Cherry Picking in Nanbu

What is my favorite fruit? Cherries. I LOVE CHERRIES! I remember climbing up cherry trees in Ukraine when I was little and picking cherries from…possibly our neighbors’ trees, or some random trees in town:)

Anyway, as you already have an idea Misawa is small town in the middle of a very rural area. That’s the side of Misawa that I love. 

On a hot, hot day in July… “three green and speckled frogs”….okay, okay, one of my friends suggested to go to Nanbu town to a cherry garden.  Nanbu is about 1 hour away from Misawa.  After a dozen of windy roads, a one way gravel road, we finally arrived to you destination.

At this place, you pay for unlimited eating of cherries per hour:) I don’t remember exactly, but I think we paid 900 yen (around $11.70) for adults and 500 yen ($6.50) for kids 6 and older, 200 yen ($2.60) for kids under 6, but older than 3. When we arrived, the owner took us down to the area where we were supposed to pick as many cherries as we could handle in an hour. Plus, we could pick some and take about a 2 pound (1 kg) box for $6.50 home.

It was an absolutely beautiful sight—hundreds and hundreds of cherry trees, covered with bright red delicious fruit.

 

Some branches were low enough for Mark to reach, although he wasn’t a fan of cherries.

Katya and Alex, on the other hand, couldn’t get enough of them..well, actually after about 40 minutes, they had enough. I did too:)

The kids were able to climb up the ladder to reach the ripest cherries.

Mark posing for the camera.

This is what I look like stuffed with cherries:)

   

Katya continues the tradition of putting cherries over her ears like earrings. There is a picture somewhere from when I was 11 years old standing on our balcony in Lviv with cherries hanging over my ears (wearing a T-shirt with the Canadian flag on it-haha).

It was hot…. In these pictures, Japan looks like Ukraine to me:)  

  How did they taste, you might ask? DELICIOUS! Some trees produced especially sweet cherries, so we tried to stick with them. These cherries tasted very differently from the ones I get at the commissary, that come from Washington state. They were lighter color, some even orange, a lot like the ones from Ukraine. Showing the kids were cherries grow, picking them and being in the gardens ourselves was totally worth the price.

Hopefully next week I’ll be able to go peach picking:)

Haircut time

I love getting haircuts:) Robert hates getting haircuts.

Fortunately, both Alex and Mark love going to get their hair cut.

But it wasn’t always so. I remember our first time getting Mark to cooperate at the barber shop. We usually go to the one in the North Area since it's not as busy as the one on main base, smaller and we know the hairdressers by name.  The first couple of times when I started bringing Mark, I had to hold him on my lap while he was screaming his head off, refusing to sit still. The only thing that helped was this funky musical Japanese bus with very strange looking elephants that kept singing Japanese versions of Nursery Rhymes (just my educated guess). Another thing that helped him to calm down by the time the haircut was done was his hairdresser’s constant muttering: “Marku, Marku, Marku is a good boy. Marku is a good boy. Almost done” and then a whole bunch of Japanese of kiddie talk. Although it was quite stressful to keep a whining child on my lap, just listening to that made me smile.  Here is a picture of Mark this month and that patient lady.

Well, three haircuts and hundreds Japanese magic words later, “Good boy Marku” decided that he loves haircuts. And he loves that Japanese lady:) Now, he and Alex both come into the barbershop, get into their seats and feel like kings:)

Alex has always liked getting haircuts. He is one of those guys that can probably fall asleep in the chair while getting his hair buzzed off. I think he just like the touch on his head, plus taking his glasses off makes it a novelty.

Getting haircuts together, definitely creates some kind of brotherly unity for Alex:) (we have been working really hard in our house to make Mark feel like Alex is not always there to chase/get/squish/grab/pull/hug him).

As a side note, the lady that cuts Alex’s hair is super slow….EVERY time, Mark’s hairdresser finishes Mark’s hair and has to help to even out Alex’s haircut. 

You might be asking why I don’t cut their hair at home? The answer is simple—I don’t have the attention and patience to detail….plus the mess that short hairs make drives me crazy:)

So I want to know, do you cut your boys’/husband’s hair? If you do, how did you learn?:)

Lyana

One Fine Day-Katya’s Baptism

July 9th was a very special day for our family.   A few days before then (the 6th), Katya turned the magnificent age of eight, which means that in our church she can get baptized!  Grandma Lorraine made her a white dress just for the occasion, and she was out-of-this-world excited to wear it.

We tried to get some nice family shots just beforehand. 

I think they turned out okay.  

I remember when Katya was in Primary classes at church, I used to watch the older kids as they were baptized and I imagined what it would be like to one day baptize my oldest child.  Besides realizing that means I'm getting older too, it was the most wonderful feeling as she came up out of the water and I gave her a big papa-bear hug.

