On September 6 we embarked on a big adventure across the Pacific. My parents have been serving as missionaries in Sapporo, Japan (located on Japan's north island called Hokkaido) for nine months. Ever since they got the call, we have talked about how fun it would be to go. So after lots of planning and saving, we did it! We were able to see and do so much and enjoyed learning about the culture and seeing it firsthand.
As we talked about who was going to go, we debated many options, but in the end we just took Adriana and Christine. A few years ago Adriana had a missionary primary activity where they each got 'mission calls' and had an evening to experience what life would be like as a missionary in wherever they were called. The reason I say all this is because Adriana got called to Japan. Ever since that activity she has been convinced that she is going to Japan on her real mission. She of course gave her guess of where my parents would go... Japan. Because of all this and that hopefully she is old enough to remember parts of the trip, she came with us. It was our first time ever having 2 kids and I think they both enjoyed the added attention both from us and grandma and grandpa.
We had a lot of plane rides and both girls did very well. Adriana loved all the media options on the 13 hour flight from Dallas, TX to Tokyo. There was even an extra seat so we could bring on Christine's car seat and have her sleep there rather than on our lap the whole time. We were quite exhausted when we arrived in Sapporo after a long day of travel and adjusting to the 13 hour time difference. The first few days in Japan Adriana and Christine woke up in the early morning hours ready for the day.
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| The first night after being up with Christine a lot, I gave her to my mom at 5am so I could go back to bed. They had a great time going on a long walk and doing some work in the office. It's a little colder there so here she is bundled up. |
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| For lunch we ate at a Chinese restaurant in a hotel. It was a fabulous 5 course meal! |
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| Adriana loved the seaweed the minute she tasted it. |
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| Just kidding, she mainly ate rice with butter american style, but with chopsticks. |
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| The dessert plate! I loved all the samples and their sweets have less sugar so not too overpowering. |
In 1972 Sapporo hosted the winter Olympics. We went to the location of the ski jump and were amazed at the steep incline.
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| View from the top of the city of Sapporo |
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| Looking down the jump |
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| Up close of the city |
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| Riding the chairlift |
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| "When am I supposed to sleep?" |
For dinner that night we went to some friends of my parents and they had an array of all sorts of Japanese food. The soup had a few things in it we hadn't seen before. Something that looked like a marshmallow, but more dense, and a small pink circular something we found out later was a type of fish. They also had sushi, breaded potatoes, salad, new fruits, and more. It was quite the feast!
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| Adriana liked their dogs, but at a distance. |
The next day we went to the infamous Chocolate Factory that we had heard all about and Adriana couldn't wait to go there.
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| Enjoying the rose garden |
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| They also had a bunch of little houses for kids to play in. Adriana loved it! |
As part of our tour we decorated 2 cookies that are in the shape of the island of Hokkaido. We made one for Elena and Abigail who were very excited to get to eat it when we got home!
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| Quite the artist! |
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| These little mini cakes had amazing detail! |
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The assembly line of their famous cookies with a thin piece of chocolate in the middle.
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For lunch we ate at a natural food restaurant that is owned by one of my parents' friends (the stake president) The food was delicious. We loved all the salads we had in Japan and their dressings are very light.
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| Salad, smoothie, rice balls, vegetarian sushi and pie! |
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| Adriana tried the noodles and liked the smoothie. |
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| That night we went to one of the English classes my parents teach so it was fun to give them lots of practice. |
