Japan Sucks!

So as promised a post about the not so good side of Japan. Sorry, I'll talk about last weekend's trip to Ojiichan and Obaachan's later. I'm tired. Now onto the meat of the post...literally.

Don't get me wrong, I totally dig this place. What I find sad and fascinating is kujira. Kujira= whale. Yep, whale meat. Masaki had some at the sushi restaurant on Saturday. It was "ah alright". Talking to Kimiko about it, she said it was all they had for school lunch when she was a little kid. Beef and Pork were too expensive, but it wasn't that good she said. So there is a history of eating, but it isn't that good. They are selling it in the supermarket right now. I kinda doubt the whole 'scientific research' excuse. What is sad, the gov't is trying to encourage people to eat it because the demand is dropping. I say, just let it go and stop fighting the population and a large portion of the world. Oh well. I just wish they'd say it wasn't scientific...and fess up, if nothing else. I mean, seriously, who believes it? Especially when whale meat is sold at the famous Tsukiji Market where sushi for large portions of the world is bought and sold. Not scientific in my book.



Nevertheless...I still dig living here...just wanted to show the balance.

Fabulosity

This is the first of a few posts(though it looks like the last...trust me it is the first), so bear with me. My budgeting of computer time takes its toll on my blog, but I do get a lot more done. YEah. Anyway, onto the meat of this post...

..Thank you Katie for thinking I am just as fabulous as I think you are! It made my day. Even more so because at first I didn't see my name there, so when I reread the post when I wasn't trying to hold a conversation with Masaki, I was even more excited!!! You always keep me entertained, thank you! We'll have to head to HK one of these days, like Masaki and I have talked about since we we started dating, and meet you in person.

So since I am fabulous, I get to spread the love too...woo hoo!

I know lots of fabulous bloggers, and truly I feel bad leaving people off this list...but here are the three blogs I look forward to reading the most(besides Pam's, but hey she updates when she gets time, which isn't very frequently). Oh, and all of these are public blogs, I left the private ones off for privacy reasons. tee hee....I said 'privates'.

1. Kim & Co. over at Sometimes you Feel like a nut... She's a good friend from the SD days, and I feel truly blessed that such an awesome lady finds the time to keep in touch with me!

2. Jen at Allen Overseas. Another bud from SD, I remember seeing her when she was a freshman, just starting school, and taking the missionary discussions. Now she has a wonderful husband, two brilliant and fun girls, and already enough adventures to last a life time!

3. Hatsuho at the Cook Family Blog. We were roomates in the MTC, and hit it off well. I'm so glad we've somehow managed to keep in touch(a lot of work on her part!). She and her husband are expecting their first, and it is so fun(though I am sorry about the hurls) to read how it is going.

So go catch up with these fabulous ladies...there are lots more, and I am sorry for not listing everyone. Dang baby is awake, more later!

Clark - the update

I figure since I just did a Clark post two days ago that I'll just make this an update. Not much to report, but he can now sign baby and use it correctly on his own. I also think he did his sign for cat too, so we are well on our way. He also says 'ga' for all gone(notice the resemblance to gone), occasionally says 'wa' for water and says shhh shhh for the Japanese word yoisho(kind of a one word version of the Little Engine That Could's "I think I can") and he uses it while he is pushing the push cars uphill.

He is really good at pushing, he'll push anything. Including a push car with a little girl(about 2 months younger) riding on it, up hill. He did REALLY good.

I'll try to post some pictures of him soon, but we are at Obaachan and Ojiichan's for the weekend, so we may not have that much time. We are going to try to get to a different aquarium tomorrow.

Oh and in exciting news. We've been able to feed him some wheat products without any excema showing up. We'll take it slow, but maybe his body can handle it now! Yeah, one more thing not to worry about.

The Suica is so sweeet

Today's Japan cool! will be short because I have a mountain of laundry to fold.


