Reagan Lee is 3!!!

Reagan turned THREE on April 16th. Nate had a big inspection at work that day and had to leave really early and wasn't able to get home from work until very late that night so we did cake the next day. With Japan being a day ahead it was her actual birthday in America so why not celebrate both days?!?

Birthday Girl Balloons! She loved waking up to them in her room!

Reagan requested french toast for her birthday breakfast. When she asked for another piece she also asked us to sing and light the candle again, her birthday demand was granted;)

Birthday cake time!

I cropped the cake it was pretty sad looking, mommy is not the prettiest baker.

Happy 3rd  Birthday Reaggy Roo we sure do love you!!

Reagan's first day at Mikuni

Today is a big day! Reagan started Japanese kindergarten (which is called Yochien), the school we chose is Mikuni Yochien and it's a Christian school. All of the instruction is in Japanese (the teachers speak little to no English) so I am a bit nervous how the first few days will go for her. She has an American friend in her class and a few older kids go there that we know from base so I think that will help with all the newness. We decided because of her age it was the perfect time for her little mind to get immersed into the language. I know she is going to make many memories at Mikuni and its my prayer that this experience enriches her life in ways I can't even imagine.

Our little Yochien student! 

In this picture she is touching her name tag. I went to Mikuni a few weeks ago and wrote her name on all her supplies (they wanted me to write her name on each individual crayon!), I can write Reagan Michael in Japanese now!

3 years old!!!

Friends! Aaron and Reagan will be in the Ichigo class which means strawberry class in Enlgish.

On the bus! She was so happy but then as she sat down and the bus started driving off her two fingers went in her mouth and I could tell she was getting sad.

When I picked her up at the bust stop she seemed very happy! Then when we got home she would not stop talking about her new school and kept saying she wanted to ride the bus again and go back to play. I am so thankful for that! The English speaking liaison sent me an email on how she did today. She translated what the teacher wrote, her English is great but sometimes things come out a little funny but I love it!

Dear Jenn

Hello!!

This is from Nakayoshi Class teacher.

Reagan was shy today.  Teachers cannot hear her voice at the class room.

She was playing with friends and ride swing.  She looked happy.

Reagan could pee at the toilet well.

Teachers are looking forward to seeing Reagan next week again.

Have a nice afternoon!!

Mami SASAKI

Reagan is always a little shy at first but when she get comfortable she doesn't hold anything back. I wonder how long it will take her at Mikuni:)

Weekend: Hakone Kowakien Yunessun & The Ritz

On Saturday we did a day trip to Hakone, Japan to the Hakone Kowakien Yunessun. Hakone is near Mt Fuji and it was a really pretty drive along the coast getting there.  They call it a "hot spring spa resort and amusement park," and the water comes from the hot springs of Hakone.

Arrival at the Yunessun! 

First stop "God's Aegean Sea". The water was so warm, it was like a hot tub - we are convinced they heat it up more than just the natural temperature. Some spas were hotter than others. 

This was the Sakura spa and it smelled divine!!!

Green Tea spa

 Another part of the Green Tea spa. Nate said if you went under the waterfall and bridge you could really smell the green tea! 

My favorite the Wine spa! Girls loved it for the pink water. We also participated in the wine show where they poured the wine into the spa. It was a lot of fun!

The Coffee Spa! I love the smell of coffee so this spa was awesome. The color was a bit disturbing.

They even had outdoor slides and a cave spa underneath!

Dr. Fish!! They have Dr. Fish all over Japan. These fish latch on and nibble the dead skin cells on your feet. The girls were a bit terrified and didn't want to put their feet in the water. It really tickled Nate and I, we couldn't stop laughing the entire time! 

The Yunessun was a really fun family day. 

 The next day I took Aubrey to tea at the Ritz-Carlton with some girlfriends while the men had a BRO-BQ as they called it. The Ritz tea was really fun and fancy. The food was so yummy and almost too pretty to eat!

Aubrey and Ella with their Teddy Bear tea set!

Gorgeous flowers in the tea room!  They smelled amazing!

It was a great weekend!

Tokyo Weekend:: Day Two

The first thing we did on Saturday was swim at the New Sanno. They have a great indoor pool that the girls love.

Then we headed out to see the Imperial Palace. Little did we know that it was the Emperors 80th anniversary and the palace grounds were completely packed with people. The grounds are huge and it was still hard to get around with the crowds. I guess for his anniversary they let you see more of the Palace so its a big deal but we couldn't even get to them with the crowds and lines. I think it was extra busy too because of the Cherry Blossoms. Its a big deal here and I joined the craze;)

Example of the crowds!

One thing we planned to do was go canoeing through the Cherry Blossoms around the Imperial Palace. The line to do this was insane, I was so disappointed I was really excited about it but we couldn't put the girls in a three hour line to do it that's for sure!

On the way back to the hotel we found a neat shopping area with this huge rose (Aubrey and Reagan said it was Princess Belle's).

There was a really beautiful garden below the stores. We even got to see more lit up Cherry Blossoms, score!

This weekend we took the girls to a hot springs amusement park/ spa resort. Ill post some pics soon it was lots of fun but very different!

Weekend in Tokyo: Day One

Nate is only home for a few weeks so we are trying to make the most of the time we have him with us! So we decided to spend the weekend in Tokyo and continue to feed my Cherry Blossom obsession. On Friday afternoon we had tickets for a Sumida river cruise to see the Cherry Blossoms trees lit up at night.

On the way to the cruise our tour guide took us thru part of Ueno park. This one is a "weeping" Sakura!

 One of the guys on the tour was from Australia and to be silly he bought face masks for everyone at a convenience store we walked by. From what I understand it is sort of a "fad" in Japan to wear them as well as a precaution from getting/spreading germs.  We couldn't get the girls to put them on though. We noticed this fad the moment we got off the airplane from DFW!

The tour guide also took us around the Senso-ji temple area but it started to down-pour on us and even was hailing for a little bit! We made the most of it and got some use out of our umbrellas.

Boarding the river cruise the "pretty girl" as Aubrey & Reagan say greeted us.

On the cruise we were served a Bento box and the Geisha came around and served us Sake before her performance. 

After the cruise we walked thru the Cherry Blossoms along the Sumida River which were lit up (they were gorgeous but I didn't get a pic) and admired the view of the Tokyo Skytree.  Then we made our way back to Senso-ji temple area.

Tokyo Skytree and the river cruise ships.

Senso-ji Temple

We had a great night in Tokyo. I will try to post about the next day soon.

Sakura in Kamakura

It was a beautiful day yesterday so I decided to take the girls to Kamakura to see the Sakura there. It's suppose to rain for the next few days so I wanted to see more blossoms while the sun was out. The area in Kamakura I took the girls to was the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine, most of the Sakura trees were not in full bloom but they were still beautiful! I love Kamakura, its one of my favorite places to go and its a very short train ride from our house. If you come visit the first place we will take you is Kamakura!!

Aubrey loves to do the peace sign (aka victory sign in Japan), Reagan can't seem to make her little fingers get in that position. The peace sign doesn't really mean anything in Japan its more of a "pose" from what I understand.