Patrick's Ski Day

Last week Patrick got to go skiing with one of the schools he teaches at. It was pretty small, and in fact they only had two ski slopes: kind of steep not very steep at all. But he had fun and enjoyed getting to spend time with his students outside of class. And the largest boots they had barely fit him!

Sakegawa Eco Park

We took pictures at this park in the Summer, so we wanted to go back in the Winter and see how it looked. We even found an igloo to take pictures by. It seems it isn't as popular in the Winter as it is in Summer though.

Valentines Day

For Valentine's Day we went to a restraunt we had never been to that has fondue. It was really good; probably some of the best food we have had in Shinjo so far. The dessert, a loaf of bread with maple sauce and ice cream, was a little weird though.

Our Snowman

This is our little snow friend. We had wanted to make a snowman for a while, but it was so cold that we didn't want to spend any time outside. Finally it warmed up a bit so we put the little guy together. Ours had 3 sections for the body, but apparently in Japan they usually only make it with 2 sections, so some people thought we had made a mistake. We thought he was pretty cute though.

Mogami Park

On Saturday we visited Mogami Park to get some pictures of Japan in winter. We don't go out in the snow much, so we haven't really gotten any so far. But we enjoyed walking around the park in the snow and seeing the shrines covered in it. I thought the ducks were so cute. They never flew south, so they just stay out in the pond on their little ice island. We didn't stay long becuase snow kept falling on our heads from the trees, but we had fun while we were there.

My Birthday!

This was my birthday cake this year. It says "O Tanjoubi Omedetou Kurisutaru", which is basically "Happy Birthday Crystal". But it looks more exciting than that. Our neighbors came over and we ate the cake, then the next day Patrick took me to Pizza Hut and Baskin Robbins in another town, so I was in heaven.

Mogami River Boat Ride

A few weekends ago we went on the Mogami River Boat ride. It's supposed to be beautiful in all seasons, but this winter there hasn't been much snow, so it wasn't as nice as the brochures suggested. But it was fun and some parts were still pretty. The boat was even heated so that was nice. The best part, or possibly most interesting for me, was the second picture. We went with our neighbors and before we got on the boat they bought these smoked fish to eat on the ride. These are whole fish, heads, tails, and all, and they ate it all! I was amazed.