Merry Christmas!

Noah had a wonderful Christmas even though he still doesn't quite understand it. Here he is Christmas morning.

why didn't we think of that?

The town of Yonezawa has in the center of its main roads a sprinkler system that helps to reduce the build up of snow. I thought it was ingenius. And not only on the roads but in parking lots. Take a look.

a little couple time

Recently Naoko and I went away for a weekend to spend some time together. We went to a bed and dinner/breakfast place in a town famous for its beef. The town is called Yonezawa and is about an hour away from Fukushima. Yonezawa beef is probably #2 or #3 best beef in all of Japan. Naturally being such high quality beef doesn't come cheap. Thus to be honest we couldn't afford the real Yonezawa beef and had to settle for Yamagata beef (Yamagata is the prefecture(state) that Yonezawa is in). We ate beef in many different ways. Naoko and I both had raw beef dipped in soy sauce and beef sushi. Naoko also had steak and I had shabu shabu, which is beef dipped in boiling water to cook it. All the food was delicous and just now thinking about it makes my mouth water. Unfortuantly the place we stayed was kind of a dive and the family bath was small and wasn't natural. Sufficite to say we won't be going back eventhough the food was good. Another good thing about the place was that they had cable tv which had an american tv drama channel. Naoko loved that and was able to see some new dramas like Heroes and OC for the first time. It snowed the second day we were there so I was able to try out my new Sorel boots which was cool. Thanks Mom and Dad! Enjoy the pics!

Off to work

Noah is dressed up in his Christmas best and ready to head to work. What that work is only he knows.