Ultimate

Most Sundays, Noa joins a bunch of friends to play Ultimate Frisbee at one of the local school fields. I've never been...until this week. I finally made it out there to watch, take some photos, chat with friends, and get the dogs out of the apartment.

It was the perfect day for Ultimate - not too hot, a little overcast, and a big crowd showed up to play. After the players determine the teams (there aren't preset teams, they just divide whoever shows up), each team starts at each end of the field. The disc is then thrown and the game is on! Here's Noa's team starting out:

And, he gets right in there!

I don't know if you can zoom in, but Noa's face here is priceless. He's very passionate about Ultimate. Oh, and see that mastiff in the background - remember her. :)

He's up, up, and away!

He's even a good sport! That's our neighbor, Mike, next to him.

The scene was also a little doggie get-together. My pups mostly spent the time chewing on grass and wrestling each other, but I did get to walk the field with them and they did get to play with their buddy Bailey. Bailey is Mike's dog. He's such a sweetie.

Gunnar, who is usually my shadow, was so distracted by all that was going on around him. I can just imagine his brain trying to figure it all out, "wow, why are they running?! Where are they going?! Come back! Oh, you are...no, you're not...let me run with you....please?!?! Wait, what's that smell...."

I love this shot of Sadie. If you look carefully, you can see Bailey's profile in her eye. She was pretty calm the whole time...except when she would instigate a wrestling session with Gunnar when she thought I wasn't looking.

This gentle giant was on the other side of the field (remember??). Isn't she adorable?! I can't remember her name exactly, but it was something like Moochie. She was very friendly and sweet.

I'm looking forward to going back to watch Ultimate soon. I'll be sure to take more action shots to share and bring lots of dog biscuits.

Flashback: Christmas 2009

I don't really know if an event that happened one month ago technically counts as a flashback, but it is the one post that is extremely overdue.

We were so excited to travel back to the US to spend the Christmas holiday with our families and friends back in New England. But, Noa had a cold, so he had to begin the trip with a Japanese-style mask in order to not offend other travelers on the plane. This is common practice in Japan. Often people who are not sick wear them just to keep from getting sick. I think he wore it well, don't you?

In order to keep this post shorter and more concise than the past ones, I'm not going to go into every detail of the trip, but give highlights. Before I do, I just have to say that it was an EXCELLENT trip. One of our better trips home. We had a great time. Here's why:

Memorable Family Moments: Spending quality time with each of our families was one of the priorities for this trip. Some examples...

...spending time with our nephew, who we haven't seen in years....

....laughing at some crazy gifts...

...family "reunions" (Here are the guys from my dad's side of the family)...

...and getting both of our families together and laughing, laughing, laughing.

Seeing Old Friends: We were so fortunate to also spend some of our time home with good friends, like the Fillions, Hartleys, and Cummings. Oh, and Noa's buddies, Barrett and Brian (and Barrett's cutie son Owen) even traveled up from Virginia and Florida to hang out for a few days. What a bunch of great friends!

We had a great afternoon with the Cummings and Hartleys. Apparently, something during present time was hilarious!

Cristyn and Aaron's little girl is a doll. Look at those curls!!

My mom and her BFF, Nancy, in their matching purple sweaters. Great minds think alike, you know.

Snow, Snow, Snow!! I LOVED the winter weather. It snowed several times while there and I couldn't get enough of it. Isn't is beautiful?!

I joined my mom, sister, and friend Kerry for lunch at the lovely Bedford Village Inn for lunch and it started snowing during our meal. The light, fluffy flakes were perfect!

Here's a close up in my parent's yard.

My parent's mailbox was so festive with snow and garland.

Furry Friends: Megan got the cutest puppy for Christmas named Carter. He is so little and sweet. I love his little face!

My cousin has an 18-pound cat that I was in awe of. I called him "18 pounds of lovin'!"

So, yeah, it was a great time. It will be a holiday that we will remember for a long, long time. Thanks, everyone for making it so special for us. We love you and miss you!

Adventures in Mainland: Part 4, Hiroshima

At last, the final part of our trip to mainland Japan: Hiroshima! We traveled to Hiroshima by bullet train, which was something we always wanted to do. It was pretty awesome! I thought that it felt extremely smooth and the trip was definitely quicker than I expected.

Hiroshima was not at all what I expected. It was a thriving, modern, beautiful big city. The foliage continued to add beautiful colors among the city buildings and waterways lined several of the streets.

We took the the city trolley (yes, one more train!) to our first stop. It was crowded but very easy to navigate. I love this picture that Sara took on the trolley.

The first stop was a sobering site: the A-bomb dome. This building "survived" the atomic bomb blast and still stands today as a reminder of the loss and devastation that Hiroshima experienced in 1945.

This statue marks where the bomb exploded about 600 meters above the ground. The interesting part of this memorial is that it's right up against a building, with more buildings beside it. You could easily walk by and not realize you passed this historic site.

We spent the next several hours learning about the devastation caused by the atomic bomb in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. I have to admit that it was a little strange to be there. But, seeing the destruction and hearing the true stories of survivors made the past more real to me. It is an excellent museum, filled with tons of artifacts and information.

This a view of the A-bomb dome and eternal flame near the entrance of the museum.

Outside the museum, thousands of paper cranes represent prayers for peace and the memory of Sadako Sasaki. Sadako Sasaki developed leukemia as a result of her exposure to the bomb blast. In the hospital she worked tirelessly to make 1,000 paper cranes. There is a Japanese legend that says that if you fold 1,000 paper cranes, you will be granted a wish. Sadako never made it to 1,000 by the time she died, but her friends folded enough so that she was buried with 1,000 paper cranes. There is a children's book that tells her story: Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes.

After our sobering visit, we still had time to visit one more historic landmark in Hiroshima. We decided to check out Hiroshima Castle. This castle dates back to about 1590, but was destroyed in the bombing of Hiroshima. Reconstructed to look as it originally did, the castle now serves as a museum and we were fortunate enough to visit it before it closed for the day.

We got some beautiful views of Hiroshima at night from the top of the castle.

For dinner we went downtown and decided to go with something totally un-Japanese. We found a local Irish Pub and settled down for some much needed food. Little did we realize this pub had something special. It was only after one of the guys used the restroom that we were enlightened to the secret that this pub held. Check this out:

Yes, you are seeing that right. The urinals look out into the street. Here's the picture of the outside of the pub where the urinals look out into the street.

Besides the crazy urinals, the food was yummy. I had traditional shepherd's pie. Mmmmm...

Since Thanksgiving had just passed days ago, they still offered their Thanksgiving-themed shots and we had to try them. Those were also yummy.

After our delicious dinner at the weird-urinal-Irish-pub-in-Hiroshima, we decided to walk back to the hotel. As we walked we took in the sights of downtown. Look what we found - Big Echo - 7 floors of karaoke!

We are goofballs, but having a good time in downtown Hiroshima.

Sara and I tried to blend in, but I think our coats are giving us away in this window ad.

We turned the corner, only to find....a lighted winter wonderland! How fun!

Peace, baby!

Our gang!

It was soon afterward that we realized we had walked in the complete OPPOSITE direction of our hotel and it wasn't getting any warmer. So, after a warm taxi ride back to our place, we decided to have a celebratory drink to toast our adventures.

But, first a dance with the mechanical Santa.

Here's to many more adventures in Japan!

And to our travel buddies, Gabe and Sara: thanks for the great times! We hope to travel with you again!