Sister visit

Wow, I've been gone so long that Blogger went and changed things on me and now it's like I'm blogging for the 1st time!  I cannot believe how much I have neglected this blog, but sometimes living life is more important than blogging about it.  I'm going to try my best to play catch up this week but I have another busy week planned so I may not get too far.  I have taken several thousand photos that I need to make time to go through and as I get through the photos, I'm going to try to write up the blog post that goes with them.  Starting with my sister's visit!

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, my sister surprised me for my birthday by showing up at my door in Japan.  Since I didn't know she was coming, I wasn't able to plan anything in advance so the 2 weeks she was here were pretty crazy {hence the lack of blogging}.  We started with the basics

riding the train

shopping at the 100 Yen store

learning to use chopsticks

and making drink choices

we had a BBQ to celebrate my birthday with our awesome friends and neighbors

 {the husband took a craptastic photo of the ladies, I had to do some crazy editing just so you could see our faces}

Then Steph and I took off to Kyoto for 3 days of sightseeing and sisterly bonding.

It was incredibly hot while we were there so we'd spend the morning site seeing then head back to the hotel around lunch time to let our clothes dry out a bit and have some lunch, then head back out again in the evening.  Despite the heat, we saw some amazing sites while we were there

 {I love reflections...I could have spent the entire day here}

love me some symmetry!

we fed some monkeys {they were wild, we were the ones inside the cage}

and our favorite part of the trip was getting to play dress up as Maiko!

I posted this photo on Facebook and my mom asked who the Japanese girl next to me was lol

After Kyoto, I had to spend a few days local because I had students scheduled {and by that point, I definitely needed the Yen!} so we just hung out around the house, cooking and playing games and being sisters

can you touch your elbows and wrists at the same time while holding your arms out?  We tried to convince my husband he was the weirdo because he can't do this...he didn't agree!

Then we went to SUMO!  It only happens a few times a year and it just happened to be in Tokyo while she was in town so of course we had to go.  None of us had a clue what was going on, but we had a great day anyways!

after SUMO, we headed to Shibuya to experience the huge crossing there

while in Shibuya, we stumbled upon an awesome punk rock bar which was the perfect way to end our night

I also learned a valuable lesson that night...do NOT wear this dress without a belt!

Her last night in town we thought we'd try to do some last minute things but Typhoon Roke had other ideas and we just ended up stranded in Tokyo looking like drowned rats!

Definitely NOT the way we had intended her trip to end, but it was definitely memorable.  I could not have asked for a better way to begin my last year in my 20's!

After she left, I spent 36 hours resting and recovering from her visit before I left for Ofunato round 2, which is where I will hopefully continue the recap tomorrow =}

If you read all the way to this point, thanks for sticking with me.  I'm making it a point this month to spend some time relaxing and thus blogging more!

CHEERS!