The Bean turns ONE!!!

We had a little (very little) first birthday party for the Bean! My mom & dad were in town and we invited some of Bean's nearest and dearest.

My mom and I made these adorable cupcakes

The white fish had one candle in it for the birthday girl! 

The birthday Bean wore (at least long enough to snap this photo) this beautiful outfit (dress made by grandma, headband by aunt Gigi)

"I'm one!"

"But I don't want to be a princess!"

The extent of her cake smashing/eating.

Mom and Dad tried to encourage some cake play. Bean said, "forget the cake! Back to my pacifier!" 

We ate lasagna and salad for dinner & fresh strawberry cupcakes for dessert. Bean only took one taste of frosting, but didn't go hungry because she explored each and every one of her lovely gifts with her mouth. A wonderful time was had by all and Bean felt very special on her big day. 

The 7th Inning and a Cloudy Crater

We went to our first (and hopefully not our last) Japanese (major league equivalent) baseball game at the end of August. The closest city with a team, the Tohoku Rakuten "Golden Eagles," is Sendai, which is fourish hours away from Misawa. Eric, Bean, and I met Keenan, Sarah, and her parents in Sendai on a Friday night. When we planned to spend only one night in Sendai, we hoped to have at least part of Friday day to see some sites. Unfortunately, when we planned the trip, I forgot to take into account that I teach a preschool class on Friday mornings, and we were unable to leave Misawa until after noon. By the time we arrived in Sendai, we only had time to drop our bags in our hotel room and make our way to the ball park!

Bean's first game!

The atmosphere at the park was familiar and very similar to games we have been to at home. Crowds, concessions, plushy mascots, music, crappy (but delicious) food, and, of course, beer! Though, regarding beer, one major difference is that it is sold exclusively by women who run up and down the stairs with keg backpacks resembling rocket packs. There were even some familiar faces on the Eagles roster: Andruw Jones and Kevin Youkilis proudly wear Eagles gold (and red)!

Fried chicken & chopsticks!

Go go gadget rocket pack!

Think we could sell a Bean fathead?

I am not sure Bean loved baseball, but she certainly loved the excitement of the stadium. She happily bounced on our laps taking it all in and hooted and hollered along with the best of them! It got later and later and she just kept partying on. You know how some kids are lulled to sleep by the hum of a crowd, or just become so tired they can no longer keep their eyes open? Well, this kid is not that kid. I have only seen her eyes get so heavy she passes out once...okay twice, but it is rare! When the Bean gets really tired, she becomes hyper-vigilant. She was exhausted and up WAAAAY past her bedtime (6pm), but she was completely overstimulated by the sites and sounds. Eventually I covered her head with a blanket and she zonked out within seconds. She only power napped, but it allowed her to make to to the Japanese version of the "seventh inning stretch."

You are getting sleepy...

A very curious thing happens during the seventh inning. First, the opposing team's fans inflate interestingly shaped, um, oblong (?) balloons, sing their fight song, and release them into the air. Then, the home team's fans performs their song and dance; though, with much more gusto, of course, being that they are the home team! Lucky for you, Sarah took a video because there is no real way to describe it with words. It's a kind of "you had to be there" experience, but one that is utterly amazing, wonderful, and hilarious to be a part of. Please enjoy this clip from her video!

"Tee hee" -Eric

The Eagles game was one of our favorite nights in Japan thus far. It was a vivacious, fun, and festive party and we got to share it with good friends and good friends' family. We can't remember if the Eagles won or lost that night. But that is never really the point, is it?

Bean didn't have time to pose for pictures, she was too busy charming the crowd...per usual.

After the game, we returned to the hotel for the first of (as it turns out) many hotel room parties with Sarah and Keenan before hitting the hay.

I should note that almost all of the baseball pictures we taken by Sarah. Sarah, thank you for documenting my life along with yours!

The bulk of the following day was spent taking a trip to see Mount Zao, a volcano about an hour southwest of Sendai.

You can see on the map to the left where Zao is-ish. All of my maps are "ish" maps because I make them on a screenshot in Microsoft Paint and do my best to eyeball the locations after looking at the coordinates on a real map. I am sure there is a fancy, more accurate (and much easier) way to do this, but I am computer illiterate, so until someone teaches me a magic trick, I will spend WAY too much time making inaccurate maps.

Anywho! The volcano, Zao, is a bad ass mother. It is the most active volcano on northern Honshu island. It has a beautiful crater lake called Okama, which was formed by a volcanic eruption in the 1720s. The lake is also known as, "Five Color Pond" because it is known to change color depending on the weather. Now let me tell you about some weather...

