Colleen at the talent show

After Thanksgiving, Colleen helped us all get into the holiday spirit by singing When Christmas Comes to Town at the local ward talent show. She did a beautiful job and was joined by other members of the ward and the missionaries. It was fun to see her back on stage and signing.

Day Trip

Fall colors in Kinkatsuji garden

We finally decided it was time to get out of the city so we packed the wagon (or this case the minivan) and decided to head out to Kyoto for the day, and to see if we can see some fall colors. Kyoto is the old imperial capital of Japan. It was the capital for about 1000 years before it was moved to Tokyo a couple of hundred years ago. We decided we would go and try to see the gold temple. It is an ancient Japanese royal residence that was turned into shrine. The exterior is completely covered in a gold leaf paste.

The Kinkatsuji shrine

As with all adventures we had to have something go wrong so about a half an hour into the drive(it was only supposed to take two hours) Ashlynn all of the sudden said she spilled, and needed a wipe. Looking back she had through up her breakfast of pancakes. Of course we had just got our brand new lease van (needless to say it didn't smell like a new car anymore) so we didn't have any of the essentials beyond a thing of wipes. No change of clothes, no extra bags etc. We decided to push on, and drive with the window down.

We only caught Bridget's pigtails in this one

We found Bridget

We arrived in Kyoto in the midst of a traffic jam, finally worked our way down to the train station and found a place to park under a department store. For some reason a four story department store did not carry any kids clothes. It was entirely teen and above, believe me we looked. We finally found an LL Bean store at one of the subway exits and we finally able to get Ashlynn some new clothes. Needless to say she was wearing the most expensive outfit of the day (including mom and dads outfits)

Ashlynn in front of the waterfall




The kids

It turned out to be a really nice day and we had fun walking through the Kinkatsuji ground and looking at the grounds. There are a number of nice things to see in Kyoto but our dynamics limited us to one. Towards the end the kids were tired but Bridget could still be Bridget. You just have to look at the pictures in succession. It is a good characterization of Bridget

After we made it back to the car, and some kids feel asleep for naps we decided to make the trip over to Costco. The closest one is about two hours from our house but only thirty minutes away from where we were. It immediately reminded us of the Costco from home. The place was packed and you end up spending way more than you ever planned on. However, it was very similar to home and it was a lot of fun wandering back through and picking up some things that we can't get elsewhere. We ended up getting most of the Thanksgiving fixings we were missing so it was a good trip.

As with previous disclaimer Scott wrote this post so if you think it is brilliant it is due to my natural abilities, if you didn't like it I am sure I can come up with some excuse, just give me some time.

Sports Day

It is strange here that the school holiday schedule does not line up with Scott's holiday schedule from work. So far to date we haven't had either one line up, but this one worked out well as he had the day off and was able to attend the school's sports day. The school was split into two teams and they competed throughout the entire day for points, both in group events and age appropriate events, of course Bridget was on the green team while Colleen was on the white so no matter which team won the school flag we would have one happy girl and one sad girl. The weather was great and Ashlynn loved just running around.

A record of the events -

Bridget trying to get through the hula hoop while holding hands with her neighbors. Bridget's team won this event.

Bridget might need some help on her form but she competed well.

Ashlynn was more than willing to collect the rebounds

Colleen of course has to spend at least some time socializing. This is her friend and cohort in chatting crimes and their Japanese teacher.

Ashlynn wasn't interested in socializing, this was sports day after all, not chatting day. It was time to practice sports. Anyone need a goalie?


The second to last event was pyramid building. Fourth graders made the base, third graders the second row etc., until the first grade caps the pyramid. Colleen is wondering if it would have been better to be back in first grade and not towards the bottom. (Just wait next year she is slotted for the bottom)

The pyramid is finally complete.

The final event was the tug of war. Bridget's age group went first. There seemed to be a bit of confusion at first as to why she was just standing holding on to a rope.

But she soon figured it out, even if it wasn't time to start yet.

After Bridget's example Colleen figured out what to do, but unfortunately they were outmatched and couldn't quite pull this one out for the white team.

The day ended with the green team sweeping the tug of war and snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. Leaving Bridget very happy and all too willing to remind Colleen that her team one. We had to intervene on that one after a few minutes.

Side note since it is six in the morning and I have been up with Ashlynn since four thirty I (Scott) do not take any blame for misspelled words and bad grammar, unless of course you liked and then the early hour had absolutely nothing to do with it.

Our dancing queen

Bridget was in rare form this day. She decided to dress herself in black diamonds and chains, complete down to black socks, black jewled headband, and dark blue shoes (she doesn't have any black ones). I am not sure what suggested this outfit to her but what are you going to do? Notice that she has to dance with one hand to keep the hair out of her eyes.

Trick-or-Treating

We had fun last night; the girls went Trick-or-Treating with about 15 other kids to about, well, 8 houses. Most of the Japanese haven't caught on to this great tradition yet. But at least each house gave us handful of candy, so the girls were happy! P.S., can you spot them? Clue: Bridget switched to a more weather-appropriate costume.

Bridget & Greta

It's been great that the girls have made friends so quickly. This is Bridget's friend Greta; her family is from the Cincinnati/ Kentucky area. Alot of the ex-pat families here are here for Toyota jobs.

Halloween in Nagoya

Hey, being a day ahead of you all, am I the first to post Halloween pictures? Awesome! See if you can spot Bridget with her fellow kindergarteners....

We live in the Yagoto prefecture of Nagoya, and we're a half mile away from one of the biggest and oldest Pagodas. It's five stories high and dates back to the early 1800's. This particular festival is one where the Japanese write the names of their ancestors on blocks of wood and cast them into a huge fire at the top of the hill. I think the idea is that the ashes then float into heaven... it was nice to watch them do this, as it obviously was meaningful for them. After the festival was over, the girls got to help blow out the rows and rows of candles.

We went to the Nagoya Samauri parade a few weeks ago, and I just had to post this picture especially for our good friend from Connecticut, Jackson Chaffin. Last week I read he was singing, "the Ninjas on the bus go Hi-ya! Hi-ya! Hi-ya!...(you know the rest)". Actually, I guess these are Samauri Warriors, but close enough...

Some of you have been asking for pictures of "Japan". Well, truthfully, it's city living, with tight spaces and lots of cement, but if you get a little on the outskirts where the kids go to school, you get to see neat things like this. We were waiting for the younger two to finish their naps so we could go to dinner, and we watched this little old man go back and forth on his rice harvester. Pretty cool.