Merry Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Here is the beginning of our 4th Christmas together. We got up at about 8:30am and then read the Christmas story from the book of Matthew and then opened presents.

We had stockings for This and That and they both had fun with the play mice that we got them. Robert and I LOVE all of our gifts thank you EVERYONE! We got way more than expected and deserved!

Our Christmas letter.

Well, we are still in Rexburg, ID going to school. We are both attending BYU-Idaho. I, Lois, will graduate in mid July with a bachelors degree in biology. Robert just changed his major to communications. He just finished a very hard semester and came out with 3 A, 1 A-, and 1B. He is doing very well in school with an over all GPA of somewhere around a 3.66. He is also working early early mornings at FedEx Ground (5:00am til about 8:00am Monday- Friday). I am headed back to school in January and will finish in July as mentioned before. For the fall semester I was working at Melaleuca. I have been working there for just over a year now. I work evening Monday-Friday. I am not really sure what to do with my degree so if anyone has any suggestions, let me know.

Well, for our family it is still just Robert and me. We do have the two most amazing cats. They are sisters that we got last year around Thanksgiving (2006) time. Their names are This and That. They pretty much make up for the longing we have to have children. They are so much fun!

For Christmas this year we are staying here in Rexburg because Robert has to work. We are sad to not be going to see family for Christmas, but excited to start our own Christmas together. Here are a few pictures of our wonderful amazing cats.

Thanksgiving and Hunting

Robert and I went to Montana on Wednesday. Alan drove us up to Bozemen where my mother then picked us up. We traveled to Kalispell where we had Thanksgiving dinner with my aunt Phyllis. At about 2:00 Thursday morning on our way to my aunt's we were passed by a pick up truck that could not seem to stay on the road. There was a lot of fog and the roads were a little wet, but not icy yet. When he came back over into the lane in front of us he went over the white line by several feet. All three of us in the car knew for sure that he was drunk. All of us were thinking, we wouldn't be suprise to see him off the road in a ditch after awhile. Sure enough, we saw that same truck rolled over on the opposite of the road in the ditch.

His headlights and engine were still on when we came upon him and so we think that it had only happened maybe 2-3 minutes earlier. This happened about 10 minutes after he passed us. We called 911 and Robert got out of the car to go and check on him. He was fine and said that he was not hurt or bleeding. The car was laying on the passenger side and he was suspended by his seat belt. He was only about 3-5 feet from hitting a telephone pole. Man was this guy REALLY lucky!! All he cried about after he knew that we were there was that he wanted us to get him out, however, 911 advised us to wait until someone got there. A cop came fairly quickly and then we waited around until everyone else came so that we could see how he really was. Yeah, pretty much he was just drunk. There were SO many cars that came out to the accident. We wrote a statement and then left. We got to Phyllis's house at about 4:30ish that morning and then were in bed at about 5:00 or a little after. Robert and I slept most of the day until dinner. We ate dinner and that is as exciting as Thanksgiving got for us.

Today, when Robert and I got up we decided to go hunting with my mom and dad. Tomorrow was the last day of hunting season and so mom really wanted to use the tag that she had bought. So, we drove down their road about a mile until it dead ended and then turned around. On the way back everyone was looking for deer out to the sides of the road and then I looked up in front of us and there was a young buck just starting to cross the dirt road. I said stop and that buck just stood there and looked at us. My mom got out of the car and started to get ready, and then he started to walk across the road. Robert then whistled and the deer stopped and just stared again. My mom then aimed and shot the buck down. One Shot!!

We drove the 50-100 yards to the deer that was down in the road and then my dad shot him in the head just to make sure. We weren't quite sure where my mom hit the buck until we skinned it. My mom gutted it right there on the spot and then we put it on the hood of the car and drove it back to the house. It was like a 2-3 minute drive. When we got it here at the house Robert and I then had to finish getting the vital organs out. We had to take out the heart, lungs, liver and a kidney. I think that my mom got one of the kidneys because we only took one out. I got kind of grossed out the first time that I stuck my hand in to pull out the organs because it was still warm. Every other time that I have done anything like cutting up an animal it has been really cold and so, it was a shock to me. I soon got over it and helped to take out the insides. We then went to lunch. Before lunch we hung it in the rafters of my parents garage for it to finish bleeding.