The program was sweet and simple.  Katya chose a few people who were important to her to participate in various capacities.  She had one of her Primary teachers and her favorite babysitter to give talks.  Alex and I sang a song while Lyana accompanied (Alex, by the way, did an excellent job).  Everything was as it should be.  I hope she remembers this day forever.  I will.

On the way home we drove up the hill near our home for a quick photo shoot.  No need to tell her to smile.  She was made for the camera.  

Later we went out to dinner to celebrate.   We found this, out of the way (actually, it's on one of the main streets in town), curry shop.  Some friends told us about it, and we've tried to go there before but it was closed then.  It's difficult to find not because of it's location but because it just looks like a little house on the corner.  It's a quaint cafe with a few tables (some you have to kneel at, Japanese style, but I'm not into that anymore . . . not with 3 kids anyway) and a bookshelf with all kinds of books -- all in Japanese, of course, but the children's books had enough pictures to keep the kids occupied almost until the food came.

 

Here's what it looks like from the outside, complete with a random American family standing in front of it. 

Then we went to beach.  Summer is military PCS (Permanent Change of Station) season, which means that the bulk of moving in and out occurs at this time.  Last year only a few of our close friends moved out.  This year almost all of our friends are leaving, moving to all parts of the world.   This day we met a few of them on the beach for a final hoorah.  It turned out to be perfect beach visiting (not swimming) weather.

It's just one gigantic sandbox, when you’re a kid.

I can't imagine this group ever being together again.

So in the end it was one fine day -- full of special moments and good memories.

Robert

Our little girl turns 8!

--“Katya, what kind of party do you want for your birthday this year?”

-- “I know exactly what kind! Since I am not allowed to have sleepovers, can I have a stay up late party?”

--“We’ll see what we can do:)”

Katya’s birthday wish—to have crepes for breakfast AND in bed… I don’t know where she gets these ideas;)

We opened presents in the morning—Robert had a special day off.  A pink polka-dot purse with a toy poodle inside-from Babushka and Lyena.

This year all Katya wanted was an I-Pod and books. We figured a simple MP3 player would suffice for an 8 year old:) She was very excited.

 

After a fun play date with friend in the park and a yummy lunch, Robert took Alex and Katya to our base pool while Mark was sleeping (that is quite a treat because its hours are really limited to a very inconvenient time on weekdays).

At 4:30, Katya’s closest friends gathered at our house. First we went to the “Black Restaurant”, not sure what the name of it is, but the kids love it because they get a kids’ meal with a coin to get a toy.

That’s Katya, Abbie, Lizzie, Hannah and Breana.

  

After dinner we headed home where a very unique cake made by…Robert, of course, was awaiting us. Katya convinced us that she doesn’t like frosting and that she didn’t even want frosting on her birthday cake. Robert decided to make a Rice Krispy Cake:)

Then the girls and Alex decorated it with gel paints (yes, Katya is lying on top of the table).

The end product:)

Our beautiful birthday girl:)

After the cake, the kids played Outburst Jr., watched Gnomeo and Juliet and worked on an art project. By 10 pm everyone was taken home:)

Happy Birthday, Katrusia! We love you very much!    

Independence Day-2011

There is nothing like celebrating 4th of July in a foreign country.  Misawa AFB knows how to throw a good Independence Day party.  On Saturday, July 2nd, we went to the Beach Bash on our base beach of the lake Ogawarako. Each person entering was given a $5 coupon good for any purchase at the food booths and plenty of game tickets for each kid to use at the game pavilions and jumpy castles. The culmination of the night never came though. The fireworks planned for 8 pm (yes, it’s already dark at 8 pm here) were cancelled because of very thick fog.

Postponed till Sunday night.

And then, they didn’t happen on Sunday night either. It was too foggy again.

We woke up to a very rainy Monday (July 4th) morning, cancelled our plans of going to the Statue of Liberty park and spent the day playing Legos, jamming to some club music acquired from Lyena’s iTunes and playing games. In the afternoon, as the rain stopped, we went to hang out with our neighbors in the North Area.  The Streeters organized a neighborhood potluck party out in the cull-de-sac of our street. 

After a couple of hours, we drove over to our friends, Farnsworths, who live off base. Since we are allowed to have fireworks off base, they organized a little get together for all us, friends, most of whom are leaving this month.

Lyana, Emily, Cami, Erin. Three of these ladies are moving in July.

Cole, Robert, Brett.

Dave, Cory, Merrill.

Fireworks fun outside. We had a ton of kids!!!

Robert likes to borrow our friends’ children.

Emily and Janeen, you have no idea how much you’ll be missed…

I am happy we were able to do the whole fireworks show off base because our REAL BIG ($40K) fireworks show on the base lake was cancelled again tonight due to high winds. Postponed till sometimes later this year….bummer.

My handsome boys.

It’s so great to have awesome friends like these.

Farewell to the Farrers who are leaving tomorrow….Alaska will be excited to have you Misawa will miss you dearly.

Happy Birthday, America!!!!