Leaping into another nice article

Happy Leap Day everyone! This day happens every 4 years and gives us an extra day of the fabulous month of February. This winter has been especially good so it is feeling like we received a leap month of snow. When we built Square One, we allocated 1 meter of concrete foundation as a stem wall to protect our earth plastered walls from snow stacking up against them. As of today, February 29th, we are getting dangerously close to that 1 meter mark and may have to start shoveling snow away from the walls. In the first two winters after building Square One, we never came close to the 1 meter mark. Remember, we are only at 250 meters of elevation and are in somewhat of a precipitation shadow near the airport (i.e. our little area here usually gets less snow than other neighboring towns and, of course, the mountains that get A TON more snow that here). Anyway, Happy Leap Day and we hope you are having a fabulous winter. In March, it will surely start to get warmer and the snow will slow down. Maiko will appreciate this and Toby is actually looking forward to doing more spring skiing where he doesn't have to worry as much about avalanche danger. Right now, the snow is fairly unstable in the mountains and he must take a lot of precautions when skiing.


(above picture was taken a few weeks ago from our bedroom window at sunrise)

The main reason of today's post is to share with you another nice article that was published online about Square One. It is apparently only in English, but I have requested it get published in Japanese so I can share it with my many Japanese friends who helped with the project. Without further ado, here is the link to that article. Enjoy.

Do you like green eggs and ham?

Last week, Toby shared his favorite childhood book with many students at his school. When Toby was a child, he often asked his mother to read this book to him before he would go to bed. And when there came times when he was not sure if he'd like a certain food or vegetable that appeared on his dinner plate, his mother would often say these lines from the book:

"You do not like them.
SO you say.
Try them! Try them!
And you may."

This book and the message gained from this book helped Toby adjust to food in Japan much quicker than he probably would have otherwise. It is also a reason why he continues to "TRY" natto (fermented soybeans). He has found a few different ways to like it, such as tempura natto or dry natto, but it's still a very difficult taste and texture for him. While he understands the health benefits, he still hasn't acquired a taste for the stuff. It happens and Maiko has a few things she doesn't appeal to, as well. For example, oatmeal and root beer (a type of soda in America). Everyone has their likes and dislikes. The point of this post, book and message is that you MUST at least try something before you determine if you like or dislike it.
Above is a few pictures (although blurry) of Toby's book reading (click to enlarge). He tried to be animated in his reading like his mother used to be. The children laughed, enjoyed and seemed to get the message. We hope so.

January was GOOD!!

It's now the last day of January, 2012. Where did all the days go? Oh yeah, Toby probably spent 20 of the 31 days in the mountains. He could share MANY pictures, but chose these 5....for now.
The above was taken on the way from Ukishima to the top of Teshio-dake on January 21st. The skier in the picture is Toby's friend, Tim, and the two of them climbed to the top of Asahidake a few weeks earlier on another beautiful day.

Below is another picture of Tim nearing the summit of Mt. Teshio. It took us 5 hours to climb as we took a longer, scenic route to the top. We reached the top just before sunrise so we had some spectacular views all day long.



While Toby did visit many other mountains and ski areas in January, most of his time was spent on the local beauty known as Asahidake. See pictures below from this last Saturday....



The above was taken during a run. Toby goes to Asahidake, and other mountains, these days for 3 reasons. One is for the amazing skiing. Another is for the exercise he gets from climbing and all the effort it takes to get back to the tram after a run down the powder snow. The last reason is for the amazing beauty of being in the outdoors. Asahidake rarely disappoints on ALL THREE of the above. The above picture is an example of the latter. The below is an example of the good skiing.



We hope you all had a GREAT January, as well. Toby, pictured below looking out over the valley from near the top of Asahidake, is looking forward to another mountain filled February. It's his season and; therefore, there isn't much free time for much of anything else. That's okay, though, for similar to gasoline for the car, the mountains are what fuel Toby. Bring on February!! Full speed ahead!!

A HAPPY (and busy) NEW YEAR!!!

Hello Everyone!! Wow....it has been a long time since we posted something here! Needless to say, we've been busy. In December, school/work was hectic and there were many bonenkai's ("forget -the-year parties"). Toby had joined many clubs this last year so he had more bonenkai's than normal. The winter started with a lot of snow in December, too, so Toby was skiing during any free time he had. And then Maiko and Toby (pictured above) went to Niseko for New Year's. The above was taken at the Annupuri Ski Resort around 11:45pm, 15 minutes before the countdown, where Toby and Maiko participated in a torch parade on skis down the mountain. This was our 3rd time to do this and we had a blast doing it again this year!

