2 years ago today

we moved to Japan!
we got in a plane on the morning of april 16 and landed in japan the evening of april 17, 2007. it was the craziest traveling we've ever done (besides my space a flight to california about six months after that).

we left from virginia, i actually threw up on our first flight that was only like 30 minutes long - to wash/dulles - because we had such bad turbulence we circled around for 30 extra minutes! i have never thrown up on a plane before that or since that! we barely made our connecting flight to tokyo because of that delay, so that was stressful. we got to the flight to find out our seats were'nt together, so had to sweet talk them into moving someone else so we could be next to each other during the 14 hour flight... we got to tokyo and had a short layover, then made it to fukuoka which is where we thought we were staying for the night only to discover we had another 2 hour bus ride to sasebo! and this was at 10:30 at night and we almost missed that too! then we got on the bus and found out our hotel reservation for the lodge on base wasn't starting until next week cause they had the dates mixed up! so at 1am we had to treck into town and find a hotel. we grabbed a few hours of sleep before having to get up by 6 to get ben to the ship to check in, dragging all our luggage with us. talk about an adventure!! :) haha.

here's a picture of us from that first week in japan:



in some ways it feels like we've been here longer than 2 years, but in other ways it's hard to believe it's been 2 years. we sure have gone through a lot since then, and done a lot of learning and growing and loving. you just never know what God has in store for you!

speaking of -- we are praying about the future and what God's plan is for us, if you would do the same we would appreciate it so much. we'll update on that when we know something more definite. :)

thanks friends!

ps: my mom and dad made it home safely on monday night, and are recovering :)

arita and hirado

We took our MWR maps and Dad's good navigational skills to do some driving adventures around here the last 2 days. Yesterday we went to Arita and Imari (big pottery towns) and saw lots of neat pottery... Mom found some treasures! :) We also went by the Noritake China Outlet where she found a really neat Christmas china plate. I didn't take a ton of pictures as we were mostly shopping, but I did get a few. It's been great weather, too!





here's one of the shops we went into...


Today we headed out the other direction to Hirado Island and toured the Hirado Castle. Took a few more pictures today. :)









We have tomorrow (Saturday) to relax and pack up and do any last minute shopping here, and then Sunday we head to Fukuoka to spend the day and see a neat mall Ben and I like. I have to sadly leave them in Fukuoka Sunday night because I have to be back at school Monday morning! They fly out from Fukuoka airport on Monday morning and head back to the states.

We've had fun exploring and it's been great showing them around where we live and our life here. :) Hope everyone has a Happy Easter Weekend! Praise Him, He is risen!!

nagasaki adventures...

yesterday we took the train out to nagasaki!
we walked around and explored a lot... saw the peace park (for the atomic bombing), the peace hall, the museum, and a neat temple. here are some pics! :)

peace park had neat huge statue, and beautiful fountain in the shape of wings...






they called this ground zero:


my super cute momma!


and the temple




we are staying busy and enjoying our time together.... more pictures to come... :)

they're here!

mom and dad made it to japan from the states to visit during spring break.
ben was able to be here for a day, but he's already gone again out to sea :(

here are a few pictures of our visit so far!
it's been great to have them here... just wish ben was too!

cherry blossoms!




at an overlook to 99 islands...




at the zoo by our house...


on a boat taking a tour of 99islands...




more pictures and adventures to come... :)