Random pictures

This is a picture of a picture of the baby from two weeks ago. I haven't taken a picture of the picture that I got yesterday but I will do that soon. Sorry if you think its weird to have this picture on here, but Karla asked for it so the people get what they want:) Anyway it is interesting too because they always give us a 3D picture instead of those impossible to figure out pictures they give you in the States. By January we should know if the baby is a boy or a girl, so if you want to take a guess you better do it soon. The doctor said that everything looks normal (another contrast from the States, if things are normal the doctor tells you things are great, maybe because they want you to feel better since you don't actually get to see the baby). Also they finally checked my blood pressure and weighed me. It is kind of random the things that are high tech and the things that are still from the stoneage. We have this card, kind of like a debit card or something, that we have to "check in" with when we get to the clinic. When they weighed me yesterday instead of writing my weight down on a form or anything, I just scanned my card and it put the info in a computer somewhere. For my blood pressure I didn't even have to scan it again, it was connected to the scale so it did it automatically. But at the end of the visit
we had to pay in cash because they couldn't take credit cards.

Rob didn't mention that at the party we danced like fools. Ok, maybe that is an exaggeration. We danced a little though and it was lots of fun. The party was pretty relaxed. There were a couple of games but they were mostly for the adults. At the end of the party the host of the party gave presents to the families with kids. I think that the present that they gave to Colette was more expensive than the present that we gave to the birthday boy. They had lots of candy and bocaditos and thankfully none of them were japanese. Rob played his sax when they blew out the candles so that was really nice. They also played the mananitas, so I thought of my mom. You would have loved it mom. It wasn't even like we were in Japan, we might as well have been in Peru. I had never realized how japanese peruvians look, or maybe it is the other way around. Another funny thing was that that little boy in the blue shirt thought that I was his English sensei, his mom said that he is young so he still can't tell white people apart. I don't think that is a condition exclusive to the young;)
We were driving around after church and took a wrong turn. It was like one of my claustrophobia nightmares, the roads kept getting narrower and narrower. It would have been really freaky if it hadn't have been so funny. There is no rhyme or reason to the layout of some of these neighborhoods and with no street addresses I don't know how any one finds anyone, especially taxis or mailmen.

La fiesta de Jusei

Today after church we went to Jucei's first birthday party, he's a grandson of some of our peruvian friends Alex and Tula. It felt like we weren't in Japan at all, the music brought me back to when Nicolle and I would go to the latin dances at BYU, and reminded me of the Salsa band I played in in Utah, Orchesta Caribe.
We got there on time so no one showed up for another couple of hours, of course.
Jusei and Colette.
Cheesey smiles
We've been bundling Colette up before going out these days, because it's really cold. At night it gets particularly cold, so thank goodness one of our students showed us how to turn on the heaters, each air-conditioner doubles as a heater if you know which button to press. Going to the bathroom at night or getting up to take a shower isn't so fun because it's so cold outside of our room but coming back from the cold hallway into our room is great.
Nicolle's been sick so I got a taste of what it'll be like to teach all of her classes this week. by the end of the month we'll have switched completely so I'm teaching all but two. She's feeling much better and we all went to church today. People have been very nice and have made us some food while Nicolle's been sick.
Sorry for not writing for a while, but this week wasn't very newsworthy, except for the barbie-sized tsunami scare.
Tomorrow we have another checkup, it's always fun to look at the baby; every visit they do a long ultrasound. It's amazing how fast the baby's growing, it more than doubled inbetween the first and second visit, two weeks apart.
I've been looking for jobs in Utah,Texas, Spain, and Brazil; and have applied online to a few, I figure I might as well see what people think of me already. Nicolle thinks I'm worrying about it too soon but it took me 6 months to find a decent job in Texas last time, so 8 months out is a good start. We waffle between going back to Utah or staying a little longer in Texas, or going somewhere completely different. Sorry if we get people's hopes up then let you down, we change our minds a lot.
Well I hope everyone has a nice Thanksgiving this week. Luckily there's a Japanese holiday this Thursday, or we'd be working; this Thursday is labor day here. We're getting together with all the American teachers from our ward to have a quai-authentic Thanksgiving, I think they bought soem sort of turkey product at the Costco in Osaka last time they went. Regrettably the black olives I found at a local store were pretty nasty, so we won't be contributing those, but I'm going to attempt some sort of apple pie/crisp thing probably.

