On Christmas Day we spent the morning on a local tour around our area of Ishigaki Island. It was a very cloudy, rainy day so we were glad we had something extra to do! Inside the glass bottom boat tour:
CM Friends: A view of the boats at Kabira Bay: The black pearl farm in Kabira Bay: A strange statue from when the emperor visited a few years ago: The beginning of pearls - these clams have just been implanted with an irritant that will cause them to form the pearls, in a week they'll be put in the farm: A disection of a clam with a pearl: The awamori factory - a famous local sake: Jeremy posing in front of an old Okinawan home at Yaimura village: We had tea, okinawan cake, and a traditional music lesson in the tea house: Afterwards, we visited a monkey sanctuary - this lady decided to 'feed' the monkeys, but they mostly just helped themselves! We saw them squeezing the juice from the sugar cane, preparing to make brown sugar: I found this lobster-formed straw in the ladies bathroom interesting: Our weather that day and some neat bushes: A local Ishigaki elementary school band came to play for us: Me at the bar before dinner: Us with 'Santa' - they were doing family pictures here: Another 'family' picture with our new friend, June: The evening show, "Dream show" about a child and her toys:
Jeremy had been talking about trying windsurfing for several days, so after the weather cleared up he finally tried it and loved it! Here are a few precious moments for you to enjoy in order of activity:
He also wanted to try sea kayaking, but wouldn't go without me. I would have loved to have gone, but I was a bit worried as the doc specifically said NO SWIMMING. Sigh. Now Jeremy says I can tell people I married a windsurfer. :-)
Three parties down, one more to go! On Saturday night we had a lovely time at Toshiko's enjoying sukiyaki for dinner and delicious Christmas cake and apple pie for dessert. We were even graced by the company of Simon, a previous Bell teacher, who was visiting in the area. Our first REAL taste of Christmas cake! This is what a traditional Christmas cake looks like in Japan - a must have for every Japanese family. It's amazing the kind of detail and edible goodies they put on them! And yesterday, we had both Bell school parties. Sadly, very few children came to the Christmas party, which we were somewhat expecting as few actually signed up to come. Last year we had about 120 people, at least half of whom were students, and this year we had only 12 students. Yes, that's right! We still had fun though!! Here is Jeremy making his appearance as Santa Claus:
Who knew Santa had to go through agility training?
So today/tonight we're quite busy getting ready for the trip, cooking, running errands, and attending our friend, Akiko's party. Sooo... We wish everyone a fabulous Christmas and we'll 'see' you again when we return home with many pictures - of course!
-The Bowmans+1 (12w4d)
*edit* Baby Bowman is soo cute! I just watched the DVD of the last two ultrasounds the hospital gave us and I could see and understand so much more now that I'm not laying on the table! I didn't notice its chin, nose, and ears before! Baby has an adorable face! And the tiny arms and hands with fingers that open and close! I could tell that it's already kicking and punching me, but of course I can't feel anything yet, haha. That's all. :-)
Oh! And it's the first day of winter! Winter... if you hear me... please hurry by, we miss the warmth, no offense...
Thanks everyone for your advice and opinions! So, after more consideration and prayer we ultimately decided that it would be best to wait a few months before getting the H1N1 vaccine. I was scheduled for this morning, and called and cancelled a few hours before (sorry!). I figure since it's still so early on (11 weeks) and the baby is still in its critical stage of development, plus the greatest risk of contracting the virus is in the later stages of pregnancy, that it would be wisest to wait. Fortunately, I heard H1N1 is at its peak here now, and in a few months I probably won't even need the vaccine. So here's to our health this holiday season and beyond! I plan on wearing those popular masks while traveling and in the classroom, and of course, the usual staying-healthy methods.
PS. Those masks are annoying though! They are common here, people wear them both while sick and while preventing sickness, so I don't look out of place - BUT they do tend to steam up my glasses from time to time making me look a little odd, lol.
Hmmm... I'm wondering now if I should get the new flu shot. I've never had a flu shot before, and I've never had the flu (that I can remember). But sooo many people around me have it or live with someone who has it. Apparently, Yamaguchi is the hardest hit area in Japan right now, go figure it's where I live. :-p The vaccine is only available to women with infants less than one year, pregnant women, the chronically ill, and elderly right now. A good friend of mine suggested it today especially as we'll be traveling in a few weeks and I work with kids every day. I know there's pros and cons to it, but I'm not exactly sure what they all are. What do you think?
So, I've been a little late on several holidays recently, haha.
