Kenta & Virginia Takagi

My first academic vacation...oops, I mean CONFERENCE

2010-03-06T23:13:00.007-05:00

As part of my residency program second, third, and fourth year residents have the opportunity to go to an academic conference with a particular spending allowance. Because of how my rotations fell in the year, I chose to take my conference time in January, and I managed to convince four other second year OB/GYN residents to join me. We went to the semi-annual GOG (gyncologic oncology group) conference in San Diego. The conference was okay... but the trip to San Diego was fantastic! Even though I have not included any pictures of the conference (those would be boring), we did attend it.

Sara and Marquia at the San Diego Airport

Marquia, Erin Kate, and Sara going out to lunch

The 'Shamu Family' performing at Sea World

Virginia holding a starfish

Sara and Virginia in front of the stork exhibit/sign.

(OB/GYNs... stork... get it?)

A beautiful flamingo

Virginia and a snowy ibis

Dinner in Old Town San Diego

(L->R Tom, Jen, Sara, Erin Kate, Virginia, Marquia)

Handmade tortillas... mmmm

Erin Kate, Sara, and Virginia on the beach on Coronado Island

Virginia and Marquia in front of the Hotel Del Coronado

Sara and Virginia at the Hotel Del Coronado

Beautiful sunset over the Pacific

Virginia and the sunset

The view from our hotel

Dinner in the Gaslamp Quarter

My brother Stephen joined me for a while. He lives in LA currently.

Christmas/New Years with the Dangerfields

2010-03-06T22:22:00.006-05:00

We had a fantastic Christmas/New Years at my parents' home in Pullman, Washington. We had two parents, all three sisters, all three brothers-in-law, two of the three brothers (one serving a mission in Atlanta, GA), and a current (but now former) girlfriend of one of the brothers.

Because of my work schedule Christmas was delayed a few days. Kenta and I flew out on Dec 28, and we celebrated Christmas on Dec 29. We all few back to our various homes in Indiana, Utah, and California on Sunday, Jan 3. During that time we had a BLAST!! Please enjoy the pictures depicting some of the excitement that was had.

Rachel and Vince Wilson excited about opening a gift -- okay Rach was excited; Vince was just waking up.

Jack was less enthusiastic about some of his more practical pre-mission type presents.

K&V happy to be home with family... and to be doing something other than working!

My mom and dad with a raging Christmas wrapping fire in the background.

Erik, Stephen, Kenta, and Vince enjoyed a lot of video game time.

While Kenta and I lived in Rochester, NY one of my good friends from my youth, Gillian Campbell (now Bowman) moved with there with her husband Jonathan. We were all at our parents' homes again at Christmas, so arranged to have lunch together. Jessica and Erik joined us after lunch.

(L->R Jessica, Erik, Virginia, Kenta, Jonathan, Gillian)

Jonathan, Gillian, and Peter Bowman

(Peter was born just before we left Rochester)

After the above-mentioned lunch all the Dangerfield clan went bowling together.

Kenta

Virginia

My dad has been researching ancient Egypt and it's relation to our religion, so my mom got him an Egyptian discovery kit (designed for ages 6-12). We decided to get in on the fun.

Rachel sporting the 'discovery goggles' while cutting out part of the decipher kit.

Watch out!

We made Dad wear the 'discovery goggles' too. Unfortunately he still had to wear his reading glasses to see what exactly was going on with the hieroglyphics on the side of the pyramid. Pretty stylish, huh?

Definitely a team effort

(L=>R Michelle Fong (Steve's girlfriend), Jessica, Steve, Mom, (second row) Dad, Virginia)

We all had a chance to chip away at the sand inside to discover the hidden treasure.

(L->R Rachel, Jessica, Dad, Michelle, Virginia)

We found the treasure!

(Rachel and Virginia)

"I want more treasure!"

Jessica

New Year's fireworks

Dad used a mini blow torch to light some fireworks off the top of our snow man, who subsequently started to lose his face (sad!).

As mentioned in my last blog entry, I love the Asian use of the English language. These are tees that I picked up in Japan in October to share with my sisters. So that you don't have to squint too hard at our chests, they read:

Rachel's: Abet Pain of ear

Jessica's: Tope Imaginative Hang Back Enjoyment Narraton

Virginia's: Pure companion coming High & Touch The decision is lucidly frank Our brotherhood

Don't try too hard to make sense of them.

Hope you all had a similarly enjoyable holiday season.

Japan - English language skills?

2010-03-06T22:06:00.004-05:00

Ever since I lived in Korea, I have had an appreciation for the Asian enthusiasm for the English language. You see English writing all over the place. However there's often something lost in the translation. Please enjoy this pictures of a few words/phrases that made us smile.

On a different floor of this hotel this same door was labeled 'staff only.' Kenta and his mom laughed for a long time about the room that held 'stuff only.' What exactly would that exclude from being held in this room?

Appetizing, huh?

Next time you need to throw something away ask someone near you where the 'dust box' is and see what kind of a response you get.

If you read the blue print below the stick figures with various ailments, you find that unspecified 'internal disorders' will get you a special place on the train.

Japan - Miyajima

2010-03-06T18:54:00.002-05:00

This is another of my favorite spots. When the tide is higher it looks like this torii is floating in the ocean. Unfortunately, we were there at a lower tide so you can tell that it's actually on solid ground -- still very beautiful though.

We were caught in a huge rainstorm a few minutes after we arrived, so Kenta's dad bought us a couple umbrellas and we enjoyed walking through some shops.

A 5-tiered pagoda

K&V with the torii

K&V taking the ferry to the shrine and torii

Japan - Matsue

2010-03-06T18:35:00.003-05:00

This was one of my favorite spots on our trip - Matsue (ma-tsu-ay). It's a beautiful mountain town with one of the six original Japanese castles that are still standing. It is also famous for soba (barley) noodles, which are my favorite Japanese noodles.

We found this fantastic lacquer ware shop. This is the artisan who hand carves, paints, and lacquers each piece. It's pretty pricey, but very beautiful and of excellent quality. I'm holding the small bowl with its lid that we bought there.

K&V in front of a couple torii at the entrance to a shinto shrine

View from the top of the Matsue castle

K&V in front of Matsue Castle

K&V eating zaru soba - cold barley noodles that you dip in a soy based sauce. Mmmmmm. This restaurant is particularly famous a a place where the imperial family ate when they were in Matsue.

Japan - gardens

2010-03-06T18:03:00.005-05:00

As previously mentioned, I LOVE Japanese gardens, lanterns, statues, etc that are found around the shrines and temples. Here are some of the MANY beautiful pictures we took.

Apparently this is supposed to be this way, but it looks like the head of a decapitated statue to me. If you were to see this while you were taking a stroll one night, it would scare the begeebers out of me!

The clouds and trees parted just perfectly to permit a ray of sunshine to light up this little fellow. He's my favorite of these statues.

Gorgeous and peaceful

Classic raked rock garden

The little red bibs are a sign that these little statues are praying for the children and expecting mothers.

K&V with Kenta's mom at the Sanzen-In shrine and garden

LONG stairway to a shrine

Hopefully you enjoy a snipit of a few of the exquisite Japanese gardens we visited.

Japan - Iwami silver mine and Izumo shrine

2010-03-06T17:48:00.006-05:00

I love going to see the beautiful temples and shrines whenever we visit Asia. Here are some pictures from a famous shrine called Izumo and a picture of us at the visitors center for a very famous, influential silver mine along the Japanese coast (Pacific side, not Sea of Japan side).

Check out this really, really LARGE rope

I also love the gardens surrounding these shrines.

I also have a thing for the torii (the shinto arch that you see all over Japan). I make Kenta take pictures of toriis everywhere we go.

