Hong Kong Shower of Love

John and I took one more vacation or more commonly known as our babymoon. But we decided to stop in Hong Kong on our way to visit with some very dear friends of ours. And they threw me a very special shower to celebrate Baby Stanley. Here are some pictures of the fun and a few of our outing to Macau while we were in the area.

Thank you so much Allie and Annemarie....love you both so much!

Until next time...Jenn

Happy Day - O - Luv

I just wanted to send out a little love to you all for Valentine's Day. My true love sadly is leaving for New York tomorrow, so I'll be flying solo with the puppy for the big day. BUT, he planned a super great dinner out last night to celebrate early and today I got some gorgeous flowers. He's such a sweetie!

We decided to go with no gifts or anything this year, but while we were out and about yesterday we broke down and got ourselves a joint present.....a white strawberry. I have been in a massive strawberry craving phase at the moment, so these were too tempting to pass up despite the fact that in order to try this tempting fruit we had to hand over an equivalent of $15 for the one berry. If you're saying that is ridiculous, I will totally agree, but hey....it's Tokyo. It was very tasty, but I have to say I'm just as happy with the slightly cheaper variety that we get in the grocery store. But it was fun.

Oh, and I'm throwing in one more belly pic...Baby Stanley's way of saying Happy Valentine's too.

Until next time...Jenn

Budda Belly progress

So, just to provide you a little update on the increasing belly here are a few pictures of the progress...

The one on the left was my birthday, so early January and the one on the right was at the end of January. The little peanut is getting bigger and bigger.

Until next time...Jenn

London Times

Right before we came home for Christmas we got to go to London again. While it was absolutely freezing, we had the best time. I love seeing big cities right before Christmas....all the lights and Christmas cheer.

Since we had been there before and hit most of the tourist spots, we got to check out some cool new things that we hadn't seen before. We managed to check off another item on our "sports to do list" by going to see a Chelsea football game. Despite my complete ambivalence toward soccer, I absolutely loved it. We sat in the home team fan section and it was wild. We also took a tour outside of London to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and Bath. Stonehenge was absolutely incredible and such a mystery.

The only crazy thing was the riot over rising tuition fees. If you remember, when Prince Charles' car was attacked.....we were in London for that. Good times.

We had the best time and I hope you enjoy the photos that we took.

Until next time...Jenn

Welcome to Chinatown

So after talking and talking about how we just had to make it to China, we finally took a trip to Beijing. I was so interested to see the differences between Japan and China and there are just so many. We so loved seeing all the cool historical sites.

We had a really great tour guide who helped us out with understanding what we were seeing and getting us around the city. First we went to Tienanmen Square. It's just so strange being in different places where you know so much violence has occurred. Just makes you sad and thankful for all the freedoms that we have experienced in our lifetime. We got to see Chairman Mao. He basically looks like a wax figure...rumors are that it is a wax figure. Sadly, no pictures are allowed in the mausoleum, so no seeing him. Then we moved onto the Forbidden City which was massive.

The next day we went to see the Temple of Heaven where all these cute old people go early each morning to do their morning exercises, which in most cases was Tai Chi. We saw some dancing and other sports going on to though. After that we headed out to my favorite spot, the Great Wall of China. There really just aren't words to describe how amazing it is to see. It just goes on and on as far as you can see. It was fantastic.

We also got to see the terracotta warriors, which we both loved seeing. To even think about how much effort went into creating them. They said there were estimated to be like 7,000 warriors and the sole purpose was for these statues to surround the emperors tomb and protect him in the afterlife. Each warrior was made individually and had it's own features. Wild, right?

All in all, we had the best time. It was a nice little pick me up after our first trimester and a great way to announce to our family and friends that we were going to be increasing our family.

Enjoy the pictures!

Until next time...Jenn

Jill's Experience

So, pre-dating the F1 race and Oktoberfest my friend Jill came to visit us. We had the best time and got to see some very cool stuff that I hadn't seen before. We went to Hakone, which is near Mt. Fuji. Sadly, the weather left much to be desired, so we didn't get to see the great mountain, but we had fun regardless.

