From Pennies To Yennies

It’s a Boy!

January 17, 2012 by Laurel

Well, I will start off with my incredibly exciting news: I will have a NEPHEW in late May! When I was visiting home this fall my sister told me she was pregnant, and I was shocked and so happy. Since she has two stepdaughters, I knew her and her husband wanted a boy. Today they learned they were having one, and I’m so happy and excited for them! I just want to start buying tons of stuff!

Where has the time gone? I can’t believe we’re already a few weeks into the New Year!

Dan and I have been keeping busy sticking to our new year’s resolutions. And we’ve been doing a great job! We’ve successfully cut out dairy from our diets and don’t miss it TOO much. The other night we had chicken soft tacos for dinner and I really missed cheese!

Dan and I signed up for 2 races to keep our running on track. The first one is the Run for Hops race in Kona Hawaii. Yes, we are running a race on vacation! I signed up to do the 5k, and Dan is doing the 10k. The other race we signed up for is the Disneyland half marathon in California in September. I’m so excited and nervous about this! We did a half marathon in Seattle for my 25th birthday, and it was hard and exhausting and I ended up with a stress fracture in my foot. I chalk all that up to not training well.

This is Dan and I after the Rock n Roll Seattle half marathon. We were exhausted and my foot was killing me! Thank you to Dan’s mom who took this picture!

So anyway, those 2 races are my goals right now. In addition to running, I’m still going to ballet twice a week and getting in some time on the elliptical at our local gym. So far I’m down 7lbs for the new year and Dan has lost some weight as well! I have about 39 more pounds to lose to get back to my weight in college, which is my goal for the next year or so. At the rate we’re dieting and exercising I think I can do it! Also, this weekend Dan and I came across a sale at a sporting good store and got some nice running gear. American brands are so expensive here, so it was nice to find a good deal! One of my new running tops is long sleeved and blue, so I will wear that on my run today in honor of my new nephew to be! 🙂

But enough about healthy stuff! Dan and I have also been spending time with friends which is always fun. We tried a new ramen shop in Harajuku with our friend Ai, and saw Mission Impossible 4 and had some sushi with our friend Ryan.

Trying on silly hats in Kichijoji!

Our friend Ryan. He’s the coolest

Dan and I at Kappa Sushi with Ryan in Mitaka

I also have a job interview tomorrow! It’s for a teaching position at an English school. I had my hopes set on getting a job in public relations or advertising, like my education and work experience, but it’s just too tough when I don’t know enough Japanese! So hopefully that goes well tomorrow!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Dan, diet, interview, Japan, nephew, running, Ryan, teaching | Leave a Comment »

Happy New Year!

January 2, 2012 by Laurel

Dan and I had a very fun New Years Eve! We were invited to a party at his friend Ryan’s house. We spent the day before making all sorts of goodies for the party- Oreo truffles (dipped in white chocolate and butterscotch!), chocolate dipped Oreos, and cocoa rice krispy treats! I also picked up some candy and made some goodie bags with my Cricut machine.
Goodie bags!

We also brought cheese. Lots of delicious cheese from Kichijoji!

Before we even put our desserts out, Ryan had a cake table set up. It was going to be a delicious night!

Dan and Ryan being silly licking cheese off their fingers

The night was a mishmash of making new friends, talking in English and Japanese, drinks and desserts and toasting and kissing at midnight! Ryan even got party poppers so we ended up covered in streamers and confetti.
Ryan’s year of the dragon socks

Dan and I

The party was a blast and we stayed way later than we meant to because we were having so much fun being social with everyone!

The next day I decided to put some thought into my resolutions. Here is what I came up with!
1. Wear my retainer- I haven’t in a while. I will put it in, it will make my teeth ache, and I give up and take it out. My plan is to wear it 24/7 for 8 weeks, which is about how long my teeth will be moving. In March I’ll wear it nightly.

2. Give up dairy- This isn’t about cow rights or anything crazy. For a few years now I’ve suspected I’m slightly lactose intolerant. Also, a lot of my favorite dairy foods are pretty fatty (ice cream, cheese etc). I’ve already made the switch to soy milk, and giving up ice cream will be disappointing. A slip up here and there is ok, but for the most part I think I’ll feel better without it, and maybe lose a pound or two!