This is pure spring water brought down from the mountain. The Japanese will wash themselves before entering their holy areas and drink from the pure, holy water.

K&V in front of the visitor center for an ancient and prominent Japanese silver mine.

Japan - Hiroshima and beyond

2010-03-06T17:29:00.003-05:00

We spent part of a day visiting Hiroshima and the Peace Monument. Here are some pics of this and a couple other things.

Hiroshima Eternal Flame

Hiroshima Peace Park with the arch, the eternal flame, and one of the last surviving building from ground zero

One of the only surviving buildings from the epicenter of the atomic bomb

Kenta's mom broke her pinky finger on the first day we were traveling (that's a whole other story). With her hand casted she looked like the little Shinto cat that you see all over Japan (Maneki-neko), so we took a picture of her with the cat. :)

Kenta always has a long list of the various types of food we need to eat while we're there. Here we're eating some shabu-shabu and some sukiyaki and some blowfish tempura. It was delicious.

Japan - visiting Kenta's extended family

2010-03-06T17:06:00.005-05:00

We were in Japan for a week in October and spent some time with Kenta's extended family. Here are some of the pictures below:

K&V with Kenta's grandma in Fukuoka

K&V with Kenta's grandma, mom, aunt, and aunt's three sons in Fukuoka

K&V at dinner with family

K&V with Kenta's dad, uncle, aunt, and cousin

Catching up

2010-03-06T16:59:00.003-05:00

Well, it's been five months since I last wrote. We're still around. We're still traveling when we can. We apologize for our blog absence. Here are a bunch of picture oriented posts of our outside of Indy fun. When we're in Indiana we're working most of the time. We do spend some time together every evening, but it's only enough time for dinner, some conversation, Kenta watching CNBC, some reading, and a few TV shows here and there. I am still working on some crafts, but not nearly as many as I did in Rochester. We're excited for spring so that we can get outside a little bit more. Hope these last few months treated you well.

Missisinewa 1812

2009-10-29T22:52:00.007-04:00

On another of those weekends off while I was on nights, we took advantage of a uniquely Indianan experience. About 1 1/2 hours north of Indianapolis there is a huge War of 1812 reenactment at a site of what was realistically a very small insignificant battle (don't tell the people there that I said that it was insignificant). The battle took place on the banks of the Mississinewa River, hence the name of this festival -- Mississinewa 1812. We managed to convince our good friends the Rupps to go with us, which made it much more fun. In addition to the War of 1812 battle reenactment, they had a river pirate battle, British, American, & Native American encampments/villages to walk through, as well as over 150 shops of various types. We really enjoyed walking around, eating some 1800's style food, drinking some 'original' root beer and some freshly pressed apple cider, as well as enjoying learning more about the War of 1812 (a frequently passed over, but quite important event in our nation's infancy). For any of you that want to learn more, check out the link above.
*I somehow added links to the words 'learning' and 'eating' above. I don't know how to delete them. Please ignore them.*

River Pirate Battle

American Militia/Military

Native Americans and British soldiers

American Attack

(They were still fighting in the Napoleonic style)

British soldiers ready for their attack

Virginia with Gabe Rupp dipping candles

Kenta and Gabe

Virginia holding Isabelle Rupp while her mom gives her some of a hot-off-the-coals pork chop

St Louis in September

2009-10-29T22:15:00.007-04:00

While I was working nights, I had all my weekends off. I spent a lot of time catching up on sleep, but we also took the opportunity to get out of town a couple times. Kenta has an inner need to see the Braves play as frequently as possible, and I have the an inner need for road trips and new places. So we hit to road and went to St Louis. It's only a four hour drive, so not bad for a weekend trip. We had a bunch of things planned, but I had such a hard time waking up that we had to cut some of it short. Please enjoy some pictures of our adventure below.

Chipper Jones at bat

Bobby Cox - a Braves necessity

Albert Pujols at bat

The Arch from underneath

The arch at night

K&V catching the game

K&V in front of the Arch

K&V in front of Busch Stadium

A night on the town with the Rupps and the Indianapolis Indians

2009-09-03T18:53:00.003-04:00

Kenta and I joined our good friends the Rupps at Victory Field in Indy to see the Indianapolis Indians play the Louisville Bats. It was a very nice stadium, and we all enjoyed ourselves quite a bit.

Victory Field sign board

Jason and Vincent Rupp

Isabelle Rupp

Virginia and Isabelle

Better late than never... visiting Kenta's sister over the Fourth of July

2009-09-03T18:23:00.003-04:00

A bit of tragedy befell the the Takagi family this June. Kenta's sister Emi was driving in Springfield, Missouri when she was hit head on by a Dodge viper that was out of control. Kailie, her daughter, was relatively safe in the back seats secured in her child set. She only had a small clavicle break with some bruising and a few cuts. Emi, on the other hand, had both of her legs crushed. Since that time she has required 24-7 care from others. Emi's husband, Jeff, has been in Iraq for over a year, and to the US government's credit, they had him on a plane for emergency leave within hours of the accident. Kenta and I went down to spend the weekend with them over the Fourth of July. Here are some of the pictures of our niece Kailie from that visit.

Kailie playing her favorite game of peek-a-boo

Kailie eating her first hamburger on the 4th of July

Laughing

Virginia and Kailie

Better late than never... our trip to California May 2009

2009-09-03T15:33:00.012-04:00

During the first week of May Kenta and I joined my sisters Jessica and Rachel with their husbands Erik and Vince in southern California for a fun-filled vacation. The pictures essentially speak for themselves. We enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. (Blogspot wouldn't let me reorder the pictures, so some of them may seem a bit out of place)

San Diego Zoo

K&V in front of the panda

Such a comical face. We just had to take a picture.

Sleeping koala

Virginia high above the flamingos

Panda peek-a-boo

Climbing panda

K&V with Erik and Jessica just outside the panda exhibit

K&V in the Asian-inspired garden

Thoughtful koala

San Diego Wild Animal Park

Rachel's head has always been somewhat of a target for birds. It wasn't any different with the lorakeets

Vince, Rachel, Virginia, and Kenta getting ready to watch a wild animal show.

Virginia and Rachel watching the birds in the Amazon Aviary

The lorakeets quite liked me, too.

Rachel pondering the meaning of birds loving the top of her head so much.

Rachel and Virginia at the petting zoo. There were a dozen or so different species of deer there just roaming around. It was quite fun.

Vince petting another friendly deer.

Disneyland

It's a small world after all.

Erik and Jessica with Rachel and Vince

Rachel, Vince, and Virginia in one of the famous tea cups. No one else wanted to join us, but we had a blast!

Virginia, Vince, Rachel, Erik, and Jessica on a safari ride.

Vince, Rachel, Virginia, and Kenta waiting in line for a ride (a frequent occurrence).

Erik, Jessica, Rachel, Vince, and Virginia waiting for the Indiana Jones ride.

Dodgers Game

Kenta, Virginia, Erik, Jessica, Rachel, and Vince in the all-you-can-eat section of Dodger Stadium. The Dodgers played the Padres and won 1-0. Not a very eventful game, but good company nonetheless.

After the game they let everyone come onto the field to watch the fireworks. We all got a bit of a thrill from touching the grass in the outfield.

I think the lighting for the fireworks made us all look a little green.

K&V outside Dodger Stadium

Rachel and Virginia inside the Getty Museum.

Note the lovely tan line I have from our outing in Cincinnati.

Virginia near Rachel and Vince enjoying the view from the Getty Museum.

K&V near Jess and Erik at the Getty Museum.

K&V outside the LA temple

Vince, Rachel, Erik, Jessica, and Virginia in front of the LA temple.

Hopefully you enjoyed viewing our lovely vacation.