It is all about Suica, a transport card for almost everything. It started out as a card you could charge up and just press to the ticket gates on JR trains so you don't have to buy a ticket every time, but has been integrated with another system so that you can basically ride any train, and some buses with this bad boy. Heck you can even buy stuff from vending machines and some stores(including an electronics store called Yodbashi in Machida. You can just charge it up at any train station and you are good to go again. While it isn't as cool as the Octopus card of HK, it is still super useful. If you want more from our wiki friend you are welcome to check it out.

By the way, I HATE Atsugi base. You can always tell when a big carrier has come back because the jets start to strafe the house on a regular basis. I swear we are all going to go deaf. I have no idea how Clark sleeps through it. Yeah for US world domination ;) At least I have my lover, nutella, here to comfort me until the carrier leaves again.

Itinerary and a sexy machine

I have to show off the sexy used sewing machine I picked up the other day. I finished Tenna's Christmas present with it, it was so nice! Not sewing by hand speeds things up considerably.



Also, we reserved our plane tickets for Christmas. I figure this is a better way to disseminate the information than an annoying email...so here is what Masaki, Clark and I are up to.

December 19th
3:00pm-7:00am Tokyo to LA(remember we cross the date line so it is the same day)
10:15-1:00 LA to Salt Lake

January 4th
11:00-12:00 Salt Lake to LA(anyone want to drive us to San Diego?)

January 11th
10:30-3:00 LA to Tokyo(land on the 12th)

Masaki has to go back on the 30th of December for work, but will come back out for CES in Las Vegas and then meet up with me and Clark in LA. Right now the plan is to spend the night of the 10th in LA so we can get to the airport quick. Anyone have suggestions on people or hotels to stay at there? Also, I am sure we'll hit Provo one day, so we'll try to visit people there too. There is a Minerva Teichert Exhibit going on now at BYU that I really want to check out!

Yeah, comment and we'll start arranging stuff ahead of time(which plans will get dashed by sickness and jet lag I'm sure)

Sock exchange

Ok, I got a nice letter in the mail yesterday for a sock exchange. It is like that recipe exchange thingy, but you send a pair of socks instead, just 1 pair. I am trying to decide which 6 people to send it to, so instead of wasting $1 per letter on people who may not want it, I'm asking you all. Who wants to be part of a sock exchange? Leave a comment and we'll get addresses lined up through email.

Clarktasmagorical

Mommy! I want to go for a walk...NOW!

Yes I know, I should have done this almost half a week ago, but hey I'm trying to spend less time on the computer and more time doing stuff around the house. If I didn't have a baby, you'd see a spotless house, but since I do, it is only marginally clean. Anyway, onto the real juice! Clark! (p.s. can you guess the original adjective in today's title?)

New This week: Says wawa(for dog...the Japanese word is wanwan), gives a CLEAR and DISTINCT buhbuh when waving bye bye. Has begun to bow when other people bow. He tries to put on his own shoes so he can go outside. Started signing 'baby' when prompted. Recognizes the word for fish in both Japanese and English.

Likes: LOVES FISH still(I got a year pass to the aquarium), eggplant, pumpkin, dogs, cats, clocks, watches, fruit, mixed veggies, pushing things



Dislikes: chicken, pork, beef(he'll eat fish now! yeah!), loud barking, being rocked to sleep.

So we have a few anecdotes this week. First though, I discovered how difficult it is to feed him at a restaurant...so much meat on the menu and he won't eat any of it! Curse you TGI Friday's!

He likes to share, so he always gives us his water, banana, soup for us to have a bite or a sip before he eats again.

Ok n/m, I was going to write more, but it is taking me three days to do this post...sucks...enjoy the pictures...see we went to the aquarium, he got to pick up a sea cucumber and touch baby sharks...what toddler gets to do that, eh? Ok he just really wanted to splash in the water.



Anyway today sucked cleaning wise, had to clean up water, cheerios and milk and a bird pooped on me. Only one of those was his fault, so not too bad.