Tokyo Trip #2

I had been looking forward to my trip to Tokyo for a long time.  That's where I got to meet my parents, my brother Craig and sis-in law Char.  I hadn't seen them in over two years and I missed them so much.  Nick took some leave from work so that he could stay home with the boys.  He did such a good job.  They all had a great time with dad and the house was spotless when I got home.  Good Job, Nick!  We had been to Tokyo last year and loved it but this time I got to see the city without carrying my boys up and down the million subway steps.  

The trip was perfect!  We had such a good time.  It had been so long seeing my family that I had to pinch myself that they were in Japan with me!  My brother Craig served his LDS mission in Tokyo 15 years ago and hadn't been back to visit.  I was SO impressed with his Japanese and it helped us get around a lot faster.  We visited his mission areas and his mission home.  It was so fun seeing and hearing his stories about his two years in Tokyo.   We also met up with an old friend of his and he took us around Nikko.  A beautiful tourist spot full of Shrines and a bus tour on top of the mountains.  ( I thought I was going to die driving on the windy road)  but it was so beautiful.  

One of the best things about Tokyo is the train system.  It is so entertaining to ride among so many people around the city.  We loved to people watch.  There are some really interesting people in the city.  I wish I could describe how much we laughed at some of the crazies but it you just had to be there.  

 Just remember rain and humidity make my hair frizz!

           My Brother Craig is 6"6.  A whole head taller than the Japanese. 

                    He looked like a giant. They are walking across THE busiest intersection in the world.  It's amazing.  

Char on the train. We were getting a picture of the cool hair style from the guy two seats to her left.  

Eating Katsudon and Soba in Nikko with Gokan-san.

My mom is in "Heaven".

My 2nd Tokyo trip was awesome.  It was so great to be with my mom and dad and Craig and Char.  It was a trip of a lifetime.  After Tokyo they came back to Okinawa, but that's a whole new post for another time.

Mighty Mike and TJ's quick trip

Nick's dad,  Grandpa Peterson (AKA Mighty Mike) and Uncle TJ came for a quick visit in September.  We didn't tell the boys so we could give them a great surprise.  Nick new that his dad was coming but he didn't know that his brother TJ was coming.  So he was shocked at the airport when TJ jumped out from behind the wall.  Nick was not expecting it.  Yea! We love family coming.  When you live across the world from family, it's just not everyday that Grandpa and TJ would be here.  It was so much fun to see the boy's excitement.  Max and Caden are old enough to understand and know but Jake was just a little hesitant.  But not for long. He joined in all of the fun and loved every minute of it. Nick got to take them on one of his favorite bike rides and they went golfing.  Typhoon Sinlaku was supposed to be headed right for us but we lucked out and  it turned and went to west instead.  We still got some rain but it was still a great trip and we made some great memories.  It's so fun to show our loved ones what our life on the island is like.  Thanks Mighty Mike and TJ for flying over many miles to see us here in Japan.  

                               TJ reading the boys bedtime stories.
The bikers all ready for their ride.  Sorry, Mike for Nick running you off the road.  I hope your ribs are healed!
Yoshi Hashi sushi bar.  We got a picture with  Yoshi himself. People say that he is THE original Iron Chef.

Exploring the caves at our favorite beach Maeda.  We love that place.  It's a snorkelers dream.

Obon Festivals

In August the Japanese celebrate Obon.   It's one of their major holidays.  They believe that their ancestors' spirits come back to their homes to be reunited with their family during obon.  It includes lots of festivals and parades.  We love to see them dance and listen to the Taiko Drums.  It is such a fun culture to be a part of.  When they play the drums (very loudly) the boys just watch in awe.  It's such a fun beat.  And their dancing is so beautiful.  

Sesoko Island

So I have a lot to catch up on.  I can't update all of the fun adventures we've had during my blog break, but I'm starting back during summer and will get to the really good ones.  We have so many great friends here to tour the islands with.  Our awesome friends introduced Sesoko island to us.  It's a little island off of the Motobu Peninsula.  It's beautiful!  The girls drove up with the kids while our pro- biking husbands rode all the way there.  It was about 60 miles. Back then we thought that was a lot, but after the Tour de Okinawa (117 miles) that was nothing. Still we were impressed.  Anyway, these are our pictures.  It's so nice to have a great group of adventurous friends to share this island with.  

Halloween.... a month late

Some of our friends in the neighborhood. 

Jake and Josh being the tough guys that they are. 

Jake and his three girlfriends.  

So I know I'm the worlds worst blogger.  I just have never been good at multi- tasking. And I'm involved in a big quilting project right now so everything else has been put aside for too long. But I want to get better at this, so here goes. I'm posting Halloween.  Better late than never, right?  The boys were all ninjas this year.  Since I didn't have time to order a costume from the states in time this year, I decided to choose what they were going to be. So because we live in Japan and  Ninja paraphernalia is so easy to find, that's what we did.  I knew they would love any costume that included weapons.  It was fun.  And of course, Jake had to be a " mean ninja".  

Tour de Okinawa

So we've got this new blog now. We liked our old one and didn't want to lose faith in the Mac site, but it was glitchin'.  It looked nice and was sooo easy to build, but just not quite as nimble as Blogger. So we'll have to sacrifice a couple of luxuries and give this one a try.  So this is my first entry...

Over the weekend a few of my buddies and I rode the Tour de Okinawa. It is 115 mile ride around the northern tip of Okinawa.  We have all ju

st recently taken up cycling and have had the tour in our sights for a couple of months. We really didn't know what to expect, but I think we were all pleasantly surprised by the experience.  Of course the actual ride was long and grueling 

at times with seemingly endless climbs. We never could have imagined how much climbing we would do on this little island. Also, we were unexpectedly hit by some vicious rain for most of the second 4 hours of the ride.  There were about 400 participants. It can be a little nerve-racking when you are descending down the mountains in the blinding rain, surrounded by other riders.  But in the end we all finished without any major problems.  I think we are all excited about doing it again next year.  

I wish we would have been able to get a few more pics, but none of us wanted to pack around the camera.  Click here to see a few additional photos in our photo gallery.

Our New Blog

Well, I finally decided to make a new blog.  I had too many people complain about our last one.  While it was pretty, apparently  the heavy graphics took too long to load while they were trying to check it out. So that's one of the reasons why we haven't blogged anything for so long. Enough excuses.  Now we are back. We are still figuring this out but hopefully we can use this to share the fun adventures of our lives with those in the blogging world.  Stay tuned for more updates.