Sky Tree

The Sky Tree is AMAZING and HUGE. For those you who don't know, the Sky Tree replaces the old Tokyo Tower. The complex opened in late May, but it wasn't completely opened to the public. You had to get into a special lottery to win tickets before they opened it up completely. The women's group I belong to was in the lottery and won tickets, so I signed up to! It officially opens to the public for day tickets on July 11.

 Facts:
- tallest tower in the world
- 2nd tallest structure in the world
- outside its 634meters tall
- inside, highest point is 451.2meters
- from highest point, Tokyo looks like legos!

 Here are some pictures

Me at 451.2meters, just in case you couldn't see from the pillar

What the city would look like at night from this point

looking down from 345meters up....
hoping to get back to Skytree so that Mike can see if before we leave!

LONG OVERDUE Update

I've been a bad blogger and fully admit it, but life has been crazy these last 3 months that there was no time to blog.

Here is what has been going on:
March 9-17 Thailand
March 30 - April 6 Mom visits Japan
April 13 - 22 Cousin Rigo & Amanda visit in between I have meetings, sayonara parties
April 28- May 6 Bali
Meetings, luncheon, saynoara dinners
May 17-24 Sister, b-in-l, kids, Dad arrives  computer dies....not sure about recovery :(
May 29 Baby shower
May 30 hosting a breakfast
June 2 Balcony party/sayonara party at our house

 As you can see, its been a busy time and with the few days I did have off, I was trying to finish a quilting project for my friend by the time the baby shower date arrived. I did manage to finish, the night before! Now, Mike and I are free for the summer with no plans in the near future. I'm looking fowrad to things settling down for me, not sure that is going to happen for Mike. I'll post a little about some of these events, but will continue from here. We, yes we, promise to better bloggers especially since we have only 6 months left in Japan. happy summer days

Pictures from Amanda

Click here to view these pictures larger

Sapporo Snow Festival

Last weekend, Mike and I headed up to Sapporo for the annual snow festival or as they say it "yuki matsuri" (literal translation). The Riess family hopped on over from Korea to join Us and what a fun time we had. It was super cold on some days, but then tolerable on other days.

We went the weekend before it started so that we could see some of the sculptures being built. Turns out all the massive ones were already built, but we still got to see them making smaller ones. Here's some cool pictures of the process.

There were clearly 100+ sculptures made of either ice or snow in all three of the areas. The main festival site was 12 blocks of sculptures, food stalls, slides, and of course attractions! During the weekend, we all checked out the main festival park, found bars to warm up in, and headed over to the Sapporo Beer Museum. Here is our group shot

The festival officially opened on Monday, so we headed back out see everything. It was really cool. Here are some of our favorites:

In the evening we headed back to see the different light displays and different they looked at night. On Tuesday, we headed over to the Tsudome area, which is where all the cool snow activities were. Here we are on the tube slide
Amanda

Mike

As you can see, it was extremely cold with all the snow, so we headed inside for lunch and some warmth... What says warm better than ramen, beer, and churros

We headed back to Tokyo on Tuesday evening and were ready to get back to warmer weather. We had such an amazing time and were so happy the Riess family came to join us. As for more pictures, well, we do have plenty more and if you have some time, check out the next post for the link. Skim through to see the sculptures because they are amazing!!!
Another check off on the Japan list before we leave.

Coffee Cup Warmers

perfect for my Starbucks addiction, which only started after I moved to Tokyo. If you ever need to find the ex-pats in the morning, just pass by any Starbucks and you'll see them all.

I found this great online pattern and decided I needed to try it as I have a big project coming up and need to make those sewing lines straight. It was super easy, some fabric, batting, and ironing board cover to help with insulation. here is the first warmer I made and I love that its reversible...The owner of it is now my good friend Jennifer

Works even better for those tall or grande cups. This pattern is on back of the one above. And the daisy fabric from below is on this one, which I am using almost everyday. It really is funny to see the Japanese barista's reaction when I use it!

Made this one for my friend Allison, who loves Starbucks just as much as I do! Good thing I'm seeing her this weekend to hand it over

And because you all know I don't like pink all that much, but do love this color combo, I had to make another one in different colors! Purpler/white dots

So everyone who's seen me with it, absolutely love it and think its a great idea. They even commented that they would pay me for them...Hmmmm, I could make some money.
Anywho, love them and will be making more so I could switch out whenever I want!

Breakfast Pita

The title says it all and no real explanation is needed

Eggs
various add ins
pita pocket

Cook, fill, and eat

We used 1 slice of cooked bacon, red & green peppers, and onions. Tasty, quick and delicious. Obviously, the side should have been some fruit, but we had quite a few oranges last night and I wanted some potatoes!
I recommend trying this...

Gingered Pork with Couscous & Oranges

Look at us being good with those resolutions. Didn't I tell you we were going to keep to the eating healthy and working out unlike others!
Absolutely love the cookbook I got, so we decided to try another recipe.

It was simple, easy, and quick. Gingered Pork with Couscous and oranges. The recipe actually calls for the pork to be on skewers, but we didn't have any and to find them is a hassle. It also calls for grilling them on an actual grill as opposed to the gridle. But hey, we all know that when cooking, substitutions can be made.

Here's the pork and oranges getting those grill marks. And yes, they are on the same gridle, but I kept them completely separate and used different utensils for each

Here's the marinade you put on it right before everything is done. Fresh grated ginger, orange juice, honey. Very tasty

And of course, the final product. I think it would have looked nicer with the skewers, but whatever. And for those of you who are saying, wine isn't healthy...I say who cares, we weren't going to give up everything, because that just isn't us.

Everything was actually tasty and the couscous had some fresh grated orange peel in it, which had an extra flavor. The oranges were a nice compliment to the mains and just what you wanted. Will definitely be making this again!