Hakone for a Day!

Since we have a car now, we decided to drive to Hakone for the day. We used the Navi in the car to get us there and it took us up a road that was the road from hell. It turned into a small winding road but we got to Hakone in record time. We wanted to go to the Open Air museum so we parked by the lake and used the ropeway. We had a great time and stopped by the black egg place on the way back. Oh, and Mt. Fuji was beautiful!

We could have taken the nice highway up to Hakone but instead took this two lane backroad.

The gondola at the bottom.

The girls on the ropeway.

Going down!

Ready to go in.

At the museum!

 The sulfur vents.

 The man getting the boiled eggs.

The eggs turn black in the water. The boiled eggs are supposed to be good for you.

 Beautiful!

Love this shot!

Fuji!

Christmas in Tokyo

We had a terrific time in Tokyo with Joanna's brother Peter. He was a fantastic host and made ANOTHER incredible Christmas dinner!

Tokyo Tower during the day.

Tokyo Tower at night!

Still love the Roppongi signs.

Beautiful!

Love them!

A different view.

Having a great time with family and friends!

Alex and Basketball

I know that in the near future I'll be looking back on these days and remembering how great it was to watch Alex play basketball. His game has improved so much and today they won both games in a tournament and his team is in the top eight. In the first game, Alex played the first quarter and five minutes of the last quarter as his team won 109-34. The second game was much more challenging but his team ended up winning by 25 points and he went down in the fourth quarter with leg cramps. He jumped for a rebound once, twice, then three times and went to the ground with about three other opposing team players and stayed on the ground. I saw him lift his leg up in the air and I knew it must be cramps. He ended up sitting out the rest of the game. In a few weeks they face a team that schooled them in this same tournament. Hopefully they'll do better the next time around.

We had a beautiful drive along the Izu Peninsula on the way to his game.

Alex didn't have much to do in the first game.

Rachel was SO excited to watch Alex play!

 Alex going up for the shot.

This is the way Alex shoots! Just kidding. He's going up for a rebound!

I think someone was pulling out a wedgie during the game!

What Happened to Japanese and United States Relations?

We went to one of Alex's tournaments last year and walked through a tunnel under an intersection and found the border between Japan and the United States!

But when we went back to the same tournament this year...the border had been erased! What has happened to our relationship with Japan?

Salad?

A few weeks ago I asked Alex what he was eating and he said, "A salad!" After closer inspection, I realized his definition of a salad was imitation crab, wieners, and a stick of string cheese!

And We Never Get Tired

I don't know why but I never get tired of seeing Mt. Fuji. There is something mesmerizing about it!

Pumpkeen!

We were at the store and saw some things on sale including...Pumpkeen snacks!

Shopping on Amazon.com.jp

You never really know what you are buying on Amazon.com.jp.  There is a picture and the button that says: Add to the cart is in English.  The general description is however still in Japanese.
We have been doing most of our Christmas shopping online, but have been surprised when things arrive.  I told Alex the other day, "Sorry, I had a problem with one of your presents today" and he said, "I don't care".  I told him to remember on Christmas morning that he said that so he won't be totally disappointed with his gift. (Tell you later what it is).
This past weekend, Januck ordered an address book because ours is looking old and it is hard to find info in it with crossed out addresses. He finally found one that had A,B,Cs rather than the Japanese letters. It came yesterday and it is so much smaller than he expected.  It is an adventure!

Early Christmas Package from the Ontiveros'

Wow!  Were we surprised when we got this package last night from the Post Office.  Hilda and Michael - THANK YOU SO MUCH!  We are of course craving Mexican food with good beans and salsa.  The candy and gum are a treat because we can't get black licorice, cinnamon flavored candy and sugarless gum here in Japan.  We will be dividing all the candy equally between the three of us-Sorry, Rachel but you can get this in Michigan where you are living now.   You guys are the best!