3. More dietary restrictions that are fairly manageable- No soda, no fast food, no alcohol. Dan and I don’t drink very often, and once I haven’t had fast food in a while I lose my cravings for it. Juice is ok from time to time!

4. Ballet- I’m all signed up and taking ballet every week. I want to stretch at home and try to never miss class, because even if I’m tired and it’s freezing outside, I’m always so happy I’m there once I arrive.

5. Read more- My annual resolution. Turn the tv off and turn the Nook on!

I think that’s all I have for now… but there’s always room for improvement! Happy new year from Dan and me!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged ballet, Dan, Japan, New year, New Years eve, resolutions | 1 Comment »

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 2011!

January 2, 2012 by Laurel

Dan and I had a really wonderful Christmas together here in Japan. Neither of us had ever been away from family before during the holidays (pretty impressive, considering we’re 26 and 29!), but we still really enjoyed it.

On Christmas eve we had a very relaxing day of entertaining ourselves around the apartment with Christmas music playing. We watched some of our favorite 90’s sitcoms’ Christmas episodes which was fun. I also decided to make ebelskivers for Dan since his mom makes them Christmas morning. Wow, that turned out to be a project!

Ebelskivers are little spherical stuffed pancakes. We decided to stuff ours with peanut butter and Nutella, and dust them with powdered sugar. We were off to the grocery store to get our ingredients when we learned they don’t sell buttermilk in Japan! Some frantic in-aisle Googling taught us we can substitute buttermilk with 3/4 a cup of beer and some soy milk. This seemed crazy but we got our ingredients and headed home.

We began mixing all our ingredients up and got to cooking. Here is our lovely buttermilk substitute with egg yolks!

Making ebelskivers is definitely tricky business. You fill these little wells about half way with batter, then after a minute or so add a scoop of your filling, more batter, then flip them. Easier said than done!
Getting started with a batch

We burned up our first batch. I wasn’t quick enough with my pancake flipping! We then got the hang of it, and though they weren’t picture perfect I assure you, they were delicious!

Even though it was Christmas eve, we decided to do gifts. We had a nice little pile form wonderful friends and family who thought of us during the holidays.

Dan and the epic Christmas box his mom sent us! Thank you Cathy!

We were spoiled with gifts, goodies and treats which was so nice. Even little Penny got spoiled by her Aunt Lauren with all sorts of treats!

That evening after an afternoon of gifts and belly full of ebelskivers, Dan made his delicious tacos and we watched The Nightmare Before Christmas. Love this movie! I remember when my mom took me to see it back in 1993. The movie ended and we clicked through some special features, including the Haunted Mansion Holiday, when some Disney Parks turn the Haunted Mansion into a Nightmare Before Christmas ride. Dan and I had forgot to ride it last time we were at the park! He asked me if I wanted to go and I said sure. We decided that even if the park was insanely busy, we love to just stroll around, enjoy the festive sights and treats and catch some rides while everyone is watching the parades.

We woke up and decided to fill up with a warm meal before heading out to the parks. It’s half price if you go after 3 on holidays, so that was our plan. We went to the ramen shop next to our apartment called Fukujyu, and had giant noodle bowls and some rice. Then we were off to Maihama!

I’ll say this much- to say the park was busy is an understatement.

All these people were waiting for the parade to start! We made our way through the streets to one of my favorite sights, the castle!

A quick shot facing away from the castle, back to Main Street. This area isn’t too busy because the parade had started

It was cold! Luckily we bundled up, and Dan wore his silly Minnie hat from a past trip, but he was sweet and got me a Christmas gift- a Jack Skellington santa hat! It’s warm and fuzzy and the ear flap strings have a little Zero dog and vampire teddy bear on them. I love it! I felt especially ready to ride the Nightmare Before Christmas ride now 🙂

The Dumbo ride with the Haunted Mansion in the background

And just the Haunted Mansion

As I said, Dan and I love Disney rides but we are so content just wandering that we don’t like to spend a whole day in line. Since we had done most the rides numerous times in previous trips, we wanted our only priority to be Haunted Mansion Holiday Nightmare, and possibly Winnie the Pooh’s Hunny Hunt, since it’s been closed for repair the past couple times.

