Slow weekend? I don't think so...

We had a busy weekend last week. The BBQ was the week before so I am a little late in my updates... Anyway, On Friday, we went to a party at a restaurant in Utsunomiya. Because we planned to have drinks, we took a cab to the station, a train to Utsunomiya and then walked to the restaurant. We did this in reverse on the way home. It cost about 3500 yen in travel on top of the 8000 yen for all you can eat/drink at the restaurant. We don't think we will be doing that again any time soon. It was a bit expensive. Sorry, we didn't take any pictures at the party.

We bought bicycles last Sunday. Savannah somehow got a flat tire the second day. I spent Saturday morning fixing it. Here are pictures of our Bicycles

This is my (Dustin's) sweet ride. The basket comes in handy as do the large fenders. We are coming up on rainy season and they do a good job preventing rooster tails splashing my back. I have been riding to the station to take the train to Utsunomiya for my Japanese classes. Next week, I can start riding to work. I am not sure if I said this, but I am about 3.5 miles away. Walking is possible, but to and from is a little difficult. My other options are car or the Honda bus. I am going to try to abandon the car altogether.

This is Savannah's Bicycle. She said that she is "out of her pink phase" so she picked this peach/orange bicycle. She is practices riding and is getting close to getting it. Unfortunately, it rained most of the week so it has been hard to practice.




This is Elin's grocery getter. It has a front basket and also has a rear storage area.







Elin tried to make cookies, but they didn't quite work out. We have a convection oven / microwave combo which is still a bit of a mystery to us. They look funny, but taste OK.




On Saturday evening, we went to an unagi restaurant. Unagi is eel. I heard some bad things about unagi, but I actually liked it. The kids had wild duck. If I didn't know it was duck, I would have argued that it was beef. It was very good. I am not sure Elin enjoyed the unagi... With the eel and rice, you get soup. My sensei taught me about the soup. Basically, it is a clear broth with a few pieces of 'meat' in it. The meat is what I believe is the liver and intestine of the eel. It didn't have much taste but the concept of the intestine was a little difficult.

Outside the unagi restaurant. There were a total of 6 seats at the counter and one table. There was a room upstairs that you can reserve, but I am not sure how big it was. We went with Higashiuchi-san (from the BBQ) and his girlfriend.

On Sunday, we invited a Japanese family over for dinner. We met them at the park one day and ended up running into them at a different park the very next day. We had spaghetti and meatballs, bread and salad. The kids played with the toys, painted and played with balloons. They are huge. When you let them go, they make noise. I used the bicycle pump to blow them up - for about an hour or so.

Sorry about the lack of pictures. It is Thursday and the weekend is quickly filling up - Saturday the Musicks are coming over. Sunday, we return to the rice field for another activity and then there is a NATG BBQ in the afternoon. I am sure we will find something for Friday night.

Tomorrow, I take the Japanese driver license conversion test. There is an eye test, written test and a driving test - which is the hardest part. There are many things that you need to do. It is impossible for me to write them all down, but before I pull out onto the course, this is the procedure :

1) Walk to the car from the curb.

2) Look both ways to make sure there is nothing coming. Open the rear passenger door and put my things in the back

3) Walk completely around the car to make sure there is nothing in the way.

4) Go to driver's door, look both was for safety, open the door and get in.

5) Lock the door.

6) Adjust seat, rr view mirror, side mirror. You must touch the rr view mirror even if it is perfect.

7) Buckle seatbelt, make sure everyone else in the car has seatbelt buckled.

8) Push on brake, check to make sure the car is in park, make sure E-brake is on, start the car.

9) Look over right and left shoulders to make sure the coast is clear.

10) Put on turn signal.

11) Put car in drive.

12) Release E-brake.

13) One more quick peek around and then pull out onto the course.

And that's just to pull out!!! This conversion process is an all-day affair. There is a lot of waiting that goes on. Supposedly, the failure rate is very high. I am hoping that I get lucky enough to pass on my first time, but that is rare. Well, if you made it this far, you deserve a pic of the week... Check out the pic of the week entry.