Japan 2

After a very important night's sleep, we woke up to sporadic rains.  We decided to go to the Tokyo National Museum first so that we could be mostly out of the rain. The museum was spectacular.  The night lights in Tokyo are fun to walk through and unlike many big cities, I didn't feel unsafe walking through the streets late at night.  Seth found that he loves miso soup and begged everyone for theirs whenever we were given them with our dinners.  We did okay for most of the day, but by 5pm about half of us were dragging our feet.  Jet lag is rough.

The kids thought that these "long potatoes" were pretty funny.

Sam's favorite thing was the swords.  He was pretty bummed that we couldn't make our own and take them home, but these were neat.

These stripes in the sidewalks and roads are for people with disabilities to know where to walk.

This one was Ada's gem.  We had lots of cameras going most of the day.  It was hard to pare down 9000 pictures into a few hundred.

We did some shopping on the way back to our airbnb.  Sam didn't make it home without a little nap.

Ada took a picture of me taking this picture.  I loved this cute old man.

I took this picture then Seth came back to me and showed me how cute the cat was in this painting.

These were for sharpening the samurai swords.  I recommend looking up how they stand while they're doing it.

Juxtaposition

These giant scroll paintings were so amazing.  I loved all the details and especially all the faces of the soldiers.

Japan 1

We decided a few years ago to take our family to Japan.  We wanted four things out of it.  We wanted to spend time with Grandpa Robertson and talk about his mission, we love to travel together, Sam has been learning Japanese for the last two years, and we wanted to visit our friend Hannah.  We got three of the four.  Hannah left to be a missionary for the church in North Carolina the day before we left on our trip.  We're sad not to be able to hug her, but I'm sure glad that she's doing good things.

First day of our Japan trip was travel and food.  After an hour uber ride, we flew to Dallas and then to Tokyo.... then an hour bus ride and a short walk to our airbnb.  We stayed in the first place for 4 nights.  It was hard to find and had a tiny kitchen but the beds were nice and it had two toilets and two showers that all could be used at different times.  We were all pretty tired when we got there, but everyone had a blast with watching movies "together" on the airplane and eating the yummy Japanese airline food.  Ada snd I sat next to each other and coordinated all of our movies to play at the same time.  It was fun.  Seth lost a tooth on the airplane and put it in a bag in his suitcase. We loved being introduced to the idea of Konbini... the convenience stores have an amazing selection of very fresh and pretty convenient foods. Most of us had had a cold for the two weeks before our flight and Evelyn wasn't done coughing, so she wore a mask and we were on our way.

Jer was amazing at getting public transport passes arranged and figuring out the subways/trains and buses.  I can usually get around where I need to go, but getting 7 people around without losing anyone or anything was a giant feat... and he definitely accomplished it well.  

Ada especially liked the tiny ice creams that they gave us after dinner.

   

Fall concert and a big birthday

 

About a month ago, we were frantically getting ready for a big family trip to Japan, but I didn't want to gloss over two fun things before chronically our travels.  Evelyn performed at the High School in a combined orchestra concert.  She did great and it was fun to sit with my friends, Lara and Sabrina, while we celebrated our kids together.

Ada took a spill on her skateboard.  She's okay, but it was tender for a couple of days.

The other happening is that Ada officially turned 18.  I have an adult aged daughter!  I love her to death and I love seeing the good things she's working towards. Jer made her an angel food cake and for dinner just the three of us adults went to eat at Tucanos.

Her YW's group set up a birthday banner and decorated the van (which promptly got rained on, but it's the thought that counts right?)

I'm grateful for this wonderful woman.  I see her growing line upon line.... She's very driven in many areas of life and I appreciate all the hard work that she invests in the daily things that she does.  She loves people, loves finding fulfilling work to do, loves experiencing new activities and places.  I'll cheer from the sidelines as she grows in God and life.