fuji-san and friends :)

what a whirlwind these last 2 weeks have been.
seems like just a day or two ago that we went to pick up our friends... yet we were there today saying goodbye! :( so sad.
time flew, and what a great time it was.
little recap:

for those of you who have asked -- YES! we survived fuji!
i know i need to put up more details... heres the readers digest version for now :)
it took 8 hours to get to the top with our group of 25 or so...
we stayed up there for about 30 min. (it was cold!!) and then made the climb down in about 3 1/2 hr. it was the hardest thing any of us has ever done, and let me just say that the way down was like 12,000 times worse than the way up! i know that doesnt sound right, but it was all downhill gravel/volcanic ash, and it HURT! my big toe is not in very good shape... but we did it!! haha. :) we can say we climbed fuji and lived to tell about it, but as ben would say... Never Again! hehe.
charissa and i got bought sticks and had them stamped at the bottom, the middle, and the top of the mtn... (you can get them at every station - about 20 stamps in all!) we were a little sad we didn't go ahead and get every one, but they were about $2/a piece... but we at least have our stamp that says we reached the top! and they were a HUGE help in the balance department, too!

as always, here are some pictures from our adventures:

at the start of the climb - about 5am


during the climb:




at the top!




friends :)






we have had a wonderful time with our friends, and are so glad they were able to come. what a blessing to have a taste of home again. we played games, went shopping, explored, ate sushi, climbed fuji, saw a waterfall, visited a hot springs -- just had a visit packed with fun times! the only downside of their visit was the heat... (its pretty hot here now that the rainy season is over!) and that it was too short! we were certainly sad to see them go today! i guess now we have to get back to "normal" life here in sasebo. :P

but... anyone else want to come use our guest room?!?!?! :)

so fun :)

We are having a blast. It's been great to be able to share our life here with our friends from home, and we have been staying busy! It's also really HOT here! :O And we are packing up this morning to get ready to leave for FUJI this afternoon! Hard to believe it's already here! I am sure we will have lots of stories to tell when we return from our adventures.... but for now here are some more pictures from the last few days! :)

Charissa and I did some shopping and had coffee with my friend Kelly:


and yesterday we took them out to a waterfall:






We've also taken a boat ride around the 99 islands and played Apples to Apples... :)
Well, that's all for now... Wish us luck as we head out this afternoon for the biggest adventure yet!

they're here!!!

our friends arrived safe and sound last night (monday night japan time) =)
we drove to the airport (an adventure as we had never done it before), made it without any trouble and were so thrilled to drive them back! they were super tired - didn't sleep at all on the flight here! what troopers. but i am pretty sure that made it work out for them in the end to get a good nights sleep last night and feel semi-rested today! they felt pretty good all day today and dont seem to have a lot of jetlag, which is such answer to prayer! =)
here are the faithful travelers:


i woke them up this morning in hopes to keep everyone on a good schedule, and we went out to the ginza to explore. and i showed them one of our favorite video games - we call it "drum drum" but i don't think thats the actual name of it... haha. =)


ben has duty today, so we didn't get to see him much =( but we got to take him dinner and visit for a bit so they could see the ship, and him! here we are! all in japan - crazy!


more adventures and pictures to come.... =D we're so glad they are here!

exploring japan....

we've been going out and trying some of the directions we picked up on base to see different spots around sasebo. so, on friday -ben had the day off - we drove about 30 min. away to see a very neat waterfall!






we ran into someone who offered to take our picture for us...


we also ran into a few of these guys:




we've definitely been enjoying our time together. :)
hope everyone had a happy 4th!
ps: our friends get here TOMORROW!