We got to the Haunted Mansion and the wait time was about 2 hours and 2 minutes. Yikes! We made a quick plan to just enjoy the park, and try again when the Main Street Electric Parade started around 7.

We caught a bit of the Christmas parade from Toon Town

We had snacks and rode some less popular rides. I took Dan for his first visit to the Country Bear Jamboree (an animatronic attraction with singing bears in a theater). We were shocked to discover about a quarter of the audience had fallen asleep near the end! Mostly adults! We enjoyed spring rolls and churros and gawked at ride wait times. We perused little shops and rode Pirates of the Caribbean.

The sun had gone down and we got in line for Haunted Mansion. The sign said an hour and 40 minutes, but we always have so much to talk about and Dan had a fresh hot batch of chocolate popcorn, so we were armed and ready.

The wait was only about a half hour. It was incredible! People were actually getting out of line to see the Electric Parade. We got on the ride and it was as great as we remembered it from the year before. All the wonderful movie details are so fun to look out for, and I feel like every time we ride it I see something new.

We got off the ride, pleased with our plan, when we noticed the wait time said 15 minutes. No words were exchanged, we simply got back in line.

15 minutes ended up being no wait at all! Like little kids we trotted through the queue and jumped into our ride car. It was as great an experience the second time as it was the first.

Pleased with ourselves, we made our way to Winnie the Pooh. The wait was about a half hour, which wasn’t bad at all. Just cold! This ride is much more exciting than the versions in California and Florida. It’s a trackless ride, where cars are guided by an LPS. You never know which way you’ll go, and your car does a synchronized dance with other cars! An experience you won’t find elsewhere for now.

We decided to warm up in some main street shops with some cocoa. They have such cute kitchen gadgets and knick knacks, but we just don’t have any space in our tiny kitchen! Dan did spoil me with some Christmas gifts though- A grey hoodie with neon Mickey Mouse faces all over, and a gorgeous Alice in Wonderland bag for me to take my ballet things to class in. It’s possibly one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen, and hopefully I’ll post a picture of it soon! The hoodie is exciting because Dan almost always finds a cute hoodie that suits his personality at the Disney parks (most recently a black one with Genie from Aladdin printed all over) so now I have a Disney hoodie too!

After my little shopping spree we decided to call it a night. Along with the other 60,000 people leaving the park that evening…

It’s always crowded at the Disneyland train station, but as you get further out the crowds thin out, going all different ways into Tokyo. It was one of those fun magical nights where I wouldn’t have changed a thing. It was also a very different way for us to spend Christmas. We loved every minute of it!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Christmas, Dan, ebelskivers, eve, Japan, tokyo disneyland | Leave a Comment »

Christmas Adventure- Christmas Lights and the Imperial Palace

January 1, 2012 by Laurel

One night when Dan was done working, we set out on foot to find some pretty lights. We had heard that there were Christmas lights in the area but hadn’t seen anything impressive. Unfortunately we didn’t find as many lights as we normally see at home. We did see some neat lit up areas though!

Also many places wrap trees in Christmas lights. I love that look 🙂 Some trees near Ginza

The next morning we headed back out to Chiyoda to see the Imperial Palace. This is the current residence of the Emperor of Japan. We decided that since it was December 23rd, the Emperor’s birthday, it’d be a good day to visit!

Two things to know about the imperial palace- it’s huge, and you can’t see most of it. The 2 square mile palace is surrounded by tall gates covered in shrubbery, and encircled by a moat. We got some pictures anyway because it’s a beautiful area!

Me in front of one of the imperial palace buildings, most likely an office

Cute ducks and swans make the moat their home 🙂

A shot of the moat and high walls

Dan and I, it was cold and windy!