You can drive all the way up to the crater of Zao, and when we arrived, I could barely see my hand outstretched in front of me. It was cold and wet and insanely foggy. Not anything close to ideal crater lake-viewing weather conditions!

We marched around the observation area craning our necks, standing on fences, rocks, eachother (no, not really), anything we possible could to try to get a glimpse of the lake through the clouds. It was looking pretty grim and we were all feeling rather disappointed. Then, the clouds parted briefly, and the crowd collectively rubbed our eyes and blinked trying to figure out whether we had actually seen what we thought we had seen. Then it happened again, and again. Then, the clouds cleared for a miraculous fifteen to twenty minutes, revealing a breathtaking landscape that none of us had previously known existed. It was rugged, and ominous, and threatening, and beautiful. That day, the lake was a teal green color. I don't know if that counts for one or two of the five colors.

I caught them frolicking!

We snapped pictures as fast as we could and frolicked gleefully about the edge of the crater. We could not believe our luck. The lake was gone almost as fast as it appeared. The clouds returned and so did the wet. We spent the rest of our time at Zao exploring a shrine at the peak of the mountain before ducking into a visitors center for a snack and to warm up.

Eric, Bean, and I started the long trip back to Misawa (she cried...a lot) after Zao. Sarah and her family went on to have a once-in-a-lifetime experience at a Kokeshi doll museum they spotted off the side of the road. I opted not to go in because Bean had fallen asleep and I didn't want to wake her...I do not regret that decision, I do not regret that decision, I do not regret that decision....le sigh.

But in all honesty, this was not our best planned trip. We could have used a second night in the hotel and could have definitely spent more time exploring Sendai and the surrounding area. Coulda, shoulda, woulda... We still need to see Matsushima Bay and hit up IKEA. Lots and lots to do to justify a Sendai Part II. Stay tuned.

Our Something New: A piece of bread for every step

Sometime in September, it just so happened that Keenan and Eric were traveling for work at the same time. This gave Sarah and me a good excuse for another day trip (not that we needed one)! We ventured down the east coast to a place called Kitayamazaki Cliffs. Or, as we like to call it, "the thousand steps place." In Japan, it seems that in order to get to any rock worth getting to, you either have to ascend or descend a crap-load (pardon my French) of steps! And as you know, what goes up must come down and what goes down...must come up? Okay, that phrase doesn't work in this scenario, but long story short: to see cool things, prepare to walk steps. A lot of them.

It took us a few hours (by car) to get to our destination. Before getting to the cliffs (and a park where you can see the cliffs from an observation deck before taking the steps down to beach level), we searched for a light house. We saw signs for it (we think), but were never able to actually spot it. We had a few theories, which included everything from 'we just couldn't find it' to 'it was destroyed in the tsunami.' Either way, mission find cool lighthouse: failed.

But that was no problem because we still had a lot of steps to walk and cool rocks to see! We started at the observation deck before making our way to the stairs.

There were 363 stairs to the second observation platform (I didn't count, there were signs).

Sign basically says, "Watch out! Or the ocean will eat you, too!"

There were an additional 510 to the beach. 873 stairs (plus a few apparently unofficial steps that were not counted) later, we were up pretty close to some monster rocks. They were positively spectacular! The water was a gorgeous color blue and it was incredible to see (and hear) the power of the waves crashing upon the rocks.

Before taking the stairs down, Sarah and I had visions of being able to spend some time meandering the beach (read: a little time to prepare for the trip back up). But once we got down there, we realized that all of the meandering space had been eaten away by the ocean. As a result, we pretty much walked down the steps, took some photos, oohed and ahhed a sufficient amount, then turned around and went back up.

The up was not quite as much fun as the down, but we made it! And when we say, "we walked, like, a thousand steps," we aren't lying...almost.

Moments after this picture was taken, we had reached the top and were sitting on a bench catching our breath. I held Bean up, looked her in the eye, and praised her for all her hard work! It must have been hard for a little baby to walk so many steps! Her response was to spit up...in  my mouth...and that's how she felt about all those steps.

Step #1. No seriously, they are numbered.

Walking, like, a thousand steps made us pretty hungry. So, for dinner, we stopped at an Italian restaurant with an "all you can eat" bread bar. Our meals were delicious, Bean tried her very first bread, and Sarah and I had a piece of bread for every step. We had, like, a thousand pieces of bread.