Why we're stoked for 2012: Japan Trip

Cerise and her grandma on the bullet train from Tokyo to Yamagata in August 2010

We are going to Japan! Again! We told ourselves in the Summer of 2010 that our trip to Japan and Korea would be our last time doing serious traveling for a long time. It was our planned last hurrah before having kids.

Cerise's Obaachan (grandma) has been taking "Internet Classes" and they've been Skyping ever since class #7 when she learned how to connect to the Internet. Cerise and I would pay money to see what classes 1 through 6 were like.

But now we have more excuses to travel. We saved up and we want Cerise's grandma to be able to meet her great-grandson. Realistically it's not going to happen if we have two kids and we definitely don't want to make this trip while Cerise is pregnant.

Cerise's brother Samuel serving an LDS mission in the Japan Tokyo Mission. This is him teaching English class in Tokyo. He is a bad speller and he says his students correct his spelling on a weekly basis when he writes on the board. He then explains to them, "I went to high school in Georgia."

Also, Cerise's younger brother Samuel finishes his mission at the beginning of June. So we're using most of our vacation days to go to Japan for two weeks to visit grandma and pick up Samuel from his mission. This is going to be aaawesome.

calvin meeting obaachan from The Markhams on Vimeo.

Video above: Little man meeting great grandma for the first time on skype. (The best is how cerise's grandma doesn't realize that her skype is programmed to start up whenever she turns on her computer. It's magical to her that Cerise just has a knack for knowing exactly when she sits down at her computer. She will say things like, "Wow! I just got on my computer and then you appeared! How did you know I was here?")

Video below:  I love this video. I can't promise that it won't induce a seizure, but it definitely pumps you up for travel in Japan. You might need to pause it a few times. Nicely done though, Eric Testroete.

This is Japan! from Eric Testroete on Vimeo.