Free Internet Blues

Hello All,

We've been without Internet off and on for the last few weeks. We know this has deeply pained each and every one of you who religiously check our blog. How can life go on when we are not posting? It simply cannot.

We are currently in the process of actually setting up and, gasp, paying for our own Internet. We hope that once this happens, our Internet will work on a regular basis and Jake will not have to miss out on his favorite pastime- espn.com

Sadly, we do not have much to report. We've turned into semi-hermits, and have watched maybe a few too many HBO series. Jake's new favorite is about a serial killer. It gives me nightmares. I check the locks on our doors even more than before. Paranoid? Maybe just a little.

In other news...

**It is bitterly cold here. This makes all four of my twenty minute walks a really fun time, and keeps Jake trapped in our cell. We have not changed out of our long underwear in weeks.

**Last weekend, we saw a larger Japanese man dressed as a woman. I caught Jake staring a few too many times. I think he was pondering whether or not he could pull off the teal colored pea coat as well as this man did.


We hope all is well!

Long Teacher Holidays

Hello, everyone!

We've just completed our three week Christmas holiday here in Japan. Thanks to everyone who sent out peanut butter, and teriyaki sauce, and University of Oregon pajama pants.

Jill and I brought in the new year at a closet-sized bar while listening to deafening techno beats. Apparently I felt compelled to put on my jeri-curl wig. It is a strong tradition here to take in the sunrise on New Year's day, however Jill and I took in the sunrise with our eyelids shut, in our beds.

We also were able to travel to the hot tourist destinations of Nara and Kyoto. Jill and I saw many amazing temples, including the prize-winning 2000 ton Bronze and Gold Buddha statue in Nara. In Nara, there are thousands of people friendly deer. The deer is a sacred animal here, so I felt it necessary to take a cheesy posed picture with one old deer who was more than likely immobile and tired of idiots like me.

There were enough Japanese tourists that Jill and I could have walked upon their heads and never slipped through any cracks. Despite the tourists, there were many peaceful moments, and we felt relieved to be out of the city atmosphere.

One sidenote. The man wearing pink, who is posed to kiss me is a heterosexual despite the evidence against. He was told to pose like that by someone for some unknown reason.

Jake=Sinus Infection, Jill=Tone Deaf

Blogger wouldn't let us upload our Christmas video, so you'll have to go to the link below. You might want to turn the volume down on your computer...

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

Sorry, but you'll have to copy and paste the website into your browser. We know you're lazy, but how often do you get to hear our amazing musical talent?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APwWyO4fXIM

Excess Seratonin at the Happy Terrace

Hello!

We officially have some travel stories, now that my wife has collected "OUR" first paycheck. I had to work quite hard for that money over the last month and a half, often taking strenuous "city walks" for hours upon end, waiting for her to bring home the next children's virus for us to share. In fact, I made a fake "announcement" at a dinner with some of our ex-Nova friends. I said, "Jill and I have finally gotten a paycheck after three and half months." Dave, our Australian friend, said, "Thanks, I'm still waiting for a paycheck." Bankruptcy tension at a meal table can be the best kind. Luckily, I think he was joking; who knows with his British Empire humor.

Anyway, Jill and I shelled out 115 American dollars to secure what's called a "Seshun 18 Pass." Essentially, we get unlimited travel for five non-consecutive days during the Holiday season. However, I forgot the name of the ticket when we approached the travel agent, so I said, "eighteen kippu, eighteen kippu, eighteen kippu, eighteen kippu." That means 18 ticket, and luckily, after four bombardments, he figured out my horrifyingly inane Japlish (Japanese English). To bring an analogy to the table, if I were Mexican and living in America, it would be like me saying, "las potatoes fritas, las potatoes fritas, las potatoes fritas," until the worker figured out I wanted French Fries with that.

