Belated Father's Day

Since the last posts were quick turn around posts, it's now time for a really belated post (and don't you worry, I have plenty more really late ones saved as drafts, just itching to become real posts)! This is what we did for Father's Day...back in June. I would laugh at how long ago that was, but I know I have posts from way longer than that still waiting in the queue. Anyway, here it is.

About a week before Father's Day, I started asking Jonathan what he wanted to eat for dinner and dessert on his day. Turns out, he doesn't really have a favorite dinner, or dessert...so he didn't know and didn't know and didn't know. One of the hard things for me in cooking special dinners for this husband of mine is that he usually wants to have a meat dish. I on the other hand, don't love tons of meat, so I usually don't cook it, so I feel inadequate in making steak, or burgers, or any manly meaty dinner. So, naturally, Jonathan wanted bacon burgers for dinner. I told him I'd buy everything if he made the burgers. He was more than happy to make them, and I was happy that he was happy, so everyone won. 

Washing Dishes and Making Bacon!

I've learned there are few things that I love more than my boys working in the kitchen with me. It's just more fun to make food together, even if it does mean it's a little messier and, with Peter, more chaotic. So this day was fun. Peter "washed" dishes for a good 20 minutes. And by wash I mean used the rag to splash around and soak his body- but hey, it's a start.Jonathan did the meats, and I put together dessert.

Look at that focus.

For dessert, I made cream cheese fruit bars. They were good, but way sweet. Even as I was following the recipe I remember being nervous about the amount of sugar it called for. Also, it called for 2 cans of fruit filling, while one would have been enough. I don't know if China made this happen, but there are so many desserts I've made since being back that I think would be way better if they used less sugar. But anyway, not a terrible loss, but I wouldn't make them again. 

Dessert prep and pan of fries waiting to go in the oven

Dessert! (Don't worry, his beard is not touching it. It's just the angle.)

Dinner turned out fantastic, and we ate happy. I just asked Jonathan if he remembers what we got him for Father's Day, and neither of us could remember...whoops. But he asked what we did and I showed him the above pictures, and he said, "Oh yeah, those burgers were soooo good. I remember that. Wait, we still have bacon in the freezer from that don't we? We should make that again." Haha, so the burgers were a total success, and we had a great day in the kitchen together. 

Now let's get a little sappy. I just want to say a few things I love about Jonathan as a Dad. 

Jonathan is great at teaching Peter things- especially things he loves, like the outdoors and tools. He is pretty patient when doing projects with Peter. On Saturday, he took Peter outside to help him work on the car (putting in a new wheel-well cover/fender liner). Do you know how helpful a small child is when doing car repair? Not terribly helpful. Jonathan would have done it faster if he'd left Peter inside. But he was fine with it taking longer and showing Peter some car things along the way. Also, with swimming. Jonathan will go in the pool with Peter and work on putting his face in the water, blowing bubbles and kicking. He is way more patient in the pool than I am (and he knows what he's doing), and they will play/learn for a loooong time before either one is bored. 

Jonathan is great at giving me a break and helping with Peter. Since becoming pregnant, Jonathan gets up with Peter every single morning, without fail, and lets me sleep in until he has to leave for work. It's beautiful. Peter wakes up and comes into our room, usually asking for "cereal and milk?" and Jonathan gets out of bed, and feeds Peter, and then keeps him occupied until he goes to work. At which point I usually convince Peter to crawl into bed and warm up and he talks/plays while I lay quietly until Peter gets too bored and we get up. I know I won't have too many more of these sleeping-in mornings, so I cherish them and am so grateful that Jonathan lets me get a little more sleep each morning.

At night, Jonathan reads books to Peter before he goes to sleep. I'm not sure how this started, but every night, we read scriptures as a family, say prayers, and then I leave and Jonathan lays down and reads a couple books with Peter. I think it's adorable, and I love that they have some quiet time together.

Jonathan plays with Peter...sometimes rougher than I like, but Peter LOVES it, and I'm pretty sure Jonathan thinks it's great too. I love it because I just don't have the energy to play around with Peter as much these days, so it's great for getting some of his massive amounts of energy out. 

