Golden Week in Kyoto

Golden Week is a HUGE holiday here in Japan and for us it couldn't come fast enough! We all love teaching and we love our students, but we were struggling to keep up our pace. We also promised Julie we would take her to Kyoto when she came back to Japan last Oct. So, time to make good on our word!
Kyoto is one of my favorite places here in Japan! As the capital of Japan for more than 1,000 years it is full of beautiful temples, gardens, traditional houses and stone-paved streets. Since Zack put me in charge of the itinerary, we started off at my favorite Buddhist temple Kiyomizu-dera.


Here are Julie, Hos, Zack, & Holden in front of the main gate (on the left) and the 3-storey Pagoda (on the right). This temple is set up on a hill with mountains behind it and it overlooks the whole city.


This photo was taken looking in to the main hall. You can see some of the huge logs they used to make the building. This priest was ringing this huge "bowl-bell" as people would go up to pray. Hos has gotten over his fear of drums and bells that sound like "the Huns" (from Mulan) but Holden still has a fear of priests dressed in black robes with drums or bells. I think it comes from the Japanese kids show he watches in the morning with a Japanese poem reading. 3 priests come out and read a poem, granted it freaks me out too, but now he thinks any black robed person making loud noise is scary!

This is me (Andrea), Hos & Julie squishing in for our photo op. This photo is taken from the second terrace looking back at the main hall. It's kind of like a giant tree house up on stilts. It's a little freaky looking over the edge because you're so far up.


There's been a temple here since 778 when a priest came across this spring. A sip of this water is said to cure any illness, bring you wealth, or improve your love life, but the monks here say that any prayers said at this temple will come true. So Julie, Hos, and I decided to play it safe and drink the water along with saying our prayer!


Here's another photo of Julie, me, and Hos at the Otowa waterfall after our drink : )
After our little jaunt through nature we headed back down the hill via Sannen-zaka, an old cobbled lane with traditional houses/shops, some as old as the 1800's. Some of the coolest traditional craft shops are along here.


Here is Julie in front of some of our favorite shops right at the bottom of the stairs. And yes, cars do drive up and down this road, just not past the stairs of course!


After some great shopping and a delicious lunch in Gion, we jumped back on the city bus headed for Sanjusangen-do. Zack enjoying the ride with Holden, Julie, and Hos!


The pond and garden area here was beautiful! I told Zack when we first talked about moving to Japan that I would if 1. I could have a Mr. Miyagi house, 2. with a beautiful Japanese garden and 3. drive a Vespa with a sidecar. So I took this photo as inspiration for our yard, Ha! Ha!


This is the end of the main hall at Sanjusangen-do. The main hall is 118 meters long and is full of 1001 gilded statues of Kannon, the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy. They wouldn't let us take any photos inside because they are sacred to Buddhists, so you only get the outside.


This is a photo of the side of the hall. In the early 17th century this veranda was a popular place for the samurai practice their archery. It evolved into an archery competition called Toshiya, where the archers had to fire arrows from a squatting position along the length of the building, without hitting a pillar, to the target at the end for 24 hours. The record holder was an 18 year old boy around 1680's who shot over 13,000 arrows, over 8,000 hit the target! That breaks down to 544/hr, or 9/min. for 24 hours!

The last stop on the list for our first day was Fushimi Inari Shrine. Julie and Hos are standing in front of the main gate. This shrine has fox statues all over because they are the messengers of the god Inari, who is now associated with the grain crops ie. RICE!


The photo below is a map of the shrines covering the surrounding hills. The paths are lined with Red Torii. There are thousands of them. A Torii usually signifies an entrance to a scared area and at this shrine each one represents a family that donated a large sum of money! These foxes aren't going hungry!


This is the beginning of the first Torii "tunnel". Hos & Julie stopped for a photo. (I'm still not sure why these foxes are wearing capes, but when I find the answer I'll let you know :) )


We took the stroller as far as we could, but there are areas with quite a few stairs and wooded areas that aren't paved, so Zack & Holden didn't go the whole loop.


Zack & Holden were bringing up the rear, so when I turned around to take this photo I noticed the names written on the backs of the Torii.


This concludes Day 1 in Kyoto...Day 2 to come soon!

