Snow!!

After being in Misawa for three years, we're pretty used to snow. We have 3 different snow shovels and an ice shovel-thing, each car has a snow-brush/squeegie/pick, and we have lots of cold-weather clothes. Annelise still fits into the snow bibs that she got last year from Grandma, so all we needed this year was a coat and boots. Grandma sends her a new coat for her birthday and I bought her some boots just days before we got our first major snowfall. And by major, I mean at least half a foot.

A few weeks ago, we woke up to 19 inches of fresh snow that had fallen overnight, with 3-foot drifts in some places. We didn't realize how deep it was at first, I look out of our second-floor window every morning when I wake up and look at the rooftops to guage how much snow we've gotten over night. Because of all of the wind that night, there wasn't much on the rooftops and we opened the door to a BIG surprise! The whole base was delayed that morning and John spent 3 hours digging out both cars and the whole driveway area.

That weekend, John and Annelise went outside to play in the yard, which contained the four-foot-high Mount Snow. I woke up from a nap a couple of hours later to find a snowman and a fort and John begging Annelise to come back in the house because they were both cold and tired.

We've gotten a few inches here and there since then, but not a whole lot at one time. A couple of weeks ago, we went to the Lantern Festival in Hirosaki and had a blast. We loved looking at the lanterns made of snow, eating festival food, and John and Annelise went down the tubing hill that was there. I freaked out at first, Annelise wanted to go down on her own and insisted that John bring a tiny tube for her. She went down the hill like a champ twice, but the second time she flipped out of the tube at the bottom. As a testament to one good thing we've done with our kid, I ran towards her clapping and yelling "Yay Annelise! I'm so proud of you!!" (while freaking out on the inside) and she just got up and smiled. The Japanese people probably thought my reaction was crazy, but that's how we've always been with falls and such. I learned that from some mom friends and now she only cries after a fall if she's really tired or actually hurt. She went down the hill again later in the tube with John and I think she really liked that one since she could sit up and see everything.

This past week, we got together with the spouses from our squadron and the kids who aren't in school for a sledding day at the base ski lodge. Annelise and I went down the giant hill 3 or 4 times, it was a lot of exercise walking back up the hill, but it was also a lot of fun! My favorite part was the snow fight we had at the bottom of the hill. Annelise has horrible aim (she *is* my kid), so snowballs don't really work for her, but scooping up loose snow and flinging it at someone is right up her alley!

Yesterday and last night, we got about a foot of snow and Annelise and I went out to shovel and play in it this morning. After I shoveled just enough to free the car, we had another snow fight that lasted quite a while and moved all over the yard. We had snow in our hair, mouths, down oour shirts, and even inside our gloves! It was so much fun, and I know I'm going to cherish these memories!

No pics of any of this, John has his camera and I can't find mine. :(

Christmas Letter 2011

Family and Friends,
This has been an interesting year for the Minear Family, so I guess I’ll start from the beginning. In February, we took a trip to the city of Sapporo for the Sapporo Snow Festival. We took an overnight ferry to get there because Sapporo is on a different island than Misawa, the ferry ride
was a lot of fun and we are very thankful that some friends went in on a private room with us so we could get a good amount of sleep on the way there and back. In Sapporo, we saw HUGE snow
sculptures of all kinds, buildings and people and animals. We ate dinner at the Sapporo Brewery and Annelise really enjoyed the lamb and learned to ‘Kampai’, which is ‘cheers’ in Japanese. We were also able to tour a chocolate factory and drank the best hot chocolate in the world.

Then came March. March 3rd, I had the wonderful opportunity to celebrate Girls’ Day with a
local group of Japanese women; that day was one of the best I’ve spent in Misawa. On March 10th, I filled up the car with gas because I was running on fumes. On March 11th, we experienced a 9.0 earthquake and the Japanese coastline was devastated by a tsunami. Because we lost all power, we didn’t even know how devastating the tsunami was or anything about the nuclear issues in Fukushima until the next day. We were only without power for 2 days, but I was very glad that the gas tank was full since gasoline was rationed for a week or two. John worked long hours getting maps and up-to-date images to the rescue crews while I comforted Annelise during the hundreds of aftershocks. We accepted the military’s offer to leave Japan for a little while and
went to Texas at the end of March. While Annelise and I were in the States, John went on a couple of cleanup missions in the local area. When we returned to Japan, Annelise and I helped put together backpacks full of school supplies for the children of Otsuchi.

The main reason that Annelise and I left Japan was that the earthquake and subsequent aftershocks scared her. She crawled into my lap during each one and woke up when we had them at night. Even a bumpy car ride made her cry and I knew she needed some time to get past her fears. Spending time with family really helped, and it took some of the stress off of me, as well. We were also able to see my sisters during their pregnancies, which was a wonderful bonus. We hosted a baby shower for Dianna and Melisa at the beginning of May
and then headed back to Misawa.

This year, John was finally able to go to the Hirosaki Cherry Blossom Festival with us and we had a lot of fun. The castle grounds are so beautiful when the trees and gardens are in bloom! For
Mothers’ Day, John sent me on a day trip with friends to paint kokeshi dolls, it was so much fun! I even took Annelise back to paint her own in July! In June, Annelise welcomed her first cousin, MacKenzie Marie. Melisa and Trent’s little girl is so adorable and she loves to talk to us on Skype, she smiles every time she sees us! July brought me my first godchild, Cooper Scott. He is Dianna and Kyle’s son and has me completely charmed.

August brought Annelise and me back to the States while John went to Alaska. Cooper and MacKenzie were baptized in our church back home and we loved spending two weeks with them
and the whole family. Annelise loved holding her babies and feeding MacKenzie a bottle, she’s going to be a great big sister one day. After two weeks in Texas, we traveled up north, to Indiana. We had the best time hanging out with family, eating yummy food, and
getting some shopping done. Annelise got to play with her cousin Olivia when we were in Lafayette and renamed her cousin Claire, calling her Yaya, when we were in Indianapolis.

In September, we were almost back to normal, but then October brought the Officers’ Spouses’ Club’s annual Far East Bazaar. I was on the bazaar committee and spent three days in a hangar full of amazing items. At the end of the weekend, my feet hurt and our bank account was a
little bit lighter, but the club raised over $30,000 to be given out in the local community.

John and I went out with friends in October to celebrate my birthday with some karaoke, and Annelise dressed up as Jessie from Toy Story for Halloween while John and I were Mr. & Mrs. Potato Head. November brought a family trip to Tokyo, where we visited DisneyLand and DisneySea for a couple of days. We had a blast and got to meet a number of Disney Characters, including Princess Aurora, Minnie Mouse, and Princess Ariel. We made the trip over Thanksgiving and Annelise’s third birthday, she had a blast and loves to tell people about the trip. She wore her Jessie costume one day and a Cinderella costume the next and everyone at the
parks thought she looked adorable.

Now that December is here, we’re finally relaxing after a crazy year. John had an inspection at work this month that ate up a week out of every month this year while they prepared. Thankfully, his office did well and we’re done with that for a while. We’re planning a quiet Christmas at home before ramping up for the new year. We have several friends arriving here over the next few months, which eases the pain of some of our closest friends moving
away.

When we moved to Misawa, we thought we’d be leaving in January of 2012, but we have extended our stay by six months. We will be done with our tour here this summer and should be finding out about our new assignment in the next couple of months. We have absolutely loved our time here and are so grateful for the chance to live in this amazing country. The people are so wonderful and their culture contains much to be admired. We haven’t always enjoyed living so far from ‘home’ or how long it takes items to arrive in the base stores, but we have made many wonderful memories and dear friends.

We’re sorry that more of you couldn’t visit us in Japan, but we understand how much money and time it takes to come here. There are a number of things left on our ‘to-do’ list that will remain undone, like a visit to Kyoto and Hiroshima, me climbing Mt Fuji, and seeing some of the southern islands, but overall we feel that we experienced some of the best that Japan has to offer. We plan on spending the rest of our time here enjoying one last Winter and Spring, building snowmen, skiing (for John), watching the trees and gardens bloom, and spending plenty of time at the beach. We can’t wait to see what life has in store for us this next year!

Merry Christmas!!
John, Angela, and Annelise

Sapporo

I know this is almost 2 months late, I'm lazy and then we had an earthquake. When we moved to Misawa, all we heard about were cherry blossoms and the Sapporo Snow Festival. We got to Misawa too late that first year to get tickets to the snow festival and John was deployed last year, so this year I was ready the day tickets went on sale and I told John that I'd go without him if need be. We booked a trip through the base that included an overnight ferry trip there and back, plus one night in a hotel in Sapporo. (We live on Honshu island and Sapporo is on Hokkaido, an island to our North.) Our friends David and Yazmin ended up getting on the same trip so we were able to book a room with them on the ferries so we didn't have to sleep in the 'cattle pen' with everyone else. We left on a Sunday evening and rode on a bus to Hachinohe, where we boarded the ferry. John, David and Yazmin were kind enough to wander the boat while I got Annelise to sleep and we woke up just in time to see the ferry pulling up to the dock on Hokkaido. We were bussed to a hotel for breakfast, which was a pretty typical Japanese breakfast. So of course, I didn't eat much there, I'm not really one for fish or rice for breakfast. Thankfully, I had packed some snacks so we were prepared for a breakfast of our own on the bus. Then we took the bus to Otaru, a city on the northwestern side of the island. Otaru was a beautiful, snow-covered city and is known for music boxes and blown glass. The snow was a little crazy there, we collected over an inch on Annelise's stroller in a matter of 10 or 15 minutes. She fell asleep while we browsed around the city and I found a beautiful vase in a glass shop that matches a vase that John bought for me a while back. We were VERY tempted to buy some amazing cheesecake, but we knew that there were many other yummy treats ahead. We stopped at a small food stand with a heated tent where we could sit and ate potatoes on a stick, some sort of yummy fried potato/cheese concoction, and a curry dumpling thingy. We also had delicious hot chocolate and lavender ice cream!! I actually got a cone that had lavender, milk, and melon flavors, while David got one with 2 extra flavors. My favorite was the lavender and the melon was my least favorite. Then we got back on the bus and went to Sapporo to check into the hotel. Our hotel was in a great location, only a block or two from the ice sculptures, one more block from Mister Donut, and very close to an underground mall that we could walk through to get to the snow sculptures. That afternoon, we ate at Mister Donut (it's just so delicious there!) and looked at the ice sculptures, then we went to the Sapporo Bier Garten for a delicious dinner of lamb, seafood, and veggies with all you can drink beer or soda. We really enjoyed the food and Annelise learned how to toast in Japanese, saying 'Kampai!' and clinking her sippy cup with the tour guide's mug of beer over and over again. After we got back from the beer garden, we met up with a few people that we had made friends with on our bus and speed-walked through the underground mall to get to Odori Park to see the snow sculptures lit up at night. We only had 20 minutes or so before they turned the lights out, so we rushed through so we could see all of them. I was in awe of those sculptures, they were GIGANTIC!! Each sculpture was the size of a good-sized building, with a stage in front for various musical performances. There were also a ton of smaller sculptures, including recognizable characters (both Japanese and American), a baseball player (possibly Sammy Sosa), and a Nobel Prize winner. On Tuesday morning (Tuesday already?), we ate breakfast at our hotel; it was a much more Americanized meal and we all left with our bellies full. We then hopped on the subway to a chocolate factory that was on the other side of town. When we got out of the subway station, we had nowhere to go so I stopped a large group of people to ask (in my very limited Japanese) where the factory was. Earlier in the trip I had told John and the Arroyos to remember that just because someone is white, they may not be American/speak English because this is an internationally renowned festival. I had to eat my own words when I found out that the man I was trying to speak Japanese to was from Hong Kong and currently lives in Canada!! Thankfully, he spoke both Japanese and English and was leading a tour group from Hong Kong who was also trying to find the chocolate factory, so we followed them the few blocks to the factory. Now, this was not a Hershey's-style factory, they don't make candy. They make adorable little Japanese desserts and cookies and we got to look in on the assembly line and the history of chocolate-making. We also each received a sample of the signature cookie, Shiroi Koibito. A Shiroi Koibito is two thin cookies with a thin chocolate filling; kind of like a Milano, but better. We were all tired and hungry by that time, so we went to the cafe inside the factory for delicious desserts and THE BEST HOT CHOCOLATE EVER. EVER. We bought a tin of cookies and two little cans of hot chocolate to take home with us, we've been rationing the cookies and neither one of us is allowed to have one unless the other has one too. That's how good they are. And the hot chocolate has ruined me for all other hot chocolate. Before we went back to the subway station, we stopped at another gift shop attached to the factory and mailed post cards to ourselves and a few other people. Once we got back on the Subway, we basically collapsed and rested in anticipation of checking out the snow sculptures again. The sculptures were amazing at night, but they were even better during the day because it was easier to see some of the details. We took our time that day and had a lot of fun taking pictures and being silly, then we shopped a little for souvenirs and ate ramen before getting back on the bus for the trip home. The ramen was delicious, it was actually my first time eating actual ramen in Japan. I know, I've lived there for over 2 years, but we just don't go out to eat very often and John is gone so much, plus Annelise is just now at the age where she can eat something like ramen so I don't have to worry about bringing extra food for her. We got back to the hotel just in time to get on the bus and the ferry trip back to Hachinohe was a little more difficult than the trip over because Annelise did NOT want to go to sleep. All in all, we had a great trip. I'm glad that David and Yazmin were able to go with us. I didn't get as many family pictures as I would have liked because Annelise napped at awkward times, and I didn't find a kokeshi doll that (to me) represented Sapporo, but we made some great memories and checked and important trip off of our list. Now it's time to gear up for our second try at Fuji and a possible trip to Hawaii in the fall!

Christmas and such...

We had an amazing Christmas here in Misawa. We went to Mass on Christmas Eve and then skipped out on a party that some friends were throwing because we were tired and had to set up Annelise's toy from her aunts and uncles. She got a climb n slide from them that she LOVES, it's in the house right now because of all of the snow outside, but we're looking forward to moving it outdoors in a few months. Annelise also received a kitchen from Santa, it's nice to have something to occupy her while I cook dinner or check my e-mail. My parents gave her some play food and a play cookie set, she loves them and is always offering us cookies. I have to check her pants pockets for wooden cookies before I put them in the wash, but I'm so excited that she's at an age where she actually plays with her toys. Annelise got lots of other cool stuff, including a Magna Doodle that she brings to us asking us to write the ABCBs. She knows all of her letters now by sight, although she still has trouble singing the alphabet. We've started working on colors and lower case letters and we're still working on counting.

John and I got some really cool gifts, as well. He got some very nice Japanese whiskey, a new hiking backpack, and The Pacific on Blu Ray, and I got a Wii Fit, some attachments for my Kitchenaid mixer, and some great movies. Then came the gift cards... it's difficult for our families to get all of our gifts purchased and mailed to us in time so some of them send us Amazon gift cards or money. We used the money to help pay for our trip to Sapporo next month (it's also our anniversary gift to each other) and the gift cards to buy Wii accessories!

On Christmas Day we had some friends over for lunch, I made roast and rolls while our friends brought mashed potatoes and dessert. Then we went over to see some other friends and spent the evening relaxing. John took leave during the week between Christmas and New Year's, it was really nice to spend some time as a family and get things done around the house. Then on New Year's we went over to a friend's house and watched a Japanese countdown. We toasted with champagne and sparkling cider while Annelise slept upstairs and we had a great time chatting with everyone. We're very lucky to have so many good friends.

We were planning on buying a video game system this Spring after we pay off John's truck, but God had something else in mind when I won a Wii at the squadron Christmas party! John was in Alabama and had to miss the super-fun party, but he was pretty excited to come home to a Wii. We've bought a number of games and accessories for it and are pretty set except for Rock Band/Band Hero, which we'll buy in a few months. We really enjoy playing each other in bowling, wakeboarding and other games, I'm a sore winner and am always very excited when I beat John's scores. He has much better hand-eye coordination than I do, so it feels pretty good to kick his butt at something every now and then. We also use the Wii Fit to get in some exercise, it's way too cold and snowy for my liking and I don't go to the gym anymore so the Fit is really helpful. John also has a great time playing Call of Duty as a way to zone out after a long day at work.

We've been having fun with cooking lately, the attachments for my stand mixer allow me to grind my own beef and it's amazing how good freshly ground beef tastes! We don't even buy ground beef anymore, we just buy inexpensive cuts of beef and grind a few pounds a week to use in dinners. Last night I also made pizza from scratch for the first time. I used whole wheat flour and made my own dough, then topped it with pesto, chicken leftover from the night before, and some mozzarella cheese that I grated in the food processor. It takes a little longer to do all of this yourself, but the resulting pizza is soooo worth it! We're slowly moving the more processed foods out of our house in favor of things that we make ourselves, although I draw the line at milling my own flour or growing my own veggies. I am just not good at growing things so I'll keep buying locally grown produce and maybe join a co-op when we get back to the States.

Now we're dealing with lots of snow and gearing up for our trip to Sapporo for the ice festival. Sapporo is on the island to the North of us and is famous for the ice festival, so we'll take an overnight ferry there and back and spend a couple of days exploring the city. We booked our trip through the base, so there's some structure to it and we'll have a tour guide along. Also, two of our friends are coming with us so we're really excited. :)

And I guess that's that. I've finally got us updated. Even though I still haven't posted anything about Annelise turning 2. I think I'm in denial that she's actually 2 and I can't bring myself to talk about it much. I just can't believe how much my little girl has grown up!

Merry Christmas 2010

Hello to our wonderful family and friends!
We’re finishing up our second year here in Misawa and are having a blast! We started 2010 by sending John off to a 5-month deployment in Qatar. Angela and Annelise went back to the States for February and March to see family, they spent time in both Texas and Indiana, and they were even able to meet up with John in San Angelo for a week! The Air Force sent him there for a little while to help rewrite an Intelligence course, so Angela and Annelise picked him up from the DFW airport and extended their trip to spend some time with him. It was a nice break for all of us in the middle of the deployment.
Not long after John got home, we all left Japan on another trip. John went to Las Vegas for work and then met Angela and Annelise in Ennis for a wedding. Angela’s baby sister got married and all three of us were in the wedding, Annelise was an adorable flower girl! We took a quick trip up to Oklahoma City for an air show on Father’s Day and got to see some of our friends fly with the Thunderbirds. While we were in Texas, we also made a day trip down to College Station so we could show Annelise around and buy her some new Aggie clothes. We had a lot of fun in Indiana this summer, too, we took Annelise to see the wolves and she learned to howl and then we took her to two different zoos! She also went to her first water park and we introduced her to the wonderful world of Barbie at the Indianapolis Children’s Museum.
The best part of our trips was seeing Annelise interact with her cousins. Annelise had a great time with Angela’s little cousins in Texas, she followed Carleigh and Carsyn around like a puppy, and she loved having older cousins in Indiana to play with. John’s cousin Claire even pulled Annelise in a wagon in a Fourth of July parade! We are so blessed to be able to spend time with our families and to see them on Skype.
In July, John and Angela tried to climb Mount Fuji while Annelise stayed in Misawa with her Auntie Kim and Uncle Ron. Due to bad weather, we didn’t end up climbing the mountain, but we enjoyed the time together and are going to try again next year. John spent August in Alaska and Guam on work trips and then got home just in time for the Air Force Ball and a great air show. Annelise loves airplanes and John was so proud the first time she said ‘airplane’ back in July.
In October, we made a short trip to South Korea for some shopping while John was there for work, and we also helped out with the annual Far East Bazaar that the Officers’ Spouses’ Club puts on. John missed Halloween because he was on his way to Alabama, but Annelise and Angela braved the wind and rain to Trick or Treat on base. Annelise was an adorable cat, and had fun as long as we were inside. She was not a fan of the scary costumes, especially a little boy dressed as a wolf.
John spent November and part of December in Alabama for Squadron Officer School and will have just gotten home as we mail this out. He had to miss Annelise’s birthday, but was able to visit his family in Indiana for Thanksgiving and Angela’s family in Texas for a weekend. Angela and Annelise went back to swim lessons at the base pool in October and November and spent Thanksgiving with friends. Annelise had a wonderful second birthday on the day after Thanksgiving and is growing more every day.
Annelise has grown and changed so much over the last year. She’s still very friendly, but has become a little more shy lately. Her vocabulary grows every day and we have to watch what we say around her. She loves to watch Dora the Explorer, Go Diego Go and Handy Manny. Cookie Monster is still her favorite toy, but I think she’d give it all up to be able to play on the playground every day.
Our plans for the next year are to explore Japan as much as possible (and hopefully South Korea) and then make a trip back to the States at the end of the summer to meet our new nieces/nephews. Both of Angela’s sisters are pregnant and we are really looking forward to having new babies to spoil. We hope this letter finds you all in happiness and good health and we miss you very much!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
John, Angela and Annelise

Playing Catch-Up

Sorry it's been so long since I last posted, we 've been staying busy! John went to Alaska and Guam in August, he got to see some of our friends from Clovis while he was in Guam and was able to see Mt Denali while he was in Alaska.

While John was travelling, Annelise and I went to the Nebuta Festival in Aomori, the capital of our prefecture. We were able to see a really cool parade with amazing floats, lots of taiko drumming (GIANT drums!!), and dancers wearing the traditional haneto costume. Annelise loved the parade and we had a great time, even though it was REALLY hot that day.

Misawa actually got pretty hot this summer, it was hotter in Misawa than it was on Okinawa, which is hundreds of miles to the South. Thankfully, it only lasted a few weeks and then we ushered in a short, but beautiful, Fall season. John and I went to the Air Force Ball again this year and had fun, and we also took a short trip to South Korea.

John had to go to Osan Air Base in Korea for a week for some work stuff, so Annelise and I hopped a military flight out there and spent about 20 hours in a new country! We were able to eat at Chili's (yes, I thought of Clovis), we went to dinner with one of John's friends and ate traditional Korean food (I did not try the kimchi), and I even got some shopping done! We want to go back for a week in the Spring, Annelise and I didn't really see any of Korea other than the base and the area immediately outside the gate, and I want to shop some more!

Annelise loved having her Daddy home for the entire month of October, we went to the park a lot and also explored some more of the Misawa area. We went to a beautiful temple in Nanbu, Apple Hill in Namioka (Mom and Dad, it's where we stopped on the way to Hirosaki), and I showed him around Aomori.

Annelise is growing and changing, she has so many words now! There's still a lot I don't understand, but she's learning more and more every day. Right now we're working on counting (she can say her numbers in the right order but doesn't really count things yet) and colors. She's growing taller and taller, but not any bigger around. She still fits into some of her 18 months clothes, but the pants are definitely too short. Annelise also loves to sing, we started swimming lessons again this month and she really enjoys singing along with us during the classes.

John is in the middle of another class for his Master's degree, he's got about a year left. He's doing well so far, but it's tough to get all of the reading/papers done and still make time to spend with us. We can't fly by the seat of our pants anymore when it comes to weekend plans, we have to make sure to figure things out during the week so we can have fun as a family and have time for John to study.

I've been 'hardly working' lately but am transitioning into 'working hard'. I've got a ton of craft projects to complete before the holidays, plus decorating the house and making Christmas candy for our deployed friends. Between Officers' Spouses Club meetings, squadron spouses meetings, being a Key Spouse, and taking care of Annelise, I've had to send her to a sitter for a couple of hours a day just to have enough time to exercise and run errands. Because of John's erratic schedule (he will be gone for a total of 8 months this year), I can't depend on him being home for me to exercise in the early mornings or evenings, so I've been hitting the gym in the middle of the day. Annelise loves going to the sitter to play with her friends and I like having some time to myself. I will admit to dropping her off a few times in order to come back home and nap, but those are usually on days that she's kept us up at night or something.

Although I'm looking forward to the holidays, I'm not looking forward to Winter. The Japanese almanacs are predicting a very harsh winter, so I'm just glad that John is boing to be home to shovel every morning! I've got my Christmas shopping about done, I just need to shop for John and my dad/brothers. Boys are so difficult to shop for and I really hate giving gift cards!

Since it's Halloween, we're going Trick or Treating tonight, so I guess I'd better get ready! I'll try to be better about updating, but there will definitely be a post for Annelise's second birthday.

National Lampoon's Fuji Vacation

I'm typing this from the library at Camp Fuji, as John is on a train going back to Misawa and Annelise plays with Auntie Kim and Uncle Ron. This whole experience has been a little surreal, so I'm sorry if the story is a little garbled...

A few months ago my good friend Vanessa asked if John and I wanted to travel with her family to climb Mt Fuji over the summer. Of course I said yes and we started planning. John and I would climb one night while they watched Annelise and Vanessa and Marty would climb one night while we watched their boys. It sounded like a pretty good arrangement and we made reservations at Camp Fuji, a Marine base that is fairly close to the mountain. The original plans were for a trip from July 28 to August 2.

Then we found out that John had some work stuff going on and shortened our trip to come home on July 31. It was still 4 days and I thought we could have a lot of fun in that amount of time, climbing a mountain and going to a safari park nearby. I started 'training', working my way up to an hour on the treadmill at a good incline and pace, then also working up to half an hour or so at a higher incline and slower pace. I bought new hiking boots while we were in Indiana and ordered some pants online, plus I borrowed a hiking pack from my friend Laura.

Then some stuff happened at work and it turned out that we couldn't leave as early as we would have liked on the 28th and John would have to be back in Misawa on the 31st. My vacation was shortened again and I was getting upset. We decided to leave Annelise in Misawa with Kim and Ron, all of the travel required plus climbing a mountain started overwhelming me and I knew it would be better for all of us if she stayed behind; plus John and I haven't gone anywhere without her for more than a few hours since she was born and Momma needed a break from Baby.

So we finally left Misawa at 5:30 pm, after getting work stuff sorted out and buying a ton of energy drinks and protein bars and fighting with the computer to load more music on my iPod and being nervous about leaving my baby behind. What if she cried the whole time? What if she didn't cry at all?

We got to Tokyo Station just fine, we've made that trip several times and it's pretty easy. I had written down a bunch of info on exactly what trains I wanted to take from there to Camp Fuji, but Tokyo Station is pretty busy and trying to dodge Japanese people while looking for the line you want to take and then finding the board for your line to figure out what track you need takes some work. We found the line, read a board, and located our track, but then a train pulled up about 15 minutes before the one we wanted and just sat there. We went back and forth, 'Is this our train?' 'I don't know, I guess if it's still here a couple of minutes before we're supposed to leave then it is.' The trains that we've been on before all have electronic boards inside and out telling you what train it is and where the next stop is, in both Kanji and Romanji (Romanji being everything spelled out using our alphabet instead of using traditional Japanese symbols), but this one didn't have anything in Romanji and of course I didn't print out any Kanji to look for (oh look, a lesson!). We tried asking a station employee, but many Japanese people do not read Romanji and he couldn't help us. We finally decided that it was the correct train and hopped on, searching for two seats together.

Since I had done a little bit of my homework, I had written down every station that the train would stop at before we needed to change trains, that definitely helped a lot. I didn't, however, do that for our final train so we relied on the timetable that I had copied down to guage how much longer we had until our stop. We got to Gotemba Station at around 11:30pm and caught a cab, thankful that Marty and Vanessa had driven in earlier in the evening and checked us in, opened our room for us, and turned on the fans. We got to catch an awesome glimpse of Mount Fuji at night with lights going up the sides, a combination of lighting from the huts and stations and the headlamps of the climbers. We were so excited and too tired to be nervous.

The next morning was pretty gloomy, it was very cloudy and was raining. We putzed around our room until 11, then made our way across base to eat lunch and buy water and other supplies. This was when we realized that my coat was not waterproof (Oh, another lesson). Water-resistant, yes, waterproof, no. So we also bought some waterproofing spray and went back to the room. Marty and Vanessa showed up and invited us to go to the local outlet mall and fun was had. We bought Annelise her first Lego set and even got some ice cream from Coldstone Creamery! Of course, walking around for a couple of hours right before climbing a mountain probably wasn't the smartest idea ever... (yeah, there's another lesson)

We got back to the room and got everything loaded up, then Vanessa drove us to the train/bus station where we realized that we left all of our pamphlets/info in the room (wait, ANOTHER lesson!). We got ahold of Vanessa and she checked their info to tell us what bus stop we were looking for (really, I remember the most random, useless things but I couldn't remember Kawaguchiko Station??) and just then a bus pulled up that was going to the right place.

At this point I want to tell everyone how much I live in Japan. Not only is it beautiful and just amazing, the people are so friendly. When the bus driver realized that we didn't really know where we were going he called me up to the front and we had a broken conversation where I told him where we were going and he told me what time we'd get there. Would that really happen in other countries? Can't you see some annoyed Frenchman telling me to piss off and find my own way? (not that I have anything against France, but really I can't say Englishman since we've got one in the family now) Japanese people are just so friendly and I'm really going to miss that when we leave.

Ok, so we get to Kawaguchiko Sta and accidentally find the bus to Station 5 of the trail we wanted to hike. There are a number of trails up the mountain and they all start and end in different locations, but they all start with Station 5 and the summit is Station 10; we chose the Fujiyoshida trail because it is the one that John hiked last year and is considered the easiest and most popular trail. We got on the bus and as we started up the mountain I couldn't help but notice how much wind and rain there was.

At this point I had already had several minor freakouts about climbing, I'm not an athletic or outdoorsy person but I really wanted to do this. I went from one extreme of KNOWING that I wouldn't make it up the mountain and would embarass myself by having to tell everyone that I wussed out to the other extreme of KNOWING without a doubt that I could do anything I put my mind to, especially if John was along to support me. One of my freakouts occurred not long before we left the hotel room and John looked me in the eye and promised me that as long as I tried my best he'd get me up the mountaint, that we would take it one step at a time and every step would be together.

I've got this idiotic penchant for caring what people think about me and wanting to be seen as a very strong person who can do anything when I'm actually very nervous about trying new things and fitting in with new groups of people. I wanted to climb Mt Fuji to prove to myself that I could do it, but also because at that point I had told everyone I know that I was climbing it and didn't want to return to facebook with my tail between my legs. I put on all of my gear and was fully prepared to climb that damn mountain as we stepped off the bus. We went inside Station 5 to buy a hiking stick for me (which can also be used as a bowstaff, I'm just saying) and a rain slicker for each of us when we heard an announcement over the PA that we all had to leave the station because they were closing. We overheard one of the station workers tell a group of hikers that all of the other stations and huts were closed and it was too dangerous for us to climb right then. The announcer said that the last bus back down the mountain was outside and we had better get going. We put everything back where we found it and hopped on the bus that brought us up the mountain, prepared to go back to Kawaguchiko Station.

As more and more people squeezed onto the bus, it soon became apparent that we didn't have enough space for everyone and the bus driver tried calling for an extra bus, then tried calling the hotel at Station 5 to see if there were any vacancies, then called back demanding that another bus be sent because we were out of options. By that time the Station had closed up and there were about 15 people huddled outside our bus that wouldn't fit; they had to wait about an hour before their bus finally arrived. It took us a long time to get down the mountain, there was a lot of rain and the fog was pretty dense in places, but our bus driver just took his time and played it safe.