After a countdown to 2012 and a few drinks to celebrate, we got a few hours sleep before waking up early to be on the "First Run" at the Annupuri Ski Resort gondola. On our 2nd run of the morning (which started at 7am), we watched the first sunrise of 2012 from the gondola (see below picture). The mountain is Yotei-zan or "EzoFuji" (The Mt. Fuji of "Ezo" or Hokkaido as the local Ainu call this island).


After returning to Square One on January 2nd, we celebrated Maiko's birthday (see above picture) and then we had a few guests up from Tokyo to entertain. On a non-ski day, we all went to Otokoyama Sake Brewery (see picture below), as well as many other local sights.

The day before our friends from Tokyo left, our old friend, Ben Logsdon, arrived for a visit from Boston. We were able to hang out with Ben for about 10 days and Toby & Ben spent many of those days up on Asahidake (see picture below).

It was a great winter vacation and we enjoyed the visits from both Tokyo and USA. After short weekend to ourselves in mid-January, school started again and we have been a different type of busy as we find the rhythm again of our daily schedules. One thing we need to get back on a regular schedule with is blog posting and we'll do our best to get the next one to you really soon!

We hope this finds you well and your 2012 starting out on a wonderful note.

Th End of an EPIC Road Trip

On August 8th, we had basically two goals and that was to go to Powell's Bookstore in Portland, a favorite destination for Maiko and Toby's, as well as get back to Seattle in time to have dinner with Allen. On the way up to Portland from Bill's place in Eugene, we started texting with another old friend of Toby's who was going to be in Portland about the same time we were. Therefore, we were lucky to be able to spend an hour or so at Powell's catching up with Shelby and her beautiful girls, Amanda and Natalie. It was a very fast reunion, but we sure do treasure it. Thank you Shelb's for making the effort to drop over and see us. Below is a picture of Shelby and her girls that Toby stole off her Facebook page.


After loading up on books at Powell's, Toby and Maiko made the last segment of the road trip to Seattle in just a couple hours. It was raining in the morning when we left Eugene, but by the time we hit Washington, the skies had cleared so we were able to finish this amazing road trip into Seattle with the top down. Many thanks go to Toby's late Mom for buying this beautiful car and many more thanks to Toby's Dad for keeping it all this time and then letting us borrow it the last couple weeks!

Another Reunion

After departing Lodi on August 7th, Maiko and Toby drove the long stretch (510 miles / 820 kilometers)on Interstate 5 to Eugene, Oregon. We were on the tail end of our road trip now and this was a day to cover some ground as we try to get back to Seattle in 2 days.

Why did we choose Eugene as our destination? Because Toby and Maiko have some good friends there named Bill, Casey, Kiley and Natalie. Bill and Toby were fraternity brothers and even roommates for one semester when he finished up his school days at Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon.

Bill didn't disappoint as he had a gorgeous dinner ready for us with some more Rogue beer to wash it down with afterwards! It was a wonderful evening spent outside in the backyard with their family and beautiful black lab, Henry Pistachio. Many thanks to The McCurry's for a wonderful last evening of our epic road trip! The next stop was back in Seattle.

Above is a picture of Toby and Bill outside their house as we got ready to drive the last segment from Eugene to Seattle. Below is Kiley and Natalie trying to take the car before we could get out the driveway. What's up with kids always trying to steal our car. ;) (wink)

Stuck in Lodi Agaiiiiiiiiin!

After traveling through the beautiful Yosemite National Park (previous post), we headed to Lodi, California. Lodi is most famous for the song by Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR). We went to Lodi to see Toby's good friend from college, Andy Petersen.


Above is a picture of Toby and Andy together again for the first time in 20 years.
Below is a picture taken that evening when we went out on the town with Andy and his lovely wife, Susan.






They have 4 children. Two, Jack & Annie, are of the furry kind and are getting their bellies rubbed above by Maiko. The other two, Luke & Katie, are pictured below as they attempt to take The Mustang for a spin!



We really enjoyed our brief stay in Lodi. After receiving a hearty breakfast in the morning of the 8th, we hit the road for Eugene, Oregon. It was going to be the longest drive (distance anyway) of the trip as we just drove straight up Interstate 5. On our next post, we'll show pictures of more good friends we were able to enjoy a great evening with there. Stay tuned.