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!

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!

Golf carts, boats, and automobiles

In the week and a half Ian has been in Minnesota, he's already had a short ride in Grandpa's MG, a ride in a golf cart, and a pontoon ride down the Mississippi.

You can't beat riding in a convertible in sunny weather.

Or, for that matter, lounging on a pontoon.


Things got a little tricky with both a life vest and a hat on...

...especially when Ian started to have lunch. He couldn't reach his hands to his mouth, so he alternated between having me feed him and leaning over to eat out of my hand like a dog.


As the ride went on we decided to take off the life vest and Ian started to really enjoy the boat.

With the assistance of Alec, Ian even got to drive the boat for a while.


Ian has now had a pontoon ride where he only wore the life vest for half of the time and a MG ride without a car seat on my parents' cul-de-sac. He's also started to enjoy eating like a dog. Not only am I getting lax on safety, but also on manners! Shhhh...don't tell Ryan.

Cousins - part 1

Ian has been having a great time with Alec and Micah. They're pretty patient with him and he's at the age where he's not too demanding or whiny yet.

So far they've spent their time chilling,



reading books,


riding a merry-go-round at Como,


and watching birds and golfers from Grandma and Grandpa's window.


Micah has even tried carrying Ian (who is almost half his body weight).


What a treat to have so much time together! Ian has just reunited with his cousin Paul, so I'll post pictures at some point in the near future. It's a little harder to get a good picture with 2 toddlers who are non-stop moving.

To market, to market

One of the things we loved about Istanbul was the numerous markets. We miss our Ballard Farmers' Market and haven't been able to find anything similar in Japan yet.

In Istanbul, we visited the Grand Bazaar, the spice market, and some local markets.

Sausage and olives...Ryan was drooling...


Here's Ian trying some cheese that a vendor gave him. It was similar to string cheese.


Honey


Mmm....watermelon

Here's the spice market.



We bought quite a few spices. So far we've just used the cinnamon, but we're excited to start using the rest.



Ian tried on a fez at one of the local shops. Yep, they even have sizes for kids.

Hagia Sofia

Our favorite site in Istanbul was definitely Hagia Sofia. (pronounced aya sofia) This was the largest church in the world for nearly 1,ooo years. It was originally built as an Orthodox cathedral and was converted to a mosque in the 1400s. Now it has been turned into a museum. It's pretty incredible. We read that the statue of liberty can fit inside the cathedral under the dome (minus the torch). It's great - the building is so incredibly huge that you're not bothered by the 100s of other people who are also there.

Here it is from the outside:


This is Ian in front of the Emperor's door. This gives you a little perspective on how huge it is!


Inside they've been able to recover a lot of the original mosaics. When the church was converted to a mosque, they covered all of the mosaics. (in mosques they never show pictures of humans) These mosaics are made by tiny squares - it's pretty incredible. What I like best about them, though, is that not only do they depict Jesus and Mary, but often times someone else is there as well. I guess if you're the one commissioning the church you can request whatever you want. In this mosaic the emperor and his wife are giving Jesus gifts.

Istanbul's Basilica Cistern

One of our favorite sites that we saw in Istanbul was the Basilica Cistern. According to our guidebook, it's filled with 336 marble columns that were taken from various Greek ruins. It was built in the time of Emperor Constantine and rebuilt somewhere around 530AD. You can see the cistern in the 1963 James Bond film From Russia With Love. From what I've read, James is rowing with one of his lovely ladies in the cistern. (the water height was much higher at that time)

It's incredibly dark inside, but Ryan still managed to capture some great photos.


Towards the end of the cistern there are a couple columns that have a medusa head on the bottom. She's resting sideways, though. I'd be sideways, too, if I had to support that column for that many years.

Ugly is beautiful

Ian did incredibly well on our trip. He's such a people watcher and so curious that he typically does really well with traveling and new environments. It helped to have the love and entertainment of friends and locals, of course. However, he did have one breakdown at a restaurant on our 2nd day in Istanbul. He was really tired, still dealing with jet lag, and overall not excited about sitting in a high chair.

As he started to fuss, the wait staff brought out this doll:

Yes, it's incredibly creepy. The one redeeming factor, though, is that this doll makes a squeaking noise when you press it. And, even better yet, this is one of the few toys that Ian has been able to press and actually make the noise himself. Hallelujah! This entertained him for a good 10-15 minutes while we wolfed down our food.

Blue Mosque

Our hotel was a 5 minute walk from a lot of the historic sites in old town. So, on our second day in Istanbul we walked over to the Blue Mosque. This was built in 1603-1617 by Sultan Ahmet I. It was named the blue mosque because of the blue tiles on the interior. Here are some pics:

These spigots are located along the base of the exterior of the mosque. Muslims (mostly men) come here to wash their heads, hands, and feet before entering the mosque for prayer.

Here are a few pictures of the interior. There is blue tile inside, but the name of the mosque is still a little deceiving.