Something great that Jonathan does as a dad is he reads/researches parenting things. He has read (actually listened to as audio-books) 2 books that have been on my list to read for a while- they weren't at the library and I had to wait for them to come back in. I didn't even tell him about these books. He heard about one from a guy at church, and the other one from this blog: https://www.fatherly.com/. Yeah...he follows a parenting blog of dad stuff. He'll send me links to articles he has read and finds interesting, and when he comes home (if he remembers he sent it, or if I bring it up), we'll talk about it- do we agree or disagree with the thoughts of the writer? Do we want to implement any of those ideas into our family? Etc. I'm glad he reads things and doesn't leave parenting up to me. 

Jonathan is a good dad, and we are lucky to have him. I'm grateful I married this man and that we get to raise a family together. It is fun to watch someone take on a new role and see them grow and change. Jonathan is not the perfect dad. He gets frustrated with Peter sometimes and sometimes we disagree on how we should do certain aspects of parenting. Sometimes I know he'd rather sleep in and let me take care of Peter. Sometimes he doesn't want to get hit in the face with another pillow. But even if he is not perfect, he is a perfect fit for us. He balances me and overall we work together great. He loves his boys and he will help them become great men. We love you Jonathan! 

Gleaves Cousins

All the cousins on the Gleaves side, along with an aunt and two uncles

Back in July, my brother, Andrew, and his family drove out to Utah so they could visit with Natalie's (Andrew's wife) family while Andrew went on a trip to Alaska with my dad and the rest of the brothers. While they were here, we were able to get all of the Gleaves cousins together for the first time! All of the Utah residing siblings got together for dinner at Mom's Kitchen- a fantastic Taiwanese restaurant in Salt Lake City. (Jonathan and I have eaten there twice, and each time, all the food has been fantastic. It's probably good we don't live closer, because I would go here every week- which would be delicious, but we would be broke.)

We had fun eating together and watching the kids be crazy. There are 5 cousins age 6 and younger, so it gets a little loud when they start playing together. Peter is the only boy (until his brother comes!) out of the group. After dinner, we went back to David's home, where it didn't matter if the kids were crazy, and we let them run free and ate ice-cream. It was nice to catch up with each other, and to let the cousins get to know each other better. We have only seen Andrew and Natalie twice since Peter was born, so it was good to see them again. We see Allison's family and David more frequently since they live in Utah. We had fun, and were grateful we live in the same country with our family again! Cousins are fun, and hopefully Peter gets to see his many more times.

Things I Miss in Other Lands

(Written 5 April 2014)

What I miss about America
Breathing air everyday without a mask
Drinking water from the tap without worrying about how sick you might get
Going outside without first checking the AQI (Air Quality Index)
Having a car
Dairy
Having a clothes dryer
Not being the center of attention
Being able to go onto any site online without a VPN (Virtual Proxy Network)
Understanding what people say
Reading signs
Libraries
Bathtubs
Carpet

What I will miss about China
jian bing
fantastic public transportation
Nanjing LDS Branch
Walking to Ikea
Free delivery to your door (amazon, food places, etc)
The parks
My sun room/laundry room
Muslim noodle place
dragonfruit
Tile floors

(Written 14 March 2015)
I really do miss jian bing...a lot. I wish I could walk down the road to buy one. I sometimes called them Chinese burritos. It's basically a dough crepe type outside with egg, pickled green beans, green onions, cilantro, some sort of sauce, some kind of fried dough crunchy thing, and a little spicy kick. They are delicious, and cheap, and I want to eat one.

Jian Bing

I also think it's interesting that so many of the things I miss are contradictions. I missed having carpet, but now I miss having tile. Carpet is warmer and softer, and not so bad when the small people fall on it. But tile is so much easier to clean- especially when it is food or liquids. 

In China I missed having my car, but now I miss being able to take the bus anywhere, and only wait max ten minutes for the next one to come. Also, metros. I miss them. You could travel but Peter could still wiggle and walk around and people could entertain him. He hates his carseat lately, and having the bus or metro would be a nice option. 

