Yucky Sickness

Hos has been sick off and on for the past few months.  A green booger nose is not fun.  His cough never seems to fully go away.  We have taken him to the Doc and the Doc says it is a common cold.  Japan sometimes over medicates and sometimes under medicates.  ARGH!  He is hanging in there and trying to get better.  We try to teach him good hand washing as well.

Dre has been sick for the last week and a half.  Not fun.  Last Tuesday she began to feel like 

"garbage" and then stopped eating.  I insisted that we take her to the Doc and she went.  She received an IV and then some medication.  Well she ended up going in each day there after for an IV.  I was still a little worried about her so on Saturday we took her in and they took an x ray and found out that she has pneumonia.  YIKES!!! no wonder her cough is so terrible.  Well she missed church again and I was worried so we went into a larger hospital.  Thank goodness for BIG HOSPITALS!!!  Dre was happy as they actually had soap in the bathrooms.  Yes, you read right, soap in the bathrooms.  Hahaha.  Anyway we had a  GREAT doc by the name of Tada 先生  It turns out that he lived in New York 35 years ago and was there for 3 years.  YIPEE.  His English was really quite good and so he had x ray and blood work done.  He determined that she has a type of pneumonia called Micro Plasma.  what the crap....???  So she is on two types of antibiotics and a cough suppressant as well as a Rx for her stomach.  Finally a cough suppressant with codine.  YEAH!  So on Wednesday she will go back in and get another x ray and blood work done again.  So hopefully things will be getting better.  HUGE side effect is that HOLDEN no longer gets to nurse.  HMMMMM.  sad as he now signs "please" and asks mom to nurse.  Poor little bug.  He is going to have a hard time.  So will mom and dad since they are sleeping in the same room.  We will see how it goes.  Good thing Auntie is here to help out or we would be really hating it right now.  

Also We recently found out that my nephew has cancer.  Please check out his blog.  We are all sending our positive energy that way and pray for success for him and his family.  We love them all very much.  We know that the Lord is mindful of us all.

No pictures this time since they would just be of sick people.  hehehe.

Love you all.

Zack and the Gang

Osaka Aquarium with the Oni!

Our first day in Osaka we were so excited to start off at the Aquarium! The Aquarium is structured so you wind your way down around 14 elongated tanks. Each tank represents different environments from the Antarctic to the Aleutian Islands. The cool thing is you can see the animals at the top, say seals, basking on the rocks, then the deeper you go down you get to see the seals swimming, and even deeper to the bottom of the tank. There is a huge central tank which has a couple whale sharks and manta rays among other things. Unfortunately, Holden the Oni was NOT as excited!


Here is our screaming demon as I try to hold him and calm him down. Notice Hos trying to ignore him by watching the tank, and Julie just turned up her tunes to block out the distraction!


Here is Hos standing in front of the central tank with the HUGE whale shark lurking in the background. You should be able to blow up the photo by clicking on it so you can see it better.


Hos and Julie termed these fish "the boring fish" because all they did was swim around a huge central rock in their tank. I thought they were pretty cool because they would all change direction at the same time. Julie still claims it would be pretty boring going in circles all day, but I say the scenery changes as the people walk by so maybe they don't realize they are going in circles!


Finally, our little demon passed out! I still thought it would be the right time to offer him up to the Aquarium, I didn't want to drag a miserable little Holden around Osaka for the weekend.

Zack didn't think it was too amusing, so I changed the photo a little to redeem myself! Holden slept soundly unaware of any plan!

Osaka Castle

One of our favorite sites we visited while we were in Osaka was Osaka-jo, the Osaka Castle. The weather was quite a bit colder than back in Marugame and the sun stayed hidden all day but the scenery was beautiful! This is a photo at the Sakura-mon gate and you can see the main donjon.

We couldn't seem to get all the people out of the way, but that is us on the right side of the entrance. Zack & I are in the back with Holden in the stroller and Hos in front of me.
Once at the donjon, we headed up to the 8th floor for a great view of the city.

Here is a photo looking across the grounds. These were some of the best views we saw! The leaves were beautiful!

This is Hos and I sitting on one of the walls surrounding the castle grounds. To the left of us the wall went straight down. Hos wanted a photo of us on the top of the wall. If you look to left and behind me you can see part of the wall and how tall it is.

