, my bear has a Canadian flag on the hat.






Our Christmas Eve PJ's. Thanks Mom and Dad.

Because we left for Portland on Christmas Day with the roads being so horrible and our flight being so early, we had to find somewhere to eat and the only place open was a Mexican restaurant. It was great, we were the only ones there and the food was great! Oh the memories!


We are on the plane...

This is Kaori, she is my friend from the branch when I lived there and she is the queen of it all. We were able to go to Nagoya with her and she came to the temple for Yoko & Papa's sealing. She is the strength of the branch, that is for sure!

These are the Married Rocks in Ise, it is a shrine and very famous.

This is a cool New Years decoration, that is real bamboo and Mike is holding an offering to be given at another Shrine. It's what they do at New Years!


This is a monk. He is asking for a donation because he has dedicated his life to the Gods. He has insense burning and is chatting the entire time. It's pretty neat.

This was our view from our room at Yoko & Papa's, our Japanese garden

Mike had a blue futon and the balcony on his side of the room
I had a pink futon and the cool muraled doors
This is at Nagoya Castle. this is a real size replica of the gold killer whales that are on the top of the castle, which could be seen for over 5km.


This is at church our first day there.Mike is so tall compared to Yoko, Papa & Yamato

Yoko & Papa took us to a traditional Japanese hotel with an onsen (natural hotsprings, commmunal bath) in the mountains. When we woke-up there was tonnes of snow.

This was our traditional Japanese dinner at the hotel. Oh it was delicious.

We all were in 1 room and packed like sardeens, it was great!
Mike was a whole head taller than our hotel door, this isn't the best angle.

Because everything is closed on New Years, we had a little party at a Philippino families house, from the branch. It was great to visit.

This is traditional New Years food that everyone eats. Each type of food has a meaning, like fish eggs meaning be fruitful in the New Year and stuff like that.

This is Big Buddha's house. Insice was so dark, none of the pics turned out, but he is the biggest one in Japan. Just to give you an idea...an adult would fit in his nostril. It was quite impressive.

This is at the park in Nara where Japanese dear, which are itty-bitty are everywhere. they are so tame and you can buy little senbei crackers that they will literallly "bow" for so they can have some. It is quite adorable.
This was Mike's favorite building becuase it was original, not rebuilt and how did they do this???

This is Yoko & Papa outside the tokyo Temple after Papa was endowed and they were Sealed. It was so special to be there with them and have Mike be Papa's escort.

The branch was so supportive, even though Yoko & Papa live in Malaysia and visit Japan 2x/yr the 8 branch members rented a van, drove all night(6hrs) to the temple after work on friday, arrived a 4:00am, slept for 3 hours attended 2 sessions, the sealing and drove back. What a testimony builder.

This was the group at Maiko's parents place. it was great to have her dad visit with us as well. He is a funny man.

Doesn't this food look delicious! That purple stuff is octopus, yummy!

Comparing height with Shige-chan, who is above average in Japan

This is Maiko and Shige-chan. She was my neighbour when I lived there and she is now married to Shige, who she was dating when I lived there 7 years ago. We had a great dinner at her folks place and ate great food!!!

This is me playing the Japanese harp, called a koto, it is everywhere at New Years!

This is at Maiko's with the shrine in the background

This is Mike at the butterfly house. he had a buddy too!

The first night in Osaka we went our to a very fancy restuarant and ate Shabu-shabu. it was so delicious. This was our first course of about 6. Mmmmm raw fish!!!

This is at the Kaiyukan Aquarium in Osaka. It was so neat, there were whale sharks manta rays, spider crabs, jelly fish and so many unique fish
The bullet train in Hiroshima
This was some rodent, but we don't know what it is. It was at the park in osaka and can be very dangerous. It looks like a beaver-muscrat thing

Mike and Yoshiki in shogun armour at Hiroshima Castle
In Osaka we went to Koyaike park, it had an insect museum and we went into a huge butterffly house, they were on Miyuki the whole time

I had my own little buddy that stayed with me for a while

We are at the Peace Park where the atomic bomb was dropped in WWII. It was quite an interesting experience. The museum was very informative.

This is the A-bomb dome, it was a Czech building that was very different from Japanese architecture and was the only building that had any remains after the bombing. this is how it looked after the bomb and is now a memorial area.

Hiroshima Castle with Amy and Yoshiki after visiting Peace Memorial Park
Cute Lena!

Mike and Lena with their sexy shades while shopping in downtown Kyoto

In front of Kyoto Tower waiting to get on our night train to Tokyo

Lena and I being sexy!

We went to an old area in Tokyo called Asakusa. The streets were narrow and small with several vendors, it was a great day!

I thought this looked just like a movie set, but this is just a real ship docked on a large river mouth. Cool eh!

This here is a hovercraft river boat that is treated just like the trains of Japan with different stop points all along the river. It was quite fascinating.

Mike and I ventured to a park called Odaiba. It was quite trendy with a beach and great shopping. It is a cruise ship docking site, so its quite Americanized. There was even a mini statue of liberty.

This bridge is quite impressive, butthe best part is that the train goes right on it inbetween the traffic. It was so neat! It's called rainbow bridge.

We went to Disneyland on Jan 12, which was the National Holiday for all individuals turning 20 because they are becoming an adult. There were so many girls dressed in their Kimono's and very doo-dadded up. It was a chilly day and they looked freezing, but they still went on rides. Some guys were wearing male kimono's or suits. It was a fun day to be at the park.

Because Mike and I were so spoiled the first 2 weeks in Japan we had some extra spending money so we ate at a Disney buffet and these were our plates. It was great!

Goofy driving the train at the electric parade

This was the entrance to Mermaid Lagoon. It was all real shells and tiles. Oh I love this place! AHH AHH AHH! AHH AHH AHH! AHH AHH AHH AHH AHH AHHHHHHH, AHHHHHHHHH!!!

This view is from the "Mediterranean Harbour" land, looking over at the Spanish Fortress and Pirate ship with the Volcano in the backbround from "Mysterious Island" land. This Volcano actually erupts throughout the day and there is a ride in it called 'Journey to the Center of the Earth' where you get shot out of the volcano. it is great!!!

This is Mike at a Mayan ruin in the Lost River Delta of Tokyo Disney Sea. He is tall and look how much taller this is, it is amazing how real it looked.

So the ship I am on is an exact replica of the S.S. Columbia, a ship like the Titanic. I am actually in the park, but the ocean in the background makes it look like I am on the sea. This is in the "American Waterfront" Land.

We found this poster in the New York part of the "American Waterfront." This land had Cape Cod as well. It was great because of my career.

Disney Sea is just wonderful, they had a land called "Mermaid Lagoon" and this land was all below the park. It had the ambiance of being under the ocean. The music and bubbles and water sounds and lighting, oh wow. Little Mermaid was my favorite so you can imagine this was wonderful to be in Ariel's treasure cove with the statue of Prince Eric.

The entrance to Disney Sea has a bit earth with water all around and even though this park has only been open since 2001, Disneyland has been there for 25yrs. This picture doesn't do it juctice.