For ojiichan and obaachan

I miss it already!! I am so glad I was able to go over to Japan this last week to visit my relatives there. It is a very rare occasion to be able to see all of them in one trip with one family living in Tokyo and the others in the Aichi-ken Prefecture. We took Deej with us this time to introduce him to the family (He's so cute--he's been studying his butt off in his Japanese class and also doing Rosetta Stone at home. Gosh I love him!) It was wonderful to see all my aunts and uncles and cousins. I am so grateful for all of them who came and sacrificed their time to have a little wedding dinner with DJ and me.

I wish I had hired a photographer to come with us to capture everything (Heather, that means you, lady!) because from the looks of most of my photos, I wasn't there--My eye was GLUED to my Nikon the whole trip. But still, all these photos make for great memories! Here's a little glimpse at what we did in the land of the sun:

I'd like to introduce you to my Ojiichan. My grandpa that I love so much. He is so amazing. 86 and still going strong! He takes care of my grandma every single day (she was diagnosed with dementia about 7 years ago or so) and still finds time to manage all his gardens, which brings me to one of my favorite things about him. He makes the most delicious breakfasts. That might sound funny, but his Japanese breakfasts aren't the simple milk and cereal in a bowl. We eat toast, salad, sausages, yogurt, fish, seaweed, pumpkin, grapes, fig, Japanese pears, sweet beans...Its definitely weird, but it is ridiculously good. And most of the veggies and fruits come from my grandpa's garden. He is a gardening god!

My grandpa has been doing archery for a long time. It was really interesting seeing how ritualistic it was. They would walk in a single file line, always keeping their feet shuffling on the floor as they walked to their position. Then they would take their wide stance, look at their target, and pause for a moment to think. They would slowly raise their bows and arrows. It was so intricate, all the way down to the movement of the fingers. 

I'm so grateful for my grandpa. He's done so much for me and has been such a blessing in my life. I can't wait to go back to see him again!

More to come from my trip to Japan :) Stay tuned...