This is Hos and I in front of the 130 ton Tako-ishi or Octopus Stone. This is the largest rock used in the original construction of the castle walls. They still aren't sure how they moved this rock or any of the other ones. The surface area of this rock is 60 sq. meters!

One our way out Hos saw this and just had to get a picture! So here is Samuri Hos with Geisha Zackarina!

So How Was Your Weekend?

So, How was your Weekend? Well, this is how ours was! We were so excited to have Julie back in Japan with us and we had a few days off from teaching so we decided to go to Osaka! I will be posting some of our favorite photos from our trip, but I had to put these on tonight! I figured you all would get a kick out of them, and now that Julie is back I actually have 20 minutes to post them! So this is a photo of Zack, Spencer Hos, Andrea & Julie falling to our deaths! One of our days in Osaka was spent at Universal Studios Japan. We were in line for the Jurassic Park ride and we noticed that some of the Japanese in line were "getting ready" to load by putting on plastic rain coats. Some were flimsy disposable ones, but some were obviously brought from home. With Julie & Hos posing, we "discretely" got a photo of these guys preparing!

Is it just me, or is that a little weird? Well, then we saw a vending machine that sold just the rain coats and we really laughed! Sometimes things in Japan seem really foreign and really funny!

We finally made it through the line and our boat floated up and as we were loading we noticed that the benches and rails were still wet. There was much more water than we had expected, but it still didn't seem too bad. Lucky us, we got the front seat! No problem, we can handle a little spray! The first part of the ride is a steep climb and I thought we would get wet right off. But there wasn't any drop we just floated along from dinosaur to dinosaur and I started wondering when the spray would come. Then you enter the main building and it is dark and there are velociraptors and others popping out of the darkness to scare you. But still no drop! Then the sounds of T-Rex overpower everything else and out of the mist a huge dinosaur comes towards you with it's mouth gapping wide! About this time we realized the drop was coming and braced ourselves for the fall, but as the mist clears the front of the boat tips and we got a real glimpse of the free fall. This was when the camera flashed! As you can see from the photo, it is much farther than we all anticipated!

I must say I think we were completely shocked by the drop, but even more shocked by the huge wave of water that washed up over the boat and drenched us all. We were soaked! I am sure if there would have been another camera after the fall, the shock of how wet we were would have been just as amusing!

Hos, Julie, Andrea, and Zack after the Jurassic Park Ride! Now those "silly rain coats" didn't seem so silly! Our legs and bottoms were even more wet! Maybe next time I'll pack my own rain coat!

New Mandatory Reading for Fundy English School!

We feel strongly that one must be educated on political correctness when learning a language so as to prevent any uncomfortable or offensive situations. Fortunately, this book was included with the purchase of the school!

This excerpt from the first page is a great example of a Personal Intro! You can rest easy knowing that our students are educated on the proper usage of the word "retarded".

OUCH!! OR いたい！

Our HUSKY Holden is so strong. He is loving crawling around and shortly after crawling he wanted to walk and stand up. He has been working on standing for about 4 weeks and is doing really well. He is always pleased with himself when he stands on his own. He loves to go around our table while holding on to the edges. He is getting really good at it too. He can go so fast that if Mom, Dad or お兄ちゃん　are not watching his hands are in the food on the table.

He loves to sit in his japanese "highchair" which is not high and eat yogurt. He is such an opinionated child. He knows what he wants and will complain until someone pays attention to him. About a week ago Mom put him in his chair and went to get the yogurt out of the fridge. He is a STRONG little boy. Sometimes he scares us! He decided to rock back and forth in his chair. Not smart! He ended up tipping his chair over with him in it and hitting his face and upper lip on the edge of the table. He tore the inside of his upper lip and was bleeding like crazy. It immediately began to swell up and お兄ちゃん(Hos) was worried. Hos began to cry telling Mom and Dad that he did not want Holden to die. We explained to him that Holden was not going to die. But he continued to cry. Holden saw Hos crying and cried even harder. This made Hos cry even harder. This was an escalating situation which we finally were able to dissipate. We took Holden to the Doctor and he gave us some medication to put in his mouth. He cautioned us to be careful and that from this point on Holden will be even more curious and crazy. His mouth is completely healed now and he is doing much better. We have to laugh because we both think he will be the tougher of the two boys.

