The Imperial Garden

We enjoyed a beautiful morning at the Imperial Garden of the Emperor.  A few of the cherry blossoms were starting to bloom.

It was incredibly beautiful.....not much else to say besides that!

Tokyo with Greg and Val (day 1)

We were so excited to have Grandpa and Grandma Shupe come for a visit.  We went up to Tokyo and spent a few days sightseeing there.  Our first stop was the Tokyo Temple.

We aren't positive, but we think this says.... 

"Holiness to the LORD, The House of the LORD"

Even though Paul and I have been to this temple a few times, we never noticed the beautiful park directly across the street.  The cool thing about it is that you can't get a good picture of Moroni from the temple grounds because the temple grounds consists of a VERY small patio due to the lack of space in Tokyo.  But in this park we were able to see Moroni beautifully!

 So one of our favorite things to do is to take pictures of all the badly translated English that is posted around Japan.  They do their best....but we still have to laugh.  Here is a good one!

After the LDS Tokyo we headed over to the Asukasa District to see the Sensoji Temple.  It is a buddhist temple that was built in the year 628 AD.

 This is the 5 story pagoda on site there.  The pagodas are used for actual worship services, while the temple is used for prayer.

AND....this is best story of the day.  The beautiful woman is walking towards us.....she looks just like a "geisha"......gorgeous.  I can't resist....so I start using my sign language and my ridiculous sounding speech and act out the words (please imagine the worst asian english you can here), "can I take a picture with you".  

The response....."Sure....people have been asking me all day".  My jaw drops, this woman not only speaks English but it is with no accent as if she is actually American.  So I say, "where are you from from?".  She then tells us how she is from Chicago, she is just here going to college and actually graduated from the University there in Tokyo in what???  Music......of course!

It was a fun, and funny day!  I will forever remember my encounter with her, although I hope she soon forgets it because I sounded and looked like an absolute idiot!

Yellow Belt

The kids started Taekwondo back in September.  We thought it would be fun for them to learn some martial arts, and what better place than where it all started.

One of the challenges for Chloe has been not to kick so "beautiful".  She points her toe and is a little too graceful.  However, her Sensei thought she was ready to be tested for her yellow belt.  She trained hard and had to be able to do 20 push-ups, NOT the girl kind either!

She did it!!!

 This is Chloe with Sensei Aoiki behind her, and the former World Taekwondo Champion (whom also happened to be her judge) next to her.

Great Job Chloe!

Hinamatsuri

Callista's Pre-school class celebrated Hinamatsuri on March 2.  It is a Japanese Holiday that in English would translate as "Girls Day".  The girls collect these beautifully ornate dolls and display them starting in February. But once the holiday is over, you must put them away immediately.  Superstition says that the longer the dolls are left out, the longer it will take for them to get married.  They wore their Kimonos, sang a song for us, then shared a snack with us, and then we got to make this cute craft.....

the Emperor and Empress of Japan.

Callista and her friend Selah in their Kimonos!

I would like to get a set of those dolls and figure out the exact time for them to be left out so she won't get married until around the age of 25!

Snow Day

YETI SNOW TOWN

At the base of Mt. Fuji is a small ski place called Yeti.  We stayed at a rustic lodge close by the night before, and woke up to a breathtaking view of Fuji.  Not very smart of us, but we thought, we'll take pictures of the mountain when we get to Yeti.  BIG mistake, the clouds rolled in and Fuji disappeared.  Callista was so confused by this concept.  Huge mountain there one minute, gone the next.  It was a good lesson in Faith.  We knew it was there......we just couldn't see it!

Up the road a few minutes was an amusement park called "Grinpa".

It was themed after the "Sylvania House" collection of animal figurines and their houses.  This was quite an attraction for us because Callista fell in love with Sylvania House products here in Japan after visiting a few stores out in town.  Santa even brought her a "bunny house" (as she calls it) along with a cute family of bunnies.  Well, here is her house, except it is full size!

 Paul was just too exhausted after playing in the snow so he enjoyed a nice nap in the 29 degree weather!

The highlight for everyone was this obstacle course.  It even warns you that you should stretch before you attempt it....

so here they are....s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g!

It took about an hour for them to complete!  They were definitely exhausted by the time we got back in the car to drive home!

My note to their teachers went like this....

"Please excuse Chloe and Ryan from school today.  We are studying the properties of water once it turns into it's solid form".  They were both excused!

Valentine's Day

愛しています

Aishite Imasu = I Love You

Chloe and Ryan both made Valentine's that said,

"Valentine...go ahead and break my heart!"

Once the recipient breaks the heart they find a few heart shaped Dove chocolates.

 Callista saw these flower shaped Valentine's from Family Fun, and wouldn't stop talking about it until I took her to the commissary to buy the lollipops.  Good thing she did bug me about it......these were the last ones we could find!  Sometimes, I really miss Target (actually that's all the time)!!!!

Ryan's variation was in blue and green.  After all, 

"pink is a girl color, and I am not a GIRL!"

Happy Valentine's Day!

By the way....in Japan, Valentine's Day is only for the ladies to buy their men a gift.  Good thing I didn't learn about that until after the fact! 

Lost Tooth

Look who lost a tooth!

The tooth fairy left him 200 yen for that baby!