We also got to see a family friend, Michele Banks Ebert, and her family. They live on the outskirts of Tokyo on an army base. I haven't seen her in years, and it took coming to Japan to get to! The kids had fun playing together at the game. Thank goodness for the ipad and stickers! Michele was sweet to think of us...she brought me a goodie bag of "American" things she got at the commissary on base. Thanks again Michele! 
The next stop was Nagoya. We actually got to ride the bullet train called The Shinkansen. It goes over 300 mph. What a neat way to travel. You get to have your cell phone on, there are no seatbelts, and you can get up and down as you wish. It was wonderful. Addyson was so excited because her daddy told her it went really, really fast. Nagoya has an Outback Steakhouse but it isn't open for lunch. As soon as the game was over the first night we jumped in a cab with Hide and walked into Outback at 10 p.m. We laughed that we use to talk about people who took their kids to dinner late at night and here we were. Oh well! Anything to have something that reminds us of home. We all ate until we were stuffed and Addyson was really good even though it was way past her bedtime! This baseball life makes us do CRAZY things...just look at where it brought us!
We went to a crab place last night called "Kanikosen." It means the crab ship. Sapporo is famous for their crab. It was delicious. Inside there is a huge boat sitting in the center of the place with live crabs in it. They are huge. The owner picked one up with his hand and showed Addyson. It was the biggest crab I have ever seen. I don't know if you can tell or not, but here's a pic of a big one.
We got to try all kinds of crab. It was so good. I won't want crab for a while, since that's all you eat, but it was wonderful. Here is a pic of one we actually ate. Just the legs, not the stuff in the middle of the crab. We weren't brave enough to try it!
The waitresses wore kimonos, so I had to take a pic of Addyson with our waitress. She tried so hard to tell us in English what each thing was that she brought us. Addyson is trying to make the peace sign like the waitress is doing. Everyone in Japan throws up the peace sign when taking a picture!
Today Micah had an off day, but also had to fly out for a week long road trip. We at least got to spend part of the day with him. We got up, Micah cooked breakfast, and got ready to go to the park and the Buddhist temple behind our house. I found out it's the largest here in Hokkaido, which is the prefecture, or state, we live in. It's beautiful. We went by ourselves, so we didn't really have a clue about what anything meant, but it was neat to walk around. Next time we will take Hide, our interpreter, so he can give us all the details. As we were leaving a guard realized who we were and gave us a bag and said "gift." It's a bottle of something and a wooden piece with rabbits and fish on it. Can't wait to find out what each one means. We have no idea what's in the bottle since the label is in Japanese. It's on the counter waiting on Hide to interpret it for us.
Micah will be gone until late Sunday night, so it's just the two of us. We will fill our time with the park, the zoo, and the indoor playground when it's raining. It seems like it's always raining! The other American's family stayed back for this road trip, so their girls and Addyson will have some play time too. Addyson's understanding about Daddy going on road trips. When he laid her down for her nap he told her he was leaving for a week and to be a good girl for Mommy. As he was shutting her door she said "Daddy, don't go. Stay here with us." Talk about break your heart! So, needless to say, we are counting down the days til he's back home!
