General Pictures - Before and after Disney

We had the trip to Disney planned for about a month so we knew we had to watch what we spent through the month so we have not done a whole lot. We have had a few weekends spent at home. Here are a few pictures from the last few weeks.

Before we went to Disney, we had friends come over for dinner. One of their daughters is Savannah's age so it is nice for her to have them over. Denny really likes their middle daughter so they all get along well. We went to 'Big Meat' butcher shop to see what they had. There is no breakfast sausage or bacon as we know it back in the US. We were hoping to find both of these, but no luck. We saw the frog on this statue and Savannah snapped a picture of it. You can see the Red Lobster in the background. This is the only one I am aware of.

Yes, you read correctly... the name of the shop is 'Big Meat'. It almost made it to the 'PIC of the Week' section, but I added it here.










While we waited for the Padgets to get to the house, we all hung out near the grill. Japanese people do not grill at home much. Usually, they go to a park to cook out. I am sure they think we are weird because we grill a lot. It is a little difficult because we don't have a gas grill, but we try to cook out as much as possible.







The family by the grill. That's my sweet ride behind Elin. People at work think I am crazy for riding to work every day. Only having one car is a good incentive to ride my bicycle. I also have an option to ride the Honda bus or walk (which I have done a few times).








Elin warming up by the fire. We noticed a big change in temperature as we got into October. I am sure you all at home are also feeling the change in seasons. The house is starting to stay cool to cold all day. We have held out so far and have not used the heat yet.








After we left Disney, we decided to go to Costco. It was supposedly close to Disney. We tried to punch the phone number
into the navigation system with no luck. We then tried to enter Costco in Japanese. It came up with 4 or 5 hits - in Japanese which we could not read except for 'Tokyo". This is a picture as we were coming into the city.

We just had an earthquake as I was writing this... Not too bad, but it shook the house pretty good. The kids are having quiet time... no word from them yet so I am not sure they noticed.

Another picture on the bridge.








We never did find a Costo in Tokyo... SO we called Elin's sensei for help and she got us back to the one close to Disney. So we wasted about 2 hours in the car, but we got to see some sights.









Picture of mountains on our way back from Costco.







You can see Mt. Fuji in the background of this one if you look closely.









We bought pretzels at Costo. I brought my vacuum sealer to Japan so I made this large bag into smaller bags so they would stay fresh. We thought it was funny that the bag was just about as tall as Denny. We thought we could punch a few holes in it and make a Halloween costume out of it.








Elin asked her friend Fukami san to help her get some pumpkins for the party we are throwing this Friday - 10 adults, 14 kids. She got us these rather large pumpkins - for free. I think the farmer was happy to get rid of them since they are probably worthless to him. We are hoping to set up stations on our street for the kids to go trick-or-treating. Trick-or-treating is not so popular in Japan so we are going to try to spread some American culture around. Hopefully, the weather cooperates.


Picture of our neighbor's flowers. I don't know if I have ever seen these before. Thought I would share it with you.







Denny is learning to jump rope. He puts a lot of heart into it, but he just doesn't have it yet.




Savannah is getting better each day. She learned the 'double hop' and backwards jump roping this week.




There is an air show soon. They have been practicing on Sunday mornings. I heard them fly by and took a quick movie of them.

General Pictures and Denny's Undoukai (Exercise Day)

This weekend, we had Denny's undoukai. A few friends and I went out Friday night bowling until about 12:00 and then we went to eat. I did not get back until about 2:00 in the morning. Our friend Toshi Mitani san was at our house at 7:00 to pick me up to set up the camp equipment. Needless to say, it was a rough morning.

At least the weather cooperated a little more than Savannah's undoukai. It was mild temperatures with some cloud cover which helped block out the sun a little.

I added some general pictures below. They don't always fit into the activities that we do, but they are more like family/friend pictures.






Last weekend I made 'mousecakes'. They turned out so well I had to take a picture. At the grocery store, they have English muffins (different than Thomas's, but better - chewy), ham, eggs and cheese. We figured out a few months ago that egg muffins are easy to make. Savannah turned her nose up to them at first but she now asks for them every morning.





Savannah eating her mousecakes.














Denny in his Hugh Hefner robe chowing down. I was actually able to take his picture without the peace sign...












And here is the peace sign... I think we snapped a few pictures before we went to the rice field last week. We have two cameras so sometimes these pictures don't find their way to the blog right away.











Savannah posing before the rice field harvesting.














Before we went to Denny's undoukai, we were goofing around in the yard and I took a close-up of the kids' eyes. Denny is first, Savannah is second.

We went bowling last Saturday with the Mitani family and the Fukami family. Afterward, they invited us to their place for a Bar-B-Que. We took out monster grill up and cooked out. I had been wanting a burger all week so that is what we brought. Toshi Mitani made ribs and they also bought some skinny chicken wings. Wings are EXPENSIVE here. Dark meat is the preferred meat so you can pick up chicken breast cheap. Thighs are about ^ a pound. Needless to say, we usually eat chicken breast.

Picture at the Bar-B-Que.

Denny's undoukai.

Opening ceremonies... There are three pre-school grades - three year olds, 4 year olds and five year olds. Denny fits into the four year old group so he will go to this school next year as well. He will catch about 3-4 months of elementary school.

I have the bad habit of taking movies instead of pictures so there are not many of them. I added about 10 movies below to supplement.

Denny with his pom-poms.

There are a ton of dragonflies in Japan. If you hold your finger up, chances are, one will land on it. We saw a pretty one with a red body and Savannah was able to get it to land on her finger.

Denny with Elin after he received his medal. He was so proud of the job that his school did. It was really touching.

Elin, Denny and Ema. Ema is Mitani san's daughter. She is in the same grade as Denny.