Unfortunately this was one of our last Christmas adventures. Dan got sick! It started with a sore throat and progressed to an all out cold. We still had a great week leading up to Christmas with cocoa and tea, Christmas movies and music and receiving lots of Christmas cards and packages! It was nice to be so in the holiday spirit when we were so far from home 🙂

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged adventure, Chiyoda, Christmas, Dan, Imperial Palace, Japan | Leave a Comment »

Christmas Adventure- Blue Man Group in Tokyo!

January 1, 2012 by Laurel

This was a fun one, and a surprise! Dan told me to meet him in Shinagawa around 5:30ish, because we were going to a show. We trained a few stations out to Roppongi and I thought to ask, “is this in Japanese?” and he said, “there’s no talking!” Now I was really stumped.

Then we happened upon the theater- Blue Man Theater that is!

If you haven’t seen Blue Man Group yet, it’s such a great show. They perform in New York, Chicago, Boston, Las Vegas and Orlando, as well as tour around the States. I’m not sure how to describe the show- 3 blue men perform for about an hour and a half making music in strange ways, interacting with the audience, and doing little comedy routines, all without talking! At one point they dumped streamers on us and started throwing giant rubber balls about 5 feet in diameter around the room. It was just really fun!

As you know, I collect my programs, and even though I have a Blue Man program from seeing the show in Las Vegas, I thought it would be neat to have a Japanese one. As we were making our purchases (Danny also got some postcards) who walks by but the Blue Men! They stay in character by staring at you and not talking or smiling. It was incredible. So nice of them to come out for pictures. People swarmed them as though they were characters at a Disney park.
As one walked by us I ran along side him for a quick pic!

After that we just stayed and watched them for a bit, mesmerized by how funny they were with people. Then one grabbed Dan!

As we were leaving the band members we saying hello to people and accepting donations to Connect, which benefits tsunami victims. Dan and I donated a little money and I asked to take a picture because the band is one of my favorite parts of the show!

After the show we had a nice dinner at Tony Roma’s before heading home. Since it was earlier in December, we weren’t used to the sudden drop in temperature yet, and it felt freezing! So much fun though! I have seen the show several times now and it never gets old!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged adventure, Blue Man Group, Christmas, Dan, Japan, Roppongi | Leave a Comment »

Christmas Adventure- Disney Sea

December 27, 2011 by Laurel

As I’ve mentioned before, the Disney parks here in Tokyo offer half price admission when you go later in the day. Since Dan and I love Disney this is fantastic for us! I met Dan in Shinagawa when he was done working and we rode out to Maihama to go to Disney Sea.

We take a little monorail to Disney Sea. They had this cute statue commemorating Disney Sea’s 10 year anniversary

It was a cold but fun night. There were holiday decorations and lights everywhere and everyone around us was happy and having fun.

Decor at the front of the park

Entering the park. Fairly busy for a Wednesday night

We rode some rides and had some food, but we just enjoyed strolling around the park with no agenda except to enjoy all the holiday magic around us.

There was a new Aladdin ride open called Jasmine’s Flying Carpets, a Dumbo style ride. They had this cute statue of Rajah out front!

Dan proudly wearing his Minnie hat to keep warm

Me modeling the poncho style sweatshirt I bought at Disneyland the week before. It was the only warm thing I could find in the gift shop!

Love this cute statue of snowman Mickey and Minnie built by Pablo from The 3 Caballeros

Dan and I in front of the Journey to the Center of the Earth ride.

We browsed the gift shops to warm up a bit, then headed home. It’s nice to be able to pop into such a magical place for an evening that’s so close to home!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged adventure, Christmas, Dan, Disney Sea, Japan | Leave a Comment »

Christmas Adventure- Ghibli Museum

December 27, 2011 by Laurel

Dan and I have been meaning to visit the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka (Tokyo), and our Christmas Adventure month seemed like a perfect time to go. Dan even surprised me by going into work late so we could spend all morning there!

As some of you readers saw, a few entries back I posted a picture of Dan and I at the front gates of Ghibli Museum. Well, we were unaware how popular it is, and that A- you need to buy tickets in advance at Lawson Minimart, and B- it usually sells out! SO we were out of luck that day. But Dan got tickets 2 weeks in advance one day after work and we were all set to go.