Catch All Catch-Up

I have been feeling a little guilty that our Blog was last updated in February, so I thought I would post some of the photos of the boys so you all could enjoy them as much as I do!  Holden's "new trick" is to go to Starbucks with Auntie Goober and follow the proper ordering and drinking procedure.  He has endured many strict training sessions and is almost as well trained as Goober's dogs back in Texas!  Here he is enjoying his favorite juice mix after the a perfect performance in his selection and ordering procedures!

He even knows which chairs are the comfy ones and he has down the "one-handed" drinking method better than most Starbucks customers.

Have we mentioned that Spencer Hos' japanese obsession is Pokemon?  It rivals his american obession with Scooby-Doo!  Holden is now Hos' closest shadow and follows obediently almost every move.  This is the back of an abnormally large Pikachu at the arcade.

Holden is trying to explain that it's not time to go yet, despite dad's boredom!

We try to avoid letting them climb inside unless we are weighed down with loose change and an extra 45 minutes to burn.

Holden has started to really enjoy books.  He likes to look at them himself and he jabbers away the conversations the animations are engaged in.  

One of his favorite spots to read is in his brother's bean bag!  Strategically placed next to the bookcase, he can enjoy hours of endless reading!  Or destruction, as Hos likes to put it.  Hos isn't so keen on Holden using his bean bag.

Or perhaps it's the mess Holden leaves behind that really gets Hos upset!  (Yes, that is Hos beloved Pikachu doing a death drop off the bean bag)  But for now, Hos is at school and Holden has free rein of the coveted bean bag and bookcase!

Despite any differences earlier in the day, Hos and Holden both love to play together on the futons when we are setting them up for the night and they love to read bed time stories.  It's part of their bed time ritual!  

Changes in the Jackson Family

It has been quite some time since we posted.  Dre has been a "slacker"  ok, so have I.  It is not like we are trying to run a business or something right?  

Spencer Hos started his second school year at the local kindergarten.  He really wanted to be in the "blue hat" class.  Well.... he is in the "yellow hat" class.  Bummer but a good learning experience for him.  He has a few of the kids that were in his class last year.  He is excited and loves to go to school everyday.  He is learning more and more Japanese each day. I am amazed at how quickly he is picking up the local dialect.  YIKES! We were afraid of "down home" English well, we have a winner here with his Sanuki Japanese.  He is a funny kid.  

Holden is Holden.  Stubborn like no other.  He is just saying "maaaa and daaaaa" when he wants something. I could swear that Hos was speaking at this same age but call me forgetful.  He doesn't seem to want to sign anything other than "please".  He did begin the "hot" sign and uses that like crazy now.  Auntie got him to give high fives and now if he does anything he wants a high five.  He is funny.  He wants to be big like Hos and now thinks he has to carry his and everyone else's plates and dishes from the table to the sink.  GREAT helper.

We have had several blossom viewing parties.  They have been very enjoyable.  The weather is warming up and Dre and Julie were amazed at the beauty of the cherry blossoms.  It really is difficult to express how stunning the blossoms are unless you experience them.  

Dre and I went on a temple trip to the "nearby" Fukuoka temple. It was a wonderful trip.  Long, and really tiring but such a wonderful trip.  We left Marugame at 11 pm and arrived at the temple the next morning at around 5:30 am.  We did a marathon sessions and did some family names for Dre's family.  It was really nice as the Navajo DNA is close to Japanese.  :)  The temple president did the sealings in English for us.  It was a wonderful time.  

We "broke" down and purchased a bed.  We thought it was huge compared to our futon, only 10 cm's wider.  We tired the the largest size they had at 160 cm's wide and decided on the 150 cm wide.  It is a HUGE change/downsize from our KING size in America to our just slightly bigger than a full size bed.  We have been SLEEPING like babies since the upgrade.  The futon on the tatami mat was not good for our shoulders, hips legs etc. NICE investment.  We are sleeping well now.

My grandfather passed away just before Easter weekend.  I will miss him greatly.  He was a good man.  I am grateful for the knowledge that I have being a Christian.  

We miss everyone and look forward to visiting Utah this coming summer.  