After lunch we skinned it; while skinning it we found where my mom hit it. It was just above the shoulder, but a little high for the heart and lungs. Most likely when she hit it she paralized it. My mom found the bullet just inside the skin on the other side from where she shot it. It was a pretty clean shot. Nice work, mom! I got a small amout of meat that was on the ribs in between the layers of fat and cooked that up. The meat still had quite a bit of connective tissue/fat on it and so it is really chewy, but it tastes good to me. That was our fun day today. Hunting didn't last long, but we now have some yummy young buck meat and it was a new experience.

Our Trip Home to the USA

Well, on October 30 Robert and I left Japan to come back to the united States to get our working visas. We had been working in Japan since September without our visas. We were told by our employer and also the lady that hired us here (in Utah) that it was done all the time in Japan and that the government doesn't really care about it. Anyway... We were leaving for the U.S. on Sunday and it was on the Thursday before when, out of my own curosity, I decided to ask what exactly it was that we had to do to obtain a visa. So, then the "head teacher" told me that we needed to go to the American consulate while we were in America. So, I guess that it was a good thing that I asked, because I had assumed that when we came back into Japan that they would issue us our visas. Boy was I worng and so was the "head teacher". The "head teacher" also told me that I needed to talk to my big sister to find out how to do things. However, this is not her job and I told him that. I told him that it was my boss, Miyuki's, job but he disagreed with me and then told me that it was the contact in Utah, Anne-Marie's, job to tell me/us what it is that I/we needed to do to obtain a visa. So, we leave Japan and fly into Salt Lake City on Sunday October 30, 2005. Our friends Alan and Shelley pick us up at the airport and take us back to Rexburg, where we were trying to go. We needed to go back to Rexburg to take care of some personal things that had gotten screwed up because we left way sooner than expected to go to Japan in September. (Robert and I had previously talked and arranged with Miyuki for us to have 5 business days to take care of personal business while in the United States, which was an exception that she told us she would make. Normally we would have gone to Korea like any other teacher.) On Monday we slept most of the day because of jet lag. However, I did try to look up on-line what it was that I/we needed to do to get our visas. So right there is when we put our Visas in higher priority than our own business. I was looking at the UNITED STATES consulate sites as instructed by the "head teacher" and this is why I couldn't find anything. So, when I could find nothing at these sites, I wrote an email to my brother who has previously been to Japan a number of times and also my sister Kira, who is working for the same company, asking how to obtain our visas. My brother is the one who emailed me back with the website and information that I needed to find the information that I/we would need for a visa online. Robert and I are staying with friends because we are trying to save Miyuki money by not staying in a hotel. Well, Alan and Shelley do not have a house phone, all they have are cell phones and so we had no access to a phone for most of the day when they are at school/work. Tuesday we went to my sister Cheri's house about 100 miles away. She let me use her phone and also her computer to find some things out. I called to JAPANESE consulate and they informed me that we would need a certified marriage certificate for Robert to obtain a dependant visa. Miyuki still had our only certified copy of our marriage certificate back in Japan. So, then right away I looked up the town that we were married in and gave them a call to obtain a certified marriage certificate. They informed me that I would have to mail everything, because they need the money for it up front and they do not accept credit or debit cards. So, then the next day I sent a written request to get a certified marriage certificate, as instructed by the County Clerk's office. That day (Tuesday) we emailed Miyuki and let her know what was going on and that it would most likely take longer than expected. We told her what the problem was and that we were not sure how long it would take, but ESTIMATED a time frame for her. We also asked her if she would want us to try to go to the consulate and save time, or to do our visas by mail and save money. She told us to do it the less expensive away, so we stayed here in Rexburg and waited for our marriage certificate. Robert and I had all of our personal business taken care of within those days that we were initally given. Well, it took longer than expected to get our marriage certificate. When we got our certificates we mailed them into the consulate. Then the next day, Friday November 15, 2005, after we informed our boss of where we were in the process, she fired us that next day. She did not and has not told us why we are fired. We have asked her for information two times, concerning our termination, and she has not responded. We are hearing that there are rumors that are untrue about us going around with other workers and owners in Japan and we hope to clear all of those rumors up. This is a breif story of what happened and I did not write some of the rude emails that we recieved or how long it took us to get a reply from Miyuki on many things that we need(ed) and have requested.
One more thing that I want to mention is that she did email us and asked us for a phone number where she could reach us. So, Robert and I decided that the best way for her to get a hold of us according to her schedule and make sure that she had plenty of opportunities throughout the day and night to call us was for us to check into a hotel. So we did. We never recieved a phone call from her and we stayed in that hotel for 2 nights. Within those two nights, we were out of our hotel room for less than 4 hours total. There was voicemail available so we know that there was no call from her during that time. I contacted my parents and they told me that Anne-Marie(the English School Recruiter) was trying to get a hold of us as well. So, we called her and left a voice message with the hotel # and our room # and she never called us either.
We tried to communicate and make ourselves available to talk with those who were trying to contact us, however, we are being accused of not explaining or informing people of what was going on. We also were limited on resources because we were staying with friends. I hope this helps everyone understand a little better now that they know our side of the story. So, please if you hear rumors or gossip about us correct those spreading the rumors on what is true and false, or just refer them to this website. Or, have them email me asking questions because I am not afraid to share the truth of what has happened.