We chose to travel to Kyoto, the many storied-land of ancient rebuilt and fee-driven temples. Everyone says, that if you can only go to two places in Japan, you must go to Kyoto and Tokyo. To be honest, we were quite disappointed through 3/5 of the day. We'd gone to two temples, the first of which had a once-monthly street fair. However, anyone who knows a good Japanese crowd knows that thirty million people come crawling out of cracks in the ground when there's junk being sold at booths. Jill and I were simply trying to view the temple, but instead we found ourselves pelvis to face (see photo) with millions of Japanese people. I don't kid when I say that it was like rush hour on the 105 in Los Angeles. Babies crawl faster etc, etc.

Finally, however, we hopped a train out to a fabulous temple at the base of a mountain. This particular temples' main attraction is a walk through bamboo forest, ponds, and a garden. Even though it was winter, and much of the garden was in recession, it was very much worth the effort. We were surrounded on all sides by buildings of ancient architecture, and it wasn't hard to picture myself in ancient Japan. It was peaceful, and a delicious ending to our Kyoto trip.

Here Comes Santa Claus

Sorry, we've been really bad about posting lately. Jake and I have both been sick with every cold virus imaginable.

A lot of people have been asking about my new job. To put it simply, I love it. I'm teaching a class of 1-3 year olds all of whom keep me very busy all day. Most of my kids are incredible, but I do have one child who makes me question if I'll ever want a child of my own. He's the one hopping around in the viedo. For the past week or two, we have been practicing for our Christmas performance. We're singing Santa Claus is Coming to Town, and I think it's about the cutest thing I've ever seen. The video is of 6 of my kids (4 were absent) singing their hearts out. Our real performance will be complete with Santa hats and belts. Enjoy!

Memoirs of a House Husband

Some observations from the last few weeks:

1. During the daylight hours, I stand out worse than Hillary Clinton at a small-town Bible study in central Missouri. The only people out during the daytime are pairs of bent-back, retired Japanese elders, and hordes of housemothers toting small offspring. If I do see a man in the 20-30 age demographic, he's talking on a cell phone, wearing a Versace suit. I need to start wearing my tie everyday, pretend talking on the cell phone and yelling, "Sell, sell...the market's gonna drop!'

2. Japanese ambulance drivers must be on downers all the time. The ambulances are driven more like Hearsts bearing a coffin to the graveyard. I realize that some of the injuries suffered may be unrecoverable, but at least give the person a chance to live, for God's sake. The drivers even use an external PA, like they're in a freaking parade. I half expect to have jolly ranchers and Asahi mints thrown at me when the ambulances crawl through intersections.

3. All Japanese gas trucks have looped tapes of children's music and high-pitched children's choirs singing odes to Shell and Exxon. I'm sorry, but it's not like there's ice cream in the freakin truck. Who the Hell hears that song coming up the street and runs outside to get a tasty refined oil treat in their face? Not unless you're a Toyota, and you're on empty, and you have the capacity to think somehow.

4. Being retired at 24 is not the idyllic scenario everyone thinks it is. You can be one of two options as a retired 24 year old. Bored with money and no sense of purpose, or bored without money and no sense of purpose. Common-Sense advice for the day, "always take illusion over despair." (The Simpsons)

We love you, Dan Patla

Here are a few pictures from Dan's visit to Nagoya. We loved having a good friend from home here, and Jake was more than happy to have someone to play with while I was at work chasing small children.

In other news...

We enjoyed Thanksgiving Tacos on Thursday. Yes, that's right, while all of you were feasting on turkey and all that makes Thanksgiving so enjoyable we were eating a lesser known traditonal Thanksgiving meal. Regardless, we enjoyed our evening with friends while watching 7 episodes of Family Guy. Makes one wonder how we might spend Christmas...

We have finally figured out how to heat our apartment. It took two long weeks of suffering in the cold, but we finally have heat! Congrats to Jake who finally looked up the Kanji for heat in our trusty Japanese to English dictionary.

Only 22 more days until we receive our very first paycheck!!!