Last weekend!

Last Saturday took us to a town called Kamakura. The train ride wasn't too long and it made for a fun day out and about seeing sites, tasting yummy foods, and just "experiencing" a little bit more of what Japan has to offer.

Our first stop was to visit the Great Buddha on the Kotokuin temple grounds. The statue is the second largest in Japan and was cast in 1252 - Wow that's a long time ago! It was really neat to see such a huge statue. Brigham just stared at it for the longest time.
After our first stop, one of Jared's co-workers, Yoigi, met up with us for lunch. We had a delicious tepanaki meal of a special Japanese beef. I think Jared would say that it was one of the very best meals here so far.

After lunch Yoigi took us to the Tsurugaoka hachimangu shrine. Our favorite part was having the chance to watch part of a traditional Japanese wedding ceremony. How cool?
Yoigi explained about how people pray and even told us about the fortunes that some people get and what they do with them. We each got a fortune - mine was for "excellent luck" and Brigham and Jared both got ones for "good luck." ;)

After spending time with Yoigi, he headed home and pointed us in the direction of north Kamakura (Kita Kamakura). We enjoyed the walk and headed to take a look at another temple there. We visited the Engakuji temple right by the train station. The grounds were really large and the temples were really cool to look at. Brigham was especially happy here - he had had a bottle and a nap and was feeling great!One of his favorite parts was watching the fish in the pond. What a cutie!
Our day ended with a train ride back to the Kamakura station and a walk down to the beach. It was Brigham's first time to see the ocean. He loved the sand in between his toes and the water running over his feet. He had so much fun!
We really feel so blessed to be able to see and do so many things! We've enjoyed Japan so much more than we could have expected to. Our time here has been great!

Sakura on Saturday!

Well, we can't believe that we've been here already for an entire week. We've been told that we came at the best time of year and easily believe it because of all the beauty around.
We had to stop in the Yebiso Garden Place to take a photo as we headed out on Saturday morning. We walk through this plaza every day. They keep it so nice and clean and the trees and flowers are beautiful! (Jared's not bad too, if I do say so myself!)

We jumped on the train and headed up to Shibuya where we transfered onto the subway to head over to the north-east side of town. Our first stop was in Ueno to take a stroll through Ueno park which we've been told is famous for it's Cherry Blossom (Sakura) trees. It really was quite the site to see. People were everywhere and the trees were in full bloom. We really are lucky to have come right at the peak bloom season!

Doesn't Brigham look so happy here? He is such a good sport and does really well site-seeing. He's also the star of every show. You wouldn't believe how many people stop to gawk at him and try to make him smile. (Which you all know isn't very hard to do.) The people love him here!
Jared and Brigham were actually smiling at on of the Japanese ladies when I took this picture. See - I told you they love Brig! Can you believe that tree in the background?

After Ueno park we headed on to Asakusa. We've been told this is the largest temple in Tokyo. There was shopping all around it; Good food - at least the stuff we tried; and TONS of people! We really enjoyed wandering around and visiting the site. By the time we were ready to leave we still had a few hours of daylight left so we stopped by the Imperial Palace grounds to take another stroll. The scenery really is amazing. We loved this view with the wild flowers, Sakura tree, and palace moat.
Saturday really was a great day!

Japan!

We're in JAPAN!!! How did that happen?

Well, about 2 weeks ago Jared was offered the opportunity to come to Japan to do some training. We jumped on the opportunity knowing that it would only be for a few weeks and may not come up again. So...after crazy packing and last minute preparations we boarded a flight on Thursday around 11 am to head on over. We had a short layover in San Francisco and then continued on to Tokyo. The flights, layovers, and commute to our apartment afterward came in around a 20 hour adventure. Lucikly Brigham did amazingly well through it all.

On the flight he even sat still to watch Baby Einstein, complete with headset and all!

It was so wonderful to finally make it to our new apartment Friday night. Jared's co-worker, Ikue, helped get us in and showed us all around and had even stocked our fridge with milk, juice, and muffins for breakfast in the morning. She showed what we're finding to be the epitome of Japanese hospitality. They are all so incredibly kind and willing to go out of their way to help. We'd also been warned before about how much Brigham would be fussed over. That is already becoming very apparent. Even Ikue offered to stay and play with Brigham while we unpacked that first night. Unfortunately we were so tired that we declined her offer and decided to turn in for the night instead.

:)

Yesterday was our first full day in Japan. We decided that our goals for the day were to find the international grocery store for some shopping and to get a look around and some experience on their train system. Well, after many, many hours we can finally say that we accomplished all three. Unfortunately, it really shouldn't have taken that long.

We were told that we could "walk" to the area where the store was through the "subway." After a few hours we finally realized that their "subway" is different than England's "subway" and that you really couldn't walk through the subway. Luckily, by the time we were getting tired, we got on the Japanese subway (which is an underground metro) and made it to the part of town we had been directed to for shopping. As we continued to wander through this part of town the most amazing thing happened...We walked around the corner and saw the Angel Moroni in the distance! Aaah, suddenly everything became so much better. We wandered through a park on the way to see the temple. It was a truly magnificent site and really smoothed our whole day over.

Notice the beautiful Cherry Blossoms! What a site to behold!

After the temple we felt so much better and headed on our way to the international grocery store to pick up the food we needed. Can you say expensive?! We thought England was bad...

Here is the food we bought for a grand total of 95 big ones! Can you believe it?

We took a taxi back to the apartment because Brigham was getting tired. He was asleep before we could even get in the taxi. The best part is that he didn't even get grumpy. He just snuggled in and fell asleep. What an angel!

For those of you who are interested in what our apartment looks like we've included this slideshow. Enjoy!

Also, take a look at this piece of porcelain in our apartment. We aren't exactly sure what all of the buttons do yet.

Well, that's about all for now. Hope you enjoyed the craziness of our life as much as we are.

Love you all!