Ghibli Museum is a museum dedicated to the animated creations of Hayao Miyazaki. He has produced many popular Japanese animated films that have also gained fame in the States, like My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki’s Delivery Service, and Spirited Away.

Unfortunately, no photography is allowed inside due to copyright restrictions. But it was so beautiful. There was whimsical detail everywhere. From door knockers to carvings in the base boards.

All the doors had pretty stained glass windows

We entered and first visited the animation room. Inside were models of famous Ghibli characters and zoetropes to teach children about the art of animation. We then looked at some old merchandise and film paraphernalia. Then we went into the small theater to watch a short film. The museum has about 8 twenty minute films that rotate, and are only shown at the museum. We saw a cute film about a boy who is given a mysterious seed to plant, which ends up being a star.

We took a quick break to admire the big Christmas tree outside 🙂

Ghibli doors

We went to the second floor, which was designed like an office/ animation studio, with many rough drafts of character drawings and concepts. The was also a life size catbus (think a giant bus shaped like a cat) we could walk through.

The top floor had a play area for children, a small library and a gift shop. On the roof top is a giant statue of the robot from a couple Ghibli films, and someone was nice enough to take a picture of Dan and I!

We then went into a courtyard area for a snack. They had a cute color tile sink

We stopped by the gift shop for a couple goodies- Dan got a hand towel (a popular accessory here in Japan), and I got a scarf and program for my collection.

When left and realized we were pretty hungry. We stopped by a restaurant called Enjoy Pancake Days. it was cute and sold nothing but pancakes!
My delicious meal

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged adventure, Christmas, Dan, Ghibli Museum, Japan | Leave a Comment »

Christmas Adventure- Bake Shops

December 22, 2011 by Laurel

When I first moved here, I was shocked at how few baking things I could buy here. Our local grocery store has nothing! A couple interesting looking mixes, some sprinkles, some nuts. It was very disappointing. Luckily my wonderful bestie in Seattle, Kelsey, sent me muffin mix for my birthday, and all you had to add was water! Sadly I had to put my cupcake tin in the oven sideways, as we have a tiny oven here, but nonetheless they were yummy and it felt good to be in the kitchen again.

I finally decided to be proactive on my hunt for baking supplies. I highly doubted that no one in Japan ever bakes cupcakes. So, I set out to find some supply! I decided to start with my cooking basics- sugar and flour. Just by learning the kanji it turned out to be right there at my local grocery store. with these two ingredients, plus some vanilla extract, in addition to the eggs and butter I had at home, I knew I could get liftoff on some baking projects.

I turned to Google and found some specialty shops around Tokyo from forums and traveler’s blogs. I recruited Dan and we first headed out to Okashi no Mori in Taito. Such a cute little shop! Soooo many cake and candy molds, cookie cutters and pans! Pans that would fit in our oven! I treated myself to some icing bags and tips and headed home as they were closing. It was exciting to finally find baking supplies, but there were still some goodies on my shopping list- I wanted to find specialty ingredients (like baking soda, peppermint extract, white chocolate) and some other tools, like a rolling pin so Dan and I could make some cutout sugar cookies.

A few days later I met Dan after work in Shibuya and we ventured out to Kichijoji to find a bake supply shop called Cuoca. we were in heaven the moment we got off the train! The shop was in a mall attached to the train station. En route to the shop we passed a market place full of delicious looking and smelling bakeries and delis. Everything looked amazing! We browsed the counters of a fruit and veggie stand, a couple bakeries and one of my faves, Dean & Deluca. Eventually we made our way to the other side of the mall where we found to cute bake shop called Cuoca. They had everything! I got white chocolate, cookie cutters, a rolling pin, baking soda and some other cooking goodies. Oh, it was heaven! The prices are definitely a bit steeper here but the hunt was fun and the end result will be delicious!