Dre says he is going to be our football player. I would have to agree. He has enjoyed throwing a ball for the last 2 months. Who ever heard of a 7 month old throwing a ball.

Here is the "damage" picture of our HUSKY Holden

Japanese Transportation

We've been in Japan for 3 months now and we feel like we are starting to get comfortable on our "Mama Chari's". Not only is it our main mode of local transportation, it is also one of Spencer & Holden's favorite ways to get around! This photo was taken when we first moved to Japan. Holden is in the front basket and Spencer is enjoying the view from his seat on the back!


This next photo was taken about 2 weeks ago on our way back from dropping Spencer off at one of his lessons. Zack is riding solo and Holden & Andrea are on the "mama chari". ( And yes, those are rice fields in both photos, notice how long the rice is in the 2nd photo :) )


When Holden is at home he likes to cruise around in his own car! He doesn't sit down hardly at all and I am afraid it is only accelerating his ability to walk. We're in for trouble once he does walk, he's already into everything!



While we feel like we are getting good at getting around on our "Mama Chari's" we realized that we have not taken a train anywhere! So Julie & I decided we would take the boys and ride the train to Takamatsu for the day. The trick was getting all four of us with our bags for the day and the stroller to the train station on our "Mama Chari's". Determined to ride the train, Julie managed to balance the stroller in her front basket and we loaded the back basket with our bags while Holden, Hos, & I loaded down my bike.


These photos don't do any justice to Julie's skill of balancing everything on her bike! She said the hardest part was starting off, so we tried to avoid as many stops as we could!


Luckily, we all made it to the train station with all our cargo! With a little help from the ticket taker at the train station we managed to get on the right train for Takamatsu!


Here we are in Takamatsu train station, Andrea, Spencer Hos, & Holden in his stroller!


Just outside the train station in Takamatsu there is an "Oni" statue. "Oni" is japanese for demon or ogre and is Holden's nickname, so we couldn't pass it by without getting a picture!

Hos is 5 and Alive in Japan!

The one thing that Spencer Hos has talked about since we arrived in Japan is getting a BIKE! I promised him that if he would sell his bike in Utah he could get a brand new one once we moved to Japan. So being the elephant he is, he begged and begged to go look at bikes. We (Zack & I) thought it would be a great surprise if we got him one for his 5th BIRTHDAY on July 16th! The only problem was the bike shop we bought his bike from is CLOSED on Wednesdays and that was the day his birthday fell on this year. Once the store owner realized it was for our son's Birthday, he said he would make accommodations. I love the Japanese hospitality!

Wednesday, July 16th, came and we didn't say much to Hos except Happy Birthday and we told him we would have Birthday Cake after dinner. He was sad he had to wait until after dinner for gifts, but he was excited. Around 4 p.m. the door bell rang and we told Hos he needed to answer it for us. When he opened the door the store owner told him to come outside to get his package. This is the first photo we took of Hos realizing what his "package" was. That is our friend and office manager, Yasuko, taking in the excitement!

Once Hos saw what was on the bed of the truck he started dancing! I think he had perma-grin for the rest of the afternoon! Dad came over to join in the fun and Hos didn't miss a beat.


Here is the Prized RED Bike! I think the store owner was a little shocked by Hos' reaction, but amused too! (yes, that is a "truck")


As soon as the bike was on the ground Hos jumped on to try out the size. Since we picked it out without him we weren't sure if the size would work. It was a little tall for him but he can still manage!


Here he is taking it for a maiden voyage! He did Great! He was so excited because it is a bike like Dad's with gears. The brakes on the handle bars instead of the pedals made him a little nervous but it didn't stop him from trying it out!

News from Us

We just wanted to let you all know that we are LOVING Japan and we are having great ADVENTURES! The most recent adventure began this Sunday as Zack accepted his church calling to become the Branch President in our little Marugame Branch! We are so humbled by this calling. We are so grateful for the members in our branch and we are especially grateful to be here in JAPAN! This photo was taken Sunday. Left to right is Holden, Zack, Spencer Hos, and Andrea. We all tried to get Holden to look at the camera, but this was as close as we got!
We love you all!