I really miss the LDS branch in Nanjing. There was a sense of friendship because you needed each other, and everyone knew that we needed each other. I feel like we got together more and had more fun times together than our ward here. Here, I feel like people need each other but don't want to bother others or feel like they need support because then they think they will look weak, or they are "too busy" with everything else going on. People don't band together as much here. I miss that feeling of camaraderie at church. In Nanjing, we would get together to learn Chinese from Esther, go on birthday lunch excursions, have playdates with kids, travel to use someone's oven, or go shopping together to show where we found a place that sells tortillas. Our ward here is great, but it's just not the same feeling.

It is great to be "home" in America. I love being able to cook a huge range of things again. I love using the oven and dryer. I love being able to breathe and take Peter outside everyday without worrying about particles in the air. I love the marvelous kitchen I have. I love having a bath tub. The library is a place of refuge. I read so many books and love it. And cheese, I can buy it at any grocery store I go to, and frequently get it on sale. It is wonderful. I hope someday we go back to China though. I will eat a jian bing everyday and we will act like we are famous as strangers take our photos. Every place is amazing, you just have to learn to love it.

Sushi with the Sister

One of the Christmas gifts we got this year was a sushi kit. It came with the rice, seaweed paper, and rolling mat. We just had to supply whatever it was we wanted inside. My youngest sister, Carissa, asked one day if we could make sushi. I told her if she would go any get things to put in it, then I would supply the other things from the kit. She was sold. She went shopping and came back a bit later with avocado, carrots, cucumbers, canned shrimp and canned...some other type of fish that I can't presently remember. I set to work chopping veggies while she made up the rice and put it on the paper. 

One of our creations

Carissa quickly learned that sushi rice is super sticky and hard to spread. We both quickly learned that we don't really know what we were doing. Just just made it up as we went along. We put whatever we wanted inside each one and rolled it the best we could.

Carissa the rice woman

They weren't beautiful, and they weren't the best sushi I've ever had, but for our first time, it wasn't too bad. We decided if we did it again, we'd chop everything smaller and put less things in each roll. And we wouldn't use canned fish...lesson learned. Also, I learned later that if your hands are damp when you are doing the rice part, then it sticks less. 

I made this for you.

No one would eat them aside from Carissa, Peter and myself. They were okay though. I ate a bunch and Peter ate a couple. He loves rice and vegetables, so I figured this would be a winner, and it was. Overall, it was a successful experiment. We had fun and got to eat something we don't always eat...although, I would be quite happy if my life had more sushi in it on a regular basis, because I love that stuff.

Peter loved them. 

Jonathan found this link for me later that week: http://diyready.com/3-sushi-recipes-how-to-make-sushi/ so I'm going to leave it here so I can find it when we decide to try making this again!

Peter in the Kitchen

While we were in North Carolina, we got a bunch of cute pictures of Peter in the kitchen...thus this post. They aren't really related, but I think he's cute, and I wanted to save these pictures, so here it goes. 

Double cereal is the best cereal.

Peter likes to put things in order...thus 3 turtles in the 3 holes on his plate.

One night, it was a little too quiet, so we went to find Peter, and we found him on the kitchen table...eating rice from dinner. He was quite content up there.

Table sitting

Hey guys, just eating my rice.

One day he got pizza for breakfast.

Another day, as dinner was being made, he was playing quietly by the stools. I walked over to check on him and found him crawling under and then up into the middle of the stool. He stool up and then picked his monkey feet up and perched on the stool. He was quite pleased with his little place that only a few people could fit into.

Peter and his hiding place

Monkey climbing

Sure proof that Peter was here...nicely lined up.

We had salad one night and learned that Peter is a big fan of cucumbers. He loves eating them and he loves putting them all over his head and fingers. 

