We're expecting!!

It's true; we're going to have our first baby in Japan. We are both so excited to be adding on to our family. So far I have been pretty sick, and the foreign food doesn't help, but the first trimester is almost over so there are better days ahead. The baby will probably make its entrance around the middle of April, so we'll have a Spring baby! So far, everything is going well with the baby, so we feel truly blessed. This is the baby's second picture and it's already growing so fast! We can't wait to put more pictures of him/her up and belly pictures too:)We're so happy to share the news with everyone!

Totoro

On Sunday we visited the "Totoro" tree. The village is famous for this tree that looks like one of their famous cartoon characters from the movie My Neighbor Totoro. It's one of our favorite Japanese movies, so we were excited to see this tree. On Saturday we went to another Undoki for the kindergarten students. They were so cute running their obstacle courses and doing dances. Our neighbor Akari who is four participated, so it was fun to watch her. Nothing much else is new, but we'll keep posting:)

Undokai

This is from what they would call a sports day. From my perspective it's somewhere between a track meet and American Gladiators without the pads. This is from the middle school where I spend most of my time. The kids did traditional japanese dance/chants, relay races and things like that. In the picture above, 6 kids were all tied to 2 ropes along each foot and had to race 200 meters. Most groups fell, which amused the parents watching more than the actual victory did. Another game involved 3 kids holding one on their shoulders and attacking another group. The object was to rip a head band of another team. To start though they charged each other from about 30 meters so it got pretty rough and I think at least one kid got hurt everytime, but again the parents enjoyed it. Overall it was very suprising to me and interesting to watch, most of it would be quickly banned in America, but that's why we came. The kids had been practicing for this sports day for a few weeks after school everday until 6:00.