A visit from Japan

Aren't they such an adorable family?

Last month we had these lovely friends--Yuki, Rena, and Toshi--visiting from Japan for a few days. And oh my heavens, we had a blast! How bout a complete picture overload to document our time together? Sounds great.

On the first day, we started bright and early in Salt Lake City for breakfast at the Lion House, which was AMAZING. I could probably drink that cinnamon syrup. We ate outside and were the only people out there, so we chatted a while and took pictures and such, just because we could. 

Toshi is always game for funny pictures, which, coincidentally, is one of my favorite traits in a human!

We wandered around Temple Square for a while, and then we checked out the loverly brand new City Creek mall, where we splashed in public water features and shared caramel apples. We had so much fun that all I got were a few scenery phone pics:

Before going home, we stopped to visit my grandparents' in the SLC cemetery. They are really our original connection to Yuki, since she stayed with them as a foreign exchange student in high school. She calls them Mom and Dad, which I absolutely love, and it was a tender moment for us all to visit their graves.

We also made one other SLC stop before heading home, and it was specifically for Rena, who absolutely loves High School Musical. Yes, that's right folks, we visited East High. It was a little dead without Troy and Sharpay (not to mention that it was summer time), but we [read: they] took some great outdoor shots. Go wildcats!

Later that day, Mariah and Rena had a little nail party, and we all went for a jaunt around the neighborhood. Proof:

Then it was the next day. This day was mostly filled with thrift stores and hiking. Yuki and Toshi teach English classes in Japan, so they wanted to buy easy reader books in English to use for practice. We visited two D.I.'s and found lots of great, cheap children's books. I'd call it a success story. The hiking came in later, after the hot summer day started to cool off. We decided to hike the Y, which is a short but steep hike that basically goes like this: 

It makes me ashamed to say this, but despite living here for my entire life, that was my first time hiking the Y. It was awesome though! And I'll definitely be back soon. But it was especially fun to have company with us. They sure were great troopers at getting up that mountain. I think Rena thought it was a race because she took off like a bullet! What a cutie.

Oh look, it's my school.

We were there at a great time and happened to catch sunset upon arrival and city lights on the way down. Both were lovely, but I am a sunset lover 4lyfe! (for life.) 

And there you have the highlights of our time together! There are so many things to learn from culture to culture, and I loved just talking with Toshi and Yuki for these few days. Toshi commented a lot on the mountains, which made me grateful all over again to have them here, but it also really made me want to visit Japan! I also loved making frownies with Rena, which I forgot to mention, but it happened and she was a great helper :) Really it was just a fabulous time all around! Now I just need to find a way to get myself across that lovely Pacific to visit them...hmm....