yay!

I have fabulous news - times three! - and one piece of semi-sad-face news: the Fab Four have left us. After three amazing weeks, they have hopped back on the airporter bus to hop back on the plane to go home. Mrrrrrrr... This is not full sad-face news because we had such a good time with them - they were here, and it was awesome. It's not full happy face news because (duh) we'll miss them. They spent the weekend in Kyoto and Hiroshima, and according to them, this is a must-do trip if your time in Japan exceeds seven days; they had an amazing time. The six of us met up once again at the apartment on Sunday night, and shared news of the weekend. I stayed in the city and had a great weekend as well - Nao and I got together on Saturday and shopped and talked and laughed - had coffee, ate tonkatsu... it was perfect. Yesterday - the last day of Bob's Tours Japan - we took it pretty easy: went out for sushi, OOH! bought cameras!, had coffee and cream puffs (from a place called Beard Papas - interessant) and went out for Italian food close to home for the last supper. And then, this afternoon, we dropped them off at the bus and waved and were a little sad... but so happy to have had them all here, and to have had such an amazing time. Yay. Here are some pics - missed events either not blogged about or missing photos...

The last supper - at Colosseo... yum!

Buying the Beard Papas cream puffs

Sushi train for lunch - soooo yummy!

New cameras! The Nikon Coolpix S70 - touch screen controls (everything), for 24,300 yen... sweet!

Happy Birthday! 32 isn't so bad, especially if it comes with cake, Hagen Daaz ice cream and strawberries...

Birthday dinner

I didn't blog about this - Nao gave us some traditional mochi to eat on January 8th (I think) - for family health throughout the year. Because the ingredients (and method) were new to us, she gave us direction and coached us through the entire process - on skype! (LOVE skype!)

Making different sauces - one with bean powder and sugar, and another with soy sauce and sugar. There were two ways to eat the treat: 1. toasted pounded rice cake was doused with the soy sauce-sugar combo and wrapped in nori (seaweed), and 2. microwaved (in water) pounded rice cake was dipped in bean powder and sugar - she helped us through it all!

Steve - preparing for the microwave...

... and in the toaster

Being a bit cheeky maybe - guess WHO made a comeback for a HUGE Canasta win?

The fan club at one of the Nagano games


Samurai



Festive ropes at a temple in Ina, Nagano

The dessert feast chez nous... it was delicious!

And now for the fabulous news! On Saturday Steve's team got their first win!! FINALLY! They won in five sets, 15-13... so it was pretty much as close as it gets - eek. But, they won! Steve said that everyone was jumping and running and airplaning around the court - it must have felt so good to finally win, especially with how hard they train. They lost on Sunday, but it was super close: they lost two of the four sets by just two points. SO! That is the first piece of great news. Next... we have more visitors booked! My mom and dad are coming (YAY!) in April which is a GREAT time, as the cherry blossoms will likely be in full bloom. AND, Dan and Milka, Steve's best friend and best man and his wife are coming in March for 10 days or so too - yippee! Steve's sister and her hubs are also coming - we have visitors lined up, and I know our time with them will be just as great as our time has been with the Fab Four... so we're excited. We're away from family and friends for so much of the year, and though it's always sad to say good-bye, it's great thinking about and looking forward to the next hugs and hellos. Kin and kind are never far away. :)