Japanese cab drivers... ughhh

One of the most annoying things about living here is no car. Sometimes its fine I like walking and the trains are fun. But, sometimes you just want to hop in the car and drive home. Well cab drivers make it worse. They drive us bananas. So many times they act like they don't know what we are saying or that we will notice them taking us the long way to make us pay more. Well today we were out an about doing some shopping, the weather is terrible the last week or so rains and thunderstorms everyday. The sun was actually out so we took advantage. While we were out some clouds rolled in and we did a lot of walking in the rain with our umbrella. Well we stopped off for dinner and decided to grab a cab home. He knew exactly where we wanted to go so we were happy about that. We are coming up to our apartment and Steve says in Japanese "right here on the left" the cabby said "hi" (yes).. then sped up (the meter said 710).. so we were confused got up a little further to the Urban Tower (Steve said again right here is ok). He sped up around the corner. So then we both leaned in and was like what are you doing and Steve said please right here. He went up a little further the meter changed to 800 and he stopped. What kind of crap is that. The most blatant attempt to charge us more. Sure its only like 90 cents but its the fact that every cab driver does it to us. Just annoyed thought Id vent! :) We're off to bowling tonight with friends who will be leaving this week :(

Balcony Bug!! :)

So this week has been pretty uneventful until today!! :) I was just getting ready to head to the gym when my friend Jen called me. There are hundreds of these bugs called cicada everywhere. They are mostly up in trees you can't see them but you can hear them, they make this loud screaming noise. Anyways my friend Jen called, she wanted to lay out on her balcony but one of these bugs was camped out. It was flipped over so she thought it was dead. Turns out it wasn't because when she went to grab it, it started to scream at her. So she called for help. I have no idea why I had the guts but I went up there. I was on my way to the gym so it was no biggie just to run up there and see if I could do anything. Anyways I got it trapped in a Tupperware container too afraid to throw it over in case it retaliated so ended up throwing it away. But the video is pretty funny. Jen was freaking out so much she really wasn't taping it but its still funny to listen to how ridiculous we were being. Also you can even here it screaming when I started to trap it. Its hard because we were both freaking out on whether it was actually in there.

August 22nd, 2008

Not much is going on this week. Steve was back to work from his holiday and I was also back to work. I am planning a trip home in November for a few weeks around Thanksgiving. Its going to be great to see everyone! I can't wait. Unfortunately Steve will be unable to take that much time off so we are planning a 5-7 day vacation in Thailand when I get home December 1st. We are going to Phuket. Its supposed to be a beautiful tropical area and everything is really cheap. We want to stay in a bungalow on the beach and go elephant trekking and snorkeling. It should be a nice getaway before Steve starts winter test. And then once winter is over we will both be heading home for a trip in April!

Steve will be going on a work trip the first 2 weeks of September. I'm going to miss him tons. But my friends are still here so we are planing a few things. This week I took some photos of Lauren's daughter who is 2. It was a lot of fun and the first time I have done anything like that for someone. It defiantly got the wheels turning. So during those 2 weeks I am going to be doing family photos for her of the 3 of them. And then another friend Jen wants me to do some engagement type pictures around town of her and her husband. They got married right before they came here at the court house so they didn't get to do engagement pics. They are planning a big wedding/reception when they get home!
Should give me some good experience and practice with my camera, and I am really excited about doing them.

So thats about all that is going on. Coming into the weekend here, we are mostly just going to be hanging around the apartment.

We hope everyone is doing well!!

My Smugmug Favorites!

If you are new to the blog and our smugmug account it can be a little overwhelming to get caught up on all that is going on plus there are tons of photos!! So we made a folder for all of our smumug favorites! We think its a good sample of our trip and will be updating it frequently. I am not all that good at keeping up on this blog. I'm going to try to do it more often, however we update our smugmug account basically after every photo taken!! So you will always be able to see new things there!!

We miss everyone a ton! And can't wait to see everyone again!!

It was a beautiful night!

The other night we were out doing some shopping for a couple of things we are sending home. We stopped off at the Hawaiian Burger restaurant
for dinner and then walked home along the parks and water. It was so clear and I happened to have my camera on me. This picture is the night view of the beautiful city that we live in!
A Japanese lady was passing by and asked if she could take a picture of the two of us it turned out great and it was really nice of her to ask! (And she asked in english):)

Summer fun!

We have done a couple of other things this summer and enjoying our time here. We went to a city called Kamakura it is the home of the Great Buddha it stands over 30 feet tall. It was truly an amazing thing to see. Around the area there were more shrines and temples.
Some you were not allowed to photograph. And it would be hard to give them justice. We even got to make wishes!
There was also a beautiful Koi pond.
Please take the time to view more pictures at smug mug!

