Ice Festival!

We went to the Towada Ice Festival a while back....like almost a month ago! I'm trying! lol

I don't know why, but this picture is really small







There was a stage with a huge carving as the backdrop. It was very cold, but well worth it! As it would get dark they would light up the sculptures and stage. There also was a large tent with heaters and food, or else I don't think we would have survived all those hours!




















Mmmmmm.....



































After it had gotten dark, these drummers came out (there is a different word for it, but I don't remember what it was). They beat the drums and yelled and jumped and looked very cold!

After the drum show, they set off fireworks. It was a really neat experience! A couple from the chapel did a sculpture out there, for some reason the photo won't load, but theirs looked really neat!

Running and Ponies

I will post about some more interesting stuff soon, I just forgot the password to get to the pictures to add visuals! lol

We've had a pretty laid back week. We've all gotten a good deal of school done, but not to the point of stressing out. The weather has been getting warmer and so we've all spent a lot of time outside.

Uncle Nate and I went for a run tonight. We made it into Oriosi, but it was dark so we turned back. It was a good run, a bit chilly though. I love running in Japan. I got up early the other day and went running through the rice fields, and even though it is just dirt right now the view of the snow capped mountains is breathtaking. And then at night, with the sun setting behind the bonsai trees, and then glow of Hachinohe in the distance. Even though getting here was a trial, and if it had been up to me at the time we would have stayed in Texas. But now that I'm here, I wouldn't trade the time here for the world.

Arielle, Nolan, Alex, and I walked to see the pond/ponies as well. We got to the ponies right as the farmer was putting them away for the night. He motioned for me to come over and so I did, the others were a bit behind. He and I talked a bit. With his bit of English, and my bit of Japanese we actually had a relatively intelligent conversation. We talked about the ponies; one is male, the other is female. The male is about 6 years old and named Moishu or something like that. The female is 7 and is named Hannah. We talked about whether we would get any more snow for the year. We actually joked about our speaking abilities, both of us got a kick out that! He then told me, partly in English and partly in Japanese to come tomorrow at 8, or 3 and we could feed the ponies. But then he led us over to his car, opened it up and gave us all an apple to bring to the ponies when we did. So we really need to remember to go over there tomorrow!

Skiiing!

Arielle and I were invited by a family from the chapel to go skiing with them today. Arielle and I have never really done skiing, but we were both game.

It was a lot of fun! I don't have any pictures...I meant to take my camera but forgot. It was raining most of the day, but we don't mind rain! lol Mr. D took us to the top of the bunniest bunny hill and showed us how to do everything. I went down and didn't fall! Arielle almost made it, but she decided to stay on the bunny hill for a while.

There was hardly anybody out there to worry about running into, except for the crazy snowboarders who would be flipping all over the slope! I jumped onto the ski lift (nearly knocked the other person off). From the top of the next slope I tried going down and didn't fall again. I was happy! We skied for a couple of hours and then got some lunch. Hot ramen soup tastes soooooo good after skiing for several hours!

While we had been eating, a fog had started to roll in. It got to the point where, on the ski lift, you could only see the cart in front of you. IT was sooo extremely foggy! And that was when I started to crash. I fell around 4 times the whole day, and it was during this time! The fog really did make it hard to see. On my last run there were people lying all over the floor and so I did some fancy maneuvering!

There were a bunch of trees that I kept trying to steer through...I almost had it twice, but each time I crashed epically. Mrs. D pulled up and said, "I really wish I had a camera!" one ski was sticking straight up in the ground, both poles were scattered here and there. And I was lying face first.

Alicia and I were going down the middle of the main slope (we both decided to stop trying to swerve through the trees). She nearly fell and said something to that extent while we were going down; I looked back to congratulate her on not falling, when I lost my balance and fell. It was foggy...we couldn't see anything, but we could hear the sound of snowboards and whatnot zipping all around. And then the snowboarders came! It was a wild few moments on the ground, with both skis scattered, one pole was about thirty feet down the slope, while the other was like thirty feet up the slope.

Arielle and I both had a blast! I'm really tired and I'm sure I'm going to be sore in the morning, but it was worth it!

Catching up

HEY! It has been a while, and in all honesty I was planning on letting my blog die away into the cyberspace. But Dad is going to be gone for severality and a few more months, and so I decided to try and keep it up again:)

I don't know where to start! I've been very busy with school...and I'm really tired right now so everything I write may not make sense or be grammatically correct, but I did just finish 12.5 hours of school, with a head-ache, so cut me some slack!

I've also been keeping myself busy with a drama program (human videos) I'm trying to get started here at the chapel. Everything is going smoothly with that, thanks to an amazing team helping me! Right now there are some snags with the script that we are trying to work through, there will be more about this later!

Piano lessons are going alright. I've just started learning, and am having some problems mastering G position because I keep wanting to play a C position. So needless to say, my music doesn't sound very pretty right now!

Japanese lessons are still going (but we'll be off for March while Mom is in and out). Akiko is determined to get us to read, I think I'd rather learn how to speak it. If I were going to be in Japan longer than I'm going to be I'd invest more time in learning to write it. I kind of don't like the language...I love the people. But I don't like their language. I liked German a lot better, it was much manlier sounding!

The snow is melting away! I'm kind of tired of the cold and ready for the sun to come out again. I hear from people who have lived here a while that spring is fastly approaching.

That's about all I can write for now, I need to go to bed and try and get some sleep. I've got a dentist appointment in the morning for my wisdom teeth, plus a test in most of my school subjects.

How's that Dad? lol

I will update soon...it has been a while!

Snow Day!

It's a snow day! It's been snowing a lot these last few days, but we're supposed to get a heat wave. So we went and played before it all melted away. I'm really hoping for a white Christmas!















Our Texas snowgal



















That chaperone was a bit scary! I honestly don't think this relationship is going to last long, she's got a bad habit of just leaving during spring and summer!














There's snow on the ground..meaning it's cold. Meaning I'm ready for Texas again!

The Nursing Home

Last Friday we went to the local nursing home with a group from the chapel. We were going to wish them happy birthday. We had a large group. We gave them their gifts and then sang happy birthday. After that we sang the chorus of "Joy to the World," in English and Japanese.
















The lady sitting is 104. Amazing..truly amazing!















In the bottom of the gift bags was some sparkling stencil. The workers at the nursing home couldn't figure it out and I heard them say "uki" among themselves. Then one of the lady's carried it over to the Christmas tree and put it on the tree. Mom and another lady started to help them. they couldn't reach the last couple of feet near the top, so I stepped in!

Just in case you were wondering, I avoided hitting my head on the door jams. There were a few close calls, but the collision was averted!