Did You Know There Are Female Samurai Too?

This week went by really fast. Emily didn't say anything last week, but I strained some back muscles last week and a week later, it's finally feeling better! Guess I should stop throwing kids around at school. :) Anyways, with my back pretty much back to normal, we had a fun weekend doing some more exploring with our buddies, the Nugents. Here are some pictures of our weekend adventure.

We went to the Aizu Clan school (Samurai school) and this is what was waiting at the entrance. It had a sign next to it that read, "This lion protects this school and prays for world peace.It is made of marble. It gives wisdom, power, and protection to worshipers." Looks like Miss America isn't the only one praying for world peace. 

This was the south gate into the school. There were 3 different gates. The east and west gates were for students, and the south was for the important people. Naturally, we entered in through the south gate.

Upon entering the south gate, you can walk through another smaller gate that gives you a view of  a shrine and a courtyard. The weather was awesome and it's starting to even get hot.

We thought it would make a nice picture standing on the bridge, what do you think?

In the shrine area, there was a statue of Confucius. Everything in the room was pretty ornate. The Nugents said that we haven't seen ornate until we go to Niko. So we are going there in two weeks... The weekend just before we leave Japan. Anyways, apparently one of the things Samurais studied was religion, mainly Shintoism and Confucianism. Some of the other things that Samurai studied were reading and writing, etiquette, how to build castles, lots of history, and how to use a variety of weapons. Only males were allowed into Samurai schools all across Japan and were admitted when a boy reached 10. There were two ways to be admitted into the school. One, they were the first son of a famous Samurai lord. Or two, they performed really well in school.

This was in the shrine area. I just thought it was a really cool pot.

They had an observatory kind of place that overlooked the school and the surrounding area. It was a pretty big size. The thing I really enjoyed about the school versus the mansion place we visited last week was that we got to go inside the buildings. 

The mountain back there is Mount Bandai. It's the one we skied down back in March. So much fun!

So while we were touring the place, one of the workers asked if we wanted to hear some stories about the school. In his stories, we learned that only males were allowed into samurai schools. However, there were many women that learned on their own and became samurai. There was a pretty big war called the Boshin War in the 1800's here in Aizu. Even though the female samurai fought along side the male samurai, they still lost. The school was burned and the castle was overtaken. The government reconstructed the school back in 1987. Close to where the school was rebuilt, there was a large statue. We called it the Mary statue; don't know too much about it.

It's a little hard to tell, but it's a statue of a lady with a baby. I'm not sure about the history of it, but it is part of the Buddhist religion. Although we didn't take the time to go inside it, you can climb a series of stairs. Apparently there are a few lookout windows as you climb.

After seeing all those fun things, we went out to eat at a place called Maruyama. One of the cool things about the place (although there are lots of other places that let you do it) was to grind sesame seeds and then add in a special sauce. You can make the sauce to your liking.

This was the lunch special. The tonkatsu, hire katsu, and ebi fry was pretty standard. However, it was all you can eat cabbage and rice, so I was a very happy camper. 

Anyways, I hope that you enjoyed the pictures. We are excited for the other things we have going on in the next few weeks before we depart. Hope you are enjoying spring as much as we are. Much love!

A Happy Mother's Day in Japan

Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers out there! It was nice this last week to get back into a routine with things. We had missed three Sundays of church here in Aizu Wakamatsu, so today everyone kept saying, "we thought you died..." We did tell them that we were going to be gone. Anyways, Emily and I noticed that people here in Japan seem to celebrate Mother's Day differently. For example, usually the speakers at church are male and they speak on a theme around mothers, but today, most of the speakers were women and they spoke about the blessings of the Priesthood; have to admit it was a little funny. Women get no breaks here in Japan.


Like I mentioned, it is nice to get back into a routine here at our apartment; also our routine of posting every week. Last weekend we went to Yamagata Prefecture and stayed with a missionary couple that I served with, the Niwa's. It was fun to spend the night with them and then go to the branch we served together in the next morning for church services in Tsuruoka (the couple served in the neighboring branch, about two hours from their house at the same time I served there about six years ago). It was a lot of fun to reminisce in the experience and was surprised at both how many people I remembered, and how many people remembered me. The most common thing said to me was in reference to Emily, "bijin da ne. Yokatta desu ne," which interprets, "she's so beautiful, good for you." So much fun! 

I don't remember the sister on the left, but next to her moving left is Sister Niwa, Emily, me, Sister Chiaki, and Brother Niwa,

We have some pictures of some of the other highlights of the week as well.

We got to tour a famous pottery place in Aizu Misato yesterday. We visited a girl's family that Emily had taught at one of her high schools. Consequently, after she graduated, she went to college at the place that I teach. It's pretty funny. This is a room where the do the sculpting of cups and dishes and what not.

