Hamamatsu Japan

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Conner and daddy built an igloo in our backyard.

2009-03-02T08:39:00.000-05:00

Conner is a great big brother!

2009-03-02T08:32:00.002-05:00

He's here! Logan Aaron was born on January 24th! He is already one month old! He loves to eat and he sleeps pretty good. Conner loves being his big brother, too. When Logan cries, Conner does everything he can think of to make him stop.

2007-08-14T20:34:00.000-04:00

Hello! I don't even know if anyone is looking at this anymore, but I am planning on keeping it updated! Life has been crazy since we've been home from Japan. Conner just turned 3 years old this week! We had a little party and it was a lot of fun. We bought a truck and we did some landscaping at our house. Aaron is working a lot and Conner and I are staying very busy! I'll post some pictures soon! We hope you are all well and we miss all of our friends in Japan!

2007-04-22T09:14:00.000-04:00

Here we all are! What a special day we had today!

2007-04-22T09:12:00.000-04:00

Another great picture!

2007-04-22T09:10:00.000-04:00

I love this picture!!! This is Sasaki sensei's husband and Conner. How sweet!

2007-04-22T09:06:00.000-04:00

Beside the gyoza is another form of sushi, chirashi sushi. It's rice with egg and sashimi (raw fish) with Japanese basil, seaweed, tomatoes and sesame seeds. This one had my favorite, octopus, on it! Conner liked it, too!

2007-04-22T09:04:00.000-04:00

Mmmm.....gyoza!

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Here's Conner eating the sushi! He loves seaweed!!

2007-04-22T08:59:00.000-04:00

Here I am making my first sushi roll!

2007-04-22T08:50:00.000-04:00

Like I said before, today we went to Sasaki sensei's house. She taught us how to make sushi! It's a lot harder than it looks! We really enjoyed spending the afternoon with Sasaki sensei and her husband. They are such wonderful people! We are really going to miss seeing Sasaki sensei on Tuesdays and Thursdays! We have learned so much Japanese this past year! Sasaki sensei is so nice and friendly and caring. She went above and beyond her job of teaching us the Japanese language by teaching us cultural things as well. She also took me to the grocery store to help me, and she taught me how to make somen noodles, miso soup, gyoza, matcha tea and sushi! Conner also loved her! He always waved and blew kisses to her as she was leaving!

2007-04-22T08:48:00.000-04:00

Friends!

2007-04-22T08:41:00.000-04:00

Hello! Wow! Only a few more days and we will be back in America! I cannot believe how fast this year has gone! This Friday Aaron had his good-bye party for work. Saturday we went to Emi and Greg's for a party. We had a lot of fun and a lot of good food! Today we went and spent the day with Sasaki sensei and her husband. Hope that you enjoy the pictures!

2007-04-10T23:21:00.000-04:00

Well, I have posted so many pictures and I hope that you enjoy them! We are so busy for the last couple of weeks here, so I will try to post as much as possible before we get home! It's so hard to believe that we have already been here for 1 year and are just a couple weeks away from coming back home! It's lunch time here so I have to go for now! Have a wonderful day!

2007-04-10T23:19:00.000-04:00

Here's all of us! We had such a great time!

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After our walk, we went inside and enjoyed the New York Style cheesecake with blueberry topping that Aaron made! It was SO good!

2007-04-10T23:10:00.000-04:00

Green tea field.

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Aaron and Conner with the cherry blossoms behind them.

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After we ate lunch, we went for a walk. The cherry blossoms are in full bloom and they are gorgeous!

2007-04-10T23:05:00.000-04:00

He's a climber!

2007-04-10T22:59:00.000-04:00

This weekend we were invited to a BBQ. We had a lot of fun and Conner had a blast playing with a dog, cat, chicken and other kids! Oh, and the food was delicious, too!!! We love Japanese BBQ!

2007-04-10T22:57:00.000-04:00

This is Conner at the bus stop in Hamamatsu. We had to take 2 shinkansen and a bus just to get home from Tochigi! It was very much worth it and we had a great time with our friends!

2007-04-10T22:56:00.001-04:00

Another shinkansen.

2007-04-10T22:52:00.000-04:00

Conner and I waiting for our shinkansen to Tokyo!
(There is one behind us.)

2007-04-10T22:51:00.000-04:00

This is the place that is famous for the hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil monkeys! We didn't see any real monkeys, though.

2007-04-10T22:50:00.001-04:00

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This is Michiko, Conner, Aaron and Tomo.