Robert's Birthday

Happy Birthday Robert! We didn't do anything really specail. At our friends Toni and Enrique's house I made him a birthday dinner and invited Alan and Shelley over. He requested teriyaki chicken and rice. That is what I made for him. Then later we had three more couples over and ate chocolate peanut torte. It was a lot of fun, but something very low key like Robert wanted. It was good. He talked to most of his family and was able to explain to them what was going on with out job in Japan.

Halloween in Japan

What did we do for Halloween? Well, we had to work at a Halloween party for Gem School. It was actually pretty fun! Robert dressed as a pirate and Lois went as a soccer player. At the party we were assigned specific stations at a certain time and would entertain the children and their parents. At first all we did was just go around mingling with the people and showing and checking out costumes. There was also some Halloween music playing in the background, the CD was created mostly for young children. Thankfully there were a ton of people. But it was great to see many of our students and their costumes and also meet the parents. Some costumes were really good and it reminded us of home and others really sucked and still reminded us of home!!

Before Halloween Robert was disappointed because he didn't get to dress up as anything scary and didn't think he was going to be able to scare anyone this year, but he did get some in. Now, Japan does not celebrate Halloween so the people here are naturally jumpy and afraid of things that are dead or spooky or what have you. At least that is what was said by a student. For example, there was another teacher there dressed as a mummy with an afro sandals, and very little blood coming from his mouth and some kids practically wet themselves! So, a guy gave Robert this box that said "trick- or- treat" on the front of it and had two doors that opened as well. The back had a hole where one could fit there arm inside and get a piece of candy and reach through another whole where the door opens and scare the poop out of any unsuspecting person. So, Robert found many different ways to scare children and even their parents. (even though they kinda knew what was going on or even witnessed the person before them getting scared) He was satisfied because he got his scares!

After mingling we had our stations. Lois was in charge of a craft station where they made trick or treat cans. The people were told to bring a soup can and then they would decorate it. Robert was in charge of working the pumpkin carving. Go figure. Let's just say that even though he likes to play with knives he's not the best at carving pumpkins. We believe he was chosen because the giant pumpkin they got was rotting and very stinky. He did the carving as people watched. It was kinda cool...yeah...but anyway. As you can see there isn't much to write about the pumpkin carving other than it was like playing in a large pile of hot garbage and corpses on the hottest day of the year with over 100% humidity in Death Valley, California!! Or pretty close to it. But he made the best of it and actually enjoyed it!

Following the stations was the "Dance Party". Now the idea was great, but one of the songs chosen was pretty lame. We did the Macarena, the Chicken dance, and the Hoky Poky. The Hoky Poky and chicken dance were ok considering our main objective was to teach kids how to do these dances, but the Macarena was Ridiculous! (That's right you see a capital 'R' on that). Who in there right mind wants to teach a bunch of little kids to do the Macarena. We sure as heck didn't, but we had to anyway. It was pretty tough to teach upward of an estimated 500 or so people, young and old, to do something as stupid as the Macarena. Robert thinks he saw a kid with a toy sword or light saber perform a ceremonial suicide on himself--Rightfully so!! Robert thinks the kid should have just destroyed the cd player or even taken out the teachers doing the dance. Robert would have joined the darkside and slain anyone attempting to do the wannabe Latin Sobriety Test. Some of Robert's students and a few other kids tried to do it, but their parents were saying it was too hard. The other songs worked out way better.

Just before the end of the party we did a judging for the best costume and and then awarded them with gift bags. The winners were nothing impressive because they were chosen with time constraint so that's all there is to say about that! After that we did a massive trick or treat session and ended our fiasco. Thus concludes our Halloween night in the Land of the Rising Sun!

