Yoshino Video

This video is from when me, Yuko and her mom went to Yoshino National Park in April 2008 in the Japans. There are literally thousands of cherry blossom trees and they're all over the place. We timed it almost perfectly, since when we went, the blossoms were just falling off the trees near the bottom, and the trees near the middle and top were in full bloom.



Better video quality here.

Too Tired To Brush

On New Years Eve, we stayed up a little while afterward, watching TV. I went to get our toothbrushes, and I guess Yuko was really tired. I gave her her toothbrush, then went to drain myself. I came back, and she was still laying under the kotatsu, but was sleeping... with her hand on her toothbrush in her mouth. I thought that was hilarious. I woke her up then went to finish brushing my teeth. She continued to brush. I came back and she was asleep again. This time though, both her hands were also under the blanket of the kotatsu, her toothbrush hanging out of her mouth. Interesting...

All My Videos

This post is to update my blog with all my old videos and montages. Why I never thought of putting them here in the first place, who knows. These are all in the same order on my website, so you can go here to watch them. If the title is gray, that means I'm not done with it yet. Anyway, starting with 2008:

2008
Okinawa 2008 - Trip to Okinawa (July)
Mameya 2008 - All natural food restaurant (June)
Nabana 2008 - A place with lots of flowers (May)
Yoshino - Famous cherry blossom place (April)
Ichigogari 2008 - All you can eat strawberry farm (April)
BBQ - Barbecue after the ichigogari (April)

2007
USJ - Universal Studios Japan (December)
Christmas Party - (December)
Nabana no Sato - Lots of lights and flowers (December)
Kyushu - Trip to Kyushu (September)
Nagoya - With Corey in Nagoya (July)
Mameya - Natural food restaurant (June)
Okinawa - Trip to Okinawa (May)
Akame Falls - Hiking at Akame 48 Waterfalls (May)
Ichigogari - All you can eat strawberry farm (April)
Sakura - Cherry blossoms (April)
Toba - Trip to Toba (February)

2006
Reception 2 - Reception in Osaka, Japan (December)
Florida - Honeymoon (July)
California - Honeymoon (June)
Reception 1 - Reception at the Devereaux (June)
Ceremony - Wedding ceremony (June)
Bridal - Bridal video at temple square (June)
Pics - Pics from growing up to our wedding (June)


2003-2005 (photo montages)
Kansai Gaidai - Study abroad in Japan (8/2004-5/2005)
Nagano 2 - Summer study abroad in Nagano (May 2004)
Nagano 1 - Summer study abroad in Nagano (May 2003)

2008
Hakusan CMs - Commercials made at Hakusan JHS

2005
Gaidai CMs - Beer Commercials we made at Kansai Gaidai

This post will always be current, as I will continue to add to it as I make new videos.

Mameya Video

I guess what I really should have been doing in the 2 year posting absence I had on this blog was posting the videos of trips and shiz that I've been making while here. Whoops. I'll make an update of all the videos from the past couple of years on the next post maybe. Anyway, here's the most recent one. It's of when we went with Yuko's mom and friends to a restaurant called Mameya, south of Matsusaka. A bunch of old ladies live down there and grow their own food from the surrounding fields and use only that food there. Even the tofu that they have is made from the beans that they grow. It's a pretty nice restaurant with lots of traditional Japanese food. And next to the restaurant are their ajisai flower fields, which are pretty sweet. Those flowers are in bloom from May to June though, so you've got to go then to see them. During one season (can't remember which) though, in the absence of ajisai, they have a huge couple of fields of sunflowers. That's pretty sweet too. I'll see if I can find a picture of that later and post it here.

Anyway, here's the video:


Better quality can be viewed here.

As for the sunflower pics, I put 2 of them here.

初詣

初詣 (hot sue mow day) is the first trip to a temple or shrine in the new year. This year, we went to Omiwa shrine again, since it's about a mile away from Yuko's house. It's the oldest temple in Japan or something like that. There are tons of food shops, etc, along the road to the shrine. Everybody goes to throw coins in the box in front of the temple, and to pull omikuji. This year, both me and Yuko got kichi. Thousands of people go, the traffic sucks, and it's cold, but nonetheless rockin'.

The Nabe

Nabe is a Japanese food which has a TON of variations. The one we ate with all of Yuko's family on January 2nd (this is traditional, we do it every year) was a water base, then you put all kinds of stuff in it like vegetables, mushrooms, meat, crab, fish, other seafood, etc, etc, etc.... It's pretty dang good, and is awesome when it's cold outside.

New Years Day Breakfast in the Japans

There is a traditional breakfast that families prepare and eat on New Years Day. I'm calling it breakfast, but we ate it at about noon. As you can see from the pics, it is a bunch of different kinds of foods separated and put neatly into those plastic box things. The big fish is a "tai". In English, I don't know what it's called, so chill. All you need to know is that it's fish. Everybody takes their chopsticks and picks at it like vultures tearing apart a carcass. It's pretty rockin'. The person who is the same sign as the current year gets to pick at it first. This year was the bull, so Yuko got to go first. In the soup, there is mochi. Without eating mochi, your new year celebration is fake. We'll continue to eat all this stuff over the next couple of days until it runs out. There are reserves in addition to what you see in the pics, so it lasts a while.