Pictures

I'm using this post as a shameless and quick way to post some pictures.

3 Inches from a Russian polar bear

We've been continuing to have a great time here in Japan. Unfortunately it is almost over. Tonight will be sort of a grand finale for food when we go to Arai's, a gourmet sushi chef! I can't wait.

We've had various recent adventures, many of which are slipping my mind right now. Thankfully we have been taking some pictures and they are refreshing my memory.

We went out with some of Jori's old friends. We had a great time, including some great food.

We visited a local bar that Jori and her family used frequent growing up. This isn't what you would think of as a typical American bar, but rather just a restaurant that serves beer. Jori was sad to hear that this will be her last trip to this restaurant as they will be closing up shop this coming March.

We also went to the Sendai Zoo (and dinner) with Jori's former piano teacher. It is a little hard to see here, but at one point Isaiah and I were 3 inches away from a Russian polar bear. It even tried to lick Isaiah (but for the three inches of glass he would have).

More from Japan

We've been in Japan for over a week now. Actually, we are past our halfway point of our trip. Things have been going well. Here. I'll just post briefly that...

We saw some old friends in Gunma; the Morita's and Sakurai's--sorry Sakurai's we didn't take any pictures with you there.

Isaiah had a great time with Kiyoto who is about one year older than Isaiah and talks a mile a minute. Makes Isaiah seem quiet!

We have been having some great food here again. Here Isaiah is eating a bento.

We've also had a great time with family. Last night Isaiah had some fun with g-ma and g-pa while Jori and I went out for a date.

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Update from Japan

It's been a long time since I have posted. We are on a three week hiatus to Japan right now and since I have the time, I figure it might be a good time to blog a little bit. It is a wee-bit easier than personal emails to different people who may or may not care about our adventures here. So, I'll leave it open for those who want to read it.

Greetings from Japan!

We arrived safely, but not without a little drama before we left the States. On the way to Chicago we had difficulty in starting our van on several occasions. The key wouldn't turn in the lock--wouldn't budge at all. It eventually turned with about 5 minutes of praying and jiggling (and a little cursing)--we're hoping to be able to start it upon our return to Chicago.

Then on Monday morning, we went to the airport, and...Jori had the wrong passport. Why we still keep her old expired passports is beyond me, but...it turns out they really don't let you fly without a valid passport. Fortunately, the ladies at United took pity upon us (truly) and changed our ticket to the following day without charge (probably should have cost ~$2000 to change, which would have been the end of our trip right there). So, we had our friend back in SC go to our place and rummage around until she found Jori's correct passport. She Fed-Exed it overnight and we were ready to go on Tuesday. We received three benefits in the delay. 1. We were able to meet up with another of Jori's cousins on Monday in Chicago. 2. The only available flight on Tuesday for us was a direct flight from Chicago to Tokyo, instead of the ORD-->Seattle-->TKO. 3. The only available seats were in economy plus (5 more precious, precious inches of leg room for free). Then on the plane the stewardess was kind enough to move the gentleman next to us to the exit row meaning Isaiah had a seat all to himself.

He was a trooper on the airplane. He didn't sleep too much (he actually was sleeping for takeoff and landing but not in between), and was a good sport in having to sit relatively still for 12 hours. The flight was as smooth as can be (love big airplanes). Jori and I were even able to watch a couple of movies on the plane.

In Japan, the benefit of being either pregnant, or with a young child, grants you expedition through customs with the diplomats. We were very thankful of this as we originally went to the back of the line which looked like it would have taken us at least 2 hours to go through, but instead they sent us to the front and we were out within 15 minutes.

Another lovely service they have in Japan is that you can ship your luggage from the airport to your destination for about $20. This was a welcome service for us. We sent our luggage off to Sendai and then left the airport on the train for our friends in Gunma without 50 pounds of excess baggage.

The trains leave and arrive exactly on time here. If your ticket says 8:17pm, that is when it leaves. No earlier, and no later (unless there is an earthquake--ie an act of God). I love the efficiency and ease with which one can travel here. It is unfortunate we are so sprawled out in the States, which probably makes such a system impractical. Well, here's hoping for high gas prices. Yes, I just said that, and meant it!

OK, we have a babysitter right now (Jori's mom is back from school) so we are going for a walk. I'll have to update with more later.

