Skiing at Nozawa Onsen!

We traveled about 4 hours to get to "snow country". In Japan, the temperature varies drastically in just 4 hours. Here in Hachioji, a jacket is usually sufficient for me, but in Nozawa Onsen, there was negative temps and snow! We stayed at a minshuku (Japanese Inn) for 3 nights, and breakfast and supper is included.....fish and rice for breakfast of course;) The food was delicious and the old couple who own the inn are warm and friendly....it was just a tiny place and we were the only ones there-much better than crowded hotels.

Unfortunately, we got stuck on the way there.....in very deep snow.....the tire was just spinning in mid-air. A bulldozer thing had to pull us out, but it was quite the adventure!

This is our little room we share. Here we are setting up our "beds".

You wear these hats to keep the snow out of your face. The symbol means "snow".

It snows there. A lot. This is the van after just 1 day!

The van-day 2!

Me and the kids are "wading" through the snow. It was SO FUN and fluffy :)

The skiing was VERY DIFFERENT than in America. It snowed so much the first two days, that if your ski came off, it was difficult to find! Here my ski fell of and after searching a few minutes, I finally found it completely buried a foot under snow. It wasn't showing at all. I had to pull the tip out so you can see it in the picture!

Here is the very TOP of the mountain (1, 650 Meters high). This is how snowy it was the first day.

Here is the same EXACT spot at the top the very next day. BIG difference in the weather!

In Nozawa, you have to not only shovel the sidewalk but the roof too! They had an underground running water system on the roads so snow never stuck on the roads! It was pretty cool!

(yes, i ate raw egg....and it was really ok!)

Here is an expert hill I did. The 3rd day the expert courses were a lot more slick, but the first 2 days they were bumpy with lots of snow. I did almost every trail....I think....It was a BIG mountain with lots of lifts. You had to use a map to get around. The Gondola (enclosed ski lift) was nice because it took you up most of the mountain in 15 minutes. Then, you had to get on 2 other lifts to get to the very top!

More of Japan 日本

The other day I got to visit Rachel at school. This is her jumproping class. They also have classes on how to bow and how to correctly peel an apple!!!! (they never eat the skin in Japan)

Here are some of Rachel's friends doing art for art class. Almost all Japanese are creatively talented.

COSTCO! A very American store...that basically looks like Sam's Club....except its even BIGGER....and more crowded!

These fish are up for buying! We got some.....yellowtail something I think they are called.

By the end, we had 2 very full carts!!!.....but dont worry: they have a cart escalator to get to the parking garage! So funny!....especially when 2 apples toppled off my cart and rolled all the way down! hahaha.

Our very very very very very very long bill.....which is quite normal for an 11 people household :)

The emperor's grave! Sarah was sure to tell me to not make loud noises or act too happy. The wife also gets a grave almost identical to this one......this is the emperor from World War II, who famously declared, "Japan has surrendered (lost)."   

These were some monks we saw offering respect to the dead emperor and his wife. They rang this bell thing and started chanting for an entire minute. Then they bow. They clap their hands twice to "wake up" the dead person and then bow to show their respect to them. My camera was way zoomed in because I didnt want them to know I was taking a picture of them because that would be disrespectful. 

Then on the way home, it was so funny! Some elderly man on his bike started speaking Japanese to me and wanted to give me this coat he bought! He said the arms were too short for him and he wanted me to have it. Sarah tried to ask him some questions but he said he couldnt hear well and then rode off! So funny :D

Here's a view of the street where the house is: 

Here's a beautiful view of Hachioji and the mountains:   

Sayonara!

SUSHI!

Hanging out with the older girls. In Japan, when you pose for a picture, for some reason, everyone does the peace sign:

Here's an awesome action shot of my chopping wood. The family owns a few plots of land that they plant stuff and work with outside of the city...up into the mountains:

On on plot of their land, we found a buried car! It WAS a honda Civic!

We crawled inside of it! It was really dirty! Fun!

These are some shrines you can buy to put your idols in. Something we dont see in America:

Here is a veiw of Hachioji. You can see how close the houses are together!

We made chocolate chip cookies with chocolate I brought from America: they were very excited because American chocolate is better than Japanese chocolate:

Here are some instruments from Japan/China:

And AT LAST, my sushi! The green stuff wrapped around the rice is seaweed and to the left is barely cooked shrimp and raw tuna: I ate it all......and im still alive!

Eating the sushi:

God be with you!

School in Japan

Today, I got to go to Amy, Elizabeth, and Charity's school. It was really neat to see how different it was! Charity took this picture of me, and if you look closely, you can see the red tag pinned to my shirt (showing Im a visitor) and the shoe rack behind me (NOBODY wears shoes in school-only slippers!)

This made me laugh so hard. His guitar is hideously out of tune, and the kids are ironically singing "Rocka my soul in the bosom of Abraham"......little do they know that's from the Bible!

The first graders have to wear these yellow hats when they go to school and leave school to distinguish them:

The classes are big, and the kids never leave the room. The different teachers (Sensei tachi) always comes to them! They even eat lunch at their desks.

If you look closely in this picture, you can see the long braids of Amy.....the only non-Japanese in her class:

Sayonara!

First post from Japan!!!

 Hello from Japan! My first week here is going great! The  family is very awesome and I am loving all the new stuff I get to experience. Here is the bus I had to take from Narita airport to Keio Hachioji. Everything went great, so thanks for the prayers!

These are just a few of the mutiple buttons on the toilet ;)

 Here is a night view of Tokyo:

 My first lunch here: pounded rice, raw fish with seaweed, and some other stuff that i dont remember! The food here is very tasty. We have seaweed pretty much everyday.

 The kids were loved the American candy I brought.....they had to divide it out JUST right so each child got an equal amount:

 Here is Charity and Nathan reading the books I brought. THEY LOVE Dr. Suess.....its a good thing I do too :)

 We play LOTS of games too.

 Here we ate out for lunch. I had noodles with fish sausage, ginger with onions, and fried vegetables....which included a Japanese squash and mushroom thingy.....also I got a shrimp.....as long as my hand. Mhmmmmmmm.....oh and instead of water, you always get hot tea to start the meal:

 Here is an awesome view we saw on our drive/hike up the mountain:

 This is how red my hand got playing a game called......ummmmm.....i can't remember....but its some variation of rock/paper/scissors where you get to slap the person if you win! They do a lot with that game here in Japan.....im finally learning how to say it: "Sigh sho wagu! Chon Ken Poi!" That is the wrong spelling but its how i remember how to say it!

 My room:

We also went to church in Tokyo yesterday. It was very different than Bluffton. At lunch they made me a cake that said: Welcom Cassie written in Japanese. The people here are so friendly. I like it a lot! I'll try to keep you posted!