christmas pics

Not that a big, raw trussed up bird is the first thing you want to see ... ever, but here she be. It turned out perfectly... yaaaay Costco. Yay turkey-bird.

Steve carving the biiiird. His Where the Wild Things Are shirt prompted a bit of a discussion on the movie versus the book, and the embellished storyline. Neither of us have seen the movie, but we had to pull out my children's book anthology and re-read the story...

Steve, Nao, Marili, Hendrik and Charlie - great company!!

The gals
On our December 24th bike ride: the park, like the weather, was beaut-iful!

Fall colours and no jacket necessary...

Where the wild things are... in the park. There were all sorts of boards showing the different species - animal and plant - in the park. Very informative.



Christmas Eve dinner! A reheat repeat from the 23rd...


Ahhhh the crackling fire... getting ready to open presies!

I got a Kindle!!!!!

Ready to ride the mean-looking Nozomi bullet train on Christmas Day.

My lunch bento: 2009.12.25.

Big Fuji-san popping up to say hello.

Note the extension on Steve's bed: so thoughtful for the team to request a longer bed; it's only the solution to the problem of the too-short sleepingsurface that we found hilarious.

Boxing Day bento. Much unknown, almost all tried. I like the maple-leaf shaped carrot.

Game Day! Pre-game pasta in the room.

I don't know if you can really see this but F.C. Tokyo is standing with a team of uniformed vball girlies in this pic - they walked in hand-in-hand with a girls volleyball team and it was adorable... so so cute! After a photo (or I'm not sure what exactly) the girls team circled through Team Tokyo and gave each guy a jump/block double-handed hi-five, with each of the guys holding their arms up up high. It was funny and, again, cute, to see the girls giggle and try their best to sky up to Steve's outstretched upstretched hands.

The small but vocal troupe of supporters. Before each game they hold out their scarves and sing a song - incomprehensible to me, of course.

While the guys warmed up and did their loooong pre-game preparation, I walked along the river. It was sunny and warm and lovely.

Outside the massive sports complex in Gifu. The team played in Kasugai on the 26th and in Gifu on the 27th - both cities are within 30-45 minutes outside of Nagoya.

Sunday in Gifu's massive gym...

The troupe, once again. And a Canadian flag! Love it!