Oya Temple

Oya Temple is located about 5 miles outside Utsunomiya. It is said to have been founded by Kobodaishi in 810. Inside there are 10 merciful images carved in the rock face. We were not allowed to take photos inside.





Cleansing before you enter.

The park surrounding the temple was beautiful, I look forward to visiting again in the spring.

Near the temple another huge image of the Heiwa Kannon stands about 88 feet high, which was carved out of the wall of rock after World War II to be dedicated to the war dead and world peace.

This was a great day trip for us. It was only 30 minutes from our house. Just enough time to see something interesting in the morning, get some lunch and head home for naps.

Tako yaki Balls - January 2009

This week Mari, who is an OAP teacher, invited us to her house to learn how to make tako yaki. Tako yaki is a pancake ball with octopus inside, they're really good!
These are the ingredients for the balls: batter mix, cabbage, ginger, onion, and octopus.




Avery had fun exploring Mari's house while we cooked.

We actually just bought a tako yaki griddle this weekend, we love them that much.

The girls actually like them too. It was a fun day!

First Day of Yochien - January, 8 2009

January 8, 2009

Rylee's first day of preschool at Kinugawadai Yochien. Rylee is in the 3 year old class, the tulip class. She attends there all day everyday. A bus picks her up at 9:50 and she returns at 3:40. Her first week was a bit rough, but the second week she only cried once. She seems to really enjoy riding the bus and is already picking up on the language.
Waiting for the bus.

Here comes the bus.











This is Rylee and her friend Amy. There are two other English speaking children in her class.

Trip to Osaka

We visited Osaka City over our holiday break. We took a 5 hour train ride to get there. It was a bit stressful locating the correct train, considering we can't read signs too well. But, once on the train we had a great experience. We passed Mount Fuji on the way.

We toured a wonderful aquarium and took a ride on one of the largest ferris wheels in the world.

We tried some new and delicious food, okonomiyaki.

We visited the Osaka Castle. Once built entirely of granite, but after being destroyed twice has now been replicated in concrete. It was still a stunning sight.

Wannpaku Park - December 2008

We visited Wannpaku park this past weekend. It's a beautiful park that I look forward to exploring in the spring. However, Wannpaku has a wonderful indoor play area that girls really enjoyed. I'm sure will be returning many times this winter.

After playing at the park Chris and I took a guess at picking a restaurant. I can't even begin to describe how hard it is to be illiterate, not to mention also being incapable of understanding anything that is said to you. We walked into this restaurant and immidiatly realized it was a sushi train restaurant. We think "great, no problem" until we are confronted by a computerized self check in system. I'm standing there staring at this computer with buttons to choose your table and the number of guests, but I can't read it to know which buttons to press. After standing there for a few seconds completely lost a very nice Japanese lady who was waiting to be seated obviously noticed my confusion and amazingly she spoke English. She checked us in and Chris and I prayed we would be able to guess our way through ordering and figuring out how you pay out. We managed and ended up having a great time. The girls loved the sushi train. I have been here for a little over a month and the nice women that helped us check in is only the second person I've run into that can speak English.

Merry Christmas!

The girls love to talk on the phone! Good thing we have two phones that are the exact same. It seems these days we have to have two of everything. Sharing is just not a concept Avery can grasp and she has to do everything big sis does.