Flat Stanley's cousin, Flat Wyatt comes to visit

One of Karen's friends from NC has a nephew who's class is in the midst of reading about the adventures of Flat Stanley which means..... all the kids prepare to embark on adventures of their own. I was thrilled when Mel asked if Flat Wyatt could come for a visit!
(I have such fond memories of our kids doing this same project when we were at Sanford School)

Here's Flat Wyatt on his first scooter ride!

So far, his Japanese adventures include- meeting a few new Japanese friends at a local playground....
A ride on the train....
Two more new buddies.... at a local shrine
and.. a trip to the grocery store- with some fresh octopus.

So far, Flat Wyatt has been the perfect guest! (although I admit he does sort of lay around alot) We are looking forward to taking him to school tomorrow and making plans for some additional sightseeing around Osaka.

Valentine's Day & french onion soup!

Jeph once again blessed my Valentine's day with beautiful roses. What is esp. sweet is not only did I enjoy their beauty, but the money raised from the sale of the roses goes towards the Seniors Service Trip to Thailand where the students will be working with Habitat for Humanity. Being the Sr. Class advisor, Jeph gets to go along to help build a home for a family in need. (the trip will take place in May)

Another treat- Jeph went to Costco last week with a friend and discovered this box of French Onion soup. We weren't sure what to expect.. the box contained four of these frozen chunks of soup. We put them in a bowl and popped them in the mircrowave and ... they were great! they are making us seriously consider a Costco membership! (bags of pistachios, tortilla chips and Prego spaghetti sauce are also part of the consideration!)

A simple joy

They say that it is the simple things in life that often bring the greatest joys and this is absolutely true in the case of our heating unit in our apartment. We are so grateful for the unit but even more appreciative that we now know how to program the controller and set the timer! We had a Japanese friend spend the night a few days ago and she showed us how to work the controller and what a difference it makes! Due to the lack of insulation, our apartment (and all buildings) get incredibly cold quite quickly. Now, however, we set the timer to start the heat about 20 minutes before we wake up and ... can't tell you how great it is to be able to hop out of bed and not start shivering! And... we set the heat to again come on shortly before we return home from work and have yet to take the warmth for granted when we walk in the door to a warm room.

I realize there are so many simple joys that go overlooked and unnoticed. This week, I want to be intentional- keeping my eyes open and taking the time to see, marvel and be thankful for the many simple blessings that are so abundantly bestowed.

Date night in Osaka

Every other Saturday night= date night here in Osaka which means laundry and yakiniku! Tonight, however, we were also treated to a rare event... a little snow. As we have been enviously watching the news and seeing that the east coast is under 2 feet of snow, we tried to find a bit of delight in the few snowflakes that fell.

Here's J with one of our laundry bags loaded up on the scooter. I am sure the Japanese are quite curious/humored by us.

Here we are... with J ready to get things moving. Finding a laundromat has been a huge treat and sure beats having to hang our clothes out on the balcony to dry.. esp. in the winter. These machines are awesome... not only do they have an auto soap dispenser, but it washes and dries all in the same machine.

The directions are quite simple. Put dirty clothes in, select the proper wash/dry cycle, put in the money (it's about $10 a load but is SO worth it) and come back an hour later to get your clean and dry clothes out! (now if only they could get the machine to fold everything, get it back to our apartment and back into our closets... that would be amazing!)While we wait for the clothes to wash and dry, we walk over to one of my (K's) favorite Yakiniku restaurants. Even though we have to do our own cooking (they bring the meat to the table and we cook it over the fire ourselves) it remains a fun treat and a great way to spend the 60 minute wash/dry cycle.

part of the menu... Here's the grill, unfortunately, at the end of the meal. I forgot to take an earlier photo when it was full! Along with the various cuts of beef, we also grill onions, peppers and cabbage. A side salad to share along with 2 bowls of rice and we are good to go!

A piece of gum is given at check out... the perfect ending to a great meal and a fun (and practical) date night!

A December day in Kyoto

Realized that I forgot to include pics from our day in Kyoto back in December when the kids were here visiting. We had a great day- although we missed Amberly, as she had yet to arrive.

Under the famous torii gates at the entrance Just a few of the thousands of torii gates.All the foxes were decked out with new bibs for the New Year. People leave all kinds of goodies for these foxes as they believe they are the carriers of their wishes to the god of grain and prosperity.Here is Andrew in front of one of the main buildings at Tofukuji, one of our favorite temples in Kyoto! We know the former priest and have really special memories of a visit back in 2001.

more signs of the upcoming Year of the Tiger!

Hard to believe that it's already February and this visit with the kids was already weeks ago! We hope the new year is off to a special start for all of you and we really will try to be more frequent bloggers!