It’s been awhile since my last update on Clement’s condition, and I really do apologize for that. To be absolutely honest, there’s been many times that we’ve wanted to provide an update, especially when we get some positives – but sadly it usually goes downhill again before we can even finish a week of positives. Needless to say, it’s been quite a rollercoaster ride.

Just a recap of the past years and a bit:

• October 2014 – Onset of the flare-up that is still on until now. Started visiting the doctor again
• November – March 2015 – Tried many, many diets/natural methods to no avail
• March 2015 – Colonoscopy showed high inflammation, but no new action
• April 2015 – First trip to Japan! He was in a lot of pain most of the time, and did not have a ton of energy to go around.
• June 2015 – Start new medication – Entyvio (just approved at that time)
• September 2015 – Started to see some improvement with Entyvio, but with a lot of joint pain. Had a flex-sig scope (not a full colonoscopy) and no improvement at all
• December 2015 – We hit a plateau with the improvement with Entyvio and has gone down since.
• January 2016 – New doctor!!! She wanted to do a flex-sig scope to check, and it looked like there was some improvement, even though Clement hasn’t been feeling any better. We went on prednisone to help but once the steroid therapy tapered off, he was not feeling good again.
• April 2016 – We started doubling the dosage for Entyvio
• June 2016 – Clement started to gain some weight, but lost it all after a food-poisoning incident in his trip to Mexico. We hadn’t seen much improvement since we doubled the dosage, but this set us back a couple of weeks.
• October 2016 – Clement went back on prednisone which is the steroids, and we flew to Japan and Malaysia. Clement felt amazing this trip even though we had the craziest of foods. He was able to try staying at a ryokan and he felt thoroughly relaxed! We surmised that being on vacation and relaxing was good for him.
• November 2016 – We came back from our trip and it went downhill again, most likely because we had to taper off the steroids.
• January 2017 – We had another scope, and we had to stop Entyvio as it was no longer working. Clement was asked to try Simponi, a new medication that was self-injecting. Clement started to gain considerable weight by this time.
• March 2017 – Clement went back to his Naturopath, but he actually got so sick after all the medications that he took that we stopped most of them.
• April 2017 – We went to Japan again, but this time around Clement didn’t feel any better being on vacation
• June 2017 – We had another scope, Simponi wasn’t working either, so now he’s on new medication called Stelara, as a shot in the dark because it hasn’t been approved for ulcerative colitis (only for Crohn’s), but some clinical trials have been showing positive responses.

It’s been almost 3 years in this flare-up. I know this may sound weird, but I feel bad sometimes for the people that constantly pray for us, and catch up with us and we have no real good news to share. But don’t feel sad for us – this entire journey has been truly enlightening and has only really brought us closer to God. We have had so much to gain from this experience, probably much more than what it has taken away from us. I just wish I could at least tell you that in the physical sense, that he’s feeling better.

But no matter how strong C is mentally and psychologically, I know this has affected him immensely. I watched how my active, healthy husband who had all the energy in the world to travel, eat delicious foods, achieve so much at his workplace and enjoy his car and motorcycle hobbies — struggle on a day-to-day basis with pain, fatigue, uncontrollable urges, and anxiety. It’s truly heartbreaking. 

On a weekend, he’ll tell me how much he wishes he could go for a motorcycle ride, or go out for dinner with his friends, or go on a date with me but we both know that if we forced him to do it, that subconsciously his body would be so uptight and anxious, worrying about where the next bathroom is, or if he’s going to make it home without an accident. This is just not the way to live. And inevitably, how can I, as a wife, not worry? When I plan our trips, I have to make sure it’s a stress-free as possible from transport to transport – and wherever we are going has got to have a washroom. It’s a vicious cycle of worrying, and trying not to worry, but still having to worry because I still need to do our situation. I wish I could be strong and say that it’s okay, I can deal with it – but it’s still tough to go through.

