Ski weekend

Over President's Day weekend we drove to the Northern Japanese Alps. We spent the weekend there with 5 other families/couples. It was so great to have a weekend of sun and snow!

We left on Sat. morning and stopped at the Nagano Olympic cross country ski course for an afternoon of skiing. We chose the "easy" 5k course...and the downhills were incredibly steep. I can't imagine what the moderate and hard trails were like.

Here is Ian all bundled up for his first time in the snow:



Ryan volunteered to ski with 35-40# of Ian and backpack on his back. Ian is way too heavy for this to be comfortable for Ryan...although Ian had a great time.


We paid $4 to ski the course and each received a Nagano paraolympic jersey to wear. As you can see, the scenery was gorgeous.



If we closed our eyes, we could just imagine a stadium full of people ringing cowbells for us as we hit the final part of the trail. We let Ian out at this point so he could finally experience the snow.


He loved it! He actually managed to walk pretty well despite the 5# of layers he was wearing.


On Sunday, Ryan went downhill skiing with a bunch of friends. Here is his boss pointing to a vending machine on the hill. That's right, a vending machine. In Japan, you're almost always assured of having drink options nearby.


These pictures make me a tad jealous that I wasn't able to get up higher...


While they spent the day downhill skiing, Ian and I checked out the kid park on the hill. Ian's favorite part was the magic carpet ride. They had a conveyor belt that we stood on to get to the top of the kids' hill.

They also had sleds for us to use. Ian wasn't quite as excited about the sledding, but he tolerated it because he knew it meant another trip on the magic carpet.


We spent Mon. morning cross country skiing at an easier route, and then headed down the valley back to home. What a treat to have a weekend in the snow!

And you thought only Ryan had 80's hair

About a year ago I posted some pictures of Ryan in Tokyo. You may remember that he had some incredible 80's hair. Like father, like son. Ian has been waking up with a fauxhawk most mornings. If we're lucky, it lasts most of the day. I've tried to comb it down without much success.


Since it's dry in Japan in the winters, Ian has also had some fun with static electricity. Here's what he looks like after a little time on the couch:

Ski Niseko

Niseko Ski Resort is located on Japan's northern island of Hokkaido. Hokkaido is probably best known outside of Japan for Sapporo beer. What isn't as well known is that the mountains of Hokkaido get lots and lots of snow, dry powdery snow. In fact, Niseko is the world's second snowiest ski resort (behind Mt. Baker, WA) and it did not disappoint with over a meter of fresh snow when my cousin Nathan, his wife Kerry and I skied Niseko during MLK week.

Nathan enjoying powder with more snow falling.

It snowed our entire stay except for 2 hours.


Nathan checking out our short view of Mount Yotei, the "Mt. Fuji of Hokkaido."

Our hotel (right side of shot) with Mt. Yotei in the background.

Huge snow bank on our way to dinner.

Dinner of champions, Sukiyaki. Wagyu "Kobe" beef, briefly cooked in a bath of veggies and then placed in a bowl of raw egg (in front of Nathan) prior to eating. Yumm!

Winter field trip

January is one of my favorite months in Japan. (well, ok, I pretty much love it here Sept. - May) In January it's sunny every day and the temperatures average around 50 degrees. This is bliss compared to what we're used to; gray, rainy days in Seattle or snowstorms in the Midwest.

Ian and I met up with our former Japanese teacher to take a morning trip to a local park. The park has a trail for bird watching, but unfortunately it's closed in the winter months. However, there were plenty of ducks and carp to admire. Ian also enjoyed running around the park carrying sticks and poking them into any holes and crevices he could find. It doesn't take much to excite him...especially when we're outdoors.

Here he is peeking into a window to check out some ducks. He thought this was the best thing ever. I think it's win win for the ducks as well.


Here's the view he saw. It's a little hard to tell, but there were about 10 ducks hanging out.


Here is Ian and Sato-san. Now that we're no longer taking Japanese lessons, we plan to hang out more with Sato-san during the day. She is Ian's pinch-hitter obaasan since his Grandma and Oma can't be with him as often as we'd like. (she has a 1 year old grandson of her own who lives in Yokohama)

Speak softly and carry a big stick

I googled this phrase and found out it's an African proverb. In Ian's case, it really should be, "Shout loudly and run with a big stick."

While spending time at a park in Tokyo with Nathan and Kerry, I gave Ian a stick to hold. He spent most of the rest of his time running, shouting, and poking at the ground with his stick. If baseball doesn't work for him, we'll consider introducing him to javelin.

Visitors!

We were so excited that Ryan's cousin Nathan and his wife Kerry could fly out and visit last week. They spent most of their time skiing (look for a future post), but we did have a few days to explore in our area.

While in Tokyo, they had the chance to try takoyaki. For those of you with Danish heritage, it's similar to ebelskiver. They pour dough and chunks of octopus in the griddle and then slowly turn it to form a ball. They're pretty good.



They're typically topped with mayo (of course!), some sort of thick soy sauce-type sauce, and bonito (dried fish flakes).


Mmmm, mmmm, good!



We somehow managed to see two monkeys in one day while in Tokyo. One monkey was on a random street corner. He was drinking from a bottle with his owner. The second monkey was actually a kiddy act near the Tokyo tower. We missed the act, but did manage to watch the monkey pick tasty treats out of his fur.