2007-04-10T22:46:00.000-04:00

2007-04-10T22:44:00.000-04:00

Since we were in Tochigi, we decided to go to Nikko park. Unfortunately, it rained. We still had a fun time, though!

2007-04-10T22:43:00.000-04:00

This is Conner and Yuki! He LOVED her! This is when they were watching a movie and eating popcorn!

2007-04-10T22:39:00.000-04:00

Not last weekend, but the weekend before we went to Tochigi and stayed with our friends, Tomo and Michiko! We had so much fun! One night we had a takoyaki and yakisoba party. Takoyaki is what Tomo is making. It is a cooked dough ball with a piece of tako (octopus) inside...it was very good!!! Yakisoba is fried noodles with pork and veggies. They also invited their friends, Masa and Yuki and we had so much fun together!

2007-04-10T22:34:00.000-04:00

Aaron took this picture of Mt. Fuji from the shinkansen.

2007-04-09T07:44:00.000-04:00

These are the Olympic ski jumps....Aaron did NOT go down these!! (and if he did, I do not want to know!!)

2007-04-09T07:42:00.000-04:00

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They had to take 4 lifts to get up to the top of the mountain!!!

2007-04-09T07:38:00.000-04:00

2007-04-09T07:33:00.000-04:00

Hey! Well...Aaron never updated the blog with his pictures from snowboarding in Nagano, so I am!! He had a wonderful time and I'm just glad that he didn't get hurt! Here is the group of guys that he went with on top of the mountain!

2007-03-16T08:50:00.000-04:00

Yet another picture of Mt. Fuji! It is still covered with snow and when the sun was setting, it looked so beautiful! Well, that's it for now. Aaron will be posting some of his pictures soon. He went snowboarding in Nagano 2 weeks ago.

2007-03-16T08:48:00.000-04:00

A picture says a thousand words!! Can you guess what we are all thinking?? That kid is CRAZY!!!

2007-03-16T08:46:00.000-04:00

Aaron and Hikaru-san.

2007-03-16T08:43:00.000-04:00

Last weekend we went to some friend's house to make gyooza. We had a very fun time and the food was so good!

2007-03-16T08:40:00.000-04:00

Conner is all about his dad-o now! They have a lot of fun together!

2007-03-16T07:44:00.000-04:00

Yum!! This is a picture of the okonomiyaki that Aaron made! It's a thin pancake with yakisoba (fried noodles) inside and an egg on top. It is very good!!!

2007-03-16T06:51:00.000-04:00

Hey there! It's been a long time, huh?! We have just been enjoying "normal" life in Japan lately, so there isn't much for me to blog about! We do have some pictures, so I thought I'd post them. I'll try to give you all an update on us! We have 6 weeks left here in Hamamatsu and then it's back to Ohio for us! We are excited to get home, but we are really going to miss Japan too. It's a really strange feeling, especially for me. (Shelly) When we first got here, I was literally crossing each day off the calendar--counting down the days. Almost a year later, this really feels like home. We have had an amazing time here and we've made some great friends, too! Anyways, today the movers came! They just came over and looked at our stuff, just to get an idea of how much stuff we have. Our first ocean shipment will go out in about a week and a half. We have boxes here and it really feels like we are actually going to come home! Aaron's work is going great. He's very busy now and he is really enjoying it. Conner is 2 1/2 now! He's absolutely crazy, but so much fun. We never get bored!! He's talking in both English and some Japanese. He can count to 10 in Japanese and often picks up words here and there during our Japanese lessons. I'm doing just fine....I just try to keep the house running and hot food on the table! Well, we hope that everyone at home is doing good and it won't be too long before we get to see you again!!! Have a great day!

2007-01-16T05:39:00.000-05:00

And last but not least, the guys who made this all possible!!

From the left:

Hikaru, Fukushima, me, Ushida, & Michi

2007-01-16T05:36:00.000-05:00

Another view from the top. I think the dude to the left is either awe struck or lost.........

2007-01-16T05:35:00.000-05:00

This is a view from the top. A picture can't explain the view I saw, but you get the idea.

God's creation is awesome!

2007-01-16T05:33:00.000-05:00

The word for today is "Negative"

2007-01-16T05:26:00.000-05:00

Here is another view from the bottom. The ski lift to the left is actually an aerial tramway; in other words it fits 15 people, moves much faster than a typical chair lift, and you stand up. I have never been one before because again, the snow parks in Ohio don't need them.

This also gives you a better feeling of the overall height and length of this mountain.