Recently we went to Edmonton for our friend’s wedding and we were honestly really, really excited for our friends because they were there for our wedding as well, and then we were able to witness their engagement here in Vancouver. C grew up with the groom, too, and so they share a lot of happy memories in school together. But sadly – whether it’s food poisoning or his flare-up just gone worse, C struggled to be a groomsman throughout the day. He was so weakened and fatigued, that at the end of the wedding, right after the speeches, we had to bid farewell and head straight to the hospital. And of course, because Clement didn’t look like he was dying, we had to wait, wait, and wait some more. I obviously have a love-hate relationship with the public health system. Over 3 hours of waiting and then more waiting for the doctor once he was actually inside, and of course, there’s not much to do but to run tests and wait for results. He was given some antibiotics and eventually sent home, because we were flying back the next day, Sunday. Before we left for the airport, we stopped by Clement’s grandpa, who’s 98 and kicking. He recently had a tumor in his colon and had surgery, and currently has an ostomy bag. Aunty Christine, who helped take care of grandpa actually brought out his supplies and showed Clement how it worked.

After our recent colonoscopy in June, our doctor told us that she would be sending us to a surgeon to discuss options, and also another doctor because he has access to a lot of clinical trials in town. Since Clement has “failed” 4 different biologics (Remicade, Entyvio, Simponi, Stelara) on top of his other medications, it might help to talk to understand what his options are.

As I wrote before, ulcerative colitis is a chronic disease and it currently doesn’t have a cure. The tough part about it is that every person’s body is different, so with the medications it doesn’t always work – it’s a lot of trial and error. Some people’s UC is also different – especially the mild cases, they can take medication and it’ll stop and appear cured. That’s what I would say about a lot of people online that either take medication or do a certain diet, and all of the sudden, there’s no more issues and their UC seems to be gone. I also know of some people who have been able to manage their symptoms with diet, but sadly with Clement, it appears that neither diet nor medications work.  The sad part about medications too is that, while it may work for a little while, your body may build antibodies to it eventually and it won’t work anymore.

Just a few days ago, we had the chance to visit the surgeon and what we thought was an exploratory meeting became a real hope for a more normal life. The surgeon was really upfront with us and had looked through all of C’s documents and pictures, as well as talked with his current doctor about his situation. He explained to us the 2-step surgery that he is recommending to us. The first step would remove his diseased colon and pull the end of his small intestine into an opening outside the body, called a stoma.  This would make him empty his bowel outside into the ostomy bag. The second step, would be to close the stoma, and create a pouch with the end of the small intestine and so he would have an internal pouch and he would empty his bowel similar to now. The rates of success were really high, and the doctor believed that because Clement’s UC was really centered around his colon, that this would help him immensely, when the “bad” part of his body was removed. He also told us to do our research, and gave us some people to talk to and blogs to read, so that we could have a better idea of life after surgery, as well as how people started their new lives post-surgery. We definitely left with quite a bit of paper to read.

this is Clement right before we met with the surgeon. 

Right after this meeting, we both spent some time in prayer. It’s kind of surreal, but we’re both really at peace with the thought of surgery, all of a sudden. I personally have done quite a bit of research about this before, but I had some qualms about surgery because of the probably complications that some people experience. But, I also knew a good amount of people that had this surgery done that have gone to live fairly normal lives, and I was really quite positive about it. Clement, on the other hand, never really wanted to do it before. This meeting really changed his mind.

I reached out to people who have had this surgery, and while most of them had the surgery done in emergency situations, they all recommended to do the surgery, and shared all their tips and advice to help us in recovery. We also spoke to his doctor, and she also shared that Clement would no longer qualify for the other clinical trials because he’s already ‘failed’ the other medications, the rate of success in new medications for him would be quite slim. We also thought about, what if we kept this colon – how much longer is it going to take for him to heal? Are we going to wait until it perforates and we would require emergency surgery, and potentially deal with even worse issues? We’ve done the waiting, the medicine, and the alternative medicines. 

It’s been almost 3 years, and a lot of pain and tears, but we are so ready to reap in some songs of joy on this earth. While we know that there still might be some hardships and complications, but our hope is that Clement would have an amazing surgery and recovery, and transition to this new normal.

So, we are saying yes to surgery. 

I used to think that surgery was giving up. Social pressures with his condition had always spoke about healing naturally, and success stories, but we really did try. Right now, I really just want Clement to have his life back… to be able to live life even just a bit better.

These next couple of months are going to be another rollercoaster but we are hoping that it is the light at the end of the tunnel in our journey. Please keep us in your prayers  as Clement gets lined up for surgery, the actual surgery and then his recovery and transition. I’ll for sure post about it once we hear back for our surgery dates as well. 

Renting a car in Japan was pretty easy. I made a reservation online using Tocoo which I found was cheaper than getting it from Expedia or wherever else, and I could also determine where I would pick it up and drop the car off. C also got his international driving permit a few weeks before we left for the trip, so it was just perfect timing. Tocoo basically pools together all the other rental companies in the area, and gets you the best rate. So our car ended up to be from Honda Rent a Car and we picked it up at the Sapporo Station North branch. It was fairly easy, we went in, showed our reservation and the permit, they gave us an ETC card (this is the reloadable device they have for paying toll, so you didn’t have to converse with the toll person), and we bought a Hokkaido expressway pass so it covered wherever we went.

Driving in the city is definitely a lot more hectic than the highway, so the transition to driving on the right side of the road was so peculiar there. But Sapporo is so different traffic-wise from Tokyo, so I thought we got out of the city way quicker. Check out those beautiful mountains!

At our first toll gate. So easy – just like most toll gates around the world, where you just drive through it fairly slowly, and once you hear the beep and the gate opens, it’s time to go!

The road to Shakotan passes through Otaru, which is still a fairly busy area with tons of people, so check out these cute little houses on top of the tunnel!

Once we passed Otaru, which took about half an hour, the road narrowed to a one lane (oh no!) and more tunnels to come!

C and I were stuck behind this little car for a loooong time… and when we finally got to a spot where we could overtake the old lady, she turned off from the road. LOL!

The scenery along the drive was just seriously amazing, like breathtaking, out of this world. You almost couldn’t believe you were still in the same country.

Took a snap of this bridge because it reminded me our bridges here in Vancouver!

Here we are closing in! Shakotan area is also fairly large, and Shimamui Coast + Kamuimisaki (Cape Kamui) were still further in that area. We passed through so many little towns with almost empty streets, it was quite fascinating. We followed the GPS on the car but it could only take in phone numbers and map codes, so we ended up relying on Google Maps on our phone, and the signs of course, which were thankfully in English.

Once we hit the “end of the highway”, you could turn right or left – right to the Shimamui Coast, and left to the Cape Kamui. We went to Shimamui Coast first.

Finally after about 1.5 hours of driving, we arrived in Shimamui Coast. You’re probably wondering, where’s the coast? Haha, through a little tunnel behind this picture. There’s a little restaurant + shop and washrooms and ample parking. Since we were here in April which is off season for them, there was barely anyone there. I kind of like this laid-back atmosphere for travelling, to be honest!

And here was the tunnel I was chatting about!

You walk through it, and on the other end…. is paradise.

Hello, beautiful Shakotan! As some of you know, I absolutely love the sea and the smell of it was just like home. The waters, crashing waves, seagulls and all, were all music to my ears. We had been praying and monitoring the weather app for good weather and thank God for this wonderful opportunity to experience His creation!

There were steps to walk all the way down to the beach, and with my half marathon 2 weeks away, I was like, let’s go for it!

Couldn’t stop taking photos, every step down provided a different perspective of this beautiful place!

Ze husband heading down to the coast… he loved it too!

This is him throwing a rock onto the sea… he said he just had to do it! LOL!

Afterwards we headed back up and drove to the left (south) towards Cape Kamui, which is just about 10 minutes drive. Another little shop/restaurant and a huge parking area.

Love that there’s a vending machine in the middle of nowhere….

Here’s a map of the place!

I could totally imagine how much more beautiful it would be with all green hills, but I was already beside myself seeing this view! This little section towards the tip was closed, not sure why! Maybe the wind?

I felt like I was seeing a dragon snaking all the way to the sea.

And the view opposite the water was also just as beautiful…

The tip of the peninsula! And honestly I didn’t want to leave. It was so beautiful and it just captured my heart. Such an amazing place!

Then, we made our 2.5 hour trek south to Noboribetsu, surrounded by the beautiful sea, snow-capped mountains… ah! Life is good

Love,

K

We stayed about 2 days in Sapporo, the main city in Hokkaido. We took a flight from Tokyo, which only took a little over an hour – we reckoned it was faster to do so than to take the train, and probably cheaper, too! The New Chitose Airport in Sapporo was also filled with awesome restaurants and knick-knacks, that surely, if it wasn’t closed by the time we got there, I would have immediately filled my suitcase with it …

On our third day in Sapporo, we took the 30-45 min train to Otaru. I say 30-45 because in the morning there was no rapid train, so we had to take the local train which took 45 mins. We were still fairly jetlagged, hence our early start to the day.