Lois's Birthday

Monday, was Lois's birthday and it started off slow. We were able to sleep in and then take our time getting ready. Right as we were getting ready to get into the shower Kira, Jessica and Pat arrived at our house. While I was showering Robert and the girls were setting up a party in the other tatami room (living room with woven bamboo carpet). So when I was ready for the day I came into a party. That was really nice and thoughtful. I opened some gifts and then we were all really hungry so we went out to lunch. I wanted to go to a buffet because those are my favorite and so we went on a hunt to try and find it. Well, we drove around about one hour looking for the "better one" and then gave up and went to the place that we already knew. This buffet was called the Yakiniku Viking and we had been to it once before. It is way yummy! You chose your our raw meat and then cook it at your table. There is a grill that is in the center of the table that you cook your meat or vegitables on. It was sooo good! They also have a bunch of fried foods, soups, rice and curry that are all all-you-can-eat. It is a great way to try a lot of differnt Japanese foods without wasting the food or a lot of extra money.
After that a bunch of our friends had all put money into a envelope and gave it to me so that I would be able to buy myself an iPod because that is was I was wanting. So, we went to the PCDepot (computer store) and we were looking at them awhile. I finally decided to buy one and when I went to pay for it they said that they could not oder the instructions in English and so I just went without and thought that I will just get one when we get to the USA. So, that didn't work out and we went home. When we got home a friend from work came over and we had cake and ice cream.
After that party we went to karaoke. That was quite fun. It is a little weird it is just a bunch of tables and chairs with really no room to dance. And it made me sick because the smoke in the room. It was REALLY bad! After the two hours of singing I thought that ice cream might be nice and so we went to the mall (YouMe Town) and had good old Baskin Robins. Yummy! I was a great birthday! Thank you everyone! Then it was time to go home and Robert and I watched Newies and went to bed. That was my (Lois's) 22nd birthday!

Nothing much going on here.

Well, we have been up to nothing but work. Today is Lois's Birthday! Happy Birthday!
Nothing cool going on here. We have a Halloween party this weekend to go to and hopefully that will be eventful. Maybe we will write more later today and tell ya'll how Lois's birthday went. There was a small little party last night where she had a carmel popcorn cake. It was delicious, real American sweets. The treats here aren't so sweet and so Kira made it for me. And she has REAL AMERICAN brown sugar that we can't seem to find anywhere in Japan. Talk to you all later.

Another Festival

Well, on Monday night we went to another festival. This one was in a town called Kotohira at a shrine called Konpirasan that we have been to before. It is the shrine with all the stairs, 1368 stairs to be exact, that we climbed all the way to the top before. However, this time it was the God that was coming down and we were not allowed up the stairs and so we were at the street below and there was this really big parade. Well, maybe it wasn't all that big. It was the slowest moving parade that I have ever seen! And because it was so slow it seems soooooo long. Really it was long, but it seemed ten times longer than it was. The parade started at nine o'clock and it finished just before midnight. It was similar to the chosa festival in that each town was able to have a group of their dances to represent them in the parade. It was cool to look at all of the different ways they dresses, but after about the forth SLOW moving town it got old. What each town did is most of had a man who was twirling this stick about 3 feet long all over the place. He was twirling it on his back, around his head, with an open palm, and any other interesting way that he could. That was cool to watch, like I said for the first three or four times. Then in after that guy they would have four guys carrying two huge wood boxes that were filled with something really heacvy on a six foot wood pole. They would carry these and then shake them so they would rattle and make noise. Robert got the chance to try and shake it to make noise and was able to go so a little bit. Some of the towns had a couple of guys that were carrying poles that were at least thirty feet in length and they would swing them from at their waste and come just close enough to your head to scare you and swing them away. It was really cool and amazing how much control they had over these things. After these guys, then came about eight to ten other men who would throw these enormously long poles with something on the end to each other and catch them. Out of about 100 total people throwing I never saw on fall. There were several that might have gotten close, but never did fall. These poles were probably twenty to twenty-five feet long. The poles varied in length a little bit with each town and the weight thing on the top was a different design on each towns poles. After all of the towns there was a couple young girls who were being carried and young boys riding horses. I asked the Japanese lady we went with, Chitomi, and she that they parents just pay for their children to ride in those and there was nothing to special about them. Funny though when I asked her she did not know and had to ask around herself. (Just as a little side note, the people here don't know much about the temples and shrines around here. It seems that only a few people and the monks know even what they are for and which shrine has which God in them. It is a little weird, I think, but it just seems that their religion is not practice so much anymore and so they don't learn it really ever unless the seek it themselves.) After the rich childern there was a long line of priests and monks and I think just other people who were involved with the shrine. There was a group who were playing bamboo instruments kind of like flutes and other variations of wind instruments. That was really cool to see and hear! Then finally came the shrine or God. Everyone told us that it was the God that they were bringing down, but when it came by it looked more like a shrine. It was PURE gold. I don't even remember another color being on there. Many monks were carrying it. It looked like there were more people carrying it then the chosas and I know that it was a LOT smaller and lighter. It was cool to see. We asked why there preformed that way in the parade and they said that it had been that way for centuries. This was a really old tradition and people seem to all know about the event, but not anything behind why they do it and what it is all about. I bet if I could talk to the monks they would know but not the average person on the streets. It was another great experience that allowed us to see old Japan and yet see the culture that they have now. It was fun!

