March 19th - March 30th - Visitors!

Drew's parents and sister (Cory, Bob, and Jen Donnalley, otherwise known as Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt Jen) are our first visitors:

The kids greet Grandma at arrival

Cory, Bob, and Jen (probably mostly Jen) are going to be our guest bloggers.
If you see "Jennie" in the posting, that refers to me, Jen Morgan.  I was Jennie when I first met them and Jennie I have stayed, partly because Drew's sister is also named Jen - helps to keep us separate. :) 

And now our guest bloggers -

Here are the highlights of our trip:

What's it like to not speak the language of the country you are in?

On day 3, we had our first taxi trip and when we got into the cab, the driver pointed to this screen and spoke to us in Japanese.  We assume he was asking if this was the correct address so we just nodded, smiled, said yes, and hoped for the best.

How do phone calls go?  Here is a transcript of a call that Andrew made to the bakery to see if they were open.  Most shops don't open until 10 am but Bob wanted fresh bread for breakfast.

Andrew:  Hello, I was just wondering what time you open?

Lots of silence while Andrew is listening

Andrew:  OK.  I'm hanging up now.  [Click]....since I have no idea what you're saying.

We thought it was a successful conversation because we figured if they answered the phone, it meant they were open, and we were right because we headed out and got our bread.

Games

If you know us at all, you know we can't go a day without playing a game.  We'll spare you the scores of every game - we'll just give the highlights.  Cory and Bob had their first Wii experience and an experience it was.  See the video of Bob hula-hooping. Make sure you go to the bathroom first, because this video will make you pee in your pants.

After round one of skiing, Grandma Cory was the top score.  Andrew couldn't take being beaten by an old lady in not only skiing, but in a video game, so he got serious and worked for hours to top her score, which he eventually did.  (Note from Drew: It was the next time that I beat her score.  All I had to do was pay attention.)  

Greer giving Grandma a Wii bowling lesson

Grandma passed on the game of Casino to her grandkids just like
her mom taught it to Jen and  Andrew

In the 6 games of Monopoly, Grandpa won 4 of them which Cooper thinks is 100% unfair.  He wants to know how he keeps winning.

We played many, many games of Boggle, and since Jennie is a wordsmith, she has her own set of rules.  She can only get points for words that have 5 or more letters, and she still wins!  She has passed her skills on to her daughter - Greer crushes us every round.  Pretty sure she is soon going to have to follow the rules that her mom has to follow.  (Note from the editor:  Not only do my 3- and 4- letter words not count, but I get one fewer point per word than they do.) 

Pool - the house came with a pool table so we decided we had to christen the table.  We got the moving boxes out of the room and got ready for game #1.  The game finally had to be called due to the late hour.  Did you know a game of pool could last for hours?  Boy, are we bad!!!

Food 

If you know Bob well (or have ever met him), you know we have to have a section about food.

1) The Little Mermaid - the local bakery was our daily staple.  Not sure how Bob is going to live without his crusty bread.

2)  We can't go 2 weeks without Italian food so we went to a local restaurant called Bacca Bacca which is a five-minute walk from their place.  (Jennie and Andrew were out on a date, so we were on our own.)  No English menu but between some translating that someone from Andrew's office had done for him and the iPhone, we were able to order food.  We loved watching the chef cook up our spaghetti as he stirred it with chopsticks. Jen ended the meal by telling him that the dinner was delicious.  She used the iPhone to come up with the sentence.  The chef gave a big smile and the perfect hand symbol, but we imagine he had no idea what she said but liked that she was trying.

3)  You can't go to Japan and not go to a noodle shop.  Clearly we need to keep practicing with our chopsticks because everyone was tired of eating before they were full.

4)  What's a trip to Japan without a stop off for tempura?

5) We found the kids a burger shack which is only a 5-minute walk from their place.  Cooper said it may have been the best burger he has ever had! 

Top 4 highlights:

1) Visiting the kids school.  Jen went to a couple of classes on Thursday and then we all went for lunch on Friday.  When you step onto the grounds of the American School In Japan (ASIJ), you feel like you have stepped into a school in the US.

2) Cory, Jen, Cooper and Greer were in a taxi on the way home from the noodle shop when the GPS told the taxi driver to go down a one way street the wrong way.  Greer was able to get him home saying straight, left, and right in Japanese.  AMAZING!!!  It was the first time she had to get out of a jam using the Japanese she has been studying.  Her teacher is going to be so proud when she hears about this adventure.

3) Cory took Greer shopping for her x-mas present.  She got 1 pair of shoes, 3 scarves, and a pair of earrings.  Yes, of course shopping has to make a highlight list!

4)  Jennie driving through Tokyo.  Not only do they drive on the left hand side, the street signs are all in Japanese!!  A stop sign isn't even the same - it's an equilateral triangle.  She most definitely gets a power clap for her driving skills.

It was a great trip and we couldn't be happier we made the journey and got the chance to see what their life is like in Japan.

Sayonara until next time,

Cory, Bob & Jen

And one final picture from right before they left: