INDEPENDENCE DAY

we wanted to celebrate independence day like we would at home:

swimming, bbq, fireworks

we wanted to go to costco to buy some good american food

& bri found a beach on the way!

it was freezing cold and the tiniest beach i have ever seen!

but it was a blast, it felt like we weren't in japan and got a little break from the japan life. 

^^we met a fisherman who educated us about the fish in the ocean 

^^that's about how far i went in...

next was COSTCO!

costco was insane!!!!!!!!!

we grabbed a cart, because who goes into costco without a cart?

& the madness began!

we walked ten feet and ditched the cart, we literally could not move! 

the food court was the best.

it was packed because the food is so cheap and....

they don't have fountain drinks anywhere! 

there were about ten long lines to get drinks,

they have seriously never had such a variety and refills on soda! 

this is why asians are tiny and americans are not. 

^^REAL pizza, we scarfed this down. real pepperonis? YES!

this was the best part of going to costco. 

^^we brought a suitcase to haul the food around on the trains!

ONTO THE FUN:

we wanted to be surrounded by other americans to celebrate,

so we thought to have hot dogs and fireworks with the missionaries.

since we were going to costco to get food we needed more people.

so we just invited a bunch of people in the ward,

most of who could speak english (which was so nice for me!)

everyone kept asking where we got the delicious hot dogs,

they don't exist here! 

^^my mom sent me a package with the cutest banner!

we did a few little fireworks and had a ton of sparklers.

the little kids had so much fun doing the sparklers.

brian had the only lighter so tons of kids would crowd around him (none speaking english),

one little girl had just gone to english class and said "please me!" holding out her sparkler.

the rest of the kids caught on to her english and soon all of the kids were looking at brian:

"PLEASE ME! PLEASE ME! PLEASE ME!"

bri was a little embarrassed at what they were saying. 

this has been one of the best independence days,

i loved sharing our american holiday with our japanese friends!