Life in Japan

Monday, September 28, 2009

Maddie's Cello Recital in Yokohama

Monday, September 7, 2009

Summer Trip to Texas 2009

We had a great trip to Texas. It was fun and productive! When we arrived at Smith Point, we were surprised to find that Jennifer and Fred Anderson had arranged to have our house painted! They did a great job and we were very appreciative.

After the above picture was taken, our friend Ben installed some solar screens for us. He brought them from San Antonio and installed them himself. We sure have some great friends!

Fred and some of the local girls.

Maddie enjoyed the rebuilt pier. The community worked hard to repair the pier and added walklights and pier lights on the T-head. We had some great fishing on that pier!

We took a trip to Lou's hog lease property and his land in Livingston. We had a great time and of course Lou cooked up some amazing treats. The grilled shrimp wrapped in jalapenos, cheese, onion and bacon were a big hit. Maddie liked riding (and driving) on the four wheeler. We got to swim in a new spring fed pond. That felt great on a hot Texas day!

Maddie and her friends at the mall in Katy.

While the girls were in the big city, we had Guys Week at Smith Point. Mark, Hidemi and I enjoyed fishing and various other activites. It wasn't all play and no work though. Thanks guys for all of the work you did on the house!

While Troy drove the boys back to the airport, Vanessa, Maddie and the Cunningham family went to the beach at High Island. Hurricane Ike blew away the sand dunes but the beach is still pretty nice.

We enjoyed many sunsets on the pier. We enjoyed this one with our friends Rex, Liz and Christina.

Maddie's cousins, Kyle and Carson visited and went crabbing.

Alvie and Cindy Kraatz, along with Bert, Kyle and Carson Kraatz came to visit one weekend. I don't have pictures somehow, but we had a great time. We got some oysters (about 200 of them) from a friend who got them out of the bay that morning. We also had some shrimp and fresh cut potatoes. We fried them up and had a grand feast!

Another weekend we got some fresh gulf blue crab, about 30 lbs worth, and boiled them up. Lou does most of the cooking and does a great job. They were good and spicy. Our other neighbors, the Allison clan, also had a big crab and shrimp boil one weekend. Another time I went out on a shrimp boat and brought back 25 lbs that we cooked up for friends and family. We ate a lot of seafood this summer!

Lou built a new deck on the south side of his house. We gave him a hand with the construction. He built this whole deck with a roof and stairs in two and a half days!

Our last sunset in Smith Point. We were very happy to get our house rebuilt and back in order. Our thanks to everyone who helped us. We love Smith Point and the truly wonderful residents of that community.

We stopped in Katy on our way back to Denton. Mom cooked up a Thanksgiving dinner! She also surprised me with a birthday party. Thanks Mom!

Bea and the grandkids.

Jelly Bean had a great time at Smith Point. He ran around loose all day playing with the other dogs. Here he is chilling out on the drive back to Denton.

In Denton with the Vann clan.

The beautiful Vann manor was painted this summer. The painters worked hard all summer and it looks like new!

We had breakfast the day before we left with Don, Dolores, Kate and Frank. (Frank is quite the fisherman. He caught a load of fish at Smith Point when they came to visit.)

We had a 6am flight out of DFW and connected in SFO. It was a long flight back to Japan but no problems. On a final note, we are sorry if we didn't get to see everybody we wanted to visit with this trip. Some people came to see us but we didn't get to spend as much time as we wanted. (I'm talking about you Schumann family.) It was a crazy, busy trip and even with 6 weeks there wasn't enought time to do everything we wanted to do. But don't worry, we will see you on our next trip for sure!

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Next on the agenda

Well, I think we got most of the activity of the past month posted. There's nothing like a deadline to increase the motivation to get caught up. The date is near for our journey back to Texas. We'll arrive at DFW on July 11, spend a few days in Denton, then head to Smith Point. We look forward to seeing everyone again. You have an open invitation to meet us there!

Love,

V, T, M, and JB

BTW - The video below looks awkward, but just hit the play button and it works. :)

Allen's visit

Tokyo Tower

We were lucky to have such a clear day, as it is the middle of rainy season, and we could even see Mt. Fuji in the distance!

Jackson and Madeleine

"Look down" window

Views from the top

Viewing from the cafe

Japanese school girls

Maddie and Jack squeezed into one of the kiddie rides

Sagamidai Shogakko

We took Dave, Joan, and Jack on an outing to visit Maddie at school. (Thanks, Joan, for taking all the great photos!)

Here is Maddie working outside with her teacher and class on tidying up the school grounds.

We've always found this fascinating - it's the school's self-defense security system for intruders. And here is Maddie's Japanese teacher demonstrating its use on Troy:

Maddie's classroom. I'm pointing out her Kanji work sample below:

Maddie's desk

Maddie reading from her journal with Shea sensei

Students heading to the pool for swimming practice

At recess the students have their choice of playing on stilts or unicycle!

Company

We hosted our dear friends' visit to Japan in June in celebration of their 25th wedding anniversary. We enjoyed showing Dave, Joan, and Jack around and reveled in their company and especially in Jack's enthusiasm. We were on the go for 2 weeks, and it was hard to choose which to post from the hundreds of photos taken. All had a great (yet exhausting) time. Here are a few photos: