Los Verdes en Japon

[roughly translated: the green ones in Japan]

Hyrum's favorite Colombian soccer team is Atletico Nacional de Medellin.  (And their color is green.)  They made it to the finals of the Fifa Club World Cup, which is apparently a super-huge deal.  And he felt like he needed to go because this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

I can't speak to that, because I don't even particularly like soccer, but I'll cut out the details and just say he spent a week at the beginning of December cheering on his team in Japan.

[For those completely unfamiliar with soccer -- you have the regular World Cup, which includes national teams.  Then when those players aren't playing with their national teams, they play on club teams.  Each country has its own leagues for club teams.  They have local tournaments, then they have a World Cup for the best individual teams, regardless of which country league they usually play in.]

Hyrum first took a train from Tokyo to Osaka, where the first game was.  They lost (quite traumatic for some of the poor Colombian fans who sold everything to be there) but Hyrum was able to see some sights in the area, including the Osaka Castle.

Not far from Osaka he saw the Himeji Castle, considered to be the most beautiful surviving feudal castle in Japan.

Next stop: Kobe.  When I asked if he tried any Kobe beef there, he said, "Yeah.. I think..."  But aside from the beef, he saw a few other sites by night:

He visited the town of Nara to see it's most famous attraction, and one of Japan's most historically significant temples,  Todai-ji Temple.  It houses the world's largest bronze statue of the Buddha.  There are deer that freely wander the grounds.

The last stop of the region was Kyoto, to see the Imperial Palace.

Finally at the end of his trip he made it back to Tokyo, where he'd watch Nacional play their last game of the World Cup.  This time, they won!  Glad he didn't come back from Japan completely deflated.  Overall their team took 3rd place.  

One thing Hyrum experimented with in Tokyo was a capsule hotel.  Here's how it works: you walk in and store your stuff. You get your capsule key. They give you slippers and essentially pajamas to change into before you go into the rest of the hotel.  There are several common areas that can be used, including pristine bathroom areas with any amenity you could want, like hair gel or toothbrushes.  (I should mention he was staying in a nice one.. I'm sure not all provide everything.)  Connected to the shower areas are giant hot tubs you can soak in (without any clothes... almost like being in Germany again.)   And apart from the common areas are long corridors lined with hundreds of capsule beds.  You climb in to an over-sized mattress room, and pull the door down, trapping you inside.  There are personal TV's to listen to with headphones.  It's an interesting model for a hotel, and we were saying it would work great in certain situations, like being in the city for a really short period of time.  Hyrum did mention how much he appreciated the cleanliness of the Japanese.  (You could say it ranked a little higher than the experiences he had in Afghanistan).  

Here are some of the other things he saw when he wasn't in the capsule.

While Hyrum was in Japan, I kept craving sushi  (and eventually went and bought some.)  Meanwhile, Hyrum detests all sea food and most Asian food, so he found gems like this:

After 7 days, it was home again to a wife who was anxious to have a helping hand with the kids.  Hyrum left Japan at 4 pm on Monday, and arrived home to Colorado Monday night, just in time to put the kids in bed.  What a world we live in!

In the German Newspaper and a Soccer Friend

Hyrum seems to attract the media.  Last June, he and Tiago were featured in our local German paper after attending a World Cup viewing.   While he was in Brazil he made it onto several Colombian news channels, not to mention ESPN.  And most recently, our family had a little feature in the paper highlighting New Years goals.

 And most recently, our family had a little feature in the paper highlighting New Years goals.  Luckily our landlord was nice enough to give us his copy (I imagine he's always a little surprised when he sees our picture in his newspaper) because by the time we went out to get one on New Years Eve, all the stores had already closed.    

It says, roughly: 

We wish with all my heart that our babies safely come to the world in March. We're  expecting twins, there are two girls! Our last months in Deutchland are coming to an end. In the course of the year 2015 we'll go back to the United States.  What I really want to experience is a game of FC Bayern Munich.... then something about how great an experience it would be to watch a game in the Munich football stadium.

Google translate is good, but not that good. 

When we were being interviewed for the article, a German man that works for the Army public relations dept. came to help us with the translating.  Afterwards, he and Hyrum were talking about soccer, and he mentioned the guy in town who is the president of the local Bayern fan club.  (It sounds hokey, but these are organized, official chapters that are all over the world... the club is a money making machine!)  Without going through local clubs, it can be difficult to get tickets because they're only sold second-hand.  

