Adventures With The Kids!

Today Jon, Phil and I took the kids on an adventure to Chiba City! It was the first time the kids had gone on the trains since being back! It was fun to see their excitement about everything.

The kids were really excited about riding the trains! They loved watching everything as we passed by! 

These kids are adorable! We went to the McDonalds in Chiba City because they have 3 floors that you can sit on and watch the trains go by! They all loved counting how many trains were passing!

This is the McDonalds in Japan! Doesn't it look so nice? McDonalds is so much better in Japan than in America. Not just the buildings but the food itself. 

This is a restaurant and the kids loved to see the biggest crab ever! 

This is Chiba Tower which is the tallest tower in Chiba! 

We had a great time in Chiba City with the kids! It was really tiring, but it was worth it! 

We have an answer to prayer!! Not only are we over jet lag and feeling like human beings again but we also got word tonight that we were approved for the apartment! We are thrilled that God has opened that door back up when we thought it was almost closed. God has a better plan than we do. We are so excited to be able to move! Not sure all of the details yet but I'm sure I'll blog about it soon! 

Love you all! 

Em

Adventures

Karaoke is a big thing here in Japan. They have set it up so that you can take a group and get a private room and not feel too uncomfortable about singing! Keisuke and Phil (my cousin) have gone a few times since Phil has been here and so I decided to join them! We had so much fun and sang till we couldn't sing anymore, which was after 3 hours! 

After we did Karaoke we went to a really good Japanese restaurant! I can't remember the name but everything is 270 yen!

This is raw salmon sushi! I actually really liked it! 

This is some noodles and the sauce had fish eggs in it! I was a little nervous about it but in the end I LOVED it! I can't believe I do! I would have never thought I would ever have the guts to try it, but I did and it was delicious! I don't think I'm as brave as Annabella and want to eat fish egg sushi where as Annabella would say they pop/explode in your mouth! I can't handle that yet...

This was us riding the train back home! It was really fun to hang out with them! I'm so happy that Phil and I got to hang out in Japan! We have hung out more here than we did all school year... that's really sad when we go to the same school! 

The Things We Come Up With To Pass The Time Away...

What do you do when you have limited toys and so much time on your hands? You become extremely creative. Instead of building your normal castle or house with the duplo legos we decided to make animals!

It all started with Sarah making an amazing dinosaur and from there we made a penguin, a duck, a bird, a giraffe, a tree and a pond! We were all so proud of our creation! 

As the kids called it we were making a whole world!

The girls decided to make an iceberg for the penguin to sit on! All of our creative juices were flowing! 

We have so much fun with together! They love trying to tickle me and of course they get most of the tickling. Lots of laughter! I love these kids so much! Can't wait till Gideon can join in on the action! 

Trying New Things!

Last time I was here in Japan I don't feel like I was as adventurous when it came to food as I wish I had been, so this time I've decided to try as much as I can! Today I was able to try some raw tuna sushi! It was actually really good! I'm not a huge fishy fish person, but I could handle this! The sushi had wasabi sauce in it which made it have a kick to it.

You can't really see it but in the container with the sushi they add slices of ginger root to clean out your senses. I tried a little bit of that because I love ginger tea, but I only had a tiny bite and it was so strong. I can't imagine eating all of the ginger root that they give you! 

We also got some taiyaki and they were delicious! They had bean paste or custard in them and the outside part was a pancake/waffle batter. The last time I was in Japan I struggled to eat bean paste, but this time around my taste buds have matured and I actually liked it!  

After a long day of walking around in the mall us girls got to go to the Sento. The sento is a bath house. We were all excited to be able to relax in the hot baths. This was the first time that I got to go with my nieces! I love these girls so much! 

I'm am pleased to tell you all that last night we slept from 8-6!! This was such a huge blessing! We all felt so good when we woke up and we didn't have to go down for naps by 8 in the morning! We are hoping for another night like that tonight! Since we didn't take naps at all today I'm sure we can do it. Continue to pray for Gideon because he is waking up a lot, which is hard.  

Tomorrow we get to worship at Oyumino! I'm really excited to be able to worship in Japanese! 

Pray that we can get into the apartment soon. It will be nice to get settled and to have more things to do! The place where we are staying is nice, but after awhile it gets cramped. 

Thanks for reading! 

Love you all! 

Em 

Jet Lag

Jet lag will do many different things to you, wake you up at 3 in the morning, make you snappy, make you grumpy, and even make you laugh hysterically for no reason at all. We were able to catch some of these moments on video for your enjoyment. 

We have never seen Calvin laugh so hard he was crying before! We have all laughed hysterically at some point, but this was the best. Like we always say it's better to be laughing than crying, but sometimes you do both! 

Yesterday we went out to a Japanese restaurant for lunch! We got to sit at the low tables on the floor! 

I had chicken katsu, which was delicious!

Annabella has been waiting a long time to have as she calls them orange bubbles (fish eggs)! She was so excited when she saw them on the menu! I have never seen her eat food that fast. In America, getting her to eat chicken nuggets from McDonalds was a job in itself. It just shows that she definitely has the appetite for Japanese food! 

Yesterday, we didn't have as much energy as we did the first day we were here. Jet lag is definitely taking it's toll on all of us. We can't wait to be able to sleep like normal people. Waking up at 3 in the morning and then taking naps by 8 is getting old. 

Pray that we all will get adjusted quickly and that we won't run out of things to do and toys to play with before we get into the apartment! We're not sure when that will be. We are waiting on some insurance stuff to go through. It looks like it will be next week sometime. Thanks for praying! 

Love you all! 

Em

WE MADE IT!!

What a crazy trip this has been so far! Our first flight out of Indianapolis we sat on the runway for an hour before leaving and once we got to Minneapolis we had a 4 1/2 hour delay, 3 of which we sat on the runway. After all of that, we finally made it to Japan! The kids did wonderfully throughout the whole adventure, which we are thankful for. That whole experience could have been so much worse than it was. From leaving the house in Richmond to arriving at Oyumino the trip took 26 hours. We all were in bed by midnight and then most of us were up at four to start the day! By seven in the morning we had all taken showers/baths and were about to walk to get some breakfast. Sarah and I wanted to get a good breakfast sandwich from McDonalds and the others wanted to get some Onigiri.

Seven in the morning and we're already eating seaweed and salmon??

After our different breakfasts we walked by their old house and got to play in the park next to it. It was so fun to hear all about their memories in the different places we were. We also went into a grocery store. The kids loved walking down the different isles and seeing all of their favorite foods! I had to get a picture of them when they saw the rice!

Once we got done with that, it was ten in the morning and we went to Honda Chapel for family worship. It was neat to be able to meet the different missionaries that they will be working with and who will be their Japan family.

With wanting to keep everyone awake as long as possible we decided to make a Costco trip. Everyone was fading by this point.

 As you can see Calvin is in the stroller passed out. As we were walking along Olivia was saying, "this is terrible." 

We were all so ready for bed.

It's about 7:40 now and I can't wait to go to bed. This has been a long, but great day! It has been such a blessing to be able to see their excitement with landing in Japan, waking up in Japan, and walking around to the different places they used to go. I've heard them say several times that this feels like home. That is such an encouragement that they truly feel this is home.

Continue to pray for our jet lag!

Love you all!
Em

HERE WE GO!!

The time has finally come. I have been wanting to go back to Japan for so long. I'm about to help the Pfeils move back to Japan! I'm so excited to see what all God has in store for me in the next 3 weeks! It's going to be an amazing journey. A lot of planning has gone into this move and I'm amazed by Sarah's ability to organize. Boxes have already been shipped and all of our bags are packed. We are ready to board the plane and take off.

-Pray for us as we travel with all 4 kids.
-Pray for the adjusting with the jet lag.

I will be updating this blog as much as I can! I'm am excited that I have this opportunity to help enable the Gospel to go forth by moving them back. He is going to do great things in Japan!

Love you all!
Em