//warning: bazillion photos ahead….//

Arrived at the train station and welcomed with welcome bells!

Looking back to this cute station! We didn’t get a chance to go to the Otaru Fish Market which is just 10 o’clock to the station, but who knows, maybe next time, when C is feeling better?

We made our way down the main street (Chuo-dori) towards the canal and I just fell in love with the architecture in this cute town, seriously!

Like, the detail, OMG!

C by the tsunami post, as we were nearing the canal itself!

Here’s the obligatory shot of the canal, it’s so cute I love it! Just love the character of the architecture and old streets, just speaks to me so much.

And the vines on the buildings are to die for…

Another shot of the canal from the other direction. I can totally see why the Japanese also love Vancouver, being framed by the mountains and a body of water is what Vancouver is all about, and this little town is just that, too!

Couldn’t help but notice this bright reddish-orange Japanese Post!

The gorgeous view of the snow-capped mountains. Something about Japanese snow… for some reason it still sticks even though it was 11 degrees this day!

Then we made our way to the Sakaimachi Street, where all the awesome glass outlets and goodies were to be found. All the little buildings and the vines were so pretty to me, I wonder if they would be all in green in the summer?

I had seen this a lot throughout the highways and railways in Hokkaido, is it really for an avalanche? Or to help people from falling through? Hmm… not sure!

Isn’t this street just simply adorable?

One thing I absolutely love about Hokkaido is their milk and sweets products… The milk itself is honestly not too far from what we get here in Vancouver but what they do with it is what makes it extra special for me.

I found Le Tao products the last time we were flying back, and discovered they had started out in Otaru and had lots of shops here. This one, Pathos is their biggest one I think! Had to try the double fromage cheesecake, and the soft ice cream as well and it was heavenly. Not super sweet, just a cloud of cheesy goodness. Not too cheesy either, I think it was just a perfect combination for a light dessert

I discovered that C didn’t really like to look at glass artwork so much this trip – things you find out about your spouse is hilarious! Haha. But we took a look at some of the shops – it really reminded me of my trips to Venice – with canals and glass shops and gorgeous architecture.

This one had a bike but along the Otaru canal we definitely saw some manual rickshaws so poor dudes are dragging the tourists around, haha!

Also found our Gastown steam clock sister at Otaru, funny to hear that Vancouver sent one here!

Aren’t these just the most adorable stone statues? Forgive my lack of variety of adjectives in this article… everything was just so cute!

I don’t think you could get hungry in Otaru to be honest but we were pretty set on trying the standing sushi joint my Japanese pottery teacher recommended at the JR Otaru Station, Isezushi. I heard the main shop actually had a Michelin star, and we were all for local spots (and not tourist traps) that had awesome sushi. It was the best seafood we had all trip! We went for the 10 pc Omakase, which was such a deal at Y2100 (roughly $20!!!)

Standing sushi places definitely have you standing the entire time, but who cares when you get to eat the best seafood and go almost after you finish? We were both so glad we were able to figure what we wanted on the menu without them whipping out an English one The uni at this place was like… kill me now….

I had heard about amazing sushi in Hokkaido but I didn’t understand until I got here. Everything was so perfect and fresh and just amazingly prepared. I didn’t need to have a super discerning tongue to know that what I was having was top of the food chain seafood.

And right after our meal, we paid our dues and actually headed back to Sapporo right after noon! Otaru is a fun little day-trip from Sapporo and would definitely recommend it!

Love,

K

Now, a ryokan with a private onsen isn’t as plentiful as regular ryokans, and some can get booked up years in advance. We picked Yama no Chaya, a beautiful ryokan in the mountains that is close to the Tonosawa hot spring. You could easily book and pay online on your own 3 months prior to your trip, which we did. Ryokans are generally pricey because they basically treat you like royalty for the day, with your own “butler”, and they cover your meals as well, a full course kaiseki dinner and a full breakfast.

How to get to Yamanochaya

• From the Hakone Yumoto station, either take a taxi or take T bus for the kami-Tonosawa stop.
• Based on google maps the Tonosawa train station was the closest but we highly discourage you from taking this route. We did it, and it was a long downhill walk, and we had huge luggage that we were lugging around the narrow streets of Hakone hahaha.

Since we walked, we got to cross this pretty bridge on foot!