We also went to the zoo. Its been pretty hot out so most of the animals were asleep but we did get to see a few.

There has also been a few festivals and car shows in our area.

Nothing to big but we did get to see a fantastic fireworks show from out apartment.
Next year we want to look up other cultural summer festivals to attend.

Steve's boss from the US, Jan, was in town along with a couple of German employees so we all went out to dinner, Karaoke and to a bar called Motown Cafe. It was our first all nighter in Tokyo. See here the trains stop at about midnight so if your not on the last train home your basically stuck until the 5am morning train. I didn't think we would be able to make it all night but it was really fun. Probably one of the most fun nights we have had here.
Karaoke was much different then the states, it was a private room and you all just sit around and sing together. No one sang when I did but we all sang for the rest of the songs! The Motown Cafe was interesting, it was packed with people from all over the world. We did meet a couple of surfers (they were brothers) from Cali. But they were two sheets to the wind when we met them so we didn't talk long! They were amusing though.
On the way home the trains were filled with people who were partying all night. Some were passed out. A guy next to me had fallen asleep and ended up on my lap. We jumped up to the other side and he never moved.


We also went to Sea Paradise yesterday. It was so hot out and extremely busy. We still got to see a lot but would have defiantly been more enjoyable another time of the year. There was a huge aquarium, Dophins, Polar Bears, Penguins, a fantastic mammal show and rides. We only did the one coaster because most of the other rides were carnival rides.




Near the park was a beach and marina area so tomorrow we are possibly going back to check that out!

Other then that just enjoying our trip and trying to do as much as we can. Its a little tough because the summer is the biggest vacation time and its extremely hot out so sometimes its tough to get out in the heat. I had to get my hair cut because I just couldn't stand the heat anymore.

Thunderstorm

We finally had our first thunderstorm here a few weeks ago. It was pretty interesting. And I think its only the beginning, since typhoon season is fast approaching! The lightning was so close that the thunder literally felt like an earthquake. I was watching from the balcony and the lightning was touching down in the water. I have never seen it so close before. I was on the phone with Steve (he was at work) and he was cracking up and me going "wow, whow, omg, that was so close" I don't think he thought I was over exaggerating so I got a picture of the lightning...

Baseball and the girls!

So I met a girl named Cori down in the market around May. She also lives in our apartment building, and has a 18 month old daughter named Harper. They are here because of her husband's (Travis) job. We exchanged numbers and soon got together for lunch about a month later. She brought 2 other American girls along (Jen and Lauren) who also live in the building and all of their husbands "work together"! Well before going to lunch I was thinking their husbands were also engineers. They are actually wives of the professional baseball team here in Yokohama called the Yokohama Bay Stars. I was a little intimidated at first. But they are all super nice, down to earth, fun girls. Lauren also has a 2 year old daughter, Madison. Through out the summer we have meet a couple of the other players as well. A couple actually have been going between the minors and the majors. And then a little later in the Summer another wife got to town, her name is Angela and she has 2 kids Michael (2) and Madelyn (6 months). So its been a fun summer getting to know everyone and hanging out. We went to a minor's game a while ago and just went to a Bay Stars game just the other day. It was pretty exciting. The crowd is crazy, there is a band playing and cheering non-stop. The Bay Stars are not doing that well this year but they pulled out a win for us! The final score was 8-12. They would have blown them away but they kinda lost it at the end and let 5 runs in, in the 9th. We hope to maybe get in another game before the season is up! A couple of them may be back next year along with some new comers. So hopefully we will be able to meet up again next summer! Oh also the other day when we went to the Baystars game there was this super cute half American half Japanese girl who was making faces to everyone behind her. So I snagged a couple of shots of her. I was going to give her mom and dad my website to get the pics but we were so packed in I couldn't get out before they left. You can see more pics of her and the rest of the game at the smugmug website!

Julia and Lucas

Its been a while since we last wrote. I guess it has been a busy summer!
Over the summer I was teaching (well helping) 2 Brazilian kids, Julia and Lucas, living here in Japan with their English. They will be moving to Michigan and living in the Farmington Hills area in about 2-3 years. The family has been here since January. We had about 8 hours of classes per week. We did things like reading, creative writing, grammar, watched movies, trips to the zoo, the park, amusement park and the grocery store. They were a lot of fun and learned quickly. I was truly amazed at how much kids can learn in such a short amount of time. I felt by the end of the summer we were really starting to communicate well.