16 Years... and counting

Yesterday we celebrated 16 years of marriage (woo hoo!). It has been a wonderful time!


We decided to go out for breakfast instead of dinner. We went to Makan Makan at the Coco Garden Resort, which is just 2 minutes from our home, but was our first time.

They're up on a hill, so you get a decent view of Ishikawa:





It was a pretty nice buffet! It included all kinds of foods, even salads and soups. They even had "fresh-squeezed" orange juice... the only catch was you had to squeeze it yourself.




Debe did such a good job of making the orange juice that I suggested she do it daily -- I got the "evil eye" for that one.



Anyway, it was nice to get away by ourselves for once.

Well, babe, here's to the next 16 and beyond!

Cooking: the Japanese Way

On Wednesdays, Dan attends a Men's cooking class.

He does this for 2 reasons: 1) He enjoys cooking, but doesn't really have much experience making Japanese food. And, more importantly, 2) He is hoping to make contacts near where we live.



The classes are held at the Community Center, just 3 minutes walk from where we live.

An added bonus: the class is all in Japanese, so it is great language practice as well.



It's been a lot of fun. And, yeah, we made "Tako Salad" (Octopus Salad)!

Tuesday Morning Japanese

Technology today is really cool!

On Tuesday mornings, Debe and I take a Japanese class. It is through edufire, which offers all kinds of classes online. This allows us to take the class in the comfort of our own home.

Plus we can eat doughnuts and drink coffee at the same time. This class is from 7~8 o'clock, so Dan has just enough time before leaving for work.

Anyway, we are trying to immerse ourselves in as much language learning as possible, as Japanese is a difficult language to master.

One question: which is more glazed: the eyes or the doughnut?

So all classes were canceled today!
Why? So we teachers could go cheer on our students as they compete in several sports tournaments. This is the last opportunity for the 9th graders to do sports. After this weekend, they are expected to "focus" on getting into high school (they have to pass a written/oral exam).

We have a strong baseball team, so I went to see them play:

As you can see, we (Bito) were stomping them 5-0!

I left to go watch softball, soon after, but we were victorious.
Kind of a nice easy way to end the week.

Mountain Climbing

At the preschool they were planning a field trip to climb a mountain.
As Dan had a rare Saturday off, we all decided to join in the "fun."

Worship Conference

It's Golden Week! Most Japanese were off for a few days, which included Dan. Our church decided to have a Worship Conference. We were so encouraged and blessed by the worship times and all the great teachings!


some random pics:


"Hakugaijin" kicked it all off with a concert.

Trying to figure out how Dan does this!


There were some practical workshops, also.


Tuesday's lunch was a beach BBQ.





Pastor Travis Takamiya from Calvary Chapel Tokorozawa


Travis is a "Child Magnet"; Emi loves him! She doesn't usually take to someone right away.

Toguchi Beach

Today was a holiday, so we thought we would go to a new beach: Toguchi Beach.
This was our first time and it was very nice.

It had beautiful ocean:


Lots of trees and flowers (These are Lilies):


Some cool caves:


An added bonus, a children's park: