Strawberry Season

It's strawberry season in Japan so we went strawberry picking! For 4500 Yen (about $50) we had the pleasure of picking all the strawberries we could eat in a 30-minute period (organically-grown strawberries, no pesticides used). They were delicious! But, at those prices, this is not something we will be doing very often.

Of course, after strawberry-picking, we had to go to Denny's! (No, there's no American food on the menu!)

Hot Springs in the Snow!

In mid-January we went to the Yunessun Hot Springs (http://www.yunessun.com/english/). Despite the snowy weather, we were able to enjoy the wonderful hot springs. The various springs (scented with coffee, tea, green tea, wine, chocolate, sake, etc.) were wonderful! We were so relaxed after spending, literally, hours in the various springs and spas -- both indoor and out. Fortunately, our hotel (the Fujiya Hotel, the second-oldest hotel in Japan -- )http://www.fujiyahotel.jp/english/index.html), was just down the road. We slept like babies.

Below: Ric in the wine spring.


Below: Danny and Bobbie in the green tea spring.

Below: Danny in one of the outdoor springs.

Below: A hotel employee pours coffee into the spring! Believe it or not, people line up to have him pour it on them.

Below: at one of the indoor pools, the boys enjoy a nice cool treat.

Below: The Yunessun Mascots (with Danny and Bobbie).

Below: Danny found a treasure chest! But, unfortunately, they wouldn't let him take it home so Ric and I still have to work for a living....

Hotel grounds....

Second Time Skiing!

The boys went skiing again on Valentine's Day -- check out this video (Danny is the second boy; the first boy is his friend, Kyle)!




Above are Danny and Kyle on the lift.
Below, Ric and Danny share a piece of octopus during a break from skiing!

Skiing & Snowboarding

The boys went skiing (Hodaigi) and snowboarding (Oze Iwakura). It was Danny's first time for both -- of course he picked it up right away! He prefers skiing at this time.... Ric, as usual, is a double-black diamond skier and is beautiful on the slopes!

Guess who turned 8!!

Yup, you guessed it! Danny turned 8! We celebrated by going to Sea Paradise with some friends. Sea Paradise is like Sea World in San Diego but it has a LOT of rides -- Danny rode on an ENORMOUS roller coaster (among other things)! During the evening, Danny had his friend Liam spend the night -- we played games and watched movies! Of course, Danny's cake had a "triforce" on it!

Christmas Magic!

Who is more excited?

Santa was very, very good to us! (Danny saved his money and bought Ric the Nintendo DS gaming system in the top photo. Santa brought each of them a Guitar Hero game.)

Getting ready for Christmas!

From our house to yours, Holidays Omedeto Gozaimasu!

Our tree is decorated with candy canes and Japanese washi eggs. Japanese washi is handmade paper made from wood bark. Each washi egg is also made by hand. The washi is intricately decorated, extremely colorful, and beautiful.

We are getting excited already!

In keeping with our annual tradition, we made a gingerbread house. This year, however, we made a duplex-mansion!

No, this is not our yard.

We spent the day after Thanksgiving in Chinatown (in Yokohama - about 1.5 hours away by train). The food was fantastic; the ambience festive -- there were even chestnuts roasting on open fires! The weather was fully cooperative and, while it was chilly, there was no rain. It was an absolutely wonderful day!