Hosting Our 1st Party!

Now that we've been settled in for almost a month, we decided to host a sortof housewarming. We decided that we'd provide all the food, and just let everyone come and enjoy. It was a heck of a lot of work - the appetizers consisted of shrimp cocktail, spinach dip, and a vegetable tray. The main course was the traditional filipino affair - Pancit & Lumpia, along with good 'ol American Grilled food; BBQ chicken, Bubbas, and all beef franks - consider that a practice run for July 4th! The dessert menu consisted of pecan tarts, Rice Krispy treats (by special request) and of course, Cicely's famous Chocolate-Strawberry passion bowl.


Here is Cicely cooking up the Pancit that morning - her mother will be so proud! Notice how she's got 2 pans going...now she understands why her mom has those huge, 'take up the entire stove'-sized woks!



Mike assuming his husbandly duties of running the grill - he started way before the party just to get his first [of many] beer in his hand!


Although it's hard to believe, Cicely made all this from scratch - nothing store prepared here!















Here's Cicely with all the girls who attended our quaint get-together. Most were Japanese workers from Mike's work, some were wives. Everyone had a great time - but where were all the guys? One of the girls found out while the rest were looking at our wedding album...















The Man Room! THe XBOX 360 w/ HD LCD TV was definitely a hit - for everyone!

A word from Cicely about the Man Room.... So the XBOX was SUPPOSED to be Mike's birthday present, but when he saw that the Exchange had a shipment in last week, I let him go ahead and buy it because popular things like that go pretty fast around here and it's hit or miss as to when new shipments come in. He wasn't supposed to open it until later, but he convinced me that opening it for the party would be entertaining for the guests. But every time I walked into the Man Room to check on things, it was Mike, not the guests, who was playing. I think I may have been tricked.... hmmmm....maybe this whole "Let's have a housewarming party" was just a ploy for him to open up his new toy....

Our Last Day in Hiroshima...Shukkeien Garden

On our final day in Hiroshima, we checked out of our Hotel and it's beautiful view. We still had a few hours until the Shinkansen (bullet train) left for home, so we decided to walk around the city and see what else was left. We discovered the Hiroshima prefectorial art museum, but we've never been known to pay money to see that kind of stuff; behind the museum, lay a much more inspiring attraction, however. The Shukkeien Garden. The gardens were originally constructed in 1620, for the Feudal Lord of Hiroshima - the entire prefecture, not just the city. (prefecture = state). Of course the garden was destroyed in 1945, but re-opened in 1951. The reconstruction and re-growth was not complete until 1974. This picture of us was taken by a Japanese lady, who before this shot was taken, wanted to have her picture taken WITH Cicely. We're always excited to take pictures with the local Japanese people, but who knew that they wanted to take pictures with us too?? By the way, we were trying to hurry up and take the pictures before the cranes in the background flew away, but it wasn't until later that we realized we could've spent all day there and they wouldn't have moved....they're FAKE!

While we were walking around the garden, we happened to see two people (male and female) dressed in traditional Japanese Kimono. At first, we thought they were a couple getting married, like the one we saw at Miyajima the day before. But we soon realized that they were actually models on a photo shoot for a Kimono maker. There was even a little girl wearing one - her dad was more than happy to let us take a picture...the little girl--not so much!


Here is Cicely sitting in the Chozen Kyo - not sure what that means, but it looks like a gazebo. We had to take off our shoes to go in. It was a very quiet, picturesque place for her to just sit and read....or in Mike's case, to nap.


This is a view of the Takuei Pond - notice the little islands with Bonsai trees. This is a quintessential Japanese Garden. Norfolk Botanical Gardens? I think not.