Cucumber fingers

Cucumber eyes

Cucumber hat

Also, you may notice that his fingernails are blue in that last picture. My parents watched all the littles one night so that the married ones could have a game night. Andrew, Natalie, Justin, Alissa, Jonathan and I got together that night and played Risk and ate lots of snacks. We didn't have to worry about being quiet so little ones wouldn't wake up, we didn't worry about little hands grabbing game pieces, or crazy little kids getting hurt. We just had fun together. Back at home, my parents made cupcakes and watched a movie and painted nails. Peter has 3 cousins, all girls. So, my mom asked if I would care if he got his nails painted if he wanted to. I don't care at all. I'd rather him have colorful nails for a few days than not get to do what the other kids get to do. So, he had lovely blue sparkly nails after that night. My mom said he sat incredibly still the whole time. So, that alone might be worth having blue fingernails. 

Japanese Food with the Family

One thing that my parents wanted to do was to go out with the adult children who were in the area this Christmas break. They arranged for my younger brothers to watch the little ones- Peter and 3 of his cousins- while we went out. We decided to try a Japanese place up in the Charlotte area. I was excited because even though we went to Japan, we never ate at anything like this. We mostly just ate at take-out or noodle shops. So, this was pretty fancy for me and Jonathan. 

The restaurant was one of those Japanese places where they cook the food for you right in front of you. Our cook was good at what he did, but kinda just kept to himself. He wasn't really showy, which was probably good for us, because we were visiting the whole time. He made an onion volcano, tossed a shrimp in his hat and did some excellent cooking. It's nice to go out with the parents and some siblings sans children because we actually got to talk with each other instead of just chasing the smalls. 

Our cook with Dad and Mom in the background

We got some sushi while we waited for our main dishes. The sushi was good- I've had better but I've also had worse. Then, we had a little soup. It was fine. Then our cook came and set to work. He fried up some veggies and noodles and served them up first. I loved the noodles. Jonathan and I both agreed that we miss eating Asian noodles. It was a simple but delicious dish. We also all got a couple of shrimp each. They were super good, flavored with a little bit of lemon and possibly a couple other things, but they were excellent.

From left to right: Alissa, Justin, Andrew and Natalie

Then, the cook started on the meats. We had salmon, chicken, shrimp and steak all being cooked at the same time. He did an awesome job. I had steak cut up, and it was delicious, some of the best I've had. Jonathan had steak and chicken. He didn't love the sauce used on the chicken, but he agreed the steak was amazing.

Empty rice bowl is a good sign

We were stuffed by the end, fat and happy. It was great food and nice to have a little break from Peter. It was a fun atmosphere and good to be with family. On the way home, we stopped and had ice-cream. We had a great night. I'd love to go to a place like that again sometime. Maybe when Peter is older, we can take him. I think he'd love it too.

Scary Cougar

Flashback to August 2014

Before the Fall Semester started the Nelson's were in town to visit/help Beccah settle in/see the grand-baby. While they were out, we (Jonathan's parents, 2 sisters, sister's boyfriend, sister's roommate, and our family) went to dinner at Brick Oven, a local pizza place. We ordered pizza and salad and started visiting. I like Brick Oven. I've been a number of times and I've always liked whatever I ate, so I was happy to be back after our time abroad. This time was a little bit sadder...especially for one small little boy. 

Our first sad story for Peter began when one of his aunts...cough Christina cough...decided to share some pizza with him. Now, that is a nice thing to do. Sharing is great, and we encourage it. But this particular pizza piece had red pepper flakes on the top. Peter ate a bite, and then his eyes teared up and his body started to shake and he started screaming his death scream. Poor little guy. He looked at me with the saddest face I've ever seen and I picked him up and tried to get him to eat some crackers, but he just cried and cried, real tears. He didn't eat much more pizza that night, but I did get him to eat some salad bar toppings- tomato, cucumber, olives and crackers. 

Now, if that wasn't bad enough, that wasn't the end of it for the little man that night. Brick Oven is located right next to the university. The mascot happens to be a cougar, named Cosmo. Sometimes Cosmo makes appearances at Brick Oven, as he did this night. We thought, what a great photo op! We can get a family photo with Cosmo. We asked and Cosmo went to the end of the table, right by Peter. Cosmo tried to get a high five, but Peter was shy. We all looked towards the waitress taking our photo and Cosmo reached out to boop Peter's nose. (Boop is when you reach out and gently touch a small baby/toddler's nose.) He did that, Peter let out a blood-curdling scream, and the photographer snapped the picture. Perfect timing. The photo captures half of us not yet realizing what is happening, and half reacting to Peter's scream. 