Is always so nice to have friends come and see you....like a little bit of home.

Until next time...Jenn

Oktoberfest 2010

While our friends were here we also made our 3rd appearance at Oktoberfest in Yokohama. Hard to believe that we've already been in Japan that long....man how the time flies. It was an interesting experience. This very "over served" Japanese man sat next to me and wanted to chat despite the fact that he clearly didn't really know much English and we all know I don't have the Japanese language mastered, so it was pretty funny.

Hope you enjoy the pics.

Until next time...Jenn

F1 Racing Away

So, my blog is basically been defunct for so long it's hard to get back into it these days, but I figured I needed to catch you all up on what's been going on with us. I'm going to start with our first (and most likely only) F1 racing experience.

We had some visitors come into town this past October and they are huge F1 fans. So, we decided to go to the big Japan race. It was really cool, however, the first day which is the qualifying round was completely rained out, but that wasn't decided until after we had all set in the rain for basically the entire day. Needless to say, no fun. The next day however, were perfect skies and made for a great race.

Not a whole lot else to report on that, but wanted to share a few pics so you can see our experience.

Until next time...Jenn

Monkeyin' Around in Bali

Hey guys, once again it's been awhile. We have been enduring one of the hottest summers ever in Tokyo, which I know most of you Texans can relate to. But to beat the heat a bit or at least experience it from a more scenic venue we decided to take a little trip to Bali.

We started our trip in Ubud, which is the more mountainous area filled with the most amazing rice fields. John outdid himself picking our resorts as they were all amazing. The one in Ubud looked out onto a beautiful river and an amazing rice terrace. We went on a bike ride through the rice fields and fed bananas to the monkeys in the monkey park.

From Ubud, we took a flight then a car then a motor boat to get to the Gili Islands. They were amazing. There are three tiny little islands off of Lombuck. We stayed on Gili Trawan, which has more places to stay and more restaurants, but is considered to be more of the "party" island. It was quite the experience...like hippy-ville. There were many young backpackers with dreadlocks and a lot of magic mushrooms for sale...quite the interesting place. We went snorkeling, which was awesome and just lazed around by the beach.

From there we went back to Bali, to Seminyak. John really outdid himself with our villa there with this amazing pool and outdoor kitchen and living room. It was like a slice of heaven.

Here are some pics of our time in Bali, I'm ready to go back already.

Until next time...Jenn

More Japan Highlights....

So, one of my dear friends is leaving in two weeks and she had the great idea that we go and check out some of Japan. We went to this amazing area outside of Tokyo. First we hit Shirakawa-go, which is a UNESCO heritage site that houses traditional old thatched roof farm houses. They were lovely.

Next we went to Takayama, which is considered little Kyoto. It's full of temples and quaint tea houses and sake distilleries. We got to see these cool floats that they use for their big festivals. Sounds like a great time when those are happening. To give you an idea of how crazy they are, the town usually houses 50,000 people, but during festival time there are 300,000 or so people participating.

We had the best time. It was a great way to say goodbye to a great friend!

Until next time...Jenn

Summer Daze....

Hello guys, just thought I'd send a little update to say hi as it's been awhile. We are easing our way into summer. Sadly we have already said goodbye to two sets of dear friends. Kate and Jessica I miss you both so much!

I thought you guys would like to see how we are spending our time these days. John and Cosmo spent quality time together locating Cosmo's favorite ball. So funny to watch Cosmo try and reach it under the couch...even better watching John struggle with the same thing.

I also thought that you would like to see the beautiful quilt that John got me for our 3 year anniversary. It is made from old Japanese ukata fabric. I love it and think it's absolutely wonderful.

Lastly, I just wanted to give you a picture of our wonderful wonderful Japanese teacher. We had our last lesson a few weeks ago. She taught us a lot about Japan and great things to do and see here and even some Japanese! We miss you Fumi-san!!

Until next time...Jenn

On the roof of the world (almost)

So after defrosting from our night in the hotel in Shegar (unheated), we set out for Everest (about 4-5 hours off-road in the Land Cruiser). The pics in the slideshow below are all from that day and the following days back to Nepal. I think they look better in Picasa if you click on the slideshow.

The first few pics are from a mountain pass we drove up to first. On a clear day (not sure how many of those there are each year) you can see 4 of Tibet's 8,000 meter peaks (that's over 26,000 feet). On the day we were there, we could kinda, sorta see one through the clouds. So we were not optimistic as we continued on.

But then the clouds broke as we got closer. It's pretty amazing to see it for the first time. From there we continued on up to Rombuk which is the location of another monastery, a kind of tent city where we spent the night and the end of the road for tourist vehicles (altitude is a little over 17,000 feet). From Rombuk, we hiked (taking the shuttle bus did not seem right) up to Everest Base Camp. By the time we got up there, the mountain had completely clouded over (thus the pics of us standing in front of a white screen).

Base Camp was also where I had my run-in with the Chinese Army. All the way up to Everest, you go though a number of checkpoints where your guide (and you have to have one) is required to show your permits at passports. There is a final checkpoint at the entrance to base camp. Well on the way back down, they check your camera to see if you took any "inappropriate" pics. I had taken a pic back down the valley and happened to catch the checkpoint tent and the Chinese flag. Apparently that was verboten as he made me delete it. I told our guide "we're in China right?" They check stuff pretty close when you leave Tibet as well, though we did not have any problems there.

In any event, we headed back down to our tent/hotel (the Mont-Blanc in the pics) and basically hung out. It was not that cold up there, but the wind was howling down the valley. In our tent was another couple from Michigan who we had seen multiple times over the prior days, so we chatted with them until the mountain cleared back up and were able to get some more good pics.

For sleeping that night, they provide you a bunch of comforters that you can sleep on and under on the benches. It was comfortable and warm enough, but the blankets were so heavy it was hard to move. It was us, the couple from Michigan, the hostess lady and a few Tibetan guides. The Tibetan guides rolled in pretty late that night as there was quite a party going on next door. We could barely move due to the altitude and cold and they were partying like they were at the beach or something.

The next morning, we headed off for the border with Nepal. I got smacked with a bit of altitude sickness overnight (headache and slight nausea), so I was happy to head down. Just like the drive up, the drive down was stunning - grasslands and moonlike areas, lots of contrasts. It was also the craziest off-roading I've ever done - lots of getting tossed back and forth, literally crawling over rocks. There's a reason they use the Land Cruisers over there.

Then we spent a lovely day and a half on the border with Nepal. We elected to skip spending the night in New Tingri (it seemed hellish, even by western Tibetan standards), so we had some extra time on the border. The border is really beautiful - a really deep, very green and lush canyon between the two countries... very different than the rest of Tibet.

The border is also where we found out about the general strike and chaos in Nepal and Kathmandu, specifically. Without getting into too much detail, a group of former Maoist rebels that are now a political group were enforcing a general strike to close all stores and keep all cars off of the streets.

Most of the drive from the border to the city was fine, but when we got close to Kathmandu we had to go through a series of checkpoints manned by the Maoists with sticks and cricket bats. Fortunately, they had no beef with Americans or tourists and they know how valuable tourists are to Nepal, so the let us pass. But when we got into Kathmandu, we went through one checkpoint with several hundred people crowding around the car to confirm we were tourists. And that was probably the oddest part - there were no cars on the street in a city that is normally gridlocked with people honking their horns. But there were thousands of people just walking around so that our car had to part them to get down the road. Very eery.

But we made it to our hotel (the very nice Hotel Shanker if you find yourself in Kathmandu) which is set back from a main street and surrounded by a very high wall. Having nothing else to do (we were advised not to leave the hotel) and having already rearranged our flights to leave a day early, we went to the pool to have a drink. While sitting outside, there was a massive protest (several thousand people).

It seemed a very American way to endure the political turmoil taking place outside our walled hotel - sitting by the pool having a drink.