1,000 Steps to Kompira-san

One Sunday afternoon at the end of July we decided to head to the nearby town of KOTOHIRA to see an ancient shrine called KOMPIRA-SAN.  This shrine is for the spiritual guardian of seafarers and is a challenge to reach especially if you have a 10 KILO baby to carry.  They say there are 1,000 STEPS to get to the main shrine.  This is a photo of just the beginning!

In the middle of the stairs is Auntie Goober on the left in the white t-shirt & brown pants, then Zack is next to her in the blue striped-shirt and Hos is in the red t-shirt on the right.  We all took turns LUGGING Holden!

Here is a photo of the O-MON where the shrine grounds begin.  This wasn't the end of the stairs though! 

Zack is on the left, then Hos, Julie (aka "Auntie Goober"), Holden, and Andrea on the right at the entrance to the shrine.  Along the way, Hos found a DOG statue!  I think it was to guard the Treasure House, but I'm not sure.  It made Hos' day!

Hos said this photo was so his family & friends back home could see they have DOG STATUES here in Japan.  So this is for all of Hos' FANS!

A few more flights of stairs and we reached the ASAHI-NO-YASHIRO, Sunshine Shrine.  

Here is Julie, Holden, Hos Zack & Andrea (left to right).  Don't look too close, by now we were all sweaty from the CLIMB.  We still weren't to the top yet!

Finally, up some of the steepest and tallest stairs yet, we reached to main shrine HON-GU.  Here Julie & Hos are in front of the main building.  In the back to the right you can see the taiko drum.  As we were climbing the last flight of stairs one of the priests was hitting it and Hos wondered if we were getting ATTACKED!  Good thing we weren't, after all those stairs none of us could have escaped!  

Street Smarts

One of the amazing things about Japan is how conservative they are with their SPACE!  Take for instance their cars.  This is a picture of Auntie Goober & Hos in front of our MAGIC MOBILIO.  I say MAGIC because this little car can fit 7 people.  
Even though it is smaller than a minivan we still find ourselves doing more than 3-point turns in places.  This is a picture of our MAGIC MOBILIO pulling out of our driveway onto the street. We haven't hit the pole YET, but I can't say we haven't come close!

Another sign of their conservation of space is their ROADS.  The 2-lane roads here are often as wide as paved walking trails in Utah.  Sometimes passing cars can be tricky.  One morning when we were driving home we saw this car.  So much for getting to work on time!
This car landed right in the gutter.  The water you see is not the gutter, that is an empty rice field.  But the gutters are deep as you can see below : )
Good thing they drive on the left side of the car or this guy would have fallen right into the rice field.  

A long day of work

I was off from Otemae Schools so I had some time. I decided that I should get some yard work done. Dre wanted the "palm" tree removed from the front yard as it is RANDOM in the whole scheme of things. :) So it is gone now. Ok so after a gallon of sweat and nearly passing out. I removed the piece of junk!! Julie took some pictures of me attempting to remove the thing. I actually dug around the base and then bounced off of the wall trying to loosen the root ball. She actually took a video of that. Hahaha. It was a lot more work than I expected. OH well. It looks nice now. I went to NAFCO (the local Home Depot type store) and bought a scrub brush to scrub the tile walk way and a rake. I decided to get some flowers to plant a pot near the front door. Dre loved it. I worked pretty hard and again, gave up probably 5 gallons of water while I was at it. Nice results and work out too.

What we are up to

this is Spencer dog. I miss everyone in Utah. I am excited to come back and visit. Japan is a cool place. I am now watching Pokemon movies in Japanese. I am trying hard to learn Japanese. I like it here very much. I would like you to come and visit us sometime soon.

Recently

Well. Recently we have been extremely busy. I guess the everyone has been. :) Dre. Spencer, Holden and Julie all returned to Japan with me at the beginning of June. It was a long flight but we made it. The closest international airport is in Kansai, Osaka. After arriving we rode a bus to Marugame. We had 8 pieces of luggage and Holden's car seat with his stroller. I have no idea how we fit, all five of us, 8 pieces of luggage the stroller, car seat and Andrew in the Mobilio. We figure it is Magic. hehehe. Dre was so impressed that she thinks once it is time to get a new care we should get another one. I promised her when we got married that I would never "make" her drive a minivan. Well, I would not consider the Mobilio a minivan but it is of sorts similar. OH well. It is a great little car.

