Crazy candy

The "Sakura" or cherry blossom is one of the national symbols of Japan. In spring, cherry trees all over Japan blossom with little, pale, pink flowers. The blossoms are so beautiful but only last for about three or four days. It's kind of the high point of the year and people actually have parties to celebrate the beauty of the blossoms and drink sake under them. You can eat cherry blossoms too and it's not uncommon to find various traditional Japanese sweets flavored with Sakura blossoms. But,... this is a Kit Kat bar which is actually the flavor of cherry blossoms. Stephanie loved it,... but it was too floral for me.

What is like a Nestle Crunch bar but is made with dark chocolate?
"Black CRUNKY!" I love that name. It's so goofy. I guess they get it from "cruchy" and "chunky" because you can break-off chucks of the candy bar. It's pretty good. Dark chocolate is very popular here so we're happy.




Okay, last but not least has to be the best candy bar name yet. "Rummy" is a candy bar filled with white raisins that have been soaked in rum. The candy bar is actually 3.7% alchohol and it's sinfully delicious. I love the name though. I would wager that 99% of Japanese people here wouldn't know that "rummy" is a slang term for a drunk. I think they created the name from "rum" and "yummy" (yummy is actually a word that children use here)

Gah-bu-ri-chu!

"Gah-bu-ri-chu" is the nickname that the students from my agricultural/cooking school gave me (I teach there every Thurs. & Fri.). Most are from pretty rough backgrounds and will never have any practical need for English, but I use a-lot of cultural information, video, and English games there to make learning fun for them. It's much more hectic than the academic school where I teach Mon. through Fri. but we all have a pretty good time together. The kids are pretty happy to see me as I'm only there two times a week. They are really great kids.
Anyway, this above picture was kind of a dream-come-true for me. I don't know how many of you watch The Simpsons, but there is this episode where Dustin Hoffman plays the part of a substitute teacher for Lisa Simpson's class. In the episode one of the students draws a picture of Dustin's character during class and passes it around to the other students in order to make fun of the teacher. Well, Dustin doesn't get angry. He simply says, "Wow, this is really good! Did you draw this? Can I keep it?"
Well, one of my kids drew this ridiculous picture of me. I couldn't stop laughing. I asked him if I could have it and he kindly agreed. It is actually his interpretation of what I would be if I were a Pokemon animation character. I was flattered. I love being a teacher.

The Way We Were (eight years ago)

Eight years ago today
I met a guy with blue eyes and red hair
And on his radio Beatles he did play

We talked and laughed and we danced too!
I knew one day he would be my groom
And six years later we said "I Do"

I can't believe how many years have past
Since that magical night we met
I guess when you're in love they really go by fast!

Sorry everyone for the cheesy poem! It is our 8 year dating anniversary and we thought you might enjoy seeing a funny picture from our past!
By the way, Gabe told me to make sure and say that did change his clothes before we went out that night! hehe

Our Backyard

This is the view from our upstairs window. Pretty cool, huh?
It doesn't matter what the weather is like, on weekends after sleeping-in late Steph and I will almost always open the widow in the morning and and thank the Lord.
The home you see in the above picture is fairly new but in the traditional Japanese style (as is our home). The owner also tends beautiful gardens around his home and a rice field which is raised-up from our subdivision's entry road by a great rock wall which is over 8 feet high in some places (you can see what I mean in the below pics--see the rock wall). It's the fanciest rice field in town. And it's pretty wild as the guy probably has enough money not to grow his own rice but like most Japanese in the countryside--his rice field is like a church. What I mean to say is that rice is really important to the Japanese people...... well, anyway,... it's beautiful in every season. Check out the summer pics below. You can see Steph in our upstairs window.Double-click to see the pics full-screen.

Our Coastline

Here is a pic of Steph standing in front of the Anatohshiiso Rock formation which is in the nearby town of Ofunato. It's only about 30 minutes from our house. We decided to stop by after church last Sunday as it is only about 10 minutes from our church. We live in the town of Sumita but we are only 20 minutes from Ofunato City and 25 minutes from Rikuzentakata City. These are the places where we do most of our shopping on the weekends. You can read a little more about the things to see in Rikuzentakata and Ofunato here (click me).

You can also see a pic of Takata-matsubara beach which is only 30 minutes from our house. It's a beautiful beach with white sand. We went there almost every weekend last summer. This pic was taken last June. Double-click the pictures to see them full-screen.

Swans

Hey everybody! We are still on vacation here! It has been really great. Yesterday we went to a town about 20 minutes away called Takata. Every year around this time swans come to the same spot to get away from the cold Winter in Russia. They are beautiful. Last year my friend Mutsuko took me to see them. It was really amazing! I had never seen so many swans in my life. It was hard to see the water in some parts. So this year I remembered to take Gabe to see them. There weren't as many but they were still beautiful and more should be coming so we will go back again. It reminded us of the books "The Notebook" and "The Wedding"
Here are some pics! By the way... If you double click on any of our pictures you can see them you can view them full screen!