Better late than never... our trip to Cincinnati April 2009

2009-09-03T09:49:00.004-04:00

For the last two days I've been home sick with a fever, chills, sore throat, cough, and severe head congestion. The only good part about that is that I've been able to sleep excessively and catch up on random things like my blog. So here are some of the updates from the last few months.

In April we took advantage of our proximity to Cincinnati, and took in a Reds/Braves game. Kenta tries to see the Braves play at least once a year. We went with our friends, the Zumbruns, and had a fantastic time.

You cannot tell by these pictures, but Kenta and I left this game quite reddened by the sun. It took us several days to not look like lobsters.

I couldn't do it again if I tried

2009-03-06T18:06:00.002-05:00

Today I finished clinic early, and I was very excited about being able to enjoy the warm weather outside. I jumped in my car and started to drive home. I rolled down the windows so that I could feel the warm spring air on my face. When I was about a mile from home I was assaulted!!! I felt something fly straight into the auricle of my ear (upper outer part) just like someone had shot a paintball at me. I grabbed a tissue in a panic and clawed at my ear. Then I wiped out my ear as much as I could. When nothing was on the tissue, I froze. I was afraid the offending agent was still around, and I didn't want it to go anywhere. As soon as I parked by car I found a very, very large housefly squirming on my chest. Luckily it didn't fall inside my scrubs. I grabbed the same tissue again and squished it in a vengeful manner. What are the chances?!! Just a few days ago it was 20 degrees, so there are hardly any bugs out at all. Then the largest bug that can fly happens to torpedo my ear. I guess there are some advantages to winter after all.... but I'm still thrilled that the weather is warming up. :)

Meet Me in St Louis

2009-02-12T19:55:00.003-05:00

Kenta and I met his sister (Emi), her daughter (Kailie), and his mother (Sue) in St Louis. Emi and Kailie are living in Waynesville, MO where Kenta's mom was visiting them over this last week. His parents still live in the Kobe/Osaka area of Japan, but they visit the States a few times each year. Waynesville is about 6 hours away from Indy (where Kenta and I live), but we're only 4 hours from St Louis. So we made a compromise, and, in accordance with the old song, met in St Louis. It was just a quick trip, but we had a great time. We had a few different things planned, but we ended up just hanging out together for a while and doing a bit of shopping.

The star of the show was, of course, Kailie our nine month old niece. You'll notice in the pictures below that Kailie was in each of the photos as well. Until she gets too tired, she is a wonderful kiddo to be around. Very smiley and fun. Check out the pictures below to see the relaxing and fun time we had this weekend.

Virginia and Kailie at The Cheesecake Factory

Emi, Sue, and Kailie at The Cheesecake Factory

Kailie snoozing while we're shopping

Kenta and Kailie

Kailie *enjoying* some bananas

Hope you all have a nice Valentine's Day. Instead of spending that day with the ones I love, I will be delivering the products of other people's love -- a different spin on celebrating love on Valentine's Day. I'll let you know if there are more holiday themed names.

New Years 2009

2009-02-01T20:56:00.005-05:00

Kenta and I both had the week off over the week of New Year's, so we flew across the country to spend the holiday with my siblings and parents. As one of my sister's couldn't take the time off, we all went to her in Salt Lake City. We had a fantastic time. We celebrated a late Christmas together, did some shopping, played some games, ate a lot of good food, and RELAXED!! It was wonderful. Kenta and I also reconnected with several friends who are living in the Salt Lake area. It was great to see so many good friends again.

Here are some pictures from our visit to Temple Square

The next few pictures are from 'Christmas Day' ... celebrated on New Year's Day.

This is my LARGE little brother Jack cuddling with a bunny. He's almost 18 years old now.

My sister Jessica and her husband Erik opening a gift.

My sister Rachel -- very excited about getting saffron rice.

K&V opening a gift. My brother Stephen is sitting on the other side of Kenta.

These are three of the sisters I served with in Korea. We had a mini mission reunion over a delicious brunch. On January 30 I celebrated my 7 year anniversary for entering the MTC. It's amazing how time flies!!

We also met up with Kenta's mission president and his wife.

But really this sums up our trip. We got more than our fair share of sleep and truly enjoyed having very little schedule to worry about.

Isn't Kenta adorable when he's asleep?

We hope that the New Year brings blessings and happiness to each of you as it has for us thus far. Take care and keep in touch.

Takagi Christmas 2008

2009-02-01T20:29:00.003-05:00

Well Christmas for us was a little bit different this year. I could opt for the week of Christmas or the week of New Year's off this year, and since my sister's were on an "in-law" Christmas year, Kenta and I opted to have New Year's off this year. So I worked by heinie off this year over the holidays. In fact I had a 27 hr shift on Thanksgiving Day and a 27 hr shift on Christmas Day. No holidays for me.

Kenta had 2 weeks of paid vacation over the holidays as his office was completely closed down. So Kenta's sister Emi came to stay with us over the week of Christmas with her daughter Kailie. Here are some of the pictures we took during this time. You may notice that I'm in scrubs in all the pictures. Most of these were taken when I had come home from work -- post-call and too tired to care about what I was wearing.

As a side note, I did get to deliver several Christmas babies including one cute Hispanic baby who was named Jesus. There were also a couple Noelles and Mary/Marias.

Our Christmas Tree

Emi and Kailie at our Christmas Eve dinner

Kailie's first Christmas

Kenta and Kailie

I thoroughly enjoyed putting together Kailie new doll stroller. That was the best part of Christmas for me.

We celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve while using our webcam on Skype with the rest of Kenta's family in Japan who were celebrating their Christmas morning. It was a great set up, and it made it feel a lot more like Christmas to have Kailie around to open toys and be excited about everything.

We hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and holiday season.

Trip to Louisville

2009-01-26T22:01:00.007-05:00

Sorry it's been a LONG time since I blogged. Life has been a little busy. Here our some photos from our FIRST TRIP TO KENTUCKY.

Now that we live in Indianapolis our closest temple in in Louisville, Kentucky. My schedule is such that we have a hard time getting to the temple, but we did manage to get there in October, and we'll be going again this Saturday.

Here's a picture of our new temple. It was a beautiful drive through Kentucky countryside to get there with lots of picturesque fall foliage.

Of course Kenta couldn't possibly visit Louisville without going to the Louisville Slugger Museum. There's an enormous Louisville Slugger outside it which you can see below.

Below: K&V in front of the Louisville Slugger Museum

Here's our view as we were looking over the Ohio River to Indiana.

There are more posts to come. I'll try to get more up sometime this week. Hope you're all doing well.

Virginia's Vacay - Days 5-7

2008-09-19T18:58:00.010-04:00

Since I had a full week off from the hospital while Kenta only took a couple days off, I hit the road for Missouri to visit Kenta's sister Emi for three days. Emi moved to Missouri in June 2007 to be with her husband who was stationed there with the army. They live among the Ozark Mountains and a lot of military training camps... but not much else. Kailie joined their family in the end of April. Sadly Jeff had to leave for a SIXTEEN MONTH tour of Iraq in the end of June. Emi has been doing a great job coping with being both a new mother and an army wife in the true sense; however she's had a hard time getting many of the projects for their new house done. So we worked on a few things around the house, made some curtains, made a color coordinating quilt, did some shopping in the closest sizable town (70 miles away), threw a baby shower, and (most importantly) took care of Kailie. Here are a few samples of our work:

Emi and Kailie

We even found time to paint Kailie's toenails. :)

Chicago

2008-09-19T18:58:00.006-04:00

I officially get two weeks of vacation each residency year (July to July) in addition to some time around Christmas or New Years, and one of my weeks (taking individual days off is not allowed) had to be taken before the holiday season. So as I transitioned off of my FIVE WEEKS of night float, I grabbed Kenta, and we hit the road. One of the perks of living in Indianapolis, in my opinion, is that we're only 3 hrs away from Chicago. I LOVE CHICAGO!! Kenta had never been to Chicago, so it was a bit of a no-brainer where we were going to spend our vacay. Kenta only took a couple days off of work, but four days in Chicago was plenty. We do so much on our vacations that we need a rest at home vacation after our out of town vacation.

Anyway, here are some pics of our fun in Chicago with a few editorial comments. Enjoy!

FIELD MUSEUM CHICAGO

Sue the T-rex

K&V w/ Sue (not Kenta's mom... the dinosaur)

HARRY CARAY'S

Harry Caray was a very famous baseball announcer in Chicago. His son Skip Caray and grandson Chip Caray are also famous announcers. So Kenta had to visit his restaurant while we were there. The food was fantastic, and we highly recommend it.

K&V with the 'holy cow'

Harry Caray iconized as a holey cow, one of the phrases he was famous for using.

K & Harry Caray
Harry Caray's Restaurant bought the ball that epitomized the Cubs curse, and blew it up. The remnants are there for all to see. Apparently it worked as the Cubs are hot right now.

SHEDD AQUARIUM

I thought that this statue of a man and an enormous fish was fantastic. I can't tell you why, per se, but I just loved it and took a few pictures.

Chicago skyline

ADLER PLANETARIUM

GINO'S EAST

Kenta loves going to both famous restaurants and famous 'firsts' restaurants. Gino's East was the second restaurant in make Chicago deep dish pizza pies. Interestingly the first was Uno's which has since become a franchise, and thus not as cool to visit.

US CELLULAR FIELD - HOME OF THE CHICAGO WHITE SOX

What else would Kenta want to do more on vacation than go to a baseball game... nothing! So off we went to see the White Sox play the Angels.

And who do you think we saw? Ken Griffey, Jr (of course)

He has now played for three different teams, and I have somehow managed to see him play at all three of his home fields. Please see my earlier blog on my strange connection to Ken Griffey, Jr. (June 2008 post)

The game went to the 15th inning, but we were pooped by the end of the 12th. It was a great game though; we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

FAIR OAKS DAIRY

On the way home we stopped by the Fair Oaks Dairy, which is known throughout the state (and perhaps the rest of the dairy world) for its award winning cheeses. It also has all sorts of things to do with the whole family - tours, games, learning how to make cheese and ice cream, etc. I couldn't convince Kenta to go on the tour, but we did do some cheese tasting and buy some for the road. However, my favorite part was the sign at the entrance (featured above) -- A dairy good time for the family. For whatever reason I thought this sign was hilarious, and it still makes be smile to see it again. Hopefully a few people out there will find it similarly funny.

The Indy Zoo

2008-09-01T17:03:00.004-04:00

Kenta and I had a three day weekend, so we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and see more of Indy. Also I've been wanting to go to the zoo here for a while. I love zoos! Indy has had koalas visiting for the last few months, so we had to see them before they leave next week. I have to say that it was somewhat anticlimactic as their habitat was very small and they were dead asleep. However, I can now say that I've seen koalas in real life. Enjoy a few of our pics from the trip.

Sleeping koala

Emu

Staring at the emu and kangaroo

Dolphin Show!! It was a lot of fun!
They sure do a great job of keeping the grass short.

Giraffes

I got to pet the elephant!! I was so, so excited!!

Bye, bye elephant...

The mama elephant took the entire pile of hay so that the baby elephant had to walk around picking up the stray left overs. Poor baby elephant.

Back to Nauvoo

2008-09-01T16:34:00.003-04:00

About a month ago Kenta and I joined his parents and younger brother Koji on a trip to Nauvoo. On the way there we saw the Mississippi River flooding several towns and roads, including the one we were supposed to take....

Luckily we found another road. We love our GPS system. We'd probably still be driving around acres and acres of corn and soy without it. Eventually we got to our destination... Nauvoo, Illinois.
We had a great time seeing all the sites and learning more about life in the 19th century. Of course we also enjoying looking at/walking around the beautiful Nauvoo Temple.

We also went to the City of Joseph Pageant that evening. I loved it! (Don't tell my friends back in the Rochester/Palmyra area, but I actually liked it better than the Hill Cumorah Pageant.)

Hyrum and Joseph Smith statues

On Sunday we went to church in Nauvoo and then hit the road for Carthage, Illinois to see the Carthage Jail shown below.

Another statue of Joseph and Hyrum Smith in front of Carthage Jail.

After Carthage we hit the road again for Springfield, Illinois where we went to Abraham Lincoln's home and got to see all sorts of Lincoln memorabilia.

It was a quick trip, but we really enjoyed ourselves and had fun with Kenta's family.

WE HAVE A NIECE!!

2008-06-29T23:07:00.007-04:00

Today's blog #5 (ridiculous I know -- I think this will be the last)

So as a preface to this blog, I am one of six children and Kenta is one of four children. Given that you might think that we would have been an aunt or uncle much earlier in life, but since we are both the oldest children and the first to marry in our respective families, we have missed out. That is until April 25 when Kenta's sister Emi, who married Jeff Stapler on Valentine's Day of 2007, gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. They named her Kailie Hana Stapler. With graduation and the move we hadn't been to see our new niece until June 21 when we drove down to their small town in Missouri for her blessing. Since Jeff is not a member of our church, Emi decided she would like her father, now Grandpa Takagi, to bless Kailie. So we arranged a big family get together in Missouri. We drove down from Indianapolis. Kenta's mom and brother (Koji) were already in the states moving Naomi (his other sister) into her new apt in DC. They were joined in DC by Kenta's dad who flew in from Japan. Then those four flew into St Louis and drove to join us. Lots of crazy traveling. But we all had a wonderful time with Jeff, Emi, and Kailie. We practically had to draw straws in order to hold Kailie, but everyone got the opportunity they wanted, I think. Anyway, here are some fun pics.

The Arch of St Louis, MO

The flooded Mississippi River

Kailie and Grandma Takagi

Sleeping Kailie and Grandpa Takagi

Koji holding a smiling Kailie... well she was smiling just before the picture was taken.

Takagi clan just after the blessing

(L --> R Kenta, Virginia, Naomi, Koji, Grandpa Takagi with Kailie, Jeff, Emi, & Grandma Takagi)

As a somewhat sad conclusion to this blog, three days after Kailie was blessed Jeff was deployed to Iraq for the next 15 months. He's an officer in the army in the military police division. He'll be able to come home for 18 days leave at some point in time, but he will surely be missed by his wife and new baby. Now that Kenta and I are only 6 hours away from Emi, we're going to try to get down there to hang out more often. Emi and Kailie are, of course, always welcome to come up and stay with us, but traveling that long with a 2 month old might be a bit difficult so we don't expect them anytime in the next couple months.

A Work in Progress...

2008-06-29T22:45:00.006-04:00

Today's blog #4

Our new home:

Here are the bare bones our the apt. Yes, that's Kenta taking a nap on the floor while we were waiting for the rain to stop so that we could unload the truck.

Kitchen -- small!!
Stairs... I know they're not interesting, but it's proof that we have two floors.
Kenta didn't tell me he was taking this picture -- I don't look the greatest.
Bedroom -- Kenta took the picture and didn't think it was important to make the bed. This was a point of daily dispute early in our marriage, but I have since given up since I almost always leave the house while he's still asleep. However, it would have been nice if he would have at least pulled up the sheets for the picture. Oh well.
The Spare 'Oom (for you Narnia fans)

Our kitchen is very small, so I use part of this room from my extra freezer and pantry shelves, but it also houses my crafts, extra food storage, our nice serving dishes and anything else that doesn't fit nicely somewhere else in the house. It also doubles as a guest room with the addition of an air mattress. All welcome -- just call before you come. :)

Our new love seat

So when we bought our new furniture we ordered the color 'camel' for our couches. We they came, they seemed more like a mocha. In my stressed state, this was more than enough for a minor break down. I have since learned that if I turn on all the lights in the living room and open the blinds in the middle of the day they look a little bit more camel-like... but most of the time they're closer to a mocha. Oh well.

