Christmas 2013

Ya know what the best kind of Christmas is? A simple Christmas. I learned that this year being in Japan, away from most of the crazy shopping and that insane American custom of Black Friday. Casey loves to go, but I seriously want to cry when it comes near. Shopping in general is often painful, let alone shopping at midnight (or 5:00 on Thanksgiving Day!) But anywho, I'm getting a little off track...

A simple Christmas is the best Christmas, as I said. Casey and I decided to just do small gifts this year (like planners, journals, ties, and socks!) We got our Christmas shopping done within a couple of hours. It was incredible. We also learned that getting presents for Bridger is way more fun than for ourselves. We learned from his birthday that he doesn't really unwrap presents. He just stares at them. So we stuck his gifts in two large paper bags and let him just pull stuff out. He loved it. He got an instrument set (with a toy drum, trumpet, etc.) He also got a walking/barking dog that scares the pants off of him. He likes to try and beat it up (aka knock it over) before it can attack him. Not sure we're teaching him the best way to be animal-friendly, but we get a kick out of it all the same. He also got two super cute stuffed Mickey Mouses. One for 100 yen and the other for 200. As in $1.00 and $2.00. Thank you, Recycle Shop. There are tons of recycle shops in Japan, or at least here in Miyazaki, which are second-hand stores. They are nice and cheap. A total upgrade from D.I.

We also ended up getting an inexpensive keyboard (piano) from the recycle shop, which we will just sell back when we go home. I'm so happy to play the piano again! And bonus: it has a feature where you can make the keys light up as you play, so Bridger loves it too. Great way to introduce him to my favorite instrument!

Sadly, Casey had to work on Christmas, since it's not a huge holiday like in America. But luckily, the emperor's birthday was on Monday (the 23rd) so we celebrated then. We opened gifts and dressed Bridger up in a Santa outfit for a picture. We're nerdy like that. But he was the cutest Santa ever.

Later that day, we went to our church Christmas party. There was a program, where we performed in the Nativity Scene as Mary and Joseph. I think we did all right. Casey's ASL background makes him an animated, awesome actor. I'm...well...a little less awesome, but it went great! Funny things from the play: First, Mary had two lines. I can barely say "Thank you" or "Hello" correctly, so they didn't make me say the lines, thank heavens. So I just faced backwards during my lines, and another person spoke my lines. Second, the baby they gave us for the Nativity Scene started fussing the moment he was put into my arms. Pretty sure he was like "Wait a minute, what's wrong with this human? It's all white and stuff!" So at the last minute, the missionary who was directing the play took off her sweater, bundled it up, and said "Here you go!" It was a bright red sweater, and Casey kept trying to make me laugh while we were onstage by saying "Do you think something is wrong with our baby? Maybe he has a fever.  He looks a bit red to me." I had quite the difficult time not laughing, but I succeeded!

And after that, we ate lots of food. It was fantastic.

Our foot-high Christmas tree and our adorable (I'm bringing these back home!) boots.

Told ya we're nerds. Look how grown up our baby boy is getting!

Casey looking...fabulous.

The Party Continues: Tokyo (Days 2-3)

All righty, now for days 2-3. We took the metro to Tokyo Station, which is the largest and most well-known metro station in the city. It's got a lot of shops and a ton of traffic. We walked across the street to a big shopping center, where I discovered a secret love I have for Indian food. Holy cow, if you haven't had it, you should try it. Today. Casey had tried to convince me to eat Indian food for dinner on Day 1, which I strongly refused. When we saw this restaurant in the shopping center, which was called Raj, he's like "Pretty please???" So of course I gave in. He's pretty cute, ya know.

We got different kinds of curry (lamb, spicy chicken, and lintel) and dipped traditional bread called Naan in it. Seriously delicious. We also had rice and a couple of potatoes and salad. Oh, and don't miss our orange juice in wine glasses. Ha! 

My boys in front of our stop.

Tokyo Station

Outside a Japanese restaurant. Yikes!

Delicious!

Casey and I get a good kick out of Japanese translations and shop names.

Pretty tree in the shopping center.

Giving Bridger a chance to stretch his legs.

We then walked down the road to the Imperial Palace grounds. This is a building on the outskirts of the grounds. While it sounds cool to visit, it's a bummer because you can't see a whole lot other than some of the outer grounds. We got there about a half an hour before they closed at 4, so we just looked around for a minute. Wish you could see the palace itself. That would be suh-weet. 

All this travel made for one tired baby. And I don't just mean me.

And now for the best sight of the trip: Rainbow Bridge. We came to this part of town and got to ride over the bridge on the metro. So beautiful. What a romantic spot, right? 

We went to a nearby shopping center (it seems a lot of Tokyo is comprised of shopping areas) and I bought some sassy boots/heals. They are black with some black and white designs on the back. My hubby's such a sweetie.

Outside the shopping center, there was an entertaining monkey. It was crazy! Look at that air.

That night, we went to Roppongi Hills. It's a more American part of the city. And kinda reminded us of Vegas with a party atmosphere. So many English speakers! Actually, Tokyo in general was a nice break for us because many people knew English. Anyway, perhaps the very best thing about this area was the fact that there were American restaurants. We saw TGIFridays, Wendy's, and Outback Steakhouse. We decided on Outback. And let's just say we were in heaven. Even if Bridger's face doesn't look like it in the pic below...I can't tell you how much I've missed American-style pasta! No fishy flavored pastas!

This is a random pic from my exploring with Bridger while Casey was testing the next day. It's in Tokyo Station. I've seen these type of masks in a lot of stores. Aren't they freaky?

So that's a whirlwind version of our Bond Tokyo adventure!