Roberto's birthday party

Enjoy the five toothed-grin while it lasts, her sixth started coming in last week and is growing fast.
Colette kissing Ricardo . . .
Hiding out . . .
Azinete, the woman in white directly behind the cake, invited us to her husband Roberto's birthday party (striped shirt). It was a lot of fun and the Brazilian churrasco was great! We are so happy tohave met our brazilian friends, they are very nice and so comfortable to be with, we're thinking about going to Tokyo Disney with them sometime if we can find a time our days off match.
Colette has turned into quite the poser. Poser! She loves being outside and also hamming it up, she's come to crave the spotlight I think. At the temple Friday a group of teenage girls were walking past and they all stopped and gawked, took pictures for a good 15 minutes. It happens all the time, everywhere we go. We don't mind, because they are always smiling and very nice, we meet many new people who otherwise would have just walked past.
Last night for dinner we invited some Peruvian friends of ours which I met while going on exchanges with the missionaries. They are very nice, and hard workers. I can't believe the schedule they keep, they've been here since 1990 and work every day 7-7 except Sundays. They plan on returning to Peru after their 16 year-old son is old enough to handle himself here. They seem to have things together and I'm sure have saved a ton of money and will be able to retire or open their own business upon returning to Peru. Nicolle went crazy speaking Spanish, and told a bunch of stories about misbehaving Japanese kids. We both had a lot of fun yesterday, we love the company of other people and I've decided as long as you have good friends anywhere can be home. We miss family a ton, and look forward to going back to the states next year, but we'll have fun while it lasts!

Fukuoka . . .

Sorry the pictures are all jumbled, no matter what order I input them in they decide which order they'll go . . .The best pictures are in the next post, which I made a minute ago. This one is of Colette and Annie eating at the zoo, we watched Annie while Daron and Lori were in the temple and they returned the favor for us. We went to Fukuoka, a big city which houses the nearset temple to Marugame on a branch trip. There is a large zoo/botanical garden next to the temple.
I met an Elder from Brazil at the temple, we chatted for a while. His parents were Brazilian of Japanese ancestry, and his family moved to Japan a few years ago.
Colette by some flowers near the temple entrance.
Tonight Colette helped us vacuum. She helps with dishes, sweeping, and now vacuuming.
Despite the long hours on the bus, Colette was pretty good. It gave us hope for our future travels. We got home about midnight last night and stumbled into bed. I had class early this morning but wasn't as tired as I thought I'd be.
The temple trip was great, Nicolle and I were able to select our language, so I did Portuguese and she did Spanish, it was great to hear it the language of my mission. It was nice to get to know the members of our branch a little better, but we mostly hung out with the other English speakers.

Fukuoka Temple and the Zoo

Annie and Colette were mesmerized by this elephant.
Our branch goes on a temple trip every four months or so. the last trip was cancelled due to a hurricane. We left together on a bus about 10:30 Thursday night, arriving in Fukuoka about 5AM or so. Friday was a national holiday, so we had no classes and our branch didn't have work.
Annie and Colette begging snowcone from Nicolle.
Early morning Photo . . .
I got a taste of what it'll be like to have two babies, carrying around Annie and Colette. It wasn't bad when they cooperated, but by the end of the visit to the zoo they started bickering.

Sunday

Pictures of Colette at the second halloween party. . .

We ate with Ricardo and Rose at Seiko's parents' house on Sunday, pictures is a mixture of Brazilian rice, macaroni, sausages, and beans with Japanese sushi. It was all really good. Seiko is a Japanese student at our school who lived in Utah for a few years, about 25 years ago, who has conversation class with Nicolle. Her father headed an agricurtural education project 50 years ago in Brazil, teaching Brazilians to grow rice. He wanted to meet Ricardo and his parents, who were both born in Japan before their parents left for Brazil many years ago.

Nicolle and Colette in their angel outfits. They don't need the wings, halos, or white clothes; they're already angels.
Today we went to Takamatsu and had lunch with an American couple from our ward, they went to BYU and have also lived in London for study abroad. William was a film major, and he said he edited a short documentary interview with Dad, something about Education in Zion or something. Small world.