Our asian-inspired room divider. We're still working on how to decorate it. One of our many works in progress.

Our new table. We got the taller of the two heights available for the table and chairs (counter or pub height), and I LOVE THEM!! I love tall furniture for some reason, always have, so I just love having a taller table to sit at. Yay!

More pictures to come as we put things together a little bit more.

The Big Move

2008-06-29T22:25:00.006-04:00

ON THE ROAD AGAIN

I know what you're thinking -- no posts in over a month and now this is the third today. Well it's Sunday, so I'm not studying, cleaning, unpacking, organizing, or hanging things on the walls. I thought it was an appropriate time to catch up.

After we got back from our trip to NYC and Cooperstown it was time to load up the truck and head west... well a little bit further west as least. We left Rochester on Friday, June 6 and arrived in Indy very late Friday night (it's normally a 9 hour drive, but will frequent gas stops for our gas guzzling moving truck and the slower speed required by our large load it took us a little over 11 hours). We stayed in a hotel that night so that we would have a comfortable bed to sleep in that night. It started raining as we got in at 1 am and it didn't stop raining until after noon on Saturday. There was flooding EVERYWHERE! We were drenched just walking to and from our car. WELCOME TO INDIANA!

For those of you who don't know Kenta and I decided to rent a townhouse instead of buying a house. If you want all the nitty, gritty details of our hours of discussion on the topic, just let me know. As most of you who know us might guess I wanted to buy a house. Kenta wanted to rent. He won... this time :)

Here are a few pictures from our move. I'll add more pics of our house in the next post.

While we still live in New York State... Part 2

2008-06-29T22:08:00.004-04:00

On our way back from NYC (see previous post) we stopped for the afternoon in Cooperstown, NY to see the National Baseball Hall of Fame. I'll spare you the 20+ pictures that Kenta took while we were there. Here are a few representative pictures.

K&V in front of the Baseball Hall of Fame

A life-size sculpture of Babe Ruth. I thought this was especially amazing because it was all done in ash (the type of wood used for bats), but the folds of his uniform and the leather of his shoes seemed so real! I was super impressed.

This is part of the actual HALL of fame.

We had a great time. Kenta was like a kid in a candy shop looking at all the pictures and memorabilia. I have a tendency to try to read EVERYTHING when I go to museums. Kenta is usually pretty patient with this trait of mine, but he was so excited to see the rest of the museum that he ended up going through each room twice while I was going through it once. This gave him plenty of time to take those 20-30 pictures I previously alluded to. What fun.

While we still live in New York State... Part 1

2008-06-29T21:09:00.008-04:00

While we were still official New York residents, we thought we would enjoy some of the state's famous sites. So we left for "The City" (which, for your non-NY residents, means New York City) to grab a few more NY memories. We started at the Empire State Building and Time Square on our first evening.

K&V on the observation deck of the Empire State Building

(Please forgive my flying hair -- it was windy)

It's amazing how small the Statue of Liberty is from up so high!

She's on Ellis Island which is the island to the left in the picture

Time Square

The NASDAQ on Time Square

On day 2 we walked around the Met (Metropolitan Museum of Art) for a few hours, then went to Little Italy for famous Lombardi's Pizza. After walking around Little Italy for a while we went to Chinatown. Then we had to go back to Time Square for Kenta to glare through the NASDAQ windows to watch the taping of his favorite show 'Fast Money' (it's on CNBC for you non-stock obsessed folk). Then we went uptown a bit for our first and last baseball game in the House That Ruth Built. In a little twist of irony we drove 6 hours to see the Yankees play the Blue Jays, a team that is only a 3 hour drive from our house. It was a packed day, but we had a blast!

Virginia in front of the Met

K&V in front of the Egyptian temple shown in more detail below

Can you tell I had spent the previous 2 weeks packing and organizing my house? I'm looking just a little drowsy.

Previously mentioned Egyptian temple

A beautiful Japanese garden in the Asian section

Lombardi's Pizza

This was the very first pizza restaurant in the US.

I'm excited!

Kenta's ready to eat too.
A picture taken through the window while the show was being aired live. Kenta was as giddy at this point in time as I was in the pizza picture above. So cute.
The new Yankee Stadium (still under construction)

Don't worry; you're not seeing things -- they have fashioned this stadium after the Roman Coliseum. I feel that's a more than little bit pompous, but I guess that's just a statement of Yankee pride.

Joba Chamberlain warming up. He's a Yankee pitching phenom who started his first game that day.

(He allowed several runs in three innings and lost the game... everyone has to start somewhere, right?)
Because of the way tickets sell so quickly at Yankee Stadium, we were out in the nose bleed outfield despite buying our tickets weeks in advance. Unfortunately that area seems to draw a pretty rough crowd. Luckily, because of problems in the past, there is no alcohol allowed in that section. We heard a lot of heckling, swearing, yelling at just about anyone, throwing things at fans of the opposing team, etc., etc. I can't image what it would have been like with a higher blood alcohol level! I was glad we didn't have any kids with us. However, we did have a great view of the American flag which flew very nicely on that windy day.

Famous Yankee players, including Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Lou Gehrig, etc.

Please call me DOCTOR Takagi

2008-05-21T19:10:00.004-04:00

TRUST ME, I'M A DOCTOR...

As of May 16th, 2008 at approximately 5 pm I am a doctor. It hasn't really sunk in yet. I haven't had to see any patients. I don't have my new long white coat with my name embroidered on it(med students where short white coats that extend to the upper thigh, but once you have the MD you where a long white coat that extends to the calf). I haven't been in any situations where someone asks with panic in their voice, "Is there a doctor in the house?" I haven't really introduced myself to anyone new necessitating the use of my new title. I let you know when I feel more doctor like.

Just the same, graduation was very nice. It was a relatively short ceremony -- lasting only 90 minutes or so. The talks were relevant and short. There were only 91 in my graduating class, so we walked across the stage pretty swiftly.

My parents and Kenta's mom got into town the night before. Kenta went to work like normal in the morning, and I went to work with my parents in returning my much loved vegetable garden back into sod - truly a tragedy. The afternoon came quickly. We showered and had some Thai food for lunch. Then we jumped on the shuttle bus and hit the road. Before I knew it, graduation was over, I was a doctor, I turned in my enormous graduation robes (I could have weighed an extra 200 lbs and not looked any different in my robes except for some extra chub around my face), puffy hat, and forest green hood, and took the shuttle bus home. It's strange to me that when it's your own life moment things move relatively quickly, but when you're attending someone else's life moment (graduation, baptism, wedding, performance, etc.) it drags on forever. Such is life.

Here's my name being called. The dean calling our names obviously didn't do much practicing of mine because instead of ta-ka-gi it came out ka-tan-ji. Very disappointing.

Receiving my diploma

Hooding

I felt like my puffy hat was falling off all day, so I bent my knees a bit in hope of avoiding the hood knocking the hat off. The ceiling at Eastman Theater -- gorgeous

Byron and Marilyn Dangerfield (my parents) with K&V

Dr. Alan Sears and family with Dr. Virginia Takagi and family (just Kenta)

Mr and Dr Takagi

As a side note, it has been my dream since I was 12 years old not only to be a doctor but to be the "Dr" of Mr and Dr , as opposed to seeing my parents get things in the mail addressed to Dr and Mrs. I always wanted to be the doctor of the couple. I suppose I could deal with Dr and Dr, but Mr and Mrs was not and is not for me. I have never liked the title of Mrs, and I have avoided it whenever possible. Now, I can comfortably avoid it for the rest of my life. Just that makes the $175,000 of student loans worth it -- almost. :)

Our Cruise to Baja

2008-05-18T20:42:00.011-04:00

From May 3- May 8 Kenta and I joined my younger sister Rachel and her new husband Vince on a cruise from San Diego to Ensenada and Cabo San Lucas. We had a fantastic time. I'll let the pictures tell the story.

