Video: "Spring Has Sprung" by Steph

Hey Everybody!
Gabe here,... I'm proud to introduce the first "Peanutbutter and Pickles™ " production ever!!!

Today, Steph made a short film which will give you the "nickel tour" of our little home here in Ofunato. There's also some silliness at the end too...

Just click the play button (you may have to pause it and let it "buffer"---just let the grey bar get to the right side) and enjoy the goofery.

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)

Sunday School

Hi everybody....just wanted to show you some pics of my Sunday School class. We have been having a lot of fun lately. Last weekend we had a St. Patrick's Day party. I made lime Jello for the kids and we drank melon cream soda! I think the kids had fun...I know I did. Anyways, the weather is nice and warm today. More like spring weather, unlike the last couple weeks of unseasonably cold winter weather. We are really looking forward to the cherry blossoms which should bloom a little early this year due to the warm winter. It is one of my favorite times of year because everything seems so cheerful with pink blossoms everywhere. I love when they fall too because it seems like it's raining pink butterflies or something... Anyways. Here are the pics. We love and miss you all!





and here's a few pics from a couple of weeks ago. We decorated flower pots and planted seeds.

Video: Daichi's B-Day

Our good friends the Ozawa family invited us to celebrate their son's (Daichi) birthday. They are always so kind to us and we just thank our Lord for their friendship... I made this little video and uploaded it to Google Video. (To watch, press the play button in the lower left corner)

Thank you Ozawa family! We love you! Gabe & Steph

Live chat and message

Hey ya'll,
We have a neat little feature on the right side of this page that allows you to leave messages and/or chat in real time with us or anyone that is on the site. It's called "Yaplet" (see the white box with green logo?).
Anyone can use it... Just type your name and message. Simple and fun. Cool.

B-day Movie & Karaoke

Hey ya'll,
Gabe here,...
Just wanted to share some of my video goofery...
Our friend Alli recently had a birthday. Her husband Dan (a great guy) really worked hard to pull-off a big surprise party for her. I cobbled together this little short memory video for their blog with Windows Movie Maker and just wanted to share.
We really had a great time. Lot's of food, drinks and fellowship,...then, of course, KARAOKE!
In the movie you can see us in a "Karaoke box". Karaoke in Japan is pretty cool because you get a private room for your party...

Video: "Japanese Toilets" by Gabe

Finally, "It's a Snow Day"

Hi family and friends, Steph here....just wanted to show you some pics from our lovely snow day here in Ofunato! We woke up to a beautiful winter wonderland! It's a little late but better late than never! Now I just want to watch the movie Elf and drink hot cocoa! "First we'll make snow angels for two hours, then we'll go ice skating, then we'll eat a whole roll of Tollhouse Cookiedough as fast as we can, and then we'll snuggle." (The perfect snowday as planned by Buddy the Elf) hehe!


My little sister Madelyn really wanted to make a snowman this year but they only had a few snowflakes and a lot of ice in SA, so this one's for you Maddie!

Frozen flower buds
Our house in Ofunato and our neighbor's car covered in snow
Snow cone anyone?

This one's for the Texan's! Thanks for the hat Bubba!

An Inconvenient Truth

Steph and I watched this movie the other day:
"An Inconvenient Truth"

We both agreed that this is a movie everyone should see regardless of personal politics.
I suppose it's available for rent in the USA, or you could buy it here at Amazon.

Girl's Day

In Japan, March 3rd is Girl's Day ( 雛祭り, Hina-matsuri)
Here is a picture of Steph from one year ago. This was taken at the Setamai Kindergarten where Steph has been a volunteer guest teacher for 3 years.

Steph wrote a really nice post last year about it.
Click here and check it out.

And...

CARS for Maddie & Sashimi

This is for you Maddie! Love, Your bro Gabe

And, if you liked that watch these other ones I made for you:
"Mater & McQueen Act Like Meanies"
"Mater Drives Backwards"
"McQueen Gets Ready To Race"

And, last night we ate two kinds of sashimi (raw fish) for dinner.
Check it out:

Guestbook

Please feel free to sign and /or add a picture. By the way, there is no need to provide your email address. Thanks!

Making "O-mochi" at Church

Last Sunday, our church made "O-mochi"...

To preview the videos click the below play button. Or, to watch all eight short videos (less than 2 minutes total) click here.




"What the heck is mochi??" Click here to find out.

Yamakake

Old School Arcade

Steph and I have been messing around a little with old video games lately....

Simon:


Frogger:


We found the above games (free to play online) at http://www.neave.com/games/
We stumbled across it last night by clicking the link on our little suprise at the bottom of this page (scroll to the bottom of this page--anyone can play and leave their score).

Party at Kazekobo!

One of our good friends, Kazue Sato, threw a party recently. All of the local English teachers from foreign countries were invited and it was held at "Kazekobo" (the restaurant and stained glass worksshop owned by our good friend Kayo).There were plenty of delicious dishes, drinks, & unrehearsed silliness!

Dan & Gabe singing a little:


Enzo pretends to play guitar:

Ecumenical Service 2007

This past Sunday our church (UCC Japanese Protestant) was the host for the annual Ecumenical service in our city. We worshiped with our local Catholic and Greek Orthodox parishes and it was a beautiful experience.

It was a real shared and collaborative experience. Our curch hosted the site this year but the actual worship service was truely an action of unity. We all sang hymns and read prayers and creeds of each tradition accompanied by a sermon given by the Priest of the Catholic church and even a chant from Genesis by the assistant priest of the Greek Orthodox church. Steph also sang Ave Maria too.

If you'd like to watch a few video clips from the service click here.

And, Steph's Sunday schoolers are still doing wonderfully!

This past Sunday's lesson was the creation story.

Steph taught it in English AND JAPANESE! She's my hero.

Below are the lyrics to the song that they learned:

Izakaya

Below is a video inside a Japanese "izakaya (居酒屋)" restaurant. We recently attended a welcome party fro a new teacher from the USA who came to our town. We had a great time...drinks and lots of delicious "snack" food.

Click here for an explaination of Japanese izakaya (居酒屋)

Ave Maria Warm-up

Hey y'all... I'm sorry this took so long but we were finally able to load the video of Steph at the Christmas Eve service. Sorry it's so short but YouTube kept rejecting the full version because it was to long.

Onsen Trip

For our 3rd year anniversary trip we stayed at a Traditional Japanese Inn (Ryokan) which had an "Onsen (hot spring)". The town where we stayed is called "Hanamaki" and it is famous for onsens.

Above is the name of the hot spring hotel where we stayed. Below is the the "rotenburo (outdoor hot spring)" where we soaked about 4 or 5 times a day....




Tea House with foot bath:



Inside the tea house with foot bath(below):





Dinner:


Sashimi(raw fish) & other delicacies:


Dinner Video 1:


Dinner Video 2:


Dinner Video 3:


Inside our room:


A little Japanese television:


Breakfast:






A nearby hotel where we went for coffee:




Here is the website of the Ryokan where we stayed: Misuikan

Steph wrote a nice entry about onsens a year ago. To read it click the link and scroll down the page a little to "Onsen Mania"