Left: Madeline, Beccah, Peter, Christina and Cosmo (ashamed)
Right: OdaLisa, Jim, Jonathan and Robin
Screaming Child at the end of the table: Peter

Peter cried and cried for the second time that night. It took him a while to calm back down and relax. He was scarred for the remainder of the night. Any sight of Cosmo would make him cling to anyone he was near and he had a couple of too close calls that got him crying again. Jonathan, Peter and I left before anyone else did because Peter started getting sad at any sight or mention of Cosmo.

So, lesson learned, Don't take Peter around mascots and don't feed him spicy food- even if you don't think it's too spicy. Hopefully next time at Brick Oven can be a happy time for little Peter and he can just love the food and not worry about aunts trying to poison him or giant wild cats trying to tear his face off.

Dark Alleys, But Totally Safe Ones

When we were walking back to the metro the night we walked around Tokyo and saw the cool skyscrapers with their bright signs and all the people, we found a really interesting area and I want to take a second to write about. Beccah saw a little area selling some things down a side street and since we didn't have to rush home, we turned and went down the street to check out the shirts and other touristy things the man was selling. We weren't super impressed, so we went on our way. But, instead of just going back out to the main street, we continued down the small side street and it took us to a narrow alley way. But, the cleanest alley way you have ever seen. It felt a touch claustrophobic, but not scary. It felt safe and clean. 

Neat little alley way

All along the alley, there were openings, about the size of a storage unit, that were actually really small restaurants. They had the "kitchen" on one wall, a skinny bar down the middle and the customers sat on stools on the other side. It was very open. It could fit about 8-12 people. Some of them had a bench at the end for more people to sit at.

A peek into one small kitchen

I imagine that they are family run establishments and most likely have regular customers that they come to know better as the weeks and months pass. Jonathan said he had read about these places and that their food is really good. But we had a tired baby, and places like this are a bit intimidating when there is an uncertainty about any menu being in English as well as Japanese. So, we passed this trip.

A packed place

Slow business night

It was a neat little alley, and it was neat to imagine what your life would be like if that was your source of income. I'm glad we took that side road and did a little more exploring before we went home for the night.

Food We Ate

It's time to write a quick post on some of the foods we ate while traveling. This is by no means comprehensive, because then it would be pages long, and I probably don't have pictures of the most delicious things we ate, because sometimes when you are eating a delicious thing you don't stop to take a picture of it. But, here is an idea of what we ate for about a month...we ate similarly in China. 

One night in Japan, I think it was our first night in Tokyo, we wandered the streets looking at the menus and pictures of food until we found a place that looked good. We got some noodles, rice and dumplings...the usual. They even brought Peter an adorable rabbit bowl and utensils. Peter could have cared less about his cute kid things, but he devoured his noodles.

Jonathan's noodles and Peter's bowl.

Noodles with cabbage and carrots- pretty delicious. 

Tragically Beccah ended up ordering cold noodles with meat and cold vegetables. The were straight from the fridge and rather salty. She reordered and got some dumplings on round 2. There were many times we wished we spoke/read Japanese in Japan, this was one of those times.

Robin and Beccah with all our empty dishes...kidding, some of those were Jonathan's.

Peter sucking the noodles down.

A different day, a different city. I think this was a meal we had in Puli, Taiwan. We had gone to church and the guesthouse owner picked us up from church. We asked her to recommend a place to eat and she took us to a good restaurant. She left after dropping us off. Upon entering the restaurant, we learned that there was an hour long wait. People would have died if we waited that hour. So, instead, we left and wandered some streets until we found a place that looked acceptable. It was delicious. And, added bonus, Peter fell asleep in my arms within 5 minutes of getting food. It made it a little awkward to eat, but way easier than a lively running toddler. After eating, we got a taxi home, because my arms would have broken trying to carry sleeping baby home. Also, we weren't sure where we were at that point, so taxi was a better plan than walking. 