Party in Tokyo, Baby (Day 1)

So Casey decided it would be fun take a little test known as the LSAT this month. Sounds fun, right? It was in Tokyo on the 8th, so we decided to make a family vacation out of it. We couldn't be gone too long because of his work (and the fact that Tokyo is a bit pricey) so we went from Dec. 6-8. The flight was two hours, during which we learned that our little BridgeBug is now an airplane monster. In other words, he just wanted to run around, squirm, pull pamphlets and magazines out of the chair pockets, and fuss. So that was fun.

We made it to the city and found our hotel via the metro easily. Thank heavens for that! I'm so glad Casey is a champ with maps, directions, and metros! I am a hopeless navigator. (Although I did brave the metro by myself while Casey was taking his exam and ended up where I intended to! Here's to small victories! )

After checking in, we went exploring. Our first stop was Tokyo Tower. Didn't even know this existed. It's pretty much a ripoff of the Eiffel Tower, but the fact that I seriously love the Eiffel Tower made this a happy surprise. Tokyo Tower is a bright red communications and observation tower. I actually just read that it's 13 meters taller than the Eiffel Tower, which I hadn't realized when we were there. There were Christmas decorations, trees, and music to celebrate the season. We went to the top and got some fun pics.

Wow, that was a lot of pics. And it won't end there (fair warning...) We then walked down the road to a shrine nearby. A religious ceremony was being held, and we were able to see a bit of it. A couple of men were sitting in a row chanting. Another was sitting in the front with a drum of sorts. It was fascinating to hear. We also came across these small, childlike statues all lined up in a row wearing individualized beanies. 

We went to an area of Tokyo called Ginza (if memory serves me correctly...) which is the area for shopping, particularly if you're loaded. Stores in the area included Harry Winston, Tiffany's, Chanel, etc. Ginza reminded me of a mini version of Times Square. We weren't interested in shopping (as we'd have to sell our very souls to buy something anyway) but we did want to find something to eat. Interestingly, we had a killer time trying to find restaurants in Tokyo. You'd think they'd just be on the street like other cities, but they are hidden away in small buildings (where each floor is a different store or restaurant.) You would have to hike narrow flights of winding stairs to get to some. It was so strange. 

But anyway, Ginza failed us in the food department. We were looking for Italian of some sort. We found one sign and hiked the stairs, only to find it was no longer in existence (Grrr...sixth floor, I believe.) We then tried another place, closer to our hotel, but it was smoke-filled. Ew.

We ended up kind of getting ambushed by a restaurant worker on the streets trying to recuit customers. So we decided to give it a try (ya know, since he was accompanying us up to his restaurant's floor...) It ended up being a good choice, for the most part anyway. We got rice with eggs for Bridger, chicken, a personal pizza, and onion rings. Good and healthy, baby. Oh yeah, and complementary edimame. Except for the fact that the edimame and just being seated at a table actually came with a surprise charge! So that was interesting. Not sure if that's typical or if we just got the Gaijin special, but that was funny. 

So that was our adventurous first day in Tokyo!

Bridger was in no mood to sit, so we fed him as he walked around the table.

Adventures at the McDonald's Drive-Thru

So we just got back from a little trip out to Tokyo last weekend. More to come on that soon. But I just want to write about this little drive-thru experience before I forget. We were on our way home from the airport, and Casey decided it was time for some Mickey-D's. We pull up, and he's like "Hey, I think I'll use the drive-thru this time." To which I promptly replied "Pleeeeeease don't, that is SO awkward!" (May I remind you of our incredibly limited grasp on this dear language.)

My pleas were not convincing enough, so through the drive-thru we went.

The lady on the other end says...well..."nmjkals.ldfrjemafkldix." (Ha, okay, that's probably not exactly what she said. But that's how it still sounds to us. ;))

Casey replies "Ichi. Setto. Hitotsu."
(Number one. Set. One of them.)

Woman on other end: "andfiklasdf.ckzsejkmroa;;"

Casey:

"Gomenesai."
"Watashi no nihongo...."
"Ichi."
"Setto."
"Hitotsu."
"Daijobu?"

which means

"I'm sorry."
"My Japanese..."
"Number one."
"Set."
"One of them."
"Is it okay?"

By this time, I'm laughing so hard that I'm almost crying.

She simply says "Hai," which means "Yes," and we pulled forward. As we drove to the window, I scooted down as far as possible in the seat and continued laughing.

So our first (and hopefully our last) Japanese drive-thru experience actually worked, as seen by the fact that Casey actually got what he ordered! Good job, honey! But seriously, don't ever put me through that awkwardness again. ;)

Walk Through the Cemetery

One of the first things I noticed upon arriving at our apartment in Miyazaki was the fact that we live near a cemetery. It's just down the road from our house. It caught my attention because the headstones are large and quite closely set together. It looks like a mound of stone from our apartment on the third floor. The cemetery in Payson has hundreds of headstones, but they are spread quite far apart, so this was a change for me.

These headstones are large and elaborate. Some have their own little walkway area and "shelve-like" benches to set flowers and incense. Some are nicely polished, while others are cracked and covered with moss.

I'm definitely not positive on this, but I believe most people are cremated once they have passed away. The family members can then decide what to do with the ashes, whether keep them, scatter them, or bury them. I've read that many who choose to bury the ashes have a family plot, rather than individual ones. I believe this would mean all the ashes are placed in the grave together. I also read that once a family member dies, oftentimes the headstone will have the spouse's name put on as well, because it is much cheaper to do it this way than to wait and have it written when the spouse dies. To differentiate between the living and dead on the headstone, the living name is covered in red ink until that person has passed on.

Again, I'm not sure how true that is, and I haven't seen any red markings in this particular cemetery, but I found that to be fascinating.