Happy NEW Year

Well, for all you in the past, 2010 is looking to be a pretty good year so far. At least on this side of the world. Last night we had a small but enjoyable New Year's party with some friends of ours.

After stuffing ourselves full of food and candies, we ventured out to observe the Japanese custom of the New Year which invovles paying the first dues to the temple. As people lined up for the tradition (which of course we did not) there were shouts of "Happy New Year" and "Akeme" which is the coloquial Japanese phrase meaning "congratulations on the opening of the year." Strangly enough, all these shouts were directed toward the only foreigners in the area--us, so it is rather difficult to tell if these were genuine congradulations.

Here is an example of a festive New Year's bush, but not quite as festive as a Christmas Tree we would like to point out. If you look closely you will observe a cabbage in the middle of the bush.

Well, a Happy New Year to all friends and family wherever you may be!

The Real Christmas

Well, our first Christmas alone has come and passed. We even got to be with both of our families for a bit via skype! Even though we were far away from "real" Christmas, we had a successful Christmas day with decorations, presents around the tree...

a hearty, although unusual, Christmas lunch...



and even some Christmas turkey!!


Yes, we went bowling on Christmas day! And we were surprised to see the multitude of Toogijuku students at the bowling alley to spend the Christmas Day. Later on we even got to have a "double date" with two of our students for dinner. While we were enjoying our Christmas Dinner at a nice Italian chain restaurant, two of our students came to sit at the table next to us. The waiter was about to sit us together at the same table, due to our friendly chatter, but we all delightfully declined knowing that the conversation would shortly dissolve. So we enjoyed our Christmas dinners separately.


And thanks to all of you who help bring Christmas a little closer with your Christmas cards!!!! We really appreciated it!

Overall a quiet but wonderful Christmas celebration. Sounds better than the snow and rain we have heard so much about in Iowa!!

O' (poor) Christmas Tree

While Japan (Tsugaru area) is not as festive for Christmas as back home, there is still a fair share of decorations around town to enjoy. Here are some for your viewing pleasure.

Here we have a fine fiber optics specimen of the white genre. Very expressive, the "White Christmas" feeling of this time of year. This one was found in a high-end shopping mall of which name nobody really knows how to pronounce. For now we will call the shopping mall Renais (looks French but with English pronounciation).

Here we have the only real Christmas tree for sale that could be found in our city of 180,000 people (complete with hearts...). If one was feeling quite vigorous about Christmas, that one would only have to pay $315 to purchase this adorable tree. That one was not us, nor anyone else in our city of 180,000 people.

Next we have an excellent example of a Japanese styled lighted Christmas Tree. If you look very closely you will notice a garish little sign that is hung on the top of the tree. This sign reads "Merry Christmas." While quite festive in nature, it is quite a travisty to the ideal form of the Christmas tree. Unfortunately this is the signature decoration of all Japanese styled trees.

Our final example of the Japanese Christmas tree is the all to common "Hodge-podge" form. As you can see the example given below, onlookers cannot help but shudder at the disaster strewn upon the unsuspecting tree. (We actually watched the deplorable decorating of this paticular tree as the employee literally chucked, yes--threw with a strong force, the lights onto the tree.) A slight sympathy is given to these unknowing citizens who only recently began celebrating this wonderful holiday. Many stores have Christmas trees, small of course but still the Christmas season is felt. But all too often these little Christmas trees' branches are not fully opened to present room in which to decorate the already sparce tree; therefore, the tree usually resembles a "just-taken-out-of-the-box" feel. At least they're Christmas trees. Next year they may anticipate some help from concerned foreign citizens...

Happy Christmas Eve!

A mind-boggling cultural tradition in this country, so distant from the genuine Christmas celebrations, is Christmas Eve. You see, Christmas Eve here is celebrated more than Christmas day. We know it's tough to imagine, but it's true. And, here's just some of our evidence...