Our first Japanese festival

We went to Toyohama on Saturday night when we got off of work to go to the Chosas festival because we were told that it was huge and that it was really cool. It turns out that they were done by the time that we got there that night and so Kira made us Amercan hambugers and french fries. It was good! We then went to ice cream and played the Totally Insane Card Game for a while. It was fun. Then the next day we got up late heard drums outside. She ran out to the street where they were and that was our first look at the Chosas. They were huge and cool looking. Jessica (Kira's housemate) and I ran back inside to get our cameras. While we were gone Robert had a nice encounter with quite a few drunk guys. When we returned they were all over him and tried to speak the little English that they knew to all of us. Robert then told me this story of what happened to him while we were gone. They were all trying to shake his hand or even give him a handshake and one guy was asked him where he was from and Robert told him America, and then Oregon State. His guy then grabbed Robert's chest and said BIG. Robert wasn't quite sure what to do and then the Japanese guy reached down and grabbed his package and said big too. Robert quicky slaped the guys hand away and said "No man I don't hang on that side of the stree!" Japanese people have no concept of a personal bubble or personal boundries. Thankfully I have never been touched or grabbed! I hope it stays that way for a whole year!
We went to a Chosas festival yesterday and it was great! Chosas (I think that that might be how you spell it) are these giantic things that look like something that carry Gods in or royal people inside of a large carriage and you carry it on your shoulders. HOwever, there were more than 50 people carrying these things and they weighted over 2 tons! They all had REAL gold tassels on them and they were mostly red and gold. They all had ornate wood work and dragons and other very Japanesey looking decorations! They looked very cool but I would describe them as gaudy as well. They would usually have 2 or 3 people standing in this little box type thing on top that had no covering and then there would be like 2 or 3 people inside under that open box playing drums. Then there would be about 4 people who were standing on the wood poles that were used for carrying who were leading chants and directing those holding it what to do. I guess that we found out that they were on wheels as they more of drug them through town, but still those things are like 2 tons! Jessica found one of her former students from GEM school and she took us around and got us a great view of the thing as well as had us get pictures ON the Chosa. She told us alittle bit about what was going on and that made it so much cooler. She is the one who told us that it was all real gold. Also so told us a little about what it was for. Basically all of the neighborhoods in Toyohama have a Chosa and yesterday was the day that they all came together and celebrated for the rice harvest. So, they walk they the streets of the town and then meet at this big dirt area and there are 25 of them. We followed Akio around (Jessica's student) to her neighborhood and hung out there. All of the Chosas took turns going into the center of the area and then showing off what they could do. There was an old lady who passed out at one time. But what they would do is they would hoist it onto their shoulders and then hold it up with nothing but there hand fully extended. It was way cool!! They would rock it like a ship on the waves would rock and then maybe throw conffetti or balloons. It was awesome!!
It was a bit weird though because I felt like I was a this centry old festival and then I would see the guys there up on top on their cell phones. Stange. There was a childerns Chosa there as well and we took picture with them. One kid pointed to Robert large bicep like he was afraid to give him five because it was big, I got a kick out of that. Yeah, my husband still got great muscles!!! :)
When they were done preforming they all were putting paper lanterns on to the Chosas. It was so cool to see them lit up at night. Then they carried/polled/pushed them back to the main shrine in town and did something there. We didnt go to the shrine because all of us Amercicans/Canadians got to talking and then were pooped and had already seen them lit up that we decided we wanted to get something to eat at Kira's house so we did. We then saw them at about 10:00 PM take the Chosas from the shrine back to there keeping place, so we saw them one last time. It was so cool to see that festival!!!
The first few weeks that we were here in Japan we weren't able to do much because there wasn't much going on and we were busy teaching and training so it didn't really feel like we were in Japan. However as we started to go to the shrines and temples it is beginning to feel like we are in another country! HEE HEE!!!! :) Well I guess that that is it for now. Talk to you all later. Till next time.