A week after the article came out, there was a random knock on our door.  It was the club president!  He came to introduce himself to Hyrum and tell him about a few games he could get Hyrum tickets for, along with other local soccer news (like a Bayern player visiting Vilseck in a few weeks.)  I think this is Hyrum's dream come true.  

The creepy thing is that we're very familiar with where the club president lives.  The first time we ever walked around Vilseck, Hyrum saw the signs on the side of his house and had to take a picture.  Now, a few years later, things have come full circle.  He and Hyrum are Facebook friends!

Left: Hyrum taking a picture outside the guy's house Right: Hyrum at Allianz Arena in Munich (2009)

June Happenings

The first part of June we were in Greece, and after that Hyrum was in Brazil.  The rest of the month was mostly spent watching soccer and eating good food.  Here's a look at what we were up to.  

First, Hyrum had to do something about his facial hair after Brazil.  It's a rare occasion that he doesn't shave, so he was enjoying it while he was on leave.

While Hyrum was deployed, he recorded a few videos of him reading books to Tiago.  I played them for Tiago, but he was always too little to even care.  One day I turned it on hoping to distract him, and he actually seemed to 'get it'.  He started laughing hysterically at some of the things Hyrum said, and ironically he ended up laughing at all the funny parts.  I think he's been around Hyrum enough now to know his mannerisms and know when he's trying to be funny.  And on that note, Hyrum loves having someone around that thinks his jokes are funny (on video, and in person.)

Now that Tiago is mobile, he gets into everything.  He loves throwing tupperware all over the kitchen.  Once that's a mess, he usually heads for the pots and pans.   (By mid-June he was crawling normal, not just dragging himself along.)

He also improved his standing skills, and fortunately once it wasn't such a novelty he stopped doing it every time he woke up at night.  

His favorite place to crawl to in the house is the washing machine.  I think this was one night before he took a bath.  Hyrum had the laptop in the bathroom so he could watch the soccer game while he was bathing Tiago.  That's normal multi-tasking, right?  

Tiago had his own Colombia onesie to wear.  And the flag was always flying at our house when Colombia was playing. 

That was one of many soccer games going on around here.  My sister actually asked me how much of the World Cup Hyrum watched, and I told her he'd probably be offended by that question.  Missing a game wasn't even an option... even if it meant he had to stay up til the wee hours of the morning, then wake up at 5 am for PT.  During Colombia's game against Uruguay, I actually thought Hyrum was going to cry when Colombia scored.  I was so busy watching his celebration that I didn't take any pictures, but here he is after the excitement wore down a bit.

My sister also asked if this was the first World Cup I'd experienced with Hyrum.  I reminded her that right after we got married, Hyrum and his friends were trying to find out the score for the game they missed while at the wedding ceremony... and then how we watched every soccer game that happened during our honeymoon.  So it came as no surprise that we spent our anniversary this year celebrating our marriage with Chinese food, then watching soccer.  Regardless of the soccer, it was fun to spend time together.  We've spent enough anniversaries apart that I can appreciate when we're together.  And for fun, we calculated how much of our 4 years of marriage we've spent apart, and it's about 32%!!  Thank you, Army.  I'm hoping this coming year will bring that number down a bit. 

The game going on was USA vs Germany.  Our town did a public showing at the castle/fortress, Burg Dagestein.  It was a lot of Americans from the base, mixed with a bunch of Germans, and a lot of bratwurst and beer.  Unfortunately, USA lost, but fortunately it didn't matter because they still advanced.  

Tiago was cute enough that he made it into the German newspaper!  Our landlord gave us this copy.  It included a few quotes from Hyrum, including who he thought would go to the final.  

Hyrun (his name always gets messed up) Suarez from Utah is a huge futbol fan.  And his son is too, apparently.  

   And this was from my own camera. 

Once Colombia got out in the 3rd round, we were happy to see Germany make it to the end.  Well, Hyrum was technically cheering for Argentina, but happy with the outcome nonetheless.  There was definitely celebrating going on with their final win, including a lot of fog horns and cars honking, but pretty minimal compared to what you'd see in a big city.  Vilseck, after all, isn't a huge metropolis. 

 

A few more pictures of Tiago to wrap up the month. 

This never happens.  Except sometimes in the first 30 seconds after he wakes up from a nap.  So any time he decides to half-cuddle it's worth pulling out the camera for.