Happy Valentine's Day!

Matt, Happy Valentine's Day from Normandy!
Today, we had a FHE and the lesson was on "love." In the lesson I asked, "How can we show our love to Matt in Egypt?"
Mom, David and Christian all said "do not disturb him! Don't call him but limit the contact via email." So we (or I) decided (forced) to take a cheesy Valentine's picture for you.



By the way, this is the one that did not get approve because David hid his face and Christian did not make a heart.


We kind of celebrated Valentine's Day on Sunday with nice steak dinner prepared by David. On Monday, David and I exchanged gifts. He prepared and made me so happy with surprised Hawaiian theme gifts.


I gave him a Chinese wok since David and Christian love watching Iron Shef.



Sunday was a beautiful day. It was warm and pretty. So we got out of the house and went for a walk. I asked David to take pictures of our Baby and me.



We had a doctor's visit today. She is doing great and David was able to find her very strong heart beat. Two and half more months!

Japan 2010 Trip to Inuyama castle

Inuyama castle is a national treasure built in 1537. It was privately owned till recently. Since my parents were both super busy and no time to take us places, my friend's father thought David and I were so bored everyday, so he took us for sightseeing on his day off. Thank you, Kobayashi no ojisan (= uncle Kobayashi. In Japanese, we call all older men ojisan = uncle, and older women obasan = aunt, even though they are not blood related.)

So this is our little journey with Kobayashi no ojisan.


At 8:15 a.m., we walked across the street from home to meet with Kobayashi no ojisan. Yes, my best friend's house is stone's away from our house. I used to talk with her over the window from my room while she is in her room by the window.


Nagoya is famous for morning set. Many cafes there are open around 6:30 a.m. You can only order a cup of coffee or any kind of drink and get breakfast for free. So this is $3.50 morning set. What more exciting is that the camera we bought online arrived the night before this trip. So, this is the very first picture taken with "food setting," in which we will be using a lot in the future.


Then, we visited kobayashi no ojisan's daughter as well as my best friend, zu-chi, who was living 40 minutes away from home. Her baby, 湊斗　（Minato) kun was already much bigger than when we saw him in June.


Again, David does awesome job holding Minato kun.




Minato did not care the people's noise and slept peacefully.

At 11:30 a.m., we left for the Inuyama castle.


There, we got a free English guide to give us a tour.


Kubuto, an armor.




A view from the top of the castle. Kiso river


The roof has the family symbols. The brick that are yellowish are the ones from over 460 years ago.




Cleansing before entering the shrine property.

When people visit shrine, they often draw omikuji, which is fortune strips. Then, they tie those to wish for good luck regardless of whatever your fortune strip tells you.

Lunch.


Sugar holder.

We also visited a museum after lunch.

Japanese sward.



Wooden sculpture dolls in calabash.


David trying to move a karakuri ningyo, a traditional Japanese doll.

Even the castle was 40 minutes away from home, I had never been there. Love learning my own culture!

Japan 2010 Random things that we don't want to forget.

My friend Ayuko, whom I've known for over 20 years and went to the same elementary, junior high, and high schools together, came by with Asako, another friend from elementary school, to give us wedding gift. Beautiful tea pot set.


Omanto. It's a festival held once a year after the rainy season. All the fathers of the town get together in early morning to make omikoshi, the thing that the kids carry. They start from cutting bamboo. They also make the flutes from bamboo. Once they are done, their children carry it in turn and bring it to the near shrine where they get blessings. Then, they bring the omikoshi back to the town and go around each house to share the blessing. In return, people in the houses give the kids money. After they went around all the houses, they went back to the main house where all the drunken fathers welcome them back. At the end, the older kids distribute money to all the kids. Off course, the older ones get more. I loved this event as a kid.


David learning how to drive in the left side of Japanese skinny road with my dad's big Toyota. We are not yet cleared to drive by dad.


A beautiful family, Imai kazoku, invited us for dinner.


White/green hydrangea from Imai kazoku. We used those for our wedding reception.


What David is eating is a traditional Japanese sweet, fugashi. Fugashi is made of gluten.


Fishing part 2.




The biggest fish of the day.


This is how Okumura family have fun.

Japan 2010 - 石垣島 Ishigaki Island

My testimony was strengthen during the trip to Ishigaki Island.

This is my hero who helped me overcome the trial.