2007-01-16T05:18:00.000-05:00

This picture was taken 180° from the previous picture. Here is Takasu snow park. Granted it doesn't look too big, but the mountain is actually deceiving. It table tops where the top looks to be (in the center) and then to the left is where the actually peak is. Let's just say I have never experienced anything like it! Their bunny hill was about the equivalent to Ohio's tallest point.

2007-01-16T05:10:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone, this is Aaron. I know I haven't done much posting, but I thought I would personalize this one.

These next few pictures were taken in Gifu Prefecture, Takasu Snow park. I have to say this is one of the most amazing places I have ever been. The views I saw from the top of the mountain were unbelievable.

The picture you see here was taken when we arrived at the snow park. (The park in the picture is not the one we boarded at!!) There are actually about 10 snow parks in this area. We decided to go to the tallest, longest park of course!

2007-01-08T07:10:00.000-05:00

This picture says it all......I'm tired!!!!!!! We had a blast, but we were dead tired by the time we got home! We spent the rest of the weekend catching up on lost sleep. Aaron went back to work today and we resume Japanese lessons tomorrow. We are glad because we have really missed Sasaki-sensei! We hope that you all had a great Christmas and New Years! Thanks for thinking about us and for your prayers.

2007-01-08T07:08:00.000-05:00

2007-01-08T07:06:00.000-05:00

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The view from the temple.

2007-01-08T07:00:00.000-05:00

2007-01-08T06:57:00.000-05:00

We went to the Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto and while we were walking up the steps, we saw a geisha! Check out her shoes! We watched her go down all the steps and she never fell!!!!

2007-01-08T06:54:00.000-05:00

We did a lot of walking!!!

2007-01-08T06:52:00.000-05:00

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We left very early and drove to Kyoto the next day. We first visited the Golden Pavilion (Rokuon-ji Temple). It is coated in real gold! It was very beautiful.

2007-01-08T06:43:00.000-05:00

Our hotel in Hiroshima. It was nice and clean and had a great view!

2007-01-08T06:38:00.000-05:00

Castle in Hiroshima.

2007-01-08T06:37:00.000-05:00

2007-01-08T06:35:00.000-05:00

Don't drop him!!!! We probably should have left the stroller in the car.....

2007-01-08T06:32:00.000-05:00

While in Hiroshima, we went and visited this garden! It was so beautiful!

2007-01-08T06:30:00.000-05:00

Isn't he just so cute???

2007-01-08T06:29:00.000-05:00

A street in Hiroshima.

2007-01-08T06:27:00.000-05:00

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A closer look at the A-bomb dome.

2007-01-08T06:19:00.000-05:00

This is the A-bomb dome. It was very close to the location where the bomb was dropped. They have preserved it as much as possible, so this is what it looked like right after the bomb was dropped.

2007-01-08T06:16:00.000-05:00

This is a memorial for all of the children who died as a result of the bomb.

2007-01-08T06:14:00.000-05:00

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This is at the Peace Memorial Park.

2007-01-08T06:07:00.000-05:00

A statue at the Peace Park.

2007-01-08T05:59:00.000-05:00

The most amazing part of this whole trip was visiting the A-Bomb dome, Peace Memorial Park and museum. I have been trying to put my feelings into words since we were there, but I just cannot. First, I am amazed that I have even been there. Second, I wish that I would have paid more attention in history in school, so that I would have known a little more about it before going here! In all seriousness, it was so surreal to be there and also very sad that so many people had to die. This is definitely something that we will never forget!

2007-01-08T05:49:00.000-05:00

Aaron had the last week off of work, so we took our last big trip and went to Hiroshima and Kyoto. We drove, and it took us about 6 hours. Once we were in Hiroshima, we saw this cool street car system they had there....it just made driving that much crazier!!! Yet another thing to watch out for besides pedestrians, bicycles, motorcycles and scooters!!!!

2007-01-08T05:48:00.000-05:00

This is Conner's favorite Christmas present. He loves singing in the microphone.

2007-01-08T05:45:00.000-05:00

Go Bucks!!!!!

2007-01-08T05:42:00.000-05:00

Here is Conner on Christmas! Actually, we celebrated the weekend before because Aaron had to work on Christmas day. Being so far away from home really made us realize even more that no matter where you are, the reason for Christmas is always the same--celebrating the birth of Jesus!

2007-01-08T05:38:00.000-05:00

This is Aaron wall climbing! He and Matt went twice and they had a blast!

2007-01-08T05:36:00.000-05:00

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This is at the Mt. Fuji rest stop off the highway. We had some ice cream at the McDonald's inside.....that has to be the best view from any McDonald's I've ever been to!

2007-01-08T05:28:00.000-05:00

Matt's first visit to the Pacific Ocean!