We all knew that there would be no buses or trains out of Kawaguchiko this late at night, but it was a big station and I was sure that we could make it work. Oh wait, the bus/train station was closed and we ended up huddled under one covered portion with 50 of our closest hiking buddies, including one odd guy wearing shorts, a t-shirt, and a fedora with Chuck Taylors and no pack or supplies of any kind. Including a group of 15 high school and college kids on a mission trip. Including people from about 6 other countries. And the bathrooms were closed so we had to trek a few blocks to a 24-hour 7-11 if we needed to pee. I'll admit to allowing myself to become a little dehydrated in order to not have to put on our packs and walk to the convenience store. They're kept pretty clean in Japan, but we had somehow claimed the one bench and I wasn't giving it up. I slept on and off for a few hours from 12:30 to about 4:30 while John kept watch so that no one tried to swipe anything, but the sleep I got was fitful and I was definitely not comfortable.

One upside to this train station adventure was that I met a sweet girl named Brooke, who is a very proud member of the Fightin' Texas Aggie Class of 2014. That's right, I managed to find an Aggie at Mount Fuji, it's really the whole reason I wore my Aggie hat on this trip. It made me a little sad that the fish this year are 10 years younger than we are, but it was also really cool to see her excitement over attending A&M. Brooke was a part of the mission trip group and told us that they made it up to Station 6 before they were told they should turn around, that the conditions sucked and that someone had died of hypothermia that evening.

So we rested, watched the other hikers with amusement, and wished for some liquor. They sell liquor at convenience stores here, but again we didn't feel like leaving our uncomfy little bench. Our dinner and breakfast consisted of power bars and crackers, snacks we had planned on eating on our hike. The station started coming alive around 5am, with locals showing up for a train and everyone starting to gather their things together. A worker finally opened up the doors to the rest of the station and many of us moved inside, where there were more benches and we wouldn't be in the way of the commuters. And yes, I was very grateful that I could finally use the restroom.

We were lucky enough to be able to leave pretty early, the first bus going back to Gotemba left around 7:10 and we were pretty tired of the train station by then. The clouds would clear up for a little while and then crowd back in, but the rain was gone and it had warmed up, it looked like the conditions for climbing the mountain were pretty good but John had to get back to Misawa so we said 'matane' to Mount Fuji, which means 'see you later' in Japanese.

The trip back to Gotemba was uneventful, I had a nice conversation with a Brit while we were on the bus and then we hopped a cab back to base; at that point we didn't feel like figuring out another bus schedule and $20 for a cab was well worth getting back to our room quickly. Just as we pulled up to base, the clouds moved away from Fuji and we had the most amazing view of the mountain. John had actually never seen the mountain, it was surrounded with clouds when he climbed last year, but I've seen it once from a plane. It was an amazing, and bittersweet, sight to see.

So we rested up and John caught a ride to the train station from Marty and Vanessa. I slept for a little longer and now I need lunch after spending so much time typing, but now it's time for the lessons we learned...

~Next time we travel, print out copies of the important interchanges and locations in actual Japanese instead of just Romanji.
~Always check everything to make sure it functions properly. Why did I assume that my winter coat was waterproof? Why didn't we bring any of John's Gore-Tex jackets (of which he has 3)?
~Rest before a big trip, that one's so obvious it makes me sad that we overlooked it.
~Check and double check that we have everything we need before we leave the room.
~God is in control. Always, everywhere. We get to make our own choices, but really everything is going to turn out according to God's plan no matter what. I believe that we were never meant to climb Fuji this year, that God gave us plenty of 'outs' but also plenty of chances to test ourselves. He wasn't testing me, I was testing my own resolve and abilities.
~Prayer really does help. The whole way through I kept praying for the strength of body, mind, and spirit to make it to the top. Then I added in that if we weren't meant to climb, I would need a definitive sign; all of the huts closing and the guy at the 5th Station warning us was sign enough for me and I'm very thankful for that.

John and I are both disappointed that we didn't get to climb this year, we were so ready. Ok, maybe I'm not actually physically ready, but I would have done it. What I mean is that we really connected on this trip, John saw that determination and strength in me that I'm always working for and committed himself to helping me get up the mountain. I saw that he really believed in me and it strengthened my resolve. Even though we didn't get to climb Mt Fuji, I think our marriage is stronger because of this adventure.

Another amazing thing is that not only were we both praying the whole way through this, we were praying for the same things, to be strong, to support each other, and to trust in God's plan. I didn't get to sing 'Climb Every Mountain' from the Sound of Music at the top of Mount Fuji this year, but I've been singing 'Jesus Loves Me, Yes I Know' and 'God Is in Control' in my head for the last day or so.

So we're going to try again next year. I'll be in better physical shape and more prepared for the actual climbing, God will still be in control, and you can bet that if I make it to the top I'm going to sing 'Climb Every Mountain' at the top of my lungs, even if I do hate that song!!