where has the time gone?

we had our straight perms on wednesday.. mine is awesome and bryana's was too, until she washed her hair.. it is mostly straight, but there is a a definite wave in the back, so she will go back this week to get it "straightened" out (i kill myself, i am so funny)

leo, poor baby, came down with bronchitis on thursday so he and ray both stayed home on thursday and friday...we were supposed to go to niigata, to chiekos parents house on friday, but we postponed till saturday, hoping his fever would break and he would feel better.... didn't happen so he and chieko stayed here while casey, ray, bryana and i headed out mid morning..

the weather was much drier and cooler on saturday and the drive was long, but pretty... we arrived mid afternoon, dropped our stuff and ray the house (which i love.. very traditional japanese) and went out for ramen for lunch..

back to the house and into chiekos dads car for a visit to the family temple.. i misunderstood and thought it was their very own, but it is where the family goes for any prayer or funeral etc.. it was closed unfortunately and we couldn't go inside...when we got back to the house, ray was sitting outside with "baba" (chieko's mom) by the koi pond... their house  and yard are awesome and i will post pictures eventually..

sunday we took a long drive to the top of one of the mountains, through long cold tunnels ( i shouldn't complain because of all the complaints about the heat)  and at the top of this mountain is a dam and a resevoir where we took a very peaceful boat ride..  afterwards we had lunch (tempura of mountain mushrooms for me) and then back to the iguchis... they treated us to dinner at a local restaurant... it seems we are always eating and everything is yummy..

chieko's sister, yoshiko and her kids... ayumi, susune and tomonori (ray calls him tomorori :-) ) arrived during the night.. there was a festival starting on monday night and orginally  we were going to visit during the week, but casey and chiekos work schedules conflicted so we had to leave before any of the festivities started...before we left though, the kids did some origami and we took a drive to shrine where chiekos dad had painted all the banners for the festival..again, i will post pictures...

we had lunch and before we left, they brought out a couple of watermelons and the kids all took turns being blindfolded and spun around then set in the general direction to smack it and try to break it open.. kinda like a pinata, only it was sitting on the ground... when it finally broke, after many smacks, we enjoyed some of the fruit and the koi got the rest... "tomorori" put on his bathing suit and took a swim in the koi pond, which made ray cry because he wanted to swim too, but we were all packed up and ready to go.. it was just pitiful.. no tantrum, just a sad sad boy..