The Yakuza

This week we were blessed with the presence of the Japanese Mafia at our school every day. The Yakuza are especially strong, I've been told, in Shikoku, our little island. All this week we had large $100,000 cars parked (sometimes double-parked) in the school parking lot which also doubles as a playground. Unlike the mafia in other parts of the world, the Japanese Yakuza makes no effort to hide from law enforcement or the public, in fact they do the opposite; they advertise to everyone that they are mafia by their license plate numbers and their tattoos, their hairstyles and their gruff manner. In Japan it's not against the law or punishable to be openly affiliated with the Yakuza, they are only punished if they do something wrong.
The week started normal enough, but when we took the kids outside for their play time we noticed three large very expensive cars parked in the school's spaces, white and silver BMW's and Toyota Majestics, very new with leather interior, and big rims. The license plate on the nicest car was 4444; 4 in Japonese is pronounced "shi" which also means death. Another car had 4949; 9 also means "suffering". "The Yakuza love to use these numbers," my boss said to me in a hushed voice. I asked her if she would call the police to have them ticket the cars which we blocking our spaces, she paled and said no, she also said not to say "Yakuza" or "mafia" loudly, they might hear. She said if we called the oplice and the cars were ticketed, that the Yakuza would do something in retaliation to the school. They left before lunchtime but I noticed a large puddle on and at the base of a wall of the school.
The next day the cars were still there. Daron said he saw one of them come back to their car while he was there with all the kids. The man had a grumpy look on his face, Daron said. Two of the little girls went up to him and said hi, but he ignored them, and got in his car and drove away. Daron also said he saw one of them pee on the wall in plain sight without trying to face away or anything.
The next day there were about twice as many cars, this time double parked. Lori saw three mafia thugs this time, all in very nice black suits. One was a skinny man with bleached orange hair, the others had shaved heads. All had angry expressions on their faces.
I wondered when this would end, or if they had found in our little school a new place to park permanently. I also saw other Yakuza cars around town. Lori saw a bunch of Yakuza cars parked in the street around a brightly decorated shrine near the school; shrines are decorated with colorful flags for a funural. The cars were parked in the streetall along the road near the shrine.
At the school, there was a Yakuza car parked right in front of the door so we could barely get in. Fumi finally called the police, and the Yakuza came and moved their cars after only a few minutes. This is interesting, since no policeman came to give a ticket, and the cars weren't towed, the Yakuza were called by the police I guess from the license plate numbers. It's no secret who the Yakuza are, even where they live, etc. Soon after the cars were moved another Yakuza came and parked in the newly vacated spaces. Fumi called the police again, but this time there was a different officer who took her call. He said there was nothing they could do, that sometimes as a courtesy the officers take care of parking issues but that he was too busy. He said that if someone is parking illegally on your property, you have to deal with it, not them. She got his name and will talk to their supervisor about why there was a difference from the response she got in the morning.
Fumi said that she went to get Japanese noodles at an "udon" (noodle) restaurant in which many Yakuza were eating. They didn't use parking spaces but rather parked right in front of the entrance, all disorganized.
The funeral party must've ended Thrusday because yesterday there was no sign of the Yakuza in town.
Tonight I'm going to dress a Yakuza for our church haloween party. If you want to learn more about the Yakuza, read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakuza.

Pictures from the Haloween party

Colette wins first place in the costume contest.
Here are our Brazilian friends Ricardo, Rose, and their son Alison sitting with Colette.
After the party we stopped by a Junior high school near our home so Nicolle could play some volleyball. The other night when driving home from Ricardo and Rose's house we saw a bunch of ladies playing volleyball here. We stopped and wanted to find out if Nicolle could play sometime, but didn't know how we'd communicate or if they'd want her to or not. They all were very happy to see her and gathered around Colette, and said Nicolle should come play with motions and the little English they knew. They practice for two hours two nights a week, and are very happy to have an "International" team, so looks like Nicolle's in! She's very excited.
Tonight is our ward Halloween party, so we'll have more pictures to come.

