Crazy Eights

You, are, and crazy. Those three words were in every sentence out of our friends' mouths when they heard Jessie and I would be hosting six members of Jessie's family at our little house for a week and a half.
Well, yes, we, are. But, they came, we all survived, and had a pretty great time, too.

It's going to be a lot quieter around here, and I feel kind of like I feel the day after my birthday...

But, both of our families came and went -- each experiencing a very unique portion of Japan and sharing with us our friends, our new perspectives and some of our adventures.

The Robertsons: Jim and Janis, sisters Jennie and Joie, brother Josh, and Jennie's fiancee Shaun, all made the trip half-way around the world to see what all the fuss is about.

During their ten days with us we cheered as Jennie and Shaun took part in the local 1/2 marathon with thousands of competitors from all across Yamanashi, spent two days traveling around Tokyo via train and subway: taking in a Japanese professional baseball game, touring the national museum, shopping Japan's biggest shopping district and generally walking until our legs gave out.

We drove our little borrowed purple van to one of the most famous gorges in Japan where we took hundreds of photos, and Jessie's family took part in some of her classes.

We made paper at a local shop and panned for gold (who didn't last week...?) with a couple of my students: Masako and Chifumi.

Their ten days here were packed with activities, which made the time seem to fly by.

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