The first anomally we have is the "turkey" dinner. Christmas is a holiday for romance in this country. On Christmas Eve, couples commence a gathering at various restaurants (most commonly KFC, which sounds good to you, but American and Japanese KFC are not the same- trust us! and we're being serious, really, KFC, they go to KFC) across town and enjoy a nice Christmas Eve dinner of what they claim to be turkey. After walking around town to decide where we would eat tomorrow- the real Christmas- we noticed all of the advertisements for Christmas dinner ended on December 24th- Christmas Eve! What about Christmas day? What happened? We even asked one nice-looking restaurant hoping their special would continue to the following day, but no, the special ended today, Christmas Eve. Needless to say, we walked away quite downcast. So, we headed to the store and bought some of this so-called turkey (as we didn't want to botch Christmas by celebrating on Christmas Eve), which we true turkey-eaters all know to be chicken. Yes, chicken. But they are adament it's turkey, but no, it's really actually chicken. Sorry!

The second anomally is the tradition of Christmas-Cake eating. When this tradition started is still a mystery to us, but it is still going strong today, as you can see from the above picture. We thought a nice cup of Baskin Robbins ice cream would be nice on Christmas Eve. Well, we were in for quite a surprise, walking into the store, and seeing boxes upon boxes of ice cream Christmas-Cake sealed in dry ice! Yes, all these boxes are Christmas Cakes!!! How unusually splendid! This is definitely one tradition we could get used to- you know how we like our sweets! But, still we are flabbergasted by the massive quantities of Christmas Cake during this season! No, we did not walk away with a cake, seeing how they are about $40 a piece, but we did get some delicious cups of Cranberry & Chocolate Ice Cream!

Yes, this all occurred on Christmas Eve- the peak of Christmas in this country. If you don't believe us, we don't blame you. We had to ask several of our classes before we succumbed to the reality of this truth. Of course, our Christmas will be on the real day, tomorrow. This could be a bonus for us, as the restaurants raise their prices on Christmas Eve and are packed to the brim- ha!

Well, we hope you have a happily, happy, Christmas Eve!

Christmas Here in J-Pan

Today, we had our long-awaited Christmas party! After much cooking and game preparation, the party came and went- in a flash! But, we are quite happy with the results. The students had fun, and we got to share the Christmas story with them. This year we had them write skits and perform the Christmas story from the Bible, so they really understood what the real meaning of Christmas is! And, of course, they had some fun doing it...

This one especially made us all chuckle heartily :D watch carefully as Mary gives birth to baby Jesus!!

Of course we had all the Christmas goodies: oreo balls, chocolate covered pretzels, jell-o jigglers, sugar cookies, brownies, 2 patisserie cakes, a jell-o cake, walnut brownies, oh yeah, and we also had some other food for supper (but of course, we all know Christmas is about the sweets!!)

Now, we are quite tired, and are just waiting for the real Christmas to come! We are sad to not be with family this year, but we know that God is with us wherever we are, and He has greatly blessed us this year through friends and family at home and here! Please continue to pray for our students and that the time the students spent at the party and reading the Christmas story real sank in, and they see that Jesus came to this earth for them. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers of us when we are so far away.

Another Marathon..

Well, last weekend we had another marathon, but this time we watched the Twilight movies! Seeing how there are only 2, this marathon was much shorter than last weekend's, but just as fun!

We started off by watching the first movie- Tiwlight- at our apartment and then headed to Aomori to watch New Moon. New Moon only came to 2 theatres in our entire state, and one of those was in the city near us.

On the way there, despite the cold, we saw some Cherry Blossom trees blossoming! We think the weather psyched them into thinking it was spring, because on Saturday it was quite warm.

Most of us agreed that the 2nd movie was better than the first, but it was about half and half as to who's cuter- Jacob or Edward (just so you know Travis thinks Jacob is cuter, or in his words "he would rather be like Jacob!)

HP Marathon

This weekend we endeavored to have a Harry Potter Marathon!! That's right a whole 16 hours of Harry Potter. One of our students had specially ordered the newest movie--The Half-Blood Prince. She was really excited to watch and asked us if we would be interested in a marathon of all the older movies to which we replied, "Of course!!" Since Angie really loves the movie and the books, she just couldn't resist. So in two consecutive days, 16 hours, one pan of brownies, one cake, taco dip, 2 dozen cookies, and various other junk food later; we achieved the dream.

Stay tuned to next weeks Twilight Marathon.....(unfortunately there are only 2 of those!)

What Christmas Means to Me...

Guess what we heard tonight in the grocery store...




that's right- Hanson Christmas!!!

Of course, Angie used this moment to point out to Travis that Hanson really is quite popular as she continued singing and dancing down the aisles once taping was over :)

sorry that it's sideways (that was Travis' doing- probably trying to sabotage the moment!)