It's actually pretty ironic that we spotted the monkeys. The day before our trip to Tokyo, Ryan read online about a bar/restaurant near Tokyo where they have a monkey who serves you your drinks. We wanted to go, but it's unfortunately 1.5 hours North of Tokyo. (and we're 1-1.5 hours South of Tokyo) You can find a clip on Utube if you want to check it out.

On their last full day in Japan, we ate outside in 50 degree weather, basking in the sun. Bliss!

Christmas in Japan

After traveling in WA and OR in late Nov. and early Dec., we decided to celebrate Christmas at home this year. It was nice to start some of our own traditions for Christmas. Unfortunately, we didn't get our act together in time to get a Christmas tree. Luckily Ian is still young enough that he doesn't know what he's missing.

I found out this year that the Japanese celebrate Christmas by ordering KFC for Christmas day. Apparently you need to get there early on Christmas Eve to make sure you can get your order. Or, even better, a lot of people reserve their buckets o' chicken in advance. Oh my. Colonel Sanders has done a mighty fine advertising campaign in this country. We bypassed KFC and made Swedish meatballs and prime rib for our Christmas Eve and Christmas day meals this year.

We decided to spread the gift opening over 3 days. Here is Ian digging into his first Christmas gift:

He was so excited to ride his riding toy. In fact, he loaded all of his stuffed animals on the toy for a ride.

Then, he took it a step further. He tried to tie one of his pull toys onto the back of his riding toy.

Ian also received a MD kit for Christmas this year. (with the hopes that he'll freak out a little less the next time we see the MD)

I'm not sure if this will transfer to MD appointments, but he's enjoying giving check ups to all his stuffed animals in the meantime.

Take me out to the ball game

Just after Ian started walking we introduced him to his first taste of baseball. It was love at first sight...or at least giggling at first sight. After 2.5 months, I've finally got around to posting this video. Ian will thank us for this early introduction when he becomes a major league player in 20 years.

I'll let the video do the talking...

It's finally mikan season!

Last year we arrived at the mid-tail end of mikan season. Mikan are essentially satsuma oranges/tangerines...but even better. This year we went mikan picking with friends.

They have a special type of scissor that allows you to easily cut the stem.


The trees are pretty much our height, so it made for easy picking.

It also made it easy for Ian to walk underneath. I had to do a lot of ducking to keep up with him. Of course, he had a tendency to go for the moldy mikan on the ground.

Here is Ryan proudly displaying his basket (along with Tim smiling for the picture). We had a contest to see who could pick the smallest mikan. (typically the smallest mikan taste the best) Ryan was in first place for a while, but by the end of the day he dropped down to 3rd. There was also a contest to see how many mikan you could eat that day. I think Ryan's boss ate somwhere in the range of 12-15. That's dedication.



We came home with a lot of mikan...which is a little tricky when we're heading to the US in 1.5 weeks. You really can never have enough mikan, though, so we'll be fine.

Sankeien

Last weekend we checked out a park near Yokohama. (about a 25-30 min. drive from us) It definitely reminded us of Kyoto. We didn't quite time it right for the fall colors (we're just starting to see leaves turn), but it was still beautiful.

Here we're either people or fish watching. Between the koi in the pond and the people walking across the bridge there was never a dull moment.



You can see a ton of maples in the background. We'll have to visit again in about a month.

The park has a pagoda and 10-15 buildings that have been restored. Many of the buildings have been moved from other places (Kyoto, etc.) to be displayed in the park. Most of the buildings have a thatched roof.


Of course we needed a picture on the red bridge.


Ryan tried to pose Ian by this old fence door...and apparently this is what Ian thought about posing.


Ian was pretty much moving non-stop.

In one part of the park they had a flower display. Here is a man dead-heading with a pair of chopsticks.



I believe they're mostly chrysanthemums?


This is one of those places that you can go year-round and be guaranteed to see something new. (i.e. fall colors, flower displays, cherry blossoms, iris, etc.)

Halloween

We had a great Halloween this year. We went to parties on Fri. and Sat. nights, so we had plenty of time to celebrate. We did skip the actual trick or treating on base since Ian is still too young for candy and I have no self control with sweets.

Ian actually had two costumes this year. I wasn't sure if we'd get his Turkish costume in time, so we also had a back up.

Here are our 1950s costumes:


1.5 hours before our first Halloween party, Ryan still did not have his costume ready. He went to the local Japanese Goodwill to find a leather jacket a la Fonzie. He came home with a leather jacket a la Bill Cosby. It looked like it was straight out of the 1980s. I thought he was joking, but no, this was the jacket he picked out. Apparently he didn't watch enough Happy Days in his childhood. So...45 minutes before the party we made another trip to the Goodwill and found this jean jacket that actually fit. Whew!


Ian was practicing his "I'm too cool" look all night. It's hard to tell from the picture, but we had his hair slicked to the side. His comb-over hair worked perfect for the 1950s style.



Yes, my hot pink skirt had an actual poodle on it.


For party number two, Ian sported his Turkish costume. It came with a hat, but the hat was off within 5 seconds of putting it on. Ryan somehow managed to catch him right before he took it off:


Ian loved the costume, though. Who wouldn't when you look this good?


At the parties there were a lot of great costumes. Here are a couple of my favorites:


The Anthony family went as characters from Peter Pan. Hallie made all the costumes. Brilliant! (the Crocodile is also an Ian - he's 3 months younger than our Ian)

The Putaansuus went as Minions from the movie "Despicable Me." I haven't seen the movie yet, but the costumes are impressive.