Tibet Part 3... almost to Everest

So after 3 days in Lhasa, the guide, the driver, Jenn and me piled into the Toyota Land Cruiser and headed out. If you want to go find these places on a map, we went to Gyantse, Shigatse and then Shegar.

If you want to see where we were, the easiest way would be to click on the slideshow below and go to the Picasa Album. Jenn thought this was a stupid toy, but I bought a geo-tagger for a camera - basically it records the latitude, longitude and altitude of our pictures. So when you go to Picasa, there should be map to the right side (Photo Locations). Click on that and it will show where each picture was taken.

It does not unfortunately show you the altitude. Generally speaking though, we were between 4,000 and 5,000 meters (12,000 to 15,000 feet) the entire time. Most of the passes we went over were around 5,000 meters.

Since we hadn't seen enough Buddhist monasteries in Lhasa, we hit a few more on the way to Everest. It was a bit like Thailand... they all start to run together after a while. But to be frank, there is not much else out there. The scenery is stunning, but barren and desolate. We could not figure out how people live out there. Most of the villages have electricity (so the Chinese could give them TVs and spread propaganda most likely), but people were still relying on wells for water.

But all in all an amazing few days in the car. And since I'm sure people are wondering, the hotels got worse the further we got from Lhasa - beds got harder, water got colder, rooms got colder. The night before Everest, the place was unheated and we at least got the last space heater in the hotel. And we were staying in the "nice" places. Food was generally good (go with the yak over the chicken if you go) and the people were always nice.

Tibet...Part Two

So, more of our adventure vacation. Our second day of Lhasa was all about the monasteries. Actually, most of our trip was about monasteries. So much Buddha info and I still couldn't tell you anything! Very confusing that Buddha info.

We went to two monasteries just outside of Lhasa. One of which has a monk's philosophical debate every day from 3:00 to 6:00 which is open for viewing. It was great...one monk sits on the ground while the other one stands above him and asks him questions about Buddhism. They were very energetic.

Until next time.... Jenn.

Tibet...Part One

Okay, so I know the reason that I'm procrastinating getting these photos out....there are so many of them I always get overwhelmed. We took something ridiculous like 950 photos and while I know everyone loves seeing what we've been up to...that many would just put you to sleep.

So, to break it up I think these are going to come to you in stages a bit. This post is about our first few days in Tibet...in Lhasa. Lhasa is the largest city in Tibet and we were there for three days to help us acclimate to the fact that it sits at 11,975 feet. To give you some perspective on how high that is...when we were at the top of Fuji it was only 12,388 feet, so barely higher than the town of Lhasa. Thankfully, while you found yourself huffing and puffing when going up a flight of stairs, we didn't suffer from any other adverse symptoms.

The first day there we got to go to the Potala Palace, which was the main residence of the Dalai Lama before he got run out of the country. It's quite interesting....there are Chinese military men everywhere heavily armed and they patrol the streets non stop. It is basically an occupied country. But the palace was lovely...a bit barren, but sitting on top of the city and full of Buddha images and sacred scriptures. We didn't take that many pictures inside the palace because for most areas they were not allowed. When we got to the palace...our tickets were for the opening, we found out that we only had a one hour pass to see the entire thing....new government rules. I got the impression that the rules were altered frequently for no reason whatsoever. Our guide was great though and we saw everything in our limited timing. Apparently we were there on a very auspicious day, so there were a lot of people walking around the palace, which is apparently good luck. So of course that night we walked around it too and it was so lovely.

We also got to see the summer palace of the Dalai Lama, Norbulingka Palace. One of the past Dalai Lamas had what sounded like arthritis and built the palace so that he could go swim, which helped his joints. That was followed up by the Jokhang Temple, which was a bit of crazy. First of all outside the temple there were people everywhere prostrating, which is a series of motions which you basically fall on your face in worship. Then there was a huge line of Tibetans going inside the temple to view the special Buddha images. Being tourists we got to go right in, but had to fight our way through the hordes of people. It was craziness!

I am happy to report that there were some really good restaurants in Lhasa and we even found a great coffee shop!

Okay, so more to come, but here are the pictures of our first day in Lhasa.

Until next time...Jenn