I'm sorry for the discontinuity of the pictures. For some reason blogspot won't let me change the order of them at all.

A whale of a tale...

Rachel and Virginia

Shopping in Ensenada

Snorkeling off of Cabo

(Kenta opted to be the photographer instead of swim)

A colony of sea lions

Another whale pic

Lathering up with sunscreen

As a side note, Rachel and I still got some pretty bad burns that made the next day a bit uncomfortable.

Leaving the San Diego port

Lounging on the upper deck

Coincidentally, Rachel was frequently found examining herself and Vince with a strange look on his face whenever Kenta took a picture. Go figure.

Rachel & Vince in front the Arch of Cabo

Rach and Vince in front of a giant Mexican flag in Ensenada

Arch of Cabo San Lucas

Our ship Carnival Elation

K&V in front of the Arch of Cabo

Proof that we've been to Mexico

K&V leaving San Diego

Please enjoy the short clip of our accidental whale encounter

On the way to Indy

2008-05-09T23:21:00.003-04:00

On our way to Indianapolis last month (early April) we stopped by Cincinnati to catch a game. I'm sorry I haven't blogged this earlier, but things have been busy. We had a fantastic time. I especially enjoyed that the Reds' ball park is called the Great American Ball Park. I can't think of a better name for a baseball park. Incidentally I later learned that the Cincinnati Reds can thank Great American Insurance for that name; that burst my bubble a bit.

K&V at Great American Ball Park

Cincinnati, OH

Cincinnati Reds line-up April 5, 2008

Since my youth in beautiful Washington and my father's enthusiasm for baseball I have had a special admiration for Ken Griffey, Jr. I remember when he came to the Seattle Mariners as a rookie while his father was there as a veteran player. I remember watching them take the field together and always walk off the field together. I, with many others in the Pacific Northwest, was deeply disappointed when Griffey left Seattle for Cincinnati. I was especially chagrined because the only Mariners game I saw in person during Griffey's career was one in which he sat on the bench for a day off. As far as I knew I would never see him play in person. Many years later I met and married my baseball-crazed husband, and over the past three years we have seen many baseball games. However, most of these games (as you might notice from my 2007 review) were Braves 'away' games closer to our home in Rochester, such as Philadelphia). Since Cincinnati is a good 8 hours away from Rochester the chance that I would ever see Griffey play was slim. Also, Griffey, like many other players as they age, has had many injuries in the past few years, so I had all but ruled out the possibility of seeing him play. All this said, if you had asked me two months ago who my favorite player was or who I most wanted to see, I would have had to ponder this for quite some time. Even after seeing him I would have to ponder a bit. Just the same, when I saw him take the field during batting practice and then in the game, it felt as though some part of my life had come full circle -- like some task was completed. Well, this is all a bit too philosophical for me and probably for you too, but I have enjoyed rattling on for a minute.

Ken Griffey, Jr

This is his classic stance. It often follows a home run, but this time it followed a foul ball on the third base side of the field. Tough luck.

As a side note, don't you think my husband is amazing at catching these moments on camera? Just perfect.

So many fuzzy things...

2008-04-23T22:02:00.005-04:00

Ever since I moved into this house I have noticed how many small mammals surround me. We have had multiple problems with mice living in our basement over the past few years. We have a family of rabbits that live in our shrubs. Every year a few shrews decide to take up residence in my vegetable garden. There's a groundhog that lives under our neighbor's house. And on top of the mammals we have DOZENS of beautiful song birds that live (or at least spend a lot of time) in our shrubs. There are also some issues with slugs, ant hills, silverfish, and very large spiders. I guess that's what you get for living in such a beautiful place.

For each of these critters listed I have at least one story to tell... and if you're interested I'll tell them all, but you're probably not. So I will link my bad luck streak in the previous two days' stories with my fuzzy friends story.

After several big and small incidents of bad luck I decided to stay home and work around the house on Saturday. Our yard definitely needed some spring cleaning, and it was a beautiful day (sunny with at high of 86!!!). So I went out back and opened the garage for the first time in several months (I know what you're thinking -- if you have a two car garage and two cars, you should probably park them in the garage. However, we don't have an automatic door, and we have PLENTY OF DRIVEWAY even with our two cars sitting there. So in the winter it's actually easier to brush off our cars and let them 'protect' part of the driveway from the several feet of snow we get than it is to park in the garage. You might not agree, but you probably don't have an average annual snowfall of 96 inches and a 75-100 foot long driveway.) Anyway, as I opened the door I saw a black and white cat lying on the floor. I had seen this cat around our neighborhood and even in our back yard several times before, so I thought it had just squeezed in to chase a few of our many mice. (Because our garage doors have a tendency not to open very easily we often leave one of them slightly open so that we can always get back into the garage.) Then it hit me... the cat was dead and the garage stunk. Yuck. It must have gotten in to chase some mice or avoid a winter storm and either didn't or couldn't leave. For a moment I felt really bad, but there was really no way for me to know it was there or prevent its death. I did check to see if it had any tags or a collar on so that I could contact its owner, but it had nothing of the sort.

Over the past year we have had a bit of a curse on our house. We have had a LOT of animals die on our property. Since last spring I have had to dispose of several dead mice in our house, a dead shrew in our garden, a dead rabbit on our front lawn/sidewalk, a couple dead starlings, and now a dead cat. For the full year a half we lived in this house before that time I only had to deal with one mouse that was caught in a trap. I feel like its somehow my fault, like I poisoned the property or something. Kenta lived here for 3 years before we were married and didn't have any of these troubles. The only bonus is that I now feel like I am a bit of an expert in how to remove dead animals from your property without touching them -- not something I'll ever put on a resume or list of hobbies though. To be fair though I didn't remove some of those animals. We were never able to find an unknown number of mice that died somewhere inside our basement ceiling/first story floor. It smelled so much worse than individual dead mice that we had previously found that we were convinced it had to be at least 5 mice. We had to keep Fabreeze in our entry way where the smell was the worst and spray it every time we walked though. To this day we can't stand the smell of that variety of Fabreeze because it reminds us of dead mice. Yuck.

I dislike reading blogs without any pictures to compliment the story, but I really didn't think it was appropriate to take a picture of the smelly, dead cat in my garage. So instead, I'm including a couple pictures of myself in the garage two years ago when I was making our picnic table and benches, a not so attractive picture of myself with some of the hundreds of tomatoes our beautiful garden produces each year, and, lastly, a picture of Kenta's car and his mother's car in our driveway after a spring snow storm last year (you can see where my car was before I dug it out). Thus ending on a happier note than dead animals. :)

The Bad Luck Continues

2008-04-22T23:49:00.006-04:00

After Tuesday I decided to stay inside on Wednesday to avoid any continuation of my bad luck streak. However, the weather here has been far too beautiful to stay inside. On Tuesday I ventured out again without incident. I went to Charlotte Beach along Lake Ontario with the Sears girls. Although my contacts were bugging me toward the end, we had a fun picnic on the beach and played in VERY COLD water. To see pictures of our fun, check out Lesa Sears' blog at lesasears.blogspot.com . Lesa also posted the video I took of Hannah (3) falling asleep while trying to finish her ice cream. Very cute.