Our Friend "Flat Stanley"

My good friend Paul and his son asked us to help them out with a school project.  Flat Stanley is making his way around the world and he visited us here in Japan.  We took him the a kaitenzushi restaurant.  The kaitenzushi is a revolving sushi restaurant.  It is the Japanese version of fast food.  BUT so much more healthy than McDonalds, Burger King etc.  :)  

Flat Stanley was able to work along side the "oniichan" making sushi.  He was able to go behind the scenes.  Stanley ate his fill of sushi and then wanted more.  

Stanley then help out teaching some classes here at Fundy English School.  He had a blast!!

Thanks to Michael and Paul for sending him to visit us.  

Shark Boy Hos!

I seem to forget how old my children are really getting! Or perhaps it is a conscious ignorance! Hos came home from school one day in January and Auntie Goober informed me that Hos was getting a permanent tooth. I didn't quite understand what she was saying because I was sure I didn't have a son old enough to loose a baby tooth let alone have a permanent tooth. Confused, I went to investigate and this is what I found....Shark Tooth!

I think we missed the part where the baby tooth gets loose and you wiggle it until it falls out! Hos just went straight to "the permanent tooth starts to come in". So the wiggling began! Unfortunately for Hos', the front portion of root was not letting go! This made for a sharp pain every time he tried to wiggle it. Well, after 3 weeks of only a few wiggles Auntie Goober took matters into her own hands and gave the tooth some real pressure. It was pretty uncomfortable for Hos, so he promised to work on it alone. Well, after about 15 min. and a few tears he said it was too sore to wiggle and too sore to eat anything, so now it was Mom's turn. The first twist almost made him refuse, but I was quick with the second and he was busy fighting back the tears!

My little Trooper didn't pull away or bite my fingers off as I finally got that root to let go! As I pulled the tooth out I asked him if it still hurt and he mumbled a yes. That's when I told him it shouldn't because I had just pulled it out. Here he is, still shocked the tooth was in my hand and trying not to cry!


He showed his dad the baby tooth was gone and the Shark Tooth is now just a permanent tooth. He didn't realize his mouth was bleeding until I was uploading the pictures this evening and he saw this one! He was surprised there was blood after losing his tooth and then he wanted to know WHY our teeth have blood. I guess he needs to spend some more time with Grandpa Chei watching surgery!


Here's the tooth! It's hard to see the sharp pointed part of the root that wouldn't let go, but after seeing it my mouth was sore!


Look mom! No more Shark Tooth!

Marugame Castle with Grandma

Here it is the 1st of Feb. and I still haven't had a chance to post some photos of the Shima's trip to visit us over Christmas & New Year's. So, I'll start with photos from Marugame. We wanted to give the Shima a real japanese experience so we decided to ride the Mama Chari's around town and to the Castle. It's one of our favorite places to ride. This is one of the bridges by the castle and a favorite of Hos & Holden's to ride over!


The Castle sits on top of a hill and the climb up is pretty steep. This is Julie, Hos, and me on our way back down. I love the old walls!


This is the main Don Jon and it still has the original wooden truces. Julie, Hos, and the Shima stopped for a quick photo before we went inside.


Here is a view looking to the North (I think) from the castle hill. The day was REALLY COLD & WINDY, but it made for excellent views. Julie, Hos and I could see right to the main island! Off to the right you can see the Seto-Ohashi, the bridge connecting our island with the main island of Honshu. It is the longest suspension bridge in the world! (Just a random tid bit of info. for those of you who like random tid bits of info)


Here Julie, Hos, and the Shima stopped in front of the main gate to smile! Julie and I love to ride our bikes and Hos loves to just enjoy the ride! I think we convinced the Shima that it is one of the best ways to get around in Japan!

Christmas

WE had a wonderful Christmas.  We did not think that Santa would find us since we packed and ran off to Japan so quickly.  Hos was worried.  But find us he did.  Hos received a beanbag.  Something that he had been asking for since we got here.  When you don't have couch the next best thing is a beanbag.  

Grandma Shima came with a suitcase full of things from America.  Toothpaste....yes toothpaste Colgate with flouride.  WE love it!!!!  Glide dental floss.  The simple things that we take for granted.  :)  

We have enjoyed having Grandma here with us.  She has enjoyed everything but the lack of central heating.  Shhhhh don't tell her we miss that too. She is now addicted to the Japanese bathhouses.    She wants to go every night.  

We hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday season.  We miss you all and pray for your safety and success this coming year.