Jonathan's egg burrito of sorts. 

Can you tell he's about to crash?

Robin's rice, chicken and veggie bowl.

Beccah's noodles

Train food! This was on a Taiwan train ride, I believe. At this point in our traveling, we were done with 7-11 sandwiches and fruit for the trains, and we found some little boxed lunches. I forget their name (and Jonathan's sleeping, or I'd ask him), but Jonathan said he had eaten them a number of times and they aren't the most delicious meal ever, but they aren't bad. He was right. It was a little box with rice, overdone broccoli, meat strips and tea boiled eggs (hard boiled eggs, but instead of just water, they are cooked in tea, which gives them a slight flavor). Overall, it was a pretty good meal. Peter loved the rice, like always, and would eat as much egg as you gave him. It wasn't delicious, but it was a nice change.

Train food

While we were in Japan, I knew we had to get sushi at least once. We had it on the day we got lost coming back from Minji Shrine, and it was heavenly. The flavors were perfect, and each bite was a beautiful balance of everything good. So one of the nights we were in Tokyo, we asked for a good sushi place and were led to a place that looked pretty good. We had squirmy baby with us, and a menu that only had the names of the sushi, but not what was in them. So, we took a chance and started off with two rolls, not entirely sure what would be in them. When the sushi arrived, we both ate one piece and nearly died. Turns out, they had so kindly put wasabi IN the sushi rolls. So each bite cleared your sinuses out really well, and I almost had tears leaking out my eyes. It literally took our breath away. We gave Peter a piece before we knew what was up, and either his had no wasabi in it, or he has the strongest tolerance for that flavor of anyone I know. He gobbled it up and wanted more, but we were hesitant, we didn't want him to die on the second piece. You can't explain to a small child, "Just breathe slowly, the burning will go away soon." We ordered sushi that was raw fish on top of rice to go, because when you are in Japan, you have to try it even if it seems scary, but this time were sure to tell them, no wasabi. We also stopped by the 7-11 on the way home for some yogurt and sandwiches in case the sushi part two was a bust. I cannot honestly say I was impressed with this. None of the fish had any real flavor to it, and I wasn't totally keen on the texture. But, we tried it, and no one died, so, I guess it's a win. I still like sushi, and I'll still eat it again, just not at that restaurant.

Our take home fish. Jonathan and I each had a bite of each one.

Last food story. We stayed at the LDS temple housing our last night or two in Tokyo. When we went in to get settled, we found two amazing things. Number One, and not pictured, was a food vending machine, but not just candy, chips and granola bars. It vended meals- hot dogs, fried rice, french fries and chicken strips. Beccah and Jonathan were like kids in a candy shop. I don't think I'd seen them more excited about any other food we'd come across during our entire trip. The meals came out in a small box, similar to our train food boxes, and you had to microwave them to heat them. Jonathan was a touch disappointed with this. I think he wanted it ready to go when it came out. The food was mediocre, but I think the novelty of the machine made up for its taste. The second thing was a root beer vending machine. Root Beer is hard to find in Asia. It could be found at international markets, for a price, but never at regular grocery stores. It was a pretty exciting find. So, Jonathan's first meal at the temple housing was a hot dog and root beer. To say we were ready to be back in America at this point would be an understatement. We loved the food we ate (most of the time), while we traveled, but I wanted nothing more than a home cooked meal that I knew what to expect when I bit into it.

Robin and Asian A&W.

Getting Lost and Other Stories

The Menji Shrine, it was nice, but not memorable. But, trying to get home from the shrine on the other hand....that adventure will stay with me forever. I believe I have mentioned a time or two already that we found the public transportation systems of Japan to be difficult to manage. Turns out that our experiences in Kyoto were nothing compared to the metros and trains of Tokyo. 

In Tokyo, there are 12 subway lines, the JR (Japan Rail) lines and private railway lines. They don't all use the same rails, so you have to switch lines always to get from one place to another. Also, sometimes the lines connect on the map, so you buy metro tickets and when you try to switch lines, the machine refuses to take your ticket and you have to buy a new ticket for the rail line you are switching to. We maybe had one trip our three days there that we didn't have to rebuy a ticket mid-trip. It was slightly obnoxious and I feel like there has to be an easier way than what we did. If we go back, we will buy a rail pass for the city so we eliminate the ticket machines and constantly having to rebuy tickets. But seriously, look at the picture below and tell me if that isn't intimidating. 

Rail map of Tokyo, Japan...crazy.

Anyway, on this particular day, we'd already experienced the switching of lines, machines refusing our tickets and paying more money for another ticket to get to the shrine. When we looked at the map for how to get home, we saw that when we switched lines, we only were on the second train for one stop. So, we decided that instead of switching lines, we would just get out at that station and walk the rest of the way home. It seemed quite simple and straightforward. Leave the station, go straight until the river, turn right, continue until the road comes to a T intersection, then a left, and then we'd be home.  Easy.

We took the JR 6 stops and got off. Then, instead of switching lines, we got out at that station and started our walk home. We started straight and then turned right...only to notice we were walking parallel to the JR line, and we needed to be going perpendicular to it. So, we turned around, tried bringing Google Maps up on one of the smartphones with us, to no avail, and got back to the intersection and decided to continue going straight for a bit. We turned up various streets, and backtracked. Nothing felt right, nothing looked right, and people were getting hungry and cranky. We finally happened upon a metro station and decided to get on...only to realize that it would take a switch in lines. We walked for a bit more and saw some really cool buildings and tons of pink lanterns...and then we realized. We were back at the station we left from. We had literally gone around in a circle, making no progress what so ever. Ridiculous. Luckily, this metro station was connected to a little shopping center, so we bought some sushi- it was fantastic- to keep people happy and murder free. We were all able to laugh at our lack of directional skills, and we got on the train, went that last stop and made it home. It took us about three times as long to get home, but we did see some cool buildings and ate some fantastic sushi. 

Metro stop we left and came back to.

When we were in Tokyo, we found this one little plant shop/cafe. It was an amazingly designed building. The shop was built behind a big tree and they used the tree as part of their building as a tree house on top. It was really neat. I wanted to buy a plant from the shop, but as a traveling life, that just doesn't work, so instead I photographed this little guy...mostly because I loved how they phrased the warning sign.

Best plant caption ever.

Another really cool thing we found in Tokyo was a restaurant named after my husband! We saw two different Jonathan's while traveling the city, and we ate at one of them. Who would have guessed we'd find a restaurant with his name in Japan of all places!

Maybe Jonathan can get a job here...

The sign says, "Welcome to Jonathan."

Date Night in Kyoto

After 3 weeks of travel with siblings and Peter, it was time for a date night. And like most date nights since we've been married, that typically includes doing some sort of errand that needs to get done. On this date night, that errand was grocery shopping. Everything in Japan is more expensive, especially our housing and train tickets. So, to try to lessen the blow, we decided we would try to cook a couple of meals a day instead of eating out for every meal. 

Jonathan asked the people who ran the guesthouse where the nearest grocery store was, we left Peter in the hands of Beccah and headed out to buy some groceries and find a place to eat. We were given fairly simple directions to the store and found it without a problem. It was a nice night, the air wasn't too hot and it was a lovely walk. On the way to the store, we passed a few places to eat and looked the the menus. We found one place that seemed good, but I wasn't super excited to eat there. I was tired of noodles and rice, and wanted something different. But, maybe tonight wasn't the night. 

We got to the grocery store and got some bread, jam, curry, rice, bananas. and yogurt. We knew Peter would eat all of these things and they weren't too expensive. That's how we shopped when traveling. First question, will Peter eat this? Yes...ok, Does it cost way more than it should? No...ok, let's buy it. Along the way we also saw a few things we weren't used to running across in a grocery store...

Octopus in the grocery store

Fishy staring at you.