Because we didn’t take the taxi, we had to walk up this super steep incline (LOL) with our luggage. Good thing I have been running uphills else I would have collapsed.

Finally we arrive at the ryokan! Check-in time is actually 3PM but we came early just to drop off stuff, and also to make reservation for the other onsens they had in the ryokan.

This place is just absolutely stunning. It spelled absolute relaxation for us.

And of course they greeted us with delicious cups of matcha.

When we got back the ryokan around 4:30PM, they brought us to our room which was on the 4th floor. We got the Special Asebi room because I had read reviews online that the view up here was really nice. It was getting dark so we didn’t get a chance to really see much at this time.

Our host, Te, gave us a tour of the ryokan, determined our times for the dinner and the breakfast, then helped us get dressed in yukata’s.

We dipped our feet into these little feet onsens to rest our feet from all day walking!

Before long it was time to eat dinner!

Dinner was so delicious! We actually ate every single thing!

The appetizer course was so much fun. Everything was so thoughtful and presented amazingly.

The sashimi platter was super fresh. That medium fatty tuna was like… melt in your mouth goodness. The surf clams which I typically don’t really like was extremely tender, instead of chewy.

The entire dinner took like 2 hours! Seemed such a long time but when we were having everything time just flew by, and we really wanted to savor every bite. The dessert was also memorable because I LOVE berry sauces and this one was just so perfect.

After dinner we took a dip into our private onsen which was seriously so amazing. You know the water is great when your hands don’t wrinkle after being in water for like half an hour.

Then around 10PM we went to the outdoor onsen that we were able to book so it’s just the two of us in it, and it was so beautiful and perfect. The showers in the back are super awesome, too! They got all the best shampoos and conditioners to use, and you can even shave and do a foot scrub while you’re at it. LOVE it. Perfect way to relax.

We were pretty tired so we slept quite early, and also cause we wanted to maximize our morning since check-out is at 10AM. Next time we get a chance to stay at a ryokan I think we would opt for 2 nights!

We were greeted by a beautiful sunrise, light shining through the leaves…

It was a bit chilly in Hakone but definitely not cold enough for the leaves to turn yet! The maples in Vancouver are all orange now.

So cute that they gave us these Japanese socks to wear, and matching wooden slippers!

The balcony on the second floor of our room had a stunning view of the mountain. Sat there, prayed, and had tons of beautiful reflections…

Loved these peekaboo wooden windows that let the filtered light in, or you could sneak a peek of the gorgeous mountainside.

My husband, pouring some tea for breakfast.

Te, our host came into our room to setup for breakfast around 8. I mean look at this spread! I was talking to my Japanese friend, and I asked her what she normally eats. And she told me that Japanese like to eat things very balanced, hence the number of plates in meals such as these. A little bit of protein, a little bit of vegetables, fish, etc…. so good!

Could definitely tell how relaxed and happy my husband was to enjoy this wonderful spread.

Delicious furakake for some steamed rice…

The only think I didn’t eat was that plum, haha!

Seriously, I just love Japanese interior design and the wabisabi concept. Everything is so natural, imperfect but so innately beautiful and zen-like.

And sadly, we had to leave this gorgeous place. Yes, we learned our lesson and took a taxi this time around to the Hakone Yumoto station. Definitely will be back to a ryokan again, one day, God willing!

Hope you enjoyed this little snippet of our adventure in Hakone!

Love,

K

I just wanted to share some of the tips/tricks we learned during the trip to Hakone, hence this little guide.

Key Definitions:

