Finally Blogging Christmas!

We had a fabulous Christmas!!

We went to the Christmas Festival at the Okinawa Zoo. They advertised "snow" so we had to go!! They had a small section on the lawn where they made snow for the kids to play in. They also made little igloos. The machine they had making the "snow" was really a giant snow cone maker that would grind squares of ice and blow it out of a large tube. Hey, the kids didn't know the difference.

With the setting of the sun came the light show. This was truly a Japanese Experience. There was a medley of Christmas songs (in Japanese) and other random songs (like Michael Jackson's Thriller) playing while beams of lights made shapes in the fog. Occasionally there would be fire explosions and fireworks. We loved it!! The song in the video is the end of, "I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus"

Family Came to See Us!!!

We had a wonderful October with the visit of Bill, Chelsea, and Ryan followed by the visit from Joy, Rich and Ariel. We loved being able to share Okinawa with them but what we loved the most was that they were here with us. We could hug and kiss them not just hear their voices on the phone :)

The Aquarium

Fukushen Gardens

Halloween

Lunch in the Jungle

Okinawa World!!

Rick's Mt Fuji Hike....amazing!

A view of the sunrise!

Lots of clouds, no end in sight.
A view into Mt Fuji's huge crater.

Torri gate near the summit.

Tokyo!!

Our Tokyo trip was fabulous!! Since we packed so much into this trip we will have to blog it by day.

It's a 2 1/2 hour flight north to Tokyo. Compared to a 12 hour flight home, this is just a little hop. One movie and we're there!! My traveling motto is "plug them in", they love it and daddy gets to sleep :)

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To get around we took the subway. Good thing our friends had been to Tokyo and were familiar with how it all worked. This was Rick and my first time ever riding the subway!! The kids had a blast not having to wear seat belts.

We have really missed eating at some of the American restaurants so we went to the Roppongi District to eat lunch. We ate at the Hard Rock Cafe.

The Tokyo Tower is Japan's version of the Eiffel Tower. We went up to get a good view of Tokyo. You don't realize how huge this city is until you get a birds eye view of the skyscrapers going on in every directions as far as you can see. It makes L.A. look tiny.

We let the kiddos run around the Imperial Palace lawn while we relaxed.

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Still to come.........the fish market, the zoo, Tokyo Disney, and Rick's hike to the top of Mt. Fuji!!

Tokyo Subway?!

We are getting ready for our trip to Tokyo on Thursday and thought it would be nice to familiarize ourselves with the subway system since that is what we will use to get around. Here is a map of the Tokyo subway.



AAAHHHHHH!!!!!

If you hear of an american family that got lost for a week in the Tokyo subway..........it was probably us.

WISH US LUCK!!!!

Janna's Visit!!!!

Our first visitor!!!!!!! So this was Janna's first time flying. I don't know who was more nervous the day she flew here, Rick and I, Janna, or Houston and Martha. Let's just say when Janna got here safe we could all finally relax.

We are having so much fun with Aunt Janna! The kids love her. They think she is too much fun. Here are a few of the highlights of her visit so far.

Forest Adventure Park


Pedicures at Cocoks!!


Shuri Castle

We will be sooooo sad when she leaves. It's been neat being able to share our "world" here with someone from back home :)

Summertime Adventures

It's summer time! Some pics for your viewing pleasure. Will turned 2 this month. At his 24 month check up we were told he's in the 90th percentile for his height, the kid is a beanstalk! Summertime means Rick wears his white Navy Uniform now, the white's look nice, but they're hard to keep clean.
Will got quite a sunburn earlier this week. He and Evelyn were being watched by our neighbors while Wendy went to a dental appointment...they played in the kiddy pool for about an hour. The picture shows you the end result, oops! The kid burns easy and we didn't give our neighbor fair warning. The picture makes it look worse than it really was. Will never complained of any discomfort, and he didn't blister or peel (lucky for us).
Also included are some pictures from Rick's last SCUBA dive, we live in such a beautiful place. The first pic is a crown of thorns starfish (very poisonous, try to avoid stepping on them!), second are a pair of lionfish (also very poisonous...a sting from one of its spines is supposed to induce extreme pain, lucky for Rick the fish is non-aggressive. The other pic is just of a cool starfish (not sure of the name??).
Lastly, we've included a couple pics of Nakagusuku castle ruins. There are several castle ruins that you can visit here in Oki, but this has been are favorite thus far. Come and see us, we promise to take you there.