On Friday, when I thought I had broken free of my bad luck it struck again! I went with Lesa Sears and her four girls to the Rochester Seneca Park Zoo. It started well, and we had a good time, but it had a very rocky end. We took Sadie (3 mo old) in one stroller and then I took the other three in their wagon. We had several issues about wearing shoes while walking/running around the zoo and parking lot because Lily (7) and Hannah (3) would take off their sandles in the wagon and then not put them on again.

On the way to meet the Sears I had gotten a call that my computer was fixed and ready to pick up as long as I got there by 5 pm. So around 4 we started saying good-bye to the animals and heading out. This was quite an ordeal because the girls didn't think they had enough play time on the playground there. Finally Lesa ran ahead to get the car while I watched the girls. When she came around the corner into the parking lot though, I knew my luck was up again. She had one VERY flat tire. At first we thought of changing it ourselves, but decided that calling someone to do it was going to be easier in the long run since there was no way that I would get to the computer shop in time.

While we were waiting for the tire guy to come Hannah decided she had to go to the bathroom IMMEDIATELY. So I ran back into the zoo with her. Although they were closing one of the nice zoo officials let me into the bathroom of the zoo office which was at the entrance. We thought we were in the clear until we tried to leave the bathroom only to find that we had been LOCKED IN THE ZOO BATHROOM!!!! I don't know exactly how much time passed while we were in there. It was a least 10-15 minutes of watching zoo patrons leave without seeing anyone who would look at us (through the glass door) or be able to help. Finally I told Hannah to stay at the door to watch for the zoo man while I tried to find another way out. A few minutes later, as I was examining the nearest window, Hannah called out, "Ginia, he's back!!" I have never been so happy to see a zoo official or leave a bathroom. When we got back to the car the tire guy was there, and we were able to go home without any further difficulty. Just another little streak of bad luck.

Smiling Sadie Sears (3 mo)

Chloe (5), Hannah (3), Lily (7)

Though there was a red-tailed hawk in the cage, there were three cute monkeys on the rails!

Beware the Ides of... April?

2008-04-21T22:51:00.003-04:00

The Ides of March were bad for Julius Caesar, but it was the Ides of April that did me in. Tuesday was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, to quote a famous children's book. Really it wasn't the worst possible day by any means, but it had two very bad events.

ONE -- When I tried to start up my 8 week old laptop that morning it was completely fried. I wouldn't start despite anything I did. I was feeling really sick the day before, so I spent a lot of time on it and had downloaded all sorts of pictures and worked on a lot of files. However, I didn't back anything up because I started feeling worse later in the day. So I turned my computer in to the service center thinking that everything was lost.
** The happy post script to this story is that I got my computer back today (Monday) with all of my files preserved. A miracle. **

TWO -- After spending a good deal of time working on the computer problem and running some other errands, my evening seemed to come quickly. Kenta and I met with the 12-18 year old men and women from our church to go to our nearby temple in Palmyra, NY. It's about a 35-45 minute drive. About halfway there we were waiting at a red light with another 10-15 cars when a car crashed into us at 45 mph. Kenta (who was driving) saw the car coming in the rear view mirror but there was nothing he could do other than hold the brake down. We were thrust forward into the car in front of us. The heavens must have been looking down at us because no one was injured at all. The car that hit us was totalled. The rear of my poor CR-V looked pretty bad. Fortunately, the car in front of us just had a dent on its back bumper. I honestly think that a lot of damage was avoided when the car hit my spare tire, so I highly recommend cars that carry the spare on the back.
The 2 thirteen year old girls that were with us were picked up by another car who left after we did, and got to the temple in plenty of time. After we were all done talking with the police and the insurance company, we drove the rest of the way to the temple without incident. So really it wasn't the worst thing that could have happened, but it was pretty bad.
**The post script to this accident is that we were not ticketed or found to be at fault (I don't know how we could have been at fault!) and the person who hit us was insured. So all $6800 in repairs will be covered. This does leave me without my car for 3 weeks, but we have an extra family car (Kenta's parents' car) so that I'm not left high and dry.**

Overall it really was a terrible day, but we still feel blessed that it wasn't worse. Pictures never do justice to this type of damage (sort of like trying to take a picture of an impressive bruise that you might have only to find an unimpressive slight discoloration when you look at the print -- so sad), but if you're interested, there are a couple pictures below. I didn't think to take a picture of the frame of the car (underneath), which was apparently pretty bad as well.

Residency Match

2008-03-20T19:22:00.006-04:00

Well today was a major day for our little family. Probably the biggest since we've been married. I matched into a residency program today. Around 11:30 Kenta and I walked quietly from the parking lot into the med school portion of the hospital. The air was thick with anxiety and anticipation. I felt as though we were walking to our doom. For those of you less familiar with the matching process, I ranked all the programs I liked (that I had interviewed at) and all the programs across the country rank all their applicants. Then a mystical and magical match takes place and everyone is assigned to a program -- no choices, no questions. So today we really were walking to our destiny; we no longer had any say in where we would live for the next four years. As we walked into the room there was a long table in front with the destinies of about 100 future doctors sitting on it.

The room was full, and everyone was excited and anxious about what those envelopes held.

For quite some time we have loved living in Rochester and that has always been our first choice of all the programs. BUT, we will be leaving.

WE'RE GOING TO INDIANAPOLIS!!!!!

Both of us were surprised by this; we had both felt like we were going to stay. However, I really liked the program in Indianapolis. It was our second choice of programs. Plus, it will allow Kenta a lot of new career opportunities that he wouldn't have in Rochester. So, although we will be leaving many good friends and our beautiful little house, we feel like this is what the Lord wants us to do and it will be good for us.

After the match, we jumped on our phones to call our family. Then the school provided us all with lunch and my parents surprised us by ordering (weeks ahead of time) some sparkling cider to celebrate.

K&V toasting our destiny

Hannah Sears joining in a toast.

Virginia, Alan Sears, Hannah Sears, and Lesa Sears toasting our good fortune

(all the chairs were full, so we took the floor)

Before I was noting that I had a lot of spare time on my hands. With this move you will not find such comments coming from me anymore. If any of you know good places in live in Indianapolis, let us know. We're looking both at buying a house (my preference) and renting (Kenta's preference).

More to come later on our moving and preparations.

So Virginia, what have you been doing with your spare time?

2008-03-04T17:27:00.007-05:00

Well this last month has had several changes for the Takagis.

First, four weeks ago our church stake was reorganized pretty extensively. For nearly 2 1/2 years Kenta and I have been serving in a small inner city branch while living in a much larger ward. During this time I held 5 or 6 different callings, maxing out at 4 at one time. As we left Rochester 4th Branch I was in the Primary presidency, and Kenta was the Elders Quorum President. Our branch had an average attendance of 50-60 people each week. Now we attend the ward we live in with a couple hundred other people, most of whom we don't know. Everything has had to be reorganized with this new ward. Kenta and I, as newcomers to a congregation where a lot of people already knew each other, thought we might blend into the crowd and avoid responsibility for a while.... such was not the case. Not even the possibility that we might move in 3 months helped us out. (Just kidding, of course) So now I'm serving in the Young Women presidency and Kenta is serving in the Elders Quorum presidency. So much for having free time. :)

The other big change we've had recently is that my schedule has been pretty lax. I've had 10 times more free time than I've had for the last 3 1/2 years. It's great. So I've been working on a few different projects. Here's the pictures of a couple projects.

Kenta cuddling in my "crochet mosaic"

I made this blanket out of dozens of random rectangles and squares that I made the same way I make potholders, so Kenta calls it the "potholder blanket." I think "crochet mosaic" sounds better. Let me know what you think or if you have any better suggestions.

This is the quilt with matching pillow and pillow rattle I made for Kenta's sister Emi who is expecting in the end of April. I was very proud of how well it turned out as it was my first pieced quilt in several years.