Priorities

OK, it’s ranting time. I heard a very interesting speech the other day in a Sunday school class at church that was given by Jim Wallis via the wonders of DVD (he is the editor for Sojourners). The upshot for his speech/sermon was that the Iraq war is not a just war, and that we as a nation need to repent of this war. All in all it was a great speech. He started off by saying the war in Iraq is personal for us as Americans. This he connected to our troops that don’t come home, or come home without a leg, or mentally scarred. However, I think the problem, in part, is that this war is not personal enough for us as Americans, and thus we allowed for it to happen, and continue allowing it to happen. So, here is a website that I came across thanks to FCNL. If you select your town it will calculate the taxes that the people in your city have paid since the war started and alternatives that money could have provided for instead. Turns out State College PA has contributed $32.9 million dollars in taxes directly to the Iraq war to date. For that price, 39, 587 homes could have been provided with renewable electricity, or 562 new music and arts teachers. It’s appalling. And that’s just to date. This year, our taxes could be spent instead to add another 10,000 homes with renewable electricity, but sadly, we’ll just blow some stuff up with that money instead. Seeing as State College doesn’t even have 40,000 homes it seems like a shame that our whole town could be completely renewable right now. And people complain that renewable energy is too expensive. I guess it is a matter of priorities.

Check it out for yourself.

http://www.nationalpriorities.org/tradeoffs

Let the masses weigh in!

As predicted, here is a blog about baby’s. Ours to be specific.

From time to time I learn a little Japanese. Little is really an overstatement. I probably pick up about 1 word a month. These words range from practical to silly. Everything from “thank you” to “that was totally delicious”. (In case you couldn’t figure it out “thank you” was the practical, and “that was totally delicious” was on the line of being silly—but still practical really.) Well, about 3-4 years ago I learned the word “shamoji” which means rice paddle. This wonderful little instrument is what we use to collect rice out of our rice cooker. It is a very useful tool that we would be lost without. Somehow it is specially engineered to prevent the rice from sticking to the paddle, something that amazes me to this day. Anyway, the word “shamoji” has a particular ring to it wouldn’t you say? I would and did. Just say it in your head a few times as your are reading this: “shamoji, shamoji, shamoji”. Oh yeah, a great word. In fact I clearly remember saying when I learned it: “hey, that would make a great name for our first child”. Now, before you claim this as slipping into the silly column, let me explain.

“SHA-MO-JI”. There, now you understand right??? Right!!!

I’ve been trying to explain this to Jori since she found out she was pregnant to no avail. “What would we do when we visit Japan??? I can’t tell people our child is Shamoji”. After a couple of hours of obstinately pleading my case as above, “SHA-MO-JI”, she eventually relented...sort of. The agreement was/is that we could call our child “Shamoji” until he/she is born at which point a “real” name would be given. I took this as a decent compromise for the time being counting on time to allow for “Shamoji” to grow on Jori.

My plan took a turn for the better the other day. By chance, for our Halloween party at youth group, a bunch of we leaders were dressing in green and going as gang-green (get it—sort of like gangrene). Anyway, Jori wrote the Japanese character for green on my arm as a makeshift tatoo. Fortuitously, someone who was watching asked Jori what it said.

“Midori” she replied.

“Whaaaaaaaat????” I said very excitedly. “Like the Japanese violinist???”

“Yes” she said

“How come a famous Japanese violinist can be called ‘green’ and our child can’t be called ‘rice paddle’”??? I asked incredulously.

I had her cornered. Lined up in the cross hairs. She replied with a somewhat lame retort of “it’s sort of like naming a girl April”.

I still think it is a great name. It’s a character building name. It’s unique (do you know any shamoji’s???). It even provides for some nice alliteration “Shamoji Sharda”.

Jori’s lab mates are doing a terrific job of using the name with great frequency and enthusiasm. In fact, in her lab you could say that Shamoji is developing character already. So, now I need your help faithful and well respected blog readers. What do you think of Shamoji??? It’s a great name isn’t it.

It’s a boy. Just kidding...sort of.

No we didn’t have a baby. What we did have was a healthy 5 pound daikon. For those of you who don’t know, a daikon is a Japanese radish (white) that is tasty in a number of Asian dishes including miso soup. It was so big though that we couldn’t resist having a little fun with some picture taking. Speaking of baby’s though, Jori is expecting, and is due around April 11. We’re having lots of fun in the anticipation process, and future blogs may contain lots of baby related posts. However, at my rate the next blog may be after April 11. hmmmmm. That would certainly be a baby related post at that point. One of the fun things that we have done recently is babysat for our landlord’s grandkids while they went to a football game. This involved dunking their 2 year old into an ice-cold pond in their backyard. It was a good learning experience with someone else’s kid and now we know not to do that with our own kids some day.