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!!