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.