In Ishigaki, David and I stayed at a minshyuku, where people opened up their houses as hotels and rent rooms. Yes, we only paid $10 each, per day. Yes, we did not expect the minshuku to be the 15th floor of a Marriott hotel. But, I did not expect to see cockroach spray in the room and sure enough, we faced cockroaches that night. Having lived for 2 years in Utah, I had not prepared to encounter unexpected Ishigakian cockroaches. I ran, screamed, sprayed, and cried to David that I would rather pay more money to stay at a nicer hotel. His reply, however, shocked me more than anything. He said,

"Really? What's so different than your house in Nagoya?"

...... I lost words. Admittedly, my family's house, being more than 60 years old, has a lot of cockroaches; in fact, I enjoy making cockroach traps and finding them there in the morning. Having lived at home for 20 years, I can easily predict where the cockroaches are at home unlike those in Ishigaki. My poor husband, being asked to understand this illogical reasoning. But man, I love you David. Thank you for calming me down with love and patientience, and thank you for giving me a blessing that I would be o.k. I felt love and protection of God through you from unpredictable evil cockroaches.
Next morning, this is what we found in front of the minshuku.


The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints - Ishigaki Branch, the only branch on this island!!

Thanks to my sweetest husband and the sure sign of God's love, I was able to continue the journey and enjoyed the following:


An awesome boat trip for snorkeling. We not only saw colorful jewel like fish but huge mantas swimming just underneath of where we were floating. Amazing!


Gurukun karaage - Fried Gurukun (a name of the fish), Okinawa's traditional food.

David's desert.

A root beer float, Japanese people think it is like medicine. A&W - a proof of the existence of American military bases.


Kayak through a mangrove forest on 宮良川(miyara river).


We could hear the trees talking; it was like clicking sounds but so mysterious and fascinating.


The mud minerals to beautify our skins. So here we were!

Lunch time.

Japanese pasta salad.


Katsu - fried pork, one of David's favorite dishes. Unfortunately, Nagoya is very famous for katsu, so Okinawa's was not as good for David, who was spoiled by my family in Nagoya.


Can't forget the very best ginger ale that is made in Ishigaki. We visited the factory.


My grandparents and aunt Hisae treated us with a stake lunch for our welcome back from the 2 week trip to Okinawa.

Really?

We made sushi on Saturday to return the favor back to Luis, the Mexican friend, from Mexican fiesta we had.
We mix vinegar with rice to make sushi rice. After eating sushi, David's friends wanted to make rice balls with the left over sushi rice.

Friends: We want to make rice balls!!
Ayae: Really?? You make a rice ball with sushi rice, which has vinegar in it? That is not something Japanese people would do...

I tired to convince them. Did it work? NO. So off they did. Off course, I enjoyed supervising them.


Today, I forgot to take pictures but did DeNeece and Christian's welcome party. Emmetts, Stones, Aunt Rachel, grandpa and grandma, and my friend Yoshimi were there with the Tuellers in Provo. We had great salad, bread (thanks, aunt Marie), spaghetti and spaghetti sauce which we started to cook the previous night (thanks to David's friend, Peter's instruction). Aunt Rachel's sheet cake was heavenly with aunt Anna's cranberry raspberry juice which balanced with the sweetness perfectly. On top of all those, everyone's stomach was empty from fast Sunday; which obviously made the dinner into 5 ★★★★★ rating.
We ended up celebrating Yoshimi's first time to fast for two entire meals. She started with a prayer that she won't be tempted, and sure enough, she defeated the temptation!! As she broke the fast and started eating dinner, she said "this is the most delicious dinner that I ever had in my life" although it was not her mom's wonderful cooking.

In closing this entry, I couldn't help having no pictures of the great food since I am a visual learner and like to keep the record of completion. Therefore, I got up, went to the kitchen, open/unwrap covers, and took pictures of leftover food; in other words, the summary of what we ate.



Now, you can imagine the smiles on the people's face as they savored the night.

Mexican night

Our friend Luis was so kind that he prepared this food all by himself!!! Yes, we want to visit Mexico now.


Heavenly Tacos.


Loved the Sangria drink!



Luis told us that Tamale, the one with the corn busk, takes forever to be cooked so it's best to buy. We had chicken and pork kinds.



Last but not least, he took us to this wonderful ice cream place in Provo. Oh... that was "Es se ve muy chevere" and it was awesome!!