Christmas has come and gone quickly again this year. Friday the 23rd my dad flew into Hiroshima at night. We got back to Kure around 11. Our friend Melanie came and was waiting with Scott for us to return. We were able to talk for awhile, but we wanted to rest before Christmas.
Saturday, we had our big Christmas dinner. We went grocery shopping in the morning. In the afternoon we cooked. Scott made great cream of mushroom chicken breasts for our main dish. Melanie made a special apple cider like drink. I made a fruit and yoghurt parfait. We also had steamed vegetables, salad, bread, cold vegetable and dip platter, gravy, and some small cakes for dessert. Everything was great. We invited our Japanese friend, Johnny, over for dinner as well. That night we went to a Christmas service at our church. The Japanese children looked so cute doing the nativity scene!
Sunday, we relaxed and watched a movie. Our friend Johnny got us a Japanese Christmas cake, so we met him at a cafe and ate cake. Then at night we took the train to Portopia Park to see a lights show. It was nice and we got some great pictures. We then returned to Kure and Melanie got on the train to return to her town. We had a great Christmas weekend, of course we missed family and friends and we hope everyone had a great holiday!

Austin's going away

We had a very busy weekend this past weekend. Friday, Scott had an end of the year party for work. His work party was at the same hotel mine was last week. He ate the same raw fish and played Bingo. After he went out with some of the guy teachers to drink, sing karaoke, and to try to communicate. I think the first two went better than the third. Haha.
Saturday, Scott organized a going away party for our friend Austin. Austin is an engineer here in Kure and we became good friends in a short amount of time. Austin even spent some time with Scott's parents when he traveled to Council Bluffs for work about a month ago. Last night, we started at Austin's favorite pub, then went to an Italian restaurant, and ended up in a karaoke bar. My friend Melanie came and stayed with us overnight so that she could also attend. We had a lot of fun and the night went smoothly.
Sunday, Melanie left and Scott and I went to a small dinner party at Austin's house. He cooked dinner and we just relaxed and enjoyed everyone's company. Austin leaves this Wednesday to spend Christmas with his family and then will move to Italy for a few years. We have already made plans to come visit him sometime in the next couple years. It will be sad to see him go, but his family will be coming to America for our wedding in August. We will miss him till then!

Kobe

This weekend we took a day trip to Kobe. A teacher from Vicky's school found out about the trip and invited us to go. It turned out to be one of the best things we have done since we have been here. We left for Kobe on Saturday morning at around 7 o'clock when the tour bus picked us up, and we got to Kobe about noon. We then had 7 and a half hours to experience Kobe and the main highlight of the trip, Iluminaria. Iluminaria is an incredible display of Christmas lights that rivals anything I've ever seen in any city anywhere. The fact that Japan only celebrates Christmas for fun and not for religious purposes definitely did not affect the effort they put into the light displays. While Iluminaria was the highlight of the day, the rest of Kobe did not disappoint us. The city is absolutely beautiful and literally has everything you could want. It is right on the ocean shore with beautiful buildings throughout the downtown, a magnificent port area, and shopping and restaurants to no end. At the end of the day we took the long bus trip back to Kure and went to bed. We hope this won't be our last trip to Kobe!
One of the pics above is of part of iluminaria, and the other is of the amusement park by the port from the top of the port tower 157 meters in the air.

American Weekend

Well, this post is way past due. But better late than never, right? Last weekend, on Saturday, Scott and I went with a friend (Austin) to Hiroshima to do our Christmas shopping for each other. It was a nice day and our shopping was a success. We went to an Irish pub/restaurant for dinner. There was live Irish music and dancing. Austin even went on stage to do some Irish dancing too! We had a lot of fun and our Christmas tree looks complete now with all the presents.

Sunday, we went with 3 friends to a US marine base in the city of Iwakuni. One of our friends works there as some electrical technician, so he was able to get us in. Then we got to eat lunch at Taco Bell! It was great. We even got to pay in American money! Afterwards he took us to a small mall on base. It has American products so we got to do some shopping. We bought some magazines and DVDs. Lastly, we got a pizza from Pizza Hut to go for dinner. Yum! The trip was especially nice since we won't be going home for Christmas. It was as close to home as we get out here!

Well, this week is slow for us because both of our schools have testing. Therefore, we don't have any classes. So please write us or send us some comments. We look forward to hearing from you!