Its been a while!

So its been while since our last real blog! And we have done quite a bit so prepare yourself for a semi long one possibly!!

Since our last blog our American friends have gone home!! Miss you guys! With out them here I think that our first year would have been completely different. It made things better and more comfortable to have them around while getting settled into our new home.
On Jen and Jay Jays last night they took us to a Yakiniku restaurant where you cook your own food on a grill in the middle of the table. I think they said its Korean.
We had mostly meat, corn on the cob, and some grilled veggies. Jay Jay did most of the cooking! It was pretty good. But the next day I felt like I was still breathing out the smoke from the grill.





We went back to their apartment and played some Yahtzee, they gave us about 15 bags of groceries, and then we said our good byes.

A couple days before that we went to a town called Asakusa. Its an old town where they have some shopping as well as a couple of Shrines. They are also know for their lanterns.



It was pretty busy the day we went, but wasn't too bad.



We were also given a short tour by some Japanese college students that were practicing their English. Some of it was a little hard to understand but it was fun to be a part of their learning. Here is a photo of Steve with the Students.


I also love watching Japanese artists.


Overall it was a pretty good day! I also got a couple of $300 purses that were only $50.

Recently a couple weekends ago there was a Jazz fest. I guess Yokohama is a big Jazz city. Every year hundreds of Jazz musicians play at several venues all around town. We went to 3 of the different outdoor spots. They were pretty good.




For our Anniversary on the 14th Steve took the day off work and we went to Disney Sea in Tokyo! On the Disney train there was a stop at Disney and we almost changed our minds and went there. Its been a long time since I have seen Cinderella's castle and for some reason it just seemed so magical. But we stuck with our original plan. Steve really wanted to go to the Indian Jones part of the park and I really wanted to go to the Little Mermaid and the Italy area. It was defiantly worth it. I was amazed at the attention to detail. When you were in each part of the park it was so different you really felt like you were there. Unfortunately it rained a lot, so not many pictures from the day. It was the only day it had rained all week. The weather had said that it would be clear until 7pm or 9pm depending on the weather site you were on so we thought that would be plenty of time. But it started to rain at noon. But it was still a romantic and fun anniversary. We will probably try to go back because we are sure we missed a lot running from one area to another. It rained so much that when we got home my feet were literally like raisins. It took an hour before they finally warmed up and dried out.






The little mermaid show was amazing. No cameras were allowed but they performed 2 songs theater style and almost everyone was suspended in air on ropes and flying over us. Its not even worth trying to describe because I couldn't give it justice, it was just a spectacular show. The songs were English but the talking was Japanese, but obviously I've seen the movie a million times so we knew what was going on.

Lastly, one of Steve's co-workers from Farmington Hills is in town, so on Friday we took him to an American bar called Benny's. We haven't been there in a while. Well since "Margarita night" actually. The bar tender came over and said something about not seeing us for a while and joked about the reason why. It was a good time just a couple of drinks some fun stories and we met a couple of other foreigners in the oil industry. One was from Chicago living here with his family and the other was from Saudi Arabia, he was a little toasted but still fun to talk to! The next day we got up pretty early and the 3 of us went hiking on Mt. Mitake. It took us almost 3 hours to get there. Its just outside Tokyo but we had to take several trains and a bus. It was a great day. The weather was beautiful, and the trails were practically empty, which was really nice. The Musashi-Mitake Shrine has been there for the last 2000 years.





Before we headed up the trail Scott decided to try one of the Fish on a stick. We were both amazed and completely grossed out. We stuck with the ham and cheese sandwiches we made! LOL (and for my mom and dad I know what your thinking.. Amanda Ham?? I know right!!)



At the begining of the trail there was a few small shops selling souvenirs. They had some pretty cool wooden masks and Buddha's. They were selling some for almost $1000.oo, have no idea why. Needless to say we didn't purchase any. There was also some homes and small inns. Pretty interesting start to the trail.



The trail was pretty steep and rugged at times, we came across some great sites, streams, and waterfalls. My ankle had been hurting for a couple of days so Steve was helping me out and we were taking it a little slow at times to make sure I didn't twist it.








We also saw some pretty HUGE spiders. I looked them up online and I guess they are somewhat poisonous and said that if they bite it can be pretty painful because of their huge fangs.


You should really head over to the smug mug account, there are some pretty good photos there to show you our trip. There were some magnificent rocks and rock walls. Check out these two photos.. notice how small the sign is next to the rock wall!!



Also I finally got a picture of the women's toilet in old areas. Its just a whole in the ground I gotta tell you its not easy or fun.



It was really nice to get out of the city. We went to try to see some fall colors but most of the color was already on the ground. Next weekend we are going to try another spot.

Overall October has been pretty nice here. I guess this time of year is one of the best times of the year.


This is a photo of the sunset over Mt. Fuji!!

I got the need a car blues!! :)

Hi everyone!!

I am coming home in exactly 6 weeks from today!! YEAH! Trying to make some final arrangements! One HUGE thing is a car. Really wishing Detroit area was more like Japan where you can take trains everywhere!! The only option at this point is a rental. And well rental costs plus gas is going to be a pretty big expense. SO we are just sending a note out there to family and friends if anyone happens to have an extra reliable car that I could borrow for 1-3 weeks starting November 8th-30th it would be great help.