Fall in Japan

We went from hot to cold this Autumn in Numazu.  We hiked on Sunday to Mt. Kannuki and saw some leaves changing but not much.  Januck was happy to find two Geocaches.  It is nice to have a car to drive to Seiyu (which is the Japanese Walmart) to grocery shop.  We bought a rice container because Januck makes rice every day in our rice pot for our lunches.
This week we have school all week.  Thanksgiving is not celebrated here and most of my students have never tasted turkey.  I am relieved I don't feel pressured to shop on Black Friday.  Things are a lot simpler here but there are things about the States I do miss.  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Only In Japan Episode VIII

Okinawa

I recently went to Okinawa which is an island off of Japan. It was amazing and the island itself was beautiful. Our first hotel was right by the ocean so we had amazing view of the beach and we were able take a dip in the water the first day. We had so many activities all crammed into one day so it was very busy but overall fun! We went kayaking and some went snorkeling and we got to go into caves which were pitch black. Also, the food was nice and the ice-cream flavors were interesting like coconut and shikwasa, which is a type of Okinawan fruit. All in all, 3 days felt like a year and I wish we could've stayed there forever.

-Alex Polikaitis

Bad Cold

This cold sucks. I started to feel it on Monday. Took vitamins and got medicine from the doctor. It progressively got worse as the week went on and now it's Saturday and it feels like my head is about to explode. Hopefully two day of rest will help me shake this thing.

Epic Fail!!!!!

This was my feeble attempt at getting video of one of the sumo wrestlers as he came to the tournament. It is so cool because the higher ranked wrestlers come to the arena by car or taxi and the fans are roped off but can see them as they come in. Unfortunately, I installed the new iPhone operating system that morning and hadn't gotten the hang of it yet!

Sumo Today!

We are heading to Tokyo today to watch the September Sumo Tournament! It should be a lot of fun!

This is Hakuho who is the Grand Champion. He is 6-0 and is leading in the tournament. Can't wait to watch him win!

Stocks

Who knew? We wanted to transfer some money into Alex's custodial stock account with Sharebuilder. Little did we know that you have to be a resident in the U.S. to use the service we've been using for 10 years. They told us that they have to shut down all of our accounts and we need to find a brokerage firm here in Japan to transfer our stocks into. Yeah right, like we'll be able to do that since everything here is in English...NOT! Spending my Sunday trying to find an international brokerage firm and it has not been easy. All of the U.S. firms require that you live in the U.S.

Alex!

What an amazing son we have! After coming home from work, I told Alex that we had to take the recycling out (if you live in Japan, then you know what I mean) so we went through the glass bottles and got them ready. He went to take them out and asked me to start on the plastic bottles and cans since we had a lot because we were in America the last recycling day and missed it. I went out to the side of the house and there was nothing there. It took me a minute but then I realized he had already taken everything out already! Your mother and I truly appreciate you Alex!

Attention!

This just cracks me up! Attention!!!!! But I can't read the rest...

False Advertising!

This wasn't even close to what the packaging showed!

Yakiniku King!

Last Friday, Alex and I went to our favorite meat place where you grill your own meat. Yes, we are also grilling corn!

Lightning and Thunder Madness

On Wednesday of last week we had some thunderstorms roll through and it was an experience like never before. The lightning shut down our computer twice and knocked out the internet. I can't ever remember having lightning and thunder happen simultaneously. We could even smell burning in the air. Luckily, everything is back to normal now.

The shaking in the video is Alex and I grabbing onto each other because it scared us so badly.

I got a nice shot of a lightning bolt but I can't believe I stopped the video right when it happened.

The Ear Doctor

When Rachel was young she always seemed to get ear infections when she was sick. We started taking her to the ear doctor who gave her medicine to try to heal her. When that didn't work, he would slice her eardrum to relieve the pressure. It was a horrible experience for her and for us. I used to have to hold her down as the doctor would put the knife down her ear and slice the eardrum. She would call the doctor "idiot" in Japanese and cry out for the Japanese character Anpan Man to come and save her. We took a trip to Singapore to visit Joanna's brother and family and sure enough she got an ear infection. We took her to the doctor and she immediately threw a tantrum. The doctor took us into his office and questioned us as to why she seemed so traumatized. We explained our situation in Japan and he understood and told us not to go to the clinic anymore and that we should look into putting tubes in her ears. We eventually took her to Tokyo and had tubes put in which solved the problem.

Joanna and I were walking near downtown when we passed the familiar sign. Yes, the ear doctor's office. I got chills as we passed by. Never again.

Alex and Adam did a great job with this one!

Denny's in Japan

Well, it was Saturday night date night and we decided to go to...Denny's! It's a bit different from the Denny's back in America.

Joanna entering our local Denny's. 

 Mmmm...Delicious Potato Fries with not ketchup but...Fish Egg sauce.

 Januck's traditional Japanese Denny's dinner!

 Joanna's Salmon Patty dinner!

The amazing Japanese Parfait!