Whew . . .

Where does time go? I have been accused of being a bad blogger. Yowza. One thing after another. I have been taking a few pictures so I will post them all today.

Descriptions are underneath photo. I hate when I go to a blog and can't figure out which picture goes with what description . . . haha

This is a picture of my lunch! Yum. All the grocery stores have rows of things like this. Some I have no clue as to what they contain but this didn't seem to have any "mystery" ingredients. I thought the noodles would be like Korean Chop Chae. The noodles are the same but this was cold and very tangy. It was good. The sushi was delicious.


This is a picture of Nathan and Ella. Ella is our upstairs neighbor. She and her brother Anthon, who is in the picture below, came to hang out for a while. Nathan just LOVES being the "older" one. He is so cute with them and loves to play with them. There isn't a day that goes by that he doesn't ask if he can go upstairs to see them. I don't always say yes but he always asks!!




We are on the escalator leading out of the subway. On our way to finally get cell phones. We had to go through a number of different processes to get them. First we had to have an alien card. That takes a few weeks. Second a bank account and finally money in the bank account!! The boys have been asking since we landed in Tokyo when they could get their phones. Finally the big day. We met Ryan at the Softbank store in Omotesando after work. We had heard that we should plan on a few hours. They weren't kidding. Two hours later after we had finally picked out phones and handed over our alien cards, passports, bank acct. info, blood type (just kidding) the girl behind the counter inputting all the data gets a really funny face. She asks Mr. Ryan for all of the information again. I look sideways at the boys -- just be patient soon you will have your phone. Poor girl inputs all of the info again and pushes a button and poof. She swears. Funny how even in Japanese I could tell what she was saying. Immediately as if by the push of a magic button, two managers and the main English speaking helper surround us. They tell us that their computer system shuts down at 9pm and they will have to finish the processing in the morning. Ugh. Not what anybody wanted to hear. The boys were so bummed. Anyway, next day I went back and sat down and waited. Pretty soon I get the bag with 4 phones but then I also got gift certificates to spend at local stores and we also got a Wii. Now we are hoping these things were because of the inconvenience and not because we got some really fancy phones!! We'll repost after we get the first bill!!

This last picture is of the poor girl who has to stand out in front of the store and "sing" talk her little Softbank speil (sp??) No written script she just chants for about 20 minutes straight.

In other news I have a new calling. I am in YWs over the MiaMaids. I love that age. There are only two of them. The laurels have 4 girls and the Beehives have about 9. They are meeting at our house this week. They wanted milkshakes and to watch the Office. Still working on how that can fit into Personal Progress!

Ryan had yesterday off as it was "Respect for the Aged" day. Gotta love that. We thought we would explore the area a little more. We headed out for a walk and ended up going all over the place. It was fun. Only bummer was that all the shops were closed, as they were showing their respect! The boys didn't think it was fair that he got the day off and they didn't. They only get the U.S. holidays and none of the Japanese ones. Exact opposite of school in Holland. They keep asking me when they get a break from school. Because school in Holland was more like year round they would have had a holiday coming up. They were really bummed to hear that Christmas is the next one of any significance. Although they do get a long weekend for Thanksgiving.

That's enough for one post. chat soon.