Basically I am going to skip over the international travels because our time in japan is way cooler than our travels. So I will just skip straight to day 1 in Japan
Both day 1 and 2 we spent in Karuizawa up where the Kaufmans own a cabin and have their Christmas and Summer Ministry. Some of the highlights were Elving, which is where we all dress up as elves and Papa Bear Kaufman as Santa and sang Christmas songs and passed out Japanese literature.
we ate curry for supper cooked by mama bear. and then went to the famous woodshed coffee house that the Kaufman kids worked at as young kids. We then went to an onsen....
words cannot describe what an onsen is like but I will say this one thing: pure awesomeness, relaxation, and openness...
the second day the entire Kaufman family drove to a hospital to see a friend so the three oblivious Americans (also known as Gaijins) took a walk into the Machi or the town market. We made many a few blunders and a few really sweet discoveries. Including curry fill doughnuts and heated cans in vending machines.
we then packed the van and headed to Toyama. We stopped along the way at the monkey park to see the Japanese snow monkeys. They were awesome to say the least. You should check out Tyler Knochel's Blog that links to a video of the monkeys. you can see it at http://thaikno.tumblr.com.
We then went to a Traditional Japanese Families house and had fresh apples, and they ended up feeding all 14 of us!! (P.S. we met the Kole Family and they came to see the monkeys and came to this house with us.) after being stuffed full of Tea and Raman noodles we chatted for awhile and asked many questions about their lives and the traditional Japanese Lifesyle!
Upon arriving home late night, we were surprised by Joey Kaufman showing up and it was phenomenal being able to see Him again!!! I squeezed him so hard i think his eye about popped out of his head!
the next day we ran around Shiminato which can be classified as probably the jankiest town you could ever think of. We went to the equivalent of a dollar tree store and bought souvenirs for you all! We then ate at the Kaufman kids favorite Curry place, it was dandy!!!
after lunch we went to flamingo ( a store) which is like a humongous store owned by a guy. Everything is slightly used, or cheaply purchased, or something else...When you buy things, it seems like a black market of everything ran by the yakuza....
oh and P.S. - everyone around me thinks we are Russian. They always try to speak Russian to us, and we just smile and nod.... maybe its because of the massive beards we are sporting.
anyways after dealing with they yakuza and getting some sweet steals on goods. we came home and spent the evening with David the ambassador of Japan from Sierra Leon. He awed us with his Gospel style singing on Christmas songs including O Holy night and last Christmas. We then chatted the evening away and ended up singing Christmas and Praise Songs. We all went to bed pooped as always with our ever busy travelings and sight seeings.
I do apologize as I am not a writer by trade, and my humor is not good on blogs as it doesn't make much sense..other than the fact that I am humor myself in that many people laugh at me. Stay tuned for the next few days. I will try to do it every night but there will be no promises as we are always on the run.
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