We brought our groceries and started walking back to the one restaurant that looked the most promising, when we passed a sign for a Middle Eastern restaurant named Arash's Kitchen. We looked at the menu and it looked great, and it was pretty cheap, so even better. But then I saw the time, closed at 4pm. It was around 7pm by now. I was bummed. It had looked so promising. Jonathan on the other hand was not saddened by the sign. He said, "Pretty sure they are still open, look!" The restaurant was on the second story and I looked up, the lights were on, but it looked empty. Jonathan offered to run up to see if they were still open, and to my delight they were! The owner was a delightful man who seemed happy to have customers. He asked if we wanted to eat inside or outside...since it was such a beautiful night and the streets weren't too loud, we opted for outside. We had a look at the menu and I was super glad we chose this place, but also a little out of my comfort zone. I wasn't sure what would be good or what I would like. There were lots of curry options as well as some chicken dishes, pita sandwiches, and a couple of vegetarian options. We finally settled on a curry and a pita sandwich. Also, the owner said if we got naan bread instead of rice we could have unlimited naan. So, we went with naan bread with our curry.

The food didn't take too long to get to us. When it got there, it was really simple and I wondered if we chose wisely. The curry was in a small metal bowl and the naan in a basket beside it. We tore off some bread, dipped it in the curry and took a bite. It was the best thing I'd eaten in who knows how long, and coming from our two weeks in Taiwan where everyone was feeding us delicious things left and right, that's saying something. We'd had lots of curry over the past couple of months, but we'd had mostly Japanese curry, and this curry was totally different. Both are amazing, but just different flavors. I loved that it was such a simple meal, but could taste so amazing. I'm not big on bread, but I could have eaten this for the rest of the week. 

Jonathan eating some curry and naan.

The pita sandwich came out a little bit later, and it was just as wonderful. It was filled with chicken, and lettuce had a very light flavor. There was a white sauce on the table that we put on the sandwich and that made it the best thing ever. It added so much flavor without being overwhelming. It was such a delicious meal and a wonderful way to end a fantastic day. If I ever go back to Kyoto, I'll check to see if Arash's Kitchen is still open, and if it is, I'll be sure to pay them a visit!

The aftermath

Bananas and Missionaries

After our fancy lunch with HP, we went with him to a mountain town know for its bananas. It was a small town, and staying with the norm in Gaoxiong, super hot. We walked down the main street and looked in some shops. Then, we saw two white guys ride past us on bikes with white shirts and black pants. We yelled, "Hey Elders!" and sure enough, they turned around and we were right. They were two missionaries from our church. We chatted with them for a bit and then they were off to meet with someone. We stopped and got some cold drinks to keep hydrated and attempt to cool down some. We saw another set of missionaries from afar later in that town. 

We continued to walk and we found a small banana museum. They had different displays set up about bananas and the town. We learned about the different types of bananas and found an interactive display. They had 2 baskets that were weighed down to be like the baskets of bananas workers would carry on the plantations. You could try to lift them.  Jonathan went first. 

Bend with your knees, not your back!

He could be a banana farmer.

HP took a turn, and had success!

Then it was Beccah's turn. We corrected her stance...

Success! 

Banana farmers would love these guys. I can see it now, we'll move to Taiwan and become the best banana farmers ever. Peter would love to live on a banana farm. He already eats a banana a day, so he'd fit in great!

The next room had a school set up to be like an old school. When we walked in, HP said that it looked exactly like his old school, the desks were the same, the layout was the same, and even the picture above the chalkboard. 

Teaching in Taiwan with my super attentive pupils.

After the little museum, we walked back toward the town center and got a banana ice dessert. It was nice and refreshing. HP bought us a banana cake to eat later. Then we headed home, dropped Peter and I at the house so little man could take a nap while the others grabbed some dinner from a little shop we'd eaten at the night before. We had some great rice and noodles and called it a night!

HP Liu and Jonathan Nelson outside our guesthouse.

It was a busy hot day, but we had a good time, ate some great food and saw some neat places. Taiwan is fantastic!