Halloween Party

Last night was the school's Halloween party. Nicolle paints faces . . .
Colette and I . . .
I caught Colette poaching prizes backstage at the fish pond . . . actually no she was "helping" me bag treats, she sucked on each one before putting it its bag though.
Nicolle decorates before the party.

first prenatal visit

On Monday we went in for our first prenatal visit. I didn't know what to expect at all. My first prenatal visit when I was pregnant with Colette consisted of blood tests, urine samples and family history of disease. I guess I thought that that would be likely this time too. We arrived 15 minutes early for our appointment and filled out some paperwork, with the help of one of my students (who also set up the appointment and everything, so nice). The clinic had a cute little play area with a little kitchen and stuffed animals that Colette loved. I don't think we would have survived the 40 minute wait without that play area. Finally they asked me to come to the other room alone. I was given a terrycloth skirt to change into. I kind of thought that there must be a mistake because in the states my doctor never did an internal exam, especially on the first visit. I didn't want to make a fuss so I did as I was told and changed then hopped up on to the examening chair. The room was dimly lit but cozy. The doctor came in and introduced herself. Her name is Dr. Pooh (actually I don't know how she spells it but she said Pooh like Winnie-the-Pooh). She speaks excellent English. I saw her lubricating a thing and got a little nervous but she kept talking to me as she inserted it and I hardly even noticed. Suddenly there was the baby! It is so tiny, I could only even tell what we were looking at because I could see the tiny little heart beating. The doctor sent for Rob and Colette so they got to see the baby too, but Colette doesn't like seeing me being examined or something so she started crying and trying to get to me so Rob had to take her out again. After the doctor took some pictures and measurements with the ultrasound she had me change back and meet her in another room to talk. She told me that she wanted to see me again in two weeks. She also said that she would do an ultrasound every visit. She asked me about Colette's birth and told me about the hospital that I would likely deliver in. It is a nice hospital in a nearby city, she said that they are remodeling it so that if I'm lucky I will deliver in the new section of the hospital like a queen:)
In the end they didn't draw any blood, or take any samples, but like Rob said they went straight to the source with an ultrasound. I guess you can say that I was impressed with the whole thing and feel much better about being pregnant in Japan than I did before. I am actually pretty excited now.

Saturday morning, i.e. Friday morning

Colette loves her Sesame street! Sometimes I sit in front of her while she watches it, just so I can look at her face when she's focused.
Today's Saturday, but sinceI'll be working all day it might as well be Friday. I'm sore because I lifted too much at the gym on Wednesday. The other couple showed us the local gym, you pay 300 yen (about $2.50) and can lift as long as you want.
Tomorrow will be busy, since we are newly called as branch missionaries that means more meetings, an hour early, plus since I'm the choir director (what?) I get to stay late for choir practice too. Plus I'm speaking so I'm trying to scramble a talk together, hence the blog: procrastination. Speaking with a translator is great, though; a 5 minute talk takes ten minutes. Plus everything takes longer to say in Japanese, so I can say a short sentence then get a good 30 second wait till I have to say anything else!
Monday is Nicolle's first doctor's appointment for the new baby. We're going with one of our students who will translate for us. Nicolle's been feeling stomachaches and a bit of nausea from all the smoke. Everyone's burning their stubble after harvesting the rice. There's got to be a better way, the whole valley fills with smoke every day and night. Burning isn't the right word, more like smouldering their stubble. It sits all day smoking, slowly spreading until its all burned. The smoke permeates everything, anmd our clothes smell like we've been camping. Hopefully soon they'll all be burned, but since there are still many fields which haven't even been harvested yet, I think we're in for a long fall burning season. Nicolle's thinking about wearing a surgical mask or something.
Well, since I've come to Japan I've been trying to get a paying gig playing my sax. We're off in the boonies so there aren't any paying places to play, that I've found anyway. I don't want to play for free anymore, since I have to be away from my family to do it. . . but finally I have a gig! It's playing at a bridal fair with this pianist I met through an English-speaking cafe owner. I'm excited because hopefully it'll drum up more work, she plays regularly at weddings.
Well I suppose I'd better get ready to teach my classes. Poor kids, with one class a week there's no way to learn a foreign language, I know after learning two that you have to have daily exposure and constant practice or it'll never happen. But they know a lot of flashcards anyway!

Day off

This is a magnificent bird of prey that we saw on our bike ride. It didn't seemed phased by all of the people that were around.