We are one in Christ

Hey everybody, this is Gabe. Yesterday our church (Japanese Protestant) and two other churches (Japanese Catholic and Japanese Orthodox) had an ecumenical service. Every year one of the three churches hosts everyone from all three churches. Afterwards there is fellowship and a panel discussion and Q & A between the three church leaders. This year it was the Orthodox Church's turn to host everyone. It was very beautiful to worship with so many Christians which might never worship together in the United States. I hope to post some more pictures soon.

Onsen Mania

Hey y'all this is Steph. For our Anniversary we stayed at a Japanese Inn (Ryokan) called Semi Onsen about 2 hours away. This Inn had several different hot springs (Onsens) in it. We thought about going skiing but this past week was like a blizzard in the mountains. There are many hot springs or onsens all over Japan and it is a wonderful way to relax. Basically you just lounge around in a Yukata (traditional Japanese casual wear), soak in onsens and eat. Here you can see Gabe relaxing after dinner. An onsen is a Japanese public bath with natural hot spring water. Ideally, they should be outdoors (though many are indoors), and use naturally hot water directly extracted from a natural volcanic spring. Onsen water is often thought to have healing powers according to its mineral properties. (This information came from Wikipedia) When you go to an onsen men and women go to their seperate dressing rooms and fully undress. Next you go into the bathing area, also seperate. After entering you wash yourself completely and then you can enter the hot spring. It sounds a little scary, and in fact the first time that we went I felt really strange. I really didn't know what I was supossed to do, so I was trying to watch the other women around me without looking like I was staring at them. Also, of course, being exposed around a bunch of people you don't know and being the only one that looks different can be a little intimidating. After going several times now though, it feels quite natural and very relaxing. In fact we have been to three different onsens over this two week vacation.

Another important part of staying at a Japanese Inn (Ryokan) is the food. Dinner and breakfast are usually included in the price of your stay. Dinner is sometimes served in your room and breakfast is usually served in a public hall. We have really enjoyed the meals we have had at the two Ryokan we've stayed at. They were really large and full of many different and wonderful dishes.

All in all, we had a wonderful Anniversary and really enjoyed relaxing together. If anyone comes out to visit, an Onsen is one thing you just might enjoy trying!

Two Blessed Years of Marriage

Today we thank and praise the Lord for blessing us with two wonderful years of marriage! We truely thank you all for all of your prayers and support. We love you all!

Little Cans

Hey y'all,... This is Gabe here. Steph and I went for a walk along the beautiful Kesen (kay-sehn) River today. This river flows right in front of our neighborhood. You can see Steph standing in front of it. Also, behind her, on the opposite bank, you can see many "Kuras" (koo-rahs) which are storage buildings for rice. The Japanese character for this kind of building is the first character of our name.....but, maybe I'll tell you more about that later. Well, back to today's story: When Steph and I reached the end of our walk -- the place where we took the picture -- we found a can that someone had sadly tossed on the ground (litter is REALLY rare here). So, Steph and I played "kick-the-can" all the way home in order to take the little guy home for recycling. He got pretty beat-up as you can see on the left. Actually, this kind of can is called a "bottle-can" and you can see that it's pretty small. Here in Japan it seems that there are about 3 or 4 choices of size and shape of your drink from a vending machine and almost all are small in comparison to the US sizes.

This afternoon Steph and I went grocery shopping and all my thinking about cans pushed me to snap this little pic in the grocery store beer section. Here you can see a regular 12 ounce sized beer appropriately named "Super Gent" (drinking this beer will make you a super gent--guaranteed! ) and to its immediate left you can see the japanese version of small beer ( 6 oz.?). To the left you can see what we think of as small and cute in the US (8 oz. ?)--the only place I have seen these are in Florida.
And,...above these beers you can see a little sign for Guiness for 298 yen...that's about $2.50 in case you were wondering ,...Robert. :)

Sukiyaki Party

Here is a pic of the sukiyaki that Reverand Yoshida prepared for us yesterday after church. You can see thinly-sliced pieces of high qualiy marbled beef, leeks, mushrooms and other veggies all boiling in a sweet sauce made from sugar, soy sauce and sake.
It's all cooked-up in a iron pot over a portable gas burner that is in the center of the table. Everyone ate as the food cooked and periodically Rev. Yoshida refilled the pot with meat, veggies and sauce. It's awesome.


But, here's the thing that gives you the willies the first time you partake of this feast. When you pull your food out of the pot you immediately dip it in raw egg and then eat it. It may sound a bit scary, but this year was our second time to have this special meal with the Yoshida's you could see the smiles of anticipation on our faces as we used our chopsticks to mixed-up our raw egg for dippin'.

Here is a close-up of traditional New Year food in Japan. The yellow is sweet egg. The white and pink are fish cakes. And the beans and little fish are sweet.

And finally, you can see a shot of all of us at the table in the dining/guest room of our church.
It was just a wonderful day! We have really been blessed by Rev. Yoshida and his wife...this is just one of so many times they have welcomed us and treated us like their own children.