Looking forward to swimming school this Sunday

Exercise Class by Violet

Exercise Class by Violet from Musclecars & Meditation on Vimeo.

She likes to teach. We are learning everyday.

Ofunato Fireworks Festival July 2008

We saw soooooo many of our wonderful students (together we both teach over 3,000 elementary and junior high school students). Then we watched over an hour of fireworks... here is short video with music from our local radio station:

Thanks to Steph for all the firework photos and videos:

Many Beautiful Sundays in Tono

We really enjoy our Sundays in Tono. Here are some pictures and videos of some memories with our dear parents here in Japan, the Yoshidas.

More Beach Recuperation

Another couple hours at the beach:

We stopped by after weekly shopping;


Sure is nice to live only 20 minutes from one the nicest little beaches in Northern Japan :)

Circle Christmas '07

Merry Christmas Everyone! This is a little video from a party we went to last night with some wonderful friends! We had a great time! Hope you enjoy the video!

Video: "Rajo Taiso" by Gabe

Hello friends, Gabe here... below is a liitle video I made today from some clips I took over the past few weeks from "radio taiso time" in our office:

Shrimpy Got Featured

Our little Shrimpy got featured on a Japanese website called WiiTube...
If you like you can check it out here: Shrimpy on WiiTube
(And, to give shrimpy a good rating you have to click the balloon that has Japanese in it followed by an exclaimation point)

New Year's Day at The Yoshida's

Reverand and Mrs. Yoshida have been such good friends of our these past three years and have always treated us just like family. They have shown us so much of our local area and a-lot about Japanese culture and we always have a great time with them. Rev. Yoshida was the pastor of our church for 10 years. He is retired now and he and his wife live about an hour away from here. Every year since we have been here in Japan, they have invited us to celebrate New Year's with them by having special Sukiyaki lunch on New Year's Day.
The Japanese New Year's Holiday is one of the only times when almost everyone can take vacation time so it's a really precious time for families. This year, the Yoshida's three daughters were able to visit them on New Year's Day and the Yoshida's also asked us to come to their house to celebrate with them too. We were so happy to visit with their daughters and we really felt honored to be included. And of course, the food was amazing and we all had a great time too! Below are some videos... enjoy!

Reverand Yoshida (Jenga Master):




Reverand Yoshida Making Sukiyaki (short):


More Sukiyaki and other New Year's Food:

Steph's English Circle Party

Hey All, Gabe here... Steph and her lady friends threw their 3rd annual christmas party. There was lots of delicious food and we stuffed ourselves silly! Below you can see some videos of us playing the "White Elephant" game. Steph taught them it two years ago. You can see that our beloved friend Mutsuko was the lucky one to recieve Steph's $3 worth of pennies... HA HA!




From Wikipedia:
"The name "White Elephant" originates from an old Burmese cultural reference to the value of an albino elephant, which is considered sacred and must be well taken care of, despite the financial burden that it may bring to its owner."

Concert Pics

Here's pics of me Steph on stage during the "We Are the World" International Fellowship Concert. Many thanks to Matsuo for giving us these pictures. I like to think we ended up looking like a modern day Johnny and June Cash. I'm, of course, not as cool and Steph is much prettier in my opinion (see below).
And below is a pic from the finale of the concert when many local foreigners living here in Japan along with several Japanese got up onstage to sing "We are the World". It was a real success! Everyone, including the audience was singing and doing the "two-hands-above-the-head-waving-and-swaying-thing". We were just so happy that everyone enjoyed the concert.
Thank you to all of you who worked so hard to make this concert a wonderful success and one of our greatest memories here in Japan!
We love you all!!!


--------------------------------other posts-------------------------------------
the poster:
http://gscraft.blogspot.com/2006/04/pretendin-to-be-famous.html

Steph on Iwate TV:
http://gscraft.blogspot.com/2006/06/steph-on-japanese-tv.html

pics from and thank you to all the people who made the concert:
http://gscraft.blogspot.com/2006/06/concert-pics.html