There are other less pretty projects I've been working on (cleaning, organizing, etc.), and a few other pretty ones that are still surprises. Maybe I'll add some of those pictures later. :)

Lastly, the countdown in on for Match Day. I will find out on March 20th (16 days) where I will be for the next four years for my residency training. I'll make sure to take some pictures and make a new post soon after I find out, so watch for that.

Slumber Party

2008-02-23T12:24:00.008-05:00

Kenta and I invited our favorite six, five, and three year olds (Lily, Chloe, and Hannah Sears) over for a slumber party last night. We had a blast! Here are a few pictures from our festivities.

For those of you that don't know the Sears, they are a family I have been close to ever since I moved to Rochester. Their dad, Alan, is in my class in medical school. They are also members of our church. We hang out with them quite a bit. They are our only "family" here in Rochester. Alan is going into general surgery and will be doing his residency with the army in San Antonio, TX. So they'll be moving in May. We will miss them very much.

Hannah

Chloe

Lily

********GOOD MORNING!!!!********

We're awake!

Hanging out in the bedroom

Pancake Breakfast

Candyland anyone?

Playing with blocks

The girls had so much fun that they didn't want to leave in the morning. So we played a few games, watched a movie, and then had a block tower building competition. Very fun. We'll have to do it again before they move in a few months.

2007 A Year in Review

2008-02-10T21:16:00.001-05:00

Since Kenta and I didn't take the time to send out any Christmas cards/letters this year, and this blog is new, I thought I would update anyone who is interested on things we have done over the last year.

Going into 2007 -- I was in the middle of my third year of medical school and Kenta was/is working at M&T Bank by day and part time at Sears selling electronics by night.

January -- We had our 18 month anniversary. I had my pediatrics clerkship, which I enjoyed quite a bit. It was very, very cold that month.

February -- The most eventful thing that month was our drive down to and back from Philadelphia to attend Kenta's sister Emi's wedding. Driving to Philly doesn't take that long and is usually a lovely drive, but we happening to be going through a large blizzard. We we left Rochester it hadn't started to snow at all and there was very little snow on the ground. By the time we got back about 30 hours later, there was between 24 and 30 inches of snow. It was definitely worthwhile to go to Emi's wedding, but it was a long, white-knuckled drive.

Wedding Party: (R to L) Virginia, Kenta, Kenta's dad (talking to Kenta's mom on the phone in Japan), Emi, Jeff, Jeff's parents and sister

Emi and Jeff Stapler

March -- I finished my OB/GYN clerkship (which started in February) and decided to pursue that as my specialty. I LOVE DELIVERING BABIES!

March snow (after a bit of shoveling)

April -- Kenta and I took a few days off in the beginning of April to take a trip down to Virginia. We visited Monticello, Williamsburg, Jamestown, Yorktown, Harper's Ferry, and Virginia Beach. While in Virginia Beach we got to see one of the original copies of the Magna Carta, which was a visiting exhibit commemorating the 400 year anniversary of the settlement at Jamestown. We both love American history, and we had a blast learning more about the "Historic Triangle" (Jamestown, Yorktown, and Williamsburg).

K & V in front of Monticello

(Thomas Jefferson's home outside of Charlottesville, VA)

Monticello

Virginia in Jamestown pounding corn

Kenta with a cannon at Yorktown

May -- I spent this month with disturbed teenagers while doing my psychiatry clerkship in the adolescent unit of a local psych hospital. We also took a trip to Cleveland to catch an Indians v. Braves game. Kenta is a HUGE Braves fan.

Scoreboard at Jacob's Field

The Braves won by the way...

June -- Kenta's parents, brother, and sister came to visit united the entire Takagi family for a while. So we had some pictures taken and celebrated Emi's wedding with extended family (a few months after her wedding).

Takagi Family Photo

(R to L) bottom row Sue & Shinji, middle row Virginia, Naomi, & Emi, top Jeff, Kenta, & Koji

Family Dinner to celebrate Emi & Jeff's wedding

(R to L) bottom row Naomi, Koji, Emi, & Jeff, top row Chris (cousin), Julie (cousin), Kenta, & Virginia

K&V at the family dinner

July -- Kenta's parents and younger brother stayed in town for another few weeks. We took Koji to a Rochester Red Wings baseball game on the Fourth of July.

4th of July Red Wings Game

August -- When I finished taking my USMLE Step 2 CK board exam, Kenta & I celebrated by going to Philadelphia for a weekend. Also, both of my sisters got engaged that month.

Here we are at (you guessed it) another baseball game, Phillies vs. Braves.

The Braves won.K&V at the Benjamin Franklin Memorial.

We also saw a visiting King Tut exhibit but we weren't allowed to take pictures inside. We highly recommend it though.

K&V in front of the Liberty Bell.

********ENGAGEMENT PHOTOS********

Jessica Dangerfield & Erik Rasmussen

Rachel Dangerfield & Vince Wilson

September -- I did my sub-internship during this month, so I didn't do much outside of the hospital. It was a lovely month in Rochester. The weather here is wonderful in September.

October -- We took 9 days in October to go back to Japan to visit Kenta's family there. We had a fantastic time. The last time we were in Japan was for our honeymoon. We started this trip much more relaxed, and we did a lot less traveling this time, so it was a great trip.

Virginia in front of a field of ripened rice.

Virginia with an enormous, very old tree at Ise.

Virginia harvesting rice the old fashion way.

This woman was so sweet to let me try. Kenta translated for me so that I could follow her instructions. There were a lot of Japanese people who must have thought I looked pretty out of place because they took a lot of pictures of me.

K&V in a well preserved Edo period village.

Check out the large zucchini hanging by my head. I thought it was so cool I made Kenta take a picture.

K&V standing in front of the Marriage Rocks.

The Marriage Rocks are part of ancient Japanese tradition. You can see the large male rock connected by a rope to the smaller female rock behind us.

Virginia in front of the Golden Pavilion

K&V in front of a Buddhist temple in Kyoto.

K&V at Ise.

K&V in front of Himeji Castle.

Kenta in front of a Meiji period castle in Kyoto.

In all our traveling there was a lot of down time for reading and a little sudoku.

November -- I started interviewing for residency programs. I had six interviews in November. My mom flew out to keep me company on the road while I traveled around New England for the first couple interviews. Then we all met up in Utah for the mega weddings. After the wedding business was over I got to spend a pleasant Thanksgiving with my parents for the first time in several years. Kenta had to get back to New York for work, but he spent Thanksgiving with his grandparents and extended family there.

Kenta and my brother Stephen at a pre-wedding dinner.

The Salt Lake Temple

There were 62 wededings there on the day my sisters got married. It seemed to be a constant flow of brides and wedding parties around the temple grounds.

Jessica and Erik Rasmussen

Rachel and Vince Wilson

Cutting the cake (my mom and I decorated the cake)

Dangerfield sisters (Rachel, Virginia, & Jessica)

My parents with the brides and grooms

December -- This was an absolutely crazy month for me. In between interviews and taking the USMLE Step 2 CS board exam, I spend nearly the rest of my time at the hospital doing my emergency medicine clerkship. At one point I calculated that only only spent 6 full days out of 30 at home -- and those were spent mostlyat the hospital. At the end of that grueling schedule Kenta and I went home to Pullman, Washington for a full house at Christmas. All 11 of us were home for the holidays -- 2 parents, 6 children, and 3 husbands. We had a blast!! Jess and Rach also had a reception in Pullman just before Christmas.

The Receiving Line

Me and my mom

We had a gingerbread house decorating competition. It was a lot of fun.

We finally pulled the top of our wedding cake out of the freezer two and a half years later.

It was actually pretty tasty still.

THE END

Stay tuned for more blog updates in 2008 and beyond.