We have been adjusting to the weather slowly but surely. Kagawa is the driest area in Japan and it also has the most amount of sun. This is good, but it is also HOT.....The other day we went to Takamatsu to see a park and we found out that it was actually 37 degrees C that day. Okay so you might be saying, so what.... well 37 degrees C equates to around 100 degrees F. So let's just say HOT... plus you add in the Humidity of around 85-90% and bam it is HOT!!! Well needless to say it was a fun time and the park was beautiful. We all loved it. I will post some pictures.

We have been organizing the heck out of the school and house. We went from a 3100 square foot home in Salem to a 1500 square foot home here with more than 1/3 of that as our school. Dre is a trooper, and Goober is an amazing help. We have thrown out quite a bit of stuff and organized even more. It is gradually coming together.

We have been enjoying our time here and know that this is where we are supposed to be at this point in our lives. We love our branch and the members here. We love our students and families here. WE LOVE IT!! We miss you all! Please know we think of you and pray for you everyday.

Shogo Hamada - Another Saturday

I have fond memories of Hamada Shogo. I was first introduced to this artist by my best friend, who is Japanese. I get teary eyed whenever I listen to Hamada. He is amazing. I hope you can feel the feeling in his singing, even though you might not understand what he is saying.

Cherry Blossoms

It is now "Spring" in Japan

The air is beginning to warm and the flowers bloom.

We will be having a Cherry Blossom Viewing party tomorrow.

The Japanese love nature. They will travel long distances to view flowers and the beauty of nature. I have been working with some English studying students that will even travel to Kyoto area to view the flowers.

I will be traveling to the Marugame Castle to view the cherry blossoms this year. It was supposed to rain tomorrow, however it looks like the rain will wait until the next day. :) Andrew is excited as he says that he has "some pull" with the weather. Being a photographer, he has to rely on the goodness of the weather for weddings etc. He claims that it has never rained on any days that he shoots a wedding. He thinks he can use his power to ward off the rain for tomorrow.

We have invited all of the English School students.

I did go with Andrew to help him take some photos of a few of the students that graduated from preschool/kindergarten and are moving to the BIG elementary school. I will post some of those pictures as well. They were really cute.

I am excited to have Andrea and the boys come. I hope that the house will sell sooner than later. It would be GREAT to have them come over sooner.

Zack

Our "new" car

Ok so this is a picture of the car we will be buying from the Funderburg's. It is a Honda Mobilio. I would describe it as a miniature Honda Element. It does seat five adults and two "midgets" in the back. :)

Dre thinks it is more like a miniature mini van Ha ha.

It will be fun driving!!

Bye Bye at the airport

We headed to SLC International Airport on Tuesday.

Spencer did well. Wanted me to come back home with them. Holden, well he is Holden. Like usual he had an explosion in his pants and mom had to change him. He is a happy boy.

I am going to post some pics with this so you can see us all but mom. (she is taking the pics)

Dad had a long flight and then a 3.5 hour bus ride. The bus did arrive at Marugame train station about 30 minutes early. Andrew was there to pick me up. It was a good thing as it was raining like crazy. I would have had to wait in the rain for him. We arrived at the house and I took a shower and tried to go to sleep. The time difference was hard. I am still adjusting.

Z

Prep for Japan Departure

Well the closet is a mess and the suitcases are everywhere in the bedroom. I have been going through so much "stuff" deciding what to keep what to take and what to get rid of. Crazy.

Aunt Sherri and Mom came down today to see us. Rob and little Robbie and Tan man came with as well. Spencer was thrilled to see and play with some cousins. Andrea and I sat and talked with Aunt Sherri and Mom. It was a good time for all. Patrick has already told Sherri that he wants to come visit us.

I leave on Tuesday and feel like I am leaving everything behind. I should be back in a few months to pick up Andrea and the boys. We are excited and scared all at the same time. Andrea keeps telling me to not think and pack like I am going on a mission. :) Ha. that is a goot one. I am taking my bike and two suitcases of clothing, shoes, books, and the essentials. I figure if I miss items then I can pick them up when I come back. We will see. :)

Andrew is excited for me to arrive, he wants to "dump" all of his knowledge on me. I will be shadowing him for a time and then taking over the classes and the like. CRAZY.

We did set up Skype with the web cams. Email me if you want our info.

I will keep you posted as the days pass.

Z