This was in a locked room,  a kiln that was made 400 years ago. 

The kiln was amazing to see, but it was locked up because it got pretty messed up in the 3.11 earthquake last year. There are plans to restore it, but nothing has happened yet.

The kiln was pretty impressive. They explained that this place makes really famous pottery. When I asked why the pottery made there was so famous and ridiculously expensive, they told me that the materials were taken from a nearby mountain and when combined with the 8th generation pottery maker family that owns the place and the large kiln, it makes for some rather unique colored pottery. 

After our tour, we went over to our student's house, played card games, relaxed, and had yakiniku for dinner. The easiest way to explain yakiniku is to say Korean bbq. Pretty much it's different kinds of meat and veggies cooked on a hotplate in which you dip in yummy special sauce. It was awesome!

We really had a fun time with the family. From left to right; mom, Wako (front, youngest sister), Yuka (back, currently one of Emily's students), Kana (Emily's previous student and my current student), Emily, and me.

Other than that, Emily has been hard at work on applying for graduate positions at University of Oregon. We hope everyone is doing well! Much love and again, Happy Mother's Day!

Cherry Blossoms and Castles: It's Springtime!

The things I (Emily) love the very most about spring:


*Smooth legs! Yes, I shaved my legs during the winter, but let's be honest - they didn't stay smooth past the Arctic blast of air that came in as soon as I opened the shower door. Not anymore! Me and my smooth legs are here to stay!


*Leaving the windows open at night! I wake up to sunshine and birds singing at 5:20 every morning. It makes me actually happy to wake up.


*Going barefoot, at least in my own house. The floor doesn't feel like an ice rink anymore!


*My sun tan line. I have a serious farmer's tan on my neck, and I'm so proud of it.


*Color! The world is alive again. Flowers, flowers, and more flowers. I even planted a few of my own, along with some basil.


Ok, here are some pictures to catch up for the last couple weeks. I was a slacker and didn't post last Sunday (because we were gone), and probably won't post this Sunday (because we will be gone again), so this one will be full of pictures to make up for it.

The castle that is in our city. It is a great spot to see the cherry blossoms and we had tourists packed into the castle grounds for days. James and I went for a walk early in the morning and were able to catch a few pics without too many people in them.

The blossoms blew off the trees and into the moat that surrounds the castle. So pretty!

It looks like snow, but those are cherry blossom petals! I could go for that kind of snow all year round!

The English club at my base school invited James and I to go with them to the castle and have a picnic.

Some of my cute new first year students.

Last weekend, we traveled up to Aomori prefecture at the very northern tip of the main island of Japan. We stayed with some friends James knew from his mission. They spoiled us rotten. One place they took us was a museum filled with nebuta, or float-type structures that are carried in festivals during the summer.

The Kimura family, the ones we stayed with, had a beautiful grand piano. James was in heaven. We definitely need to get this boy a piano soon.

They also took us out for sushi!

Bread salad...interesting.

Aomori prefecture is surrounded mostly by ocean. I was happy to be close to water again, even if it was freezing cold water. This bridge is right next to the ocean and I was fascinated by it.

Yes, I even made James come walk across it with me :) We did the same with the Golden Gate bridge last summer.

We visited Hirosaki Castle in Aomori, one of the top places in Japan for seeing the cherry blossoms. Unfortunately, we were a bit early to see them at their peak, but it was still a fun day. 

We took a tour inside the castle and saw some ancient samurai clothes, swords, etc.

View from the castle grounds. There was still snow in some places, but the sun was shining and we wore short sleeves for part of the day and even ate ice cream!

Aomori is famous for apples, so they served apple ice cream at the castle. How fitting!

We also got a slice of the world's largest apple pie. Yummy!

Apples, apples, and...

more apples.

I caught James flirting with this statue on our way back from the castle.

Yeah, busted mister!

A very large...pig?

The Kimura family also took us out on their boat. It was chilly and very bumpy, but we had a blast.

On the left is Kosuke, the Kimura's son. He was a very crazy driver and made it fun for us. Pretty sure we all had bruised backsides by the time we got back.

View from the boat.

Mom Kimura. She spent most of the time on the floor of the boat while Kosuke was driving. She was hilarious and when we told her that we had a fun time, she yelled, "It was not fun!" referring to Kosuke's driving :)

I have such an odd husband.

And he has a perfectly normal wife.

Yesterday, we took a trip to Tokyo (I swear, I have been living on a bus for weeks now!) to go to the temple and to a BYU-Hawaii alumni event. It was fun to see some people from Hawaii and to catch up with some former students.