We've heard a lot of good things about this Indian restaurant close to the school so we checked it out for lunch. It was awesome. Colette loved the food and insisted on eating it by herself so of course she made a huge mess. They had cool music in the background, Colette was shaking her bum and stomping her feet. Her little dance moves would give any belly dancer a run for their money. I wonder if we could convince the restaurant owners to pay us to have her dance there, as in house entertainment.










This is a yard that we passed on our bikes and I just had to stop and take a picture. I love the way the japanese use space. The trees and bushes are all beautifully sculptured and the patios seem so serene.









We just thought it was funny how small this door is. It makes Rob look like a bit of a giant.
Rob and Colette on the bike trail. It was perfect weather for a bike ride.

the harvest

The last couple of weeks have been harvest time for most of our neighbors. So here are some pictures. I took these while we were out on a bike ride on our day off so they aren't that good, sorry.
Here is a cute little tractor, it is a little bit smaller than a lawnmower that you ride, but the farmers that ride them are usually very small and bent from decades of farming that they don't seem as small.



This is the rice just before they harvest it. It is pretty tall but all of the fields are lower than the street so they don't seem as tall as they actually are. If you look at some earlier pictures you would see that when the rice plants are young they keep them really well irrigated so that it looks a bit like a swamp. By the time the rice gets to this point it is solid mud, which is convenient I guess since they have to use the little tractors to harvest it.

















Rob and I love the way that this looks. This is how they dry the rice plants, we assume. It is funny to see the really big modern houses next to rice fields and temples.
This intersection is on a fairly big road just a few blocks from our house.









One thing that drives us nuts about Japan is how much they love to burn. The missionaries told us taht this is nothing that the spring is much worse. Rob asked if there was a certain time of the day or day of the week that they are allowed to burn. The reply was that any day and any time is a good time to burn stuff in Japan. It is a little eerie and toxic when the whole valley is filled with smoke that sticks to the back of your throat. It looks kinda cool though with the rows of stubble on the charred ground.

Buffet and Karaoke in the same day . . .

Sorry for all the vegetarians out there, but I had to take this picture. It shows the meat section at the restaurant we went to today with Fumi and Mr. Morimura, and the other couple, Daron, Lori, and their baby. The Morimuras took us out for lunch to celebrate Nicolle's and Annie's birthday. There were even squid here to cook. Each table has a grill built in and you cook your own food. It's a Bennion paradise because they not only had meats of all kinds but also fruits, vegetables, salads, sushi, cakes, ice creams, even a cotton-candy machine. Fruits and meats are so expensive here we rarely buy them.
Here's Fumi with Annie and Colette.
The Bennions. You can see two types of sauces in front of me, one for meats, the other for sushi.
Later we went to a Karaoke place, and Nicolle actually sang! She has a great voice but rarely sings. she sang three songs! Two Shakira and one Shania with Lori. I sang Sweet Child of Mine (badly), I can't help falling in Love with You (UB40), Rapper's Delight (Sugarhill Gang), Desafinado, and Garota de Ipanema. We all had a lot of fun. The Morimuras were much better at it as it is a big deal in Japan, I didn't know until we came here that Karaoke is a Japanese word. Everyone sings karaoke here. Some karaoke clubs have private rooms you can rent for a few hours, where you can sing as much as you want in privacy, or others are open to whoever wants to sing in a bigger room.
Here's another picture of the table with the grill in the middle. When Mom and Dad come we'll definately take you to this restaurant.
We also ran into a big group of Peruvians there. We had already met one of them the other day.
Last night we had our new Brazilian friends over for dinner. It was great to finally converse with someone who lives here, even though they are foreigners here like us. The husband is dekassegue, or a foreigner of Japanese ancestry. His father taught him Japanese so he speaks it well, but she only speaks a few words. Like the Brazilians I knew in the States, they are here only to save money, but will return to Brazil after being here about 5 years. They are actually going home in July just like us. We were all happy to have them as friends, and hopefully we'll be able to see them more while we're here. They're very nice.

Emi means beautiful in Japanese

Colette is getting bigger all the time. Emi is her middle name, named after Emilce, Nicolle's Abuelita, and in Japan it's a girl's name and means beautiful.
We are getting ready to go out today, it's our day off. It's kindof chilly so we're wearing warmer clothes.