You can email me at amanda.droke@onesourcetalent.com if you have any leads!!

Thanks

Yup we had another one!!

September 21st 7:17am. It was Sunday morning and we were actually still in bed. I think I was woken up from the jolt, but didn't realize what it was. I heard a sound like the floor in the living room was cracking and noticed our lanterns in the bedroom were moving so... we were having an earthquake.

It was only a 4.8 but right under our feet almost. It's weird when the earthquakes come from far away you will feel more of a swaying of the building and hear it in the walls. But when they are closer you hear and and feel it more from the floor. Its interesting. Must be the ripple effect. There's been a couple of typhoons also below us down by Taiwan so we had a couple of days of rain and a storm one night from it. The guy who cuts my hair just told me the other day that this summer has been weird that it never rains this much and they normally never have this many earthquakes in this area. I guess some of the Japanese people are getting a little cautious of a bigger one coming. I just hope we are not here. I'm starting to get used to the ones where you feel 1-4. Because I know whats going on. So I really hope we don't experience anything over that.

I think the earthquakes have been one of our biggest adventures since we got here!!:)

You Tube!!

Today I was checking some emails from my mom she forwarded a pretty funny video of Dennis Swanberg - Bengy and the Zipper. Its a little drawn out but worth the wait to the end.

I started searching and watching other videos while on You Tube. I love videos of cute and funny kids and I found this super cute video of a little asian 2 year old girl singing.. you have to watch how cute.

7.0 Earthquake 9/11- 9:21am

There was a rather large earthquake in northern Japan this morning. Didn't quite make it all the way down to Yokohama. However Steve is up north on business trip and got a piece of it. He said it wasn't too bad. Just made him a little dizzy. He said it didn't feel that strong just seemed to last longer then normal. There was a couple of Tsunami warnings but they have all cleared now to thats good. So far can't find any info on damage up there. Its pretty rural up there so in the harder hit areas hopefully there wasn't too many people. Its kinda scary when things like that happen and we are so far from each other, but what can you do. Can't worry about something you can't predict.

Movies in Japan

Steve and I have gone to a few movies here in Japan. It's a tad more expensive. But if we go on Wednesdays after 8pm its cheaper because its ladies night and movies after 8 are cheaper. The only real difference is that you get to pick your seat when you buy tickets. Also, everyone is so quite. Through out the movie you don't hear anyone laugh or react at all. Which is much different. We don't know if thats like a culture thing or if they just don't find it funny or get the humor. We went to see 21 and there was a part where the one guy is talking to his friend and complaining, and his friend says "Well look on the bright side I just saved a bunch of money on my car insurance." You may have to see the movie to find the humor but at the time we both thought it was amusing and no one around us reacted at all. There has been several other things in movies that we have noticed that no one reacts but this past weekend we went to see Hancock and the beginning of that movie is hilarious. Its just completely not a role that you would think to see will smith. And the two of us were cracking up. One scene where there was a group surrounding Will Smith yelling at him and a guy said "She should sue you" and Will Smith says "You should sue McDonalds, they f'd you up".. Hilarious.. no one laughed but us. Maybe you have to be there. But after the movie we were discussing that maybe they just don't get the jokes or something. Well we just wanted to share our Movie going experiences...

Here is the Hancock clip.. there is quite a bit of swearing so just be aware..


Also here is the part from 21 its at the very end got to 8mins if you don't want to watch the beginning.

Photo shoot with Jen and Jay Jay

Lately I have really been working with my camera and starting to learn much more about how to use all the functions. Mostly just basic photography stuff. I think I defiantly have an eye for capturing moments, I just need to learn how to get my camera to portray my ideas and thoughts!

So this past Monday I did the photo shoot for Jen and Jay Jay as I had mentioned in a previous blog. I did a shoot for the Bigbies but it was getting dark and we had limited time due to Larry's practice running late. There were still a couple good ones but not really what I imagined. Here are a couple I like of the Bigbies....









So I was not as happy with their pictures as I was with Jay Jay and Jens. It was a beautiful day out and we were out for about 3 hours. I took a ton of shots, and some I feel are really good. I was pretty proud of myself since I am very amateur, and all I know is what I taught myself. The "feel" of the engagement photos are much like when Steve and I did ours, brought back some great memories! (Our photographer was basel from preciousmemoriesphotography.net) I did all the shots on Manual settings and tried really hard to get the exposure right. The lighting was great because of the beautiful day, at some points with the sun coming through buildings and trees there were a few tough moments with harsh shadows, but overall I really am happy with the pictures, as are they! And that's all that really matters!! I also recently got a new lens for my camera which really helped with getting both near and far shots. If you would like to check them out they are on my smugmug account under Jen and Jay Jay. Feel free to leave some comments of what you think!
Here are a few of my favorites.. since my smug mug has over 600lol.
(Also just want to say I do not have photoshop)














I also want to say I really appreciate Jen and Jay Jay letting me practice on them!! :) As well as the Bigbies, just wish I could have done a better job for them. Just not that good yet in low lighting..