Happy birthday Jamie and Happy New Year!

Jamie is 10!  We got him some handsome new clothes from Tokyo (the Gap, no less).   On the morning of his birthday we went out to the Daiei to pick up some stuff for his birthday, including a cake from the French bakery.

He's so tall that he wears size 14-16 boys in Japan!

That evening after dinner he opened his presents (or most of them as some are still in transit - shipping to an APO address is extremely slow).  Then we sang Happy Birthday and ate cake.

Jamie thought is would be funny to switch the candles and pretend he was one.

The cake was yummy!

 After that we decided to head down to the park to see how the festivities were progressing.  It was still pretty early so there weren't many people yet but there were vendors set up and we got a snack and some drinks.

All sorts of meat on a stick.

Chad got the squid.

There were lots of food tents

And a stage

A Tori gate with a bell to ring in the new year.

Christmas 2014

We had a lovely Christmas this year and even though we missed our family and friends back at home, it was a fun and relaxing day for us all.  We started off the festivities by attending a Christmas Eve service on base.  When that was finished, we went out to dinner at a Japanese restaurant that serves mostly steak and hamburg (a seasoned beef patty served with a sauce).  After choosing your main dish, the salad and fruit bar was all-you-could-eat.  The kids had a great time and all the food was very good.  We took a few portraits on our way back into the apartment building.

Once the kids were asleep we put out the presents.

And since we had no fireplace or mantle we put the stocking in front of the tv stand.

A park in Taura

The weekend before Christmas we took it pretty easy.  On Saturday we visited the library on base and then on Sunday we spent a few hours at a park in Taura, which is only one train stop from where we are in Yokosuka.

We had to walk through a tunnel to get to the park, but on the way since we missed the train by only minutes we decided to walk the whole way back, which was about 5 tunnels.

Abby is rocking the cowl that Laura made for her and a Japanese woman asked me if I made it (the sign language for knitting is universally understood!) .  I was unable to convey that it was my sister-in-law who made it (with my limited  to non-existent Japanese) so next time I might just take credit (sorry Laura).

Chad and Jamie play catch at the park.

Abby and Tristan really liked the swings.

And Tristan really loved the slide too.

Decorating the tree

Instead of cutting down a tree this year we had to unfold it from it's box.

It even came pre-lit.

My friend Kelli gave us some extra garland and balls to decorate with.

And we brought one ornament from home that we bought in the San Juans this last summer.

Abby made us a star out of paper and also an ornament too.

We didn't bring quite enough tracks for Thomas to go around the tree so we put him nearby.

And even though the tree wasn't much bigger than Tristan, he still put most of his ornaments on the bottom.

All finished!

A tour of our apartment

I know I've given a few video tours so far but for those of you who haven't seen our place yet, I thought I'd give a picture tour.

This is our apartment when you walk up from the street.  Through the front door is the lobby and then you take an elevator up to our floor.

Our floor is number 3 (the first balcony you can see here on the corner).  There are 17 floors total.  Floor 1 is the lobby and floor 2 is bicycle parking so we are on the first residential floor.

This is the view as you walk into our front.  To the right is the shoe closet and to the left is the toilet room.

Here is our closet full of shoes (and some umbrellas and stuff too).  It is against the rules to wear shoes inside the house.

Here is the toilet room.  In Japan, the toilet is separated from the rest of the bathroom.  It is an electonic toilet with a seat warmer and sorts of bells and whistles.  When you flush the water first goes through a faucet on top of the toilet where you can wash your hands while it fills the toilet bowl.

This is the view into our apartment once you leave the entryway.  First is the dining room then the living room and finally the kids room.

To the right of the dining room is the kitchen.  It's pretty small but at least we have an oven this time!  And a dishwasher too, although it's about the same of milk crate.

Going past the kitchen you go down a hallway to the bathroom and the master bedroom.

The bathroom is divided into 2 parts - the outer area with a sink and vanity (and also a washer/dryer behind it) and then further into the bathroom (behind the privacy glass door you see here) is the shower room.

The washer/dryer.  Again, everything is on a small scale.

This is the shower room, which is hands down my favorite part of Japanese living.  This room is totally waterproof, so whether you are taking a bath or shower, it doesn't matter and the bathtub has no overflow drain so you can literally fill it to the top (if it overflows it goes into the shower drain).  The faucet is controlled on the wall with a display where you can choose the water temperature and how far to fill the bathtub.

This is the master bedroom

This is the view from the living room.

This is the kids room with all their futons put away.  At night they open up their closets and unfold their Japanese futons.