Since I had to get creative with ingredients before I found these bake shops, I’ve been doing a lot of searching and trying new recipes. It’s been deliciously fun for Dan and I! This holiday we’ve enjoyed soft peanut butter cookies, chocolate chip marshmallow cookies and tonight I’m making sugar cookie dough so we can roll it out and use our cookie cutters tomorrow. We’ve definitely been enjoying the holiday season!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged adventure, baking, Christmas, Cuoca, Dan, Japan, okashi no mori | Leave a Comment »

Christmas Adventure- Disneyland and Kamakura

December 20, 2011 by Laurel

To kick off our holiday festivities, Dan completely surprised me with a trip to Tokyo Disneyland! Because It was such a surprise, I didn’t have my camera with me or get any pictures.

I had just had my job interview and I texted Dan to tell him how it went. He told me to meet him a few train stations over. I said “ok, but easy on the walking, I’m in my 4 inch heels!”

When we met up he said, “well, let’s get you new shoes!” And like that we bought a pair of Adidas sneakers for me. I didn’t understand why I needed new shoes for dinner! To top it off, I was now in a striped collared shirt, black slacks and yellow sneakers. We rode 2 trains before getting on a platform for Maihama. Since this is where Disney is, it’s about as exciting as being told you’re headed for Anaheim or Orlando. Here in Japan you can get into Disney parks for half price later in the day, and that was our plan for the night!

It was chilly but we had a lot of fun! Since we were so unprepared with our spur of the moment trip, we ducked into a gift shop to warm up and buy hoodies. But they didn’t have any! We left with a fleecy poncho for me, and a fuzzy hat for Dan.

The night was spent riding rides, watching the electric parade and gorgeous fireworks set to Christmas music, and just enjoying strolling through the park, seeing the sights and having fun!

Next we went to Kamakura to see the second largest Buddha sculpture in Japan. We left Tokyo around noon on a Saturday, and it was an amazing day! It took us about an hour to ride out of the city, and it was nice to be on trains that weren’t crammed to the doors with commuters for once. The weather was cool but sunny. Perfect!

We arrived in Kamakura and started our walk to the Buddha. It takes about a half hour, and in the mean time the streets are filled with shops selling clothes, sweets and paper crafts. We treated ourselves to some yummy mini puff pastries filled with custard, chocolate and strawberry.

At last we reached our destination! When you hear you’re going to see a giant Buddha, I’m not sure that can readily prepare you for the sheer enormousness of the statue. Let’s just say, he’s really big!

It’s moments like this where I realize I can’t find a statue like this in Portland or Seattle. A moment where I can’t believe I’m living such a dream; I’m on the other side of the world and everything is new and exciting. I hope I always remember these moments, and no matter where I end up in the future or whatever I’m doing, I can look back and remember how blown away I was by all the new things I see pretty much every day here.

A nice couple took a picture of Dan and I together

After being in awe of Buddha for a while, we perused gift shops and explored the rest of the shrine, then headed back to the train station. Since we were already a ways away from home, we decided to do some exploring in Yokohama. We had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe which was a fun treat, then walked around the mall a bit. They had a Snoopy store which I loved!

It was getting colder outside but it was so pretty we couldn’t resist.

Dan also took me to Landmark Tower, where we had an amazing view from the 69th floor! We also rode in the world’s fastest elevator (Guinness confirmed!)
The same place as the picture above, just much higher up!

We walked around a bit more, then called it a night since we still had a few lengthy train rides til we were home. The day out definitely put us in the holiday spirit!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged adventure, buddha, Christmas, Dan, Japan, Kamakura, tokyo disneyland | Leave a Comment »

Christmas Adventures!

December 20, 2011 by Laurel

As I was pondering what on Earth to get Dan for Christmas, he came up with the genius idea of excursions instead of gifts. We’d spend a little more money going places and doing things and not spend excessively on elaborate gifts.

We’ve been having so much fun! Going to some new places and some we just really enjoy, and as my first Christmas in Japan it’s nice to see Tokyo gets in the holiday spirit.

I’ll post about our outings individually since some of you have mentioned my entries can get a wee bit long. I’ll work on that! In the mean time here is a little sample of some of the Christmas cards I made this season. I’m so in love with my new Cricut machine and had a lot of fun whipping these up!