Wanted

In Japan they don't carry in Diet drinks. Nothing. I miss my Diet Dr. Pepper! I miss Crest where the ladies knew exactly what I wanted no words required, not reminding myself of my addiction. My family is a split family. Some like Diet Dr. Pepper and the others like Diet Coke. But I will say today being a Diet Dr. Pepper fan instead of a Diet coke is Wonderful. As I've gone shopping I've seen 2 places where they have regular Dr. Pepper. I was about to give into the Dr. Pepper addiction yesterday and get the regular. The 2 places where they are located is not exactly where my family goes a lot. Nagoya Castle and another store called Home's Interior. I know its not good to have this kind of addiction, especially in Japan where some members don't drink Caffeine because its on those boarderliners I guess.

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Going back to the reason why I say today is a lucky day to be a Dr. Pepper fan. As we were shopping...for a REALLY long time. I am not a huge fan of shopping. And my mom goes into like every store that is gardening, home decor, and little kid stores (finding things for my nieces and nephews her grandchildren. We see who she loves more) She decided to go into this candy place. I wasn't to excited about it. Another store, my feet are tired more things I'll probably have to carry home. I just was not excited. As we walked in we saw the soda. First the A&W another drink they don't carry around in stores and then the A&W Cream Soda. My mom was excited she wanted to get it for a member and his family for taking us to the Nagoya Castle. He mentioned to us it was his favorite drink. Then I saw it...More like my sister being jealous they didn't have Diet Coke and in a very excited (trying to sound exciting) voice told me she saw Diet Dr. Pepper. When I saw it I got excited. It was 1 dollar and 26 cents. My mom was just as excited or maybe it was the fact she ordered her Caffeine Free Dr. Pepper and didn't order my drink or Whitney's drink that she let me get it. But that is very expensive for a 12oz soda. As we continued through the store I found CRISPY M&MS! Whitney and I love Crispy M&Ms, they stopped selling them in stores in Utah and I wanted to die. Okay not die but I was sad they just got rid of them. So when we found them we got them. They were 1 dollar and something. Still so expensive but we were so excited my mom let us get them. Thank you mom for letting the Addiction live on for my Diet Dr. Pepper! And yes I love DIET Dr. Pepper! Regular makes me feel gross. And the Diet is way better!

Bring on more Adventures in Japan!

Japanese Sport..

Monday afternoon Whitney (my little sister) and I bought tickets to go to Sumo Wrestling for Wednesday. As we were getting closer to the event we got more excited. We found our way using the subways to get there. As we got in there and found our great seats we found cool shirts. No pictures of them yet. I'll post it later. Hopefully along with Whitney's amazing video she got of the sumo wrestling. Anyways, back in the states they have this game of sumo wrestling. Its where you put on this air costume and try to wrestle. Well in Japan and the real thing. They are real. The fat is real not fake. That was pretty nasty. With all the butt showage towards us. But it was cool. The way they fight is crazy. They do all these things for the ring. Stomp to get the bad spirits away, throw salt to purify it. And they make eye contact when they are ready to fight. It went really fast for the people who weren't of a higher level. But once we got to the higher level they have 4 minutes to prepare. Which is crazy cause they fight ends so fast. There was one we saw that took awhile. We had a fun adventure going and witnessing a match. I know it is one of a lifetime.

Sumo Wrestling flags

He got injured or was too fat to get up so they had to wheelchair him out. CRAZY!


The ritual they do before each level compets.

A Very Busy Day..

We started off with the Nagoya Castle with a great family in the ward. The Fukuyama Family

Had dinner with the Yamaguchi Family. Yum.




I slept good after a long day!

A Day at the Aquarium

Yesterday our nice friend Magumi took Whitney and I to the Aquarium. We had such a blast. We got to see all sorts of animals; large, small, fat, skinny, beautiful, ugly, etc.

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Our party!

The sickest fish ever!

I was part of the fish world for a second.

We found Nemo!

We also went to an ice cream shop right next to the Aquarium. DELICIOUS! I only gained 100 pounds.

Ice Cream Pitcher.

Cream puffs, strawberries, pineapple, orange, grapefruit, blueberries, banana, cereal, and chocolate. DELICIOUS!

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BEFORE...

After. Success.

Zone Conferences

This past week was meet the Baird Zone Conference. We had 4 areas and I had the opportunity to present a PowerPoint with Whitney and give a little talk after.

We found Sister Ige, she is in my stake and we were Visiting teaching companions.

Sometimes we fell asleep when they released us.

Sister Sakuma, she is between my mom and I. She was in our ward for a little bit. It was so fun to see her again! and meet other sisters.

Our 3rd Zone Conference in Nagoya

Sister Palmer came and joined us during our last zone conference.

These elders made ties for the special occasion

The last crew.

Do you see that sticker on the back? The yellow and green looking one? We found out today that means beginner driver from our tutor at the mtc Sister Palmer. Elder Heaton & Elder Eyring put that up with out telling President Baird what that means, he still doesn' know. Which makes a great joke to us all, especially my mom.

Elder Heaton & Elder Katanuma sleeping

Dad's first time driving in Japan! On the wrong side! Skinny Roads and using his wipers instead of his blinker!

The Streets of Japan are wonderful, Whit and I do a lot of walking!

A Rainy Day in Japan

Can't wait for more days like these!

Day Ni (2)

What a day, my family and I all still have jet lag. Yes I learned how to spell it thanks to spell check. Yesterday we kind of got stuff together. Getting ready for all the crates to come soon to be unpacked. The mission home is so nice. Japan is so nice. On day 2 (which was yesterday) the office Elders took us shopping. Due to the fact my mother is still terrified to drive on the road. I don't blame her going the opposite way, driving the opposite way and the lights are completely different here. So as we went shopping (poor elders) it was a different experience than at an American shopping center. One store has several stories and different stores right next to each other. One elder had to tell my mom that she needed to come out of the book section because the people would think she was stealing cause it was a different store. The second store we hit we thought we could probably get a lot of American food there. Boy were we wrong. My mom saw these foods, couldn't read the titles and asked if they were Mexican foods. (that's what she was looking for) They laughed said no. Most of the store was full of fish. We saw living fish swimming waiting there for someone to buy them, kill them, cook them, and then eat them. And a lot of dead fish too. I wish I took more pictures at the store just so you could feel what I was feeling. Later that night as we were all falling asleep at 6 pm. My dad had told us we were to meet some of the relief society. We went and saw some cool culture. I can't really explain it. But they were making Pickled Plums. And making the plums turn a color red. My dad then made us walk around the neighborhood to try to keep us up so we would sleep at night. That really didn't work. We were tired of walking, went home got ready for bed and hopped in bed. That was a little before 9. I then woke up at 4 this morning. Boo. Can't wait for jet lag to ware off. Here are some pics.

Whitney having so much fun at the store.

The Octopus...... I tried that.

Mommer caught sleeping....

The relief society, aren't they so cute?

My millions of mosquito bites.. :(