Denny being picked up by one of the girls in his class.

Denny's turn at the relay race.



Adult tug-o -war.





Elin and Denny in the hula-hoop relay race.




Denny during his dance.




Denny during his running race. We think he came in second, but after the final turn there was some bumping going on. Rubbing is racing, I guess.

The first graders at the elementary school got to run in a race as well. Even though Savannah did not attend this pre-school, typical to Japanese style, she was allowed to run in the race. She came in third. She had the outside lane which typically meant that you had a hard time winning.




Savannah waiting for her race.



These are actually the three-year olds. I thought their costumes were cute so I took a movie of them.




Four year olds marching out to the track area. Denny is third in line.

Motegi IRL Race

Since there was an IRL race at Motegi, I took the business trip members with me. I wanted to take the kids, but I thought it might be too hard. I think I did the right thing by not taking them since it was hot and we had to do a lot of walking.


They ran out of parking passes at Motegi so we had to go down into town and park and then take a bus back to the track. We had to do that in reverse coming home so it was a long day. We left at around 9:00, just barely got seated and the race started and got home around 7:00 at night.






Picture of the Honda Fury. Being in Japan, you see a lot of motorcycles and scooters. I can ride a 50 cc scooter without any additional licenses, but for anything bigger, I have to take a motorcycle test which I hear is very hard. I think it will take away from me riding my bicycle so I probably won"t get a scooter. I am thinking of getting one of these when I get back to the states.






Turn 1 at Motegi. The cheap seats that we bought were in between turn 1 and 2. We were 4 rows from the track with no one in front of us. It was great.








6000 yen ($70) ticket, 500 yen beers ($6) all day, falling asleep at the race and waking up with about 20 laps to go... priceless.






Picture of the pit area and front straightaway before the race.







Danica Patrick in her GoDaddy car.







The truck on the track was right where all of the wrecks happened. There was a bump in the track that sent sparks flying when the cars hit is. Three of them lost control and crashed in this spot. Our seats were 2 sections over from the crash point. We would see the cars going out of control as they came toward us and then you would feel them hit the wall. Unbelievable.





Picture of the pit area after the race. Helio Castroneves ended up winning the race. He led most of the day.







Pictures of girls handing out autographed pictures of the Japanese drivers. Of course, I had to get a set... Sorry Elin, it had to go on the blog. Delete it if you must.









Jeff Robison ended up in one of the center aisle flip down seats. I could not help but snap a picture of him.




One of the vendors had metal signs of old advertisements. I saw this one as I was flipping through. I thought it was funny so I took a picture.









Introducing the Japanese drivers after the race.





Turn 1.






View in front of us when the cars came by.





About 29 seconds to go 1.5 miles.





Turn 1




Ladies and gentlemen... start your engines.




Traditional Japanese music played by a live band.




Jet flyby.

Nikko National Park

One of the reasons I have not had much time to update the blog is due to a business trip for my project. We have had many members from Marysville Auto Plant here working on the 2013 Accord. Last weekend, I played tour guide. We rented a van and borrowed another and 12 of us went to Nikko for the day. For business trip members, it is hard to get around sometimes. The trains and buses are convenient, but you still end up doing a lot of walking. With Elin and I driving them, they got to see a lot more of Nikko. We left at 9:30 and returned around 7:30 at night so it was a long day.




The Parker family at the top of the stairs of the main shrine. They are in the process of building a building around the shrine. It is starting to deteriorate so they are trying to cover it to preserve it.







When we went to Nikko in April, we did not make it to all of the areas. I have been to Nikko a few times and I don't ever remember getting to this area of the shrines/temples.







View of the 5 story pagoda from the back side.













I caught Elin in front of the Torii.









I am not positive what these are, but there are a lot of them through the park.











This is on the way up to the top shrine area. I think it might have been a bell tower, but I am not sure.








There are little creeks and water sources all over Nikko. It is a mountainous area.











One of the guardians of the temples/shrines.












View of the lower shrines from what I was calling the bell tower area.






I don't think we made it to this one, but I snapped a picture of it.

Another guardian.

Picture of a shrine. Sorry, I don't understand the significance of the separate shrines. It would be nice to have someone who understood everything so we could get an explanation. Maybe next time.

Denny next to a large tree.

Some of the business trippers.

We went up the windy road to the top of the mountain. I think I have a similar picture from our April trip.

View from the lookout.

Last time we were at Nikko, we stopped at a little store on the mountain. They have yakitori (meat on a stick) as well as other things. One of the things we tried was smoked eggs. They look funny, but they are really good. I wanted to bring my Bradley smoker to Japan, but the movers somehow packed one part of it so the rest of it was worthless alone so we packed it away. I want to try this when I get back home. I think the white things are mochi which is smashed rice. It has a gummy consistency and is often used for sweets. The texture is a little weird so none of us eat it much.

Savannah's favorite - pork yakitori. She had a whole one and then grabbed Denny's leftovers from me before I could get a bite.

This is the tunnel to get down to Kegon waterfall. Denny walked down with Rich. You have to take an elevator to get down to the tunnel.

Picture of the rock wall near the waterfall. I thought it looked cool so I wanted to share it. It almost looks like the picture is upside down.

Picture of the waterfall.

Savannah and I in front of the falls.

After the waterfall, we had just enough time to get up to lake Chuzenji before it got dark. As you can see, we just missed the sunset but it was still pretty. There was a

Savannah at Lake Chuzenji.

I pulled the car up to the curb and it had just enough room to clear it. This was the rental so I got lucky...

I hate this... I do it all the time. I have the camera turned to get a video and I can't figure out how to turn it. Sorry, you have to figure out how to look at it.

And again...