First, I wanted to post a picture of Jeremy's 'cloud'. While it is warm, he carries this with him everywhere around the house, often knocking over whatever stands in its way... On Sunday, November 22nd, we hosted the annual Bell School Thanksgiving dinner at our home. This year was much smaller than last year, namely because of the unfortunate flu outbreak, but we have a lovely time nonetheless! We had 12 friends join us for the potluck dinner, including a giant chicken (no turkey this year!), 'spicy' sandwiches, sushi, Japanese potato salad, creamed corn casserole, beef stew, raw veggies, and many others. It was perfect. After dinner, one of Jeremy's students played some tunes on his saxophone while we guessed the popular titles. Then, one of my junior high students started singing Christmas carols and many others joined in. And the last bit of evening entertainment came in the form of 'moon walking' lessons. Carla began practicing her Michael Jackson moves and other 'genki' students decided to join her. We all enjoyed ourselves and look forward to next year's dinner party! And although we didn't get to celebrate in the traditional American way, we'd still like to give thanks for all the Lord has blessed us with this year. We are sooo very thankful for our super awesome family and friends back home in the US who take care of us and support us. You mean so much to us! In addition to that, we are also very blessed to have a working computer and the internet through which we can stay connected to them. Seriously, Skype is the BEST! We're also very grateful for our jobs, co-workers, and home. We love the area we live in (even though we complain about how 'country' it is sometimes!) and are blessed by the beauty of God's magnificant creation daily. We love that we're just a short walk from the ocean, in the center of the mountains, and in as safe of an area as you can be (no threat of natural disasters here!). Bell School is great for us, it's flexible for the most part, and allows us plenty of free time to spend together and explore the area. We love working with the children and adult students, having the variety in our daily work routines, and the second-shift positions. We are so grateful that the salary that comes with our jobs is enough to pay our bills and save plenty for the future. And we have great friends here who are kind, encourage us in our walks with the Lord, and extremely generous. We have everything to be thankful for, and yet there's more... our fabulous friend, Jesse, made us this video to share some exciting new news:
Yes, it's true. We are due June 28th - an anniversary present!
God is good!
We hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving! And now on to Christmas!! This was taken tonight at our church's Christmas tree lighting. In the same spirit, we decorated our house for Christmas this afternoon too. :-)
So we're a little late in updating, but here we go! On Halloween night we had a costume bowling party at the local bowling alley, U's Bowl, with our adult students and some friends. I lost miserably - I've never been that good at bowling. Afterwards, we went downstairs for some karaoke, and later we went to the Irish pub, same as last year. Fun, fun! They were giving out free 1/2 pints of Guinness for anyone wearing a costume, and before Jeremy could say 'no, thanks', he had one sitting in front of him. So he tried his first-ever beer. He said, "never again!"
Then the next day, we went back to U's bowl for bowling with our elementary students - only two of my students came because many schools were having bazaars that day. We still had fun! I did MUCH better that day and even won a round! Wow! Here are some pictures from Sunday: Earlier in the month we saw my friend and student in his third-and last "play", a short historical drama of the first medical study of female anatomy via autopsy in Japan which occured after she was beheaded for intending to murder her abusive husband about 150 years ago. It was short, about 20 minutes, and humorous. About 50 people attended the outdoor reenactment.
And earlier yet, we went to another Hagiyaki festival and I had super fun shopping! I came away with these three lovely pieces. Aren't they fun? Jeremy even got me some flowers for the vase. :-)
And one more for good measure... another odd flavor from Pepsi: Azuki bean!
A view of the boats at Kabira Bay: 
The black pearl farm in Kabira Bay: 
A strange statue from when the emperor visited a few years ago: 
The beginning of pearls - these clams have just been implanted with an irritant that will cause them to form the pearls, in a week they'll be put in the farm: 
A disection of a clam with a pearl: 
The awamori factory - a famous local sake: 
Jeremy posing in front of an old Okinawan home at Yaimura village: 
We had tea, okinawan cake, and a traditional music lesson in the tea house:
We saw them squeezing the juice from the sugar cane, preparing to make brown sugar: 
I found this lobster-formed straw in the ladies bathroom interesting: 
Our weather that day and some neat bushes: 
A local Ishigaki elementary school band came to play for us: 
Me at the bar before dinner: 
Us with 'Santa' - they were doing family pictures here: 
Another 'family' picture with our new friend, June: 
The evening show, "Dream show" about a child and her toys: 
