Lo hei! and Polar Bear Swim

Kate was the only Girl to do the Polar Bear Swim

Suzy with her friend Desa

successfully survived

Gala

So we went to this Fancy Gala put on the kid's school. Suzy looked amazing!

She and her friend Desa (not sure how to spell it) went to a local Japanese salon where they did their hair and makeup. 

Eli (Desa's boy) took the picture for us. and was nice enough to include this selfie.

Ryan, Desa, Suzy, Me, Tinka, Standa (they are Czechoslovakian (you should see how I originally tried to spell this)) 

The next weekend was another Fancy night, this time at the Shioya club. I think Suzy doing her own makeup and hair did a beter job. 

Carps!

We were just walking back with the Gardner's (Paula and Ross family) from Himeji Castle, when what should we spot, but a NINJA!!! 

He was pretty fun, you can see him here if you zoom in posing for our shots. You can tell he's just a Ninja in training because we can see him. Obviously we would never spot a real Ninja. I'm pretty sure they're all over in Japan, we just never see them. 

Jace was super excited about seeing the Ninja

Here was a park in Hiroshima, the first inkling of cherry blossoms! We were all pretty excited, but especially Brighton. 

This park had awesome Carp you could feed (you got fish feed with the price of admission, it was about $5 for the family)

view from other side of the pond

Jace was pretty happy to find an "American" fish (it was red white and blue)

The pigeons liked the fish food as well. Faith really liked having the gross pigeons walk on her.

Here's where a small Japanese child fell in and got devoured by the vicious carp.  

Also, our kids got flying powers from the nuclear energy floating around in the Japanese atmosphere. 

Jace did too, but he got the bonus of one of his hands turning into a leather baseball glove. 

They have this awesome park on Awagi Island. the kids got soaking wet of course. 

cherry blossoms galore!

The Sumsions were visiting! 

They just wanted to "walk" in the water. "Dad, we'll pull up our pants, it will be fine they said"

Jace looked like he'd had some kind of major accident (he later sat down in the sand in his wet, white shorts). 

Easter Egg hunt

Easter Egg Hunt, Japan style! and yes, that's Jace about to throw an egg (he had 11 and you were only supposed to find 10)

Mia Kato, she is Jace's age, and a friend from down the street. 

The Hunt was held on a nearby soccer field. The older kids had their own hunt somewhere else.

Spoiled Eggs

Kate often will make eggs for breakfast.  This morning, she was making scrambled eggs for everyone, Brighton saw and excitedly said "Kate's making spoiled eggs!!"

Brighton and the "would you rather

Ä game that the kids really enjoy (and us adults too) is would you rather. That's where you give two options, and someone has to choose between two (usually bad) things. For example,
"Would you rather have to live without being able to talk, or without being able to hear."

Brighton has this concept down pat. Here is her latest:
 "Would you rather have a poisonous snake with no skin around your neck, or food."

Japan. Clean and nice.

So, I recently discovered something interesting in Japan at work.  It involves the bathrooms and how they are cleaned.

In the US, they block off the bathroom completely and no one can come in while the bathroom is being cleaned.

In Singapore, they post a sign, but the nice gentleman who cleans works around those in the restroom to clean each item.

In Japan, it's much the same as Singapore with one key difference, instead of a nice gentleman cleaning the bathroom, it's a couple of ladies. Who apparently don't care where they clean and who is doing what while they do it.

The first time I discovered this, I blithely walked in, saw the ladies cleaning, apologized and immediately turned around and walked back out.  I think learned to look for a small yellow sign or use the stalls and not the urinals.  My compatriot Anthony, who's training me as his replacement is from Singapore. He told me that in Singapore they have no problem with someone of the opposite Gender cleaning the restroom while they were using it, but even he had to draw the line when they started wiping down the outside of the urinal WHILE HE WAS USING IT.

Ask Suzy to tell you about the communal baths here sometime.