• Hakone Free Pass: The Hakone Free Pass has two versions, one from Shinjuku (5140Y) and one from Odawara station (4000Y). The Hakone Free Pass from Shinjuku gives you one round trip between Shinjuku and Odawara station only on the Odakyu Line, and then gives you free access to the 8 different transport systems in Hakone like the cable car, buses, train, ropeway, boat cruise, and discounts to some of the hotels and onsens, museums, points of interests, etc. The Odawara free pass version isn’t worth it at all because it doesn’t include your transportation getting to Odawara, which is the most expensive part to be honest. You won’t be spending 4000Y for transportation in two days in Hakone.
• Hyperdia: This website is Japan’s own transportation website that is more comprehensive than Google Maps, it takes into consideration if you want to take a Shinkansen, limited express trains, etc. Sometimes Google Maps would not give you all the options, or may even be slightly inaccurate with the cost and train departure times.
• Odakyu Line: Name of the train company that provides the Hakone Free Pass, Romance Car and direct train rides to Hakone. There’s still a number of other train companies like JR that can go directly to Odawara as well.
• Romancecar: Odakyu Line’s limited express train from Shinjuku to Hakone Yumoto Station. It has fewer stops, and it goes directly to the Hakone Yumoto station, so it reduces you one transfer . It’s only by reservation so you can only take this train with a normal ticket + reservation ticket. If you wanted to take the Romancecar with the Hakone Free Pass, you have to pay an additional Y890 each way for the reservation.
• Odawara Station: This is where most trains, such as JR and Odakyu Line, arrive. So when you are planning a trip without the Hakone Pass, you will have to use Odawara as your destination. Then, you will need to take a Hakone Tozan Line to Hakone Yumoto station (15 min ride, 310Y), or a bus. The train station terminates at Hakone Yumoto station, you’d have to get off if you want to go even further into Hakone.
• Hakone Yumoto Station: This is like the epicenter of Hakone transportation. All the buses, trains at some point will end up here. If you wanted to tour around Hakone, you will need to get to this station to get to anywhere, such as taking the bus, or the Hakone Tozan train to Gora.
• Hakone Tozan Line: This is the “mountain” climbing train that takes forever to get up the mountain to Gora. After being in Tokyo for the past couple of days, everything seems so much slower in Hakone, haha! It’s a 40 minute train, but it sure feels longer than that. It terminates at the Gora station. There’s 3 switchbacks on this train ride, too, so it’s a little confusing sometimes because you feel like it goes back and forth.
• Gora Station:  This is were you would stop to take the Hakone Cable Car, which is a train that just goes uphill for about 10 minutes. It still felt longer than that because we had to stop at every stop (4 stops).
• Hakone Cable Car: Free for the Hakone Free Pass. If you don’t have it, this train does not take Pasmo/IC cards. If you want to go to the top for the Hakone Ropeway, you would have to buy it at the ticket machine for Sounzan. You can use your Pasmo/IC card to pay for the ticket (420Y). To be honest this didn’t feel like a conventional cable car for me. It was like a slanted train that went up the mountain diagonally, versus hanging by a cable from one area to another. The Hakone Ropeway was closer to a real Cable car for me. It’s just called a cable car because it uses a giant cable to bring the train up from the bottom.
• Hakone Ropeway: Free for the Hakone Free Pass. This ropeway is accessible once you get to Sounzan. If you don’t have the Free Pass, and you want to go all the way to Lake Ashi and do the boat cruise, you would have to buy a ticket for Togendai. This ropeway does not take Pasmo/IC cards as well, and the machine was broken so when we bought it at the counter you could use Pasmo/IC card to purchase the ticket (1370Y). The Ropeway is absolutely stunning, the views are so breathtaking. It has 3 stops I think, and you would want to stop at the first one, Owakudani.
• Owakudani: This is a volcanic valley that has active sulphur vents and hot springs. Gorgeous views here. After the station, you would start to see Mount Fuji (or Fuji-San) on a clear day.
• Togendai: This is the stop you would want to get off to get to Lake Ashi and take the boat cruise, which is just a couple of steps away. This is where we took a bus to head back to our ryokan. All of the buses would say 35 minutes to Hakone Yumoto station, which is a complete lie because people stop at a lot of the stops, so it’s more like 50-60 minutes depending on how busy it is.
• Lake Ashi: This is where the boat cruise would take place, free on the Hakone Free Pass. If not, you would have to buy tickets, which I think differs on where you want to land or if you want a round trip. It would normally be around 1000Y for a single trip. Then you can take a bus from the end of the cruise to head back to Hakone Yumoto or wherever you are staying that night.

Hakone Free Pass – to get or not to get:

• If you are coming from Shinjuku, this is a good deal. We were staying in the Ueno/Akihabara area, so travelling to Shinjuku would have added 30 more minutes to our trip, and after calculating everything it would be cheaper not to get it. However, in hindsight I would have done the travel to Shinjuku,because the only way the trips would be cheaper would be to take local JR trains (taking the Shinkansen would be way more expensive), which means you may not get to sit down for the entire trip, which happened to us… a little crazy if you’re lugging around all your luggage.
• If you are really close to the Odawara station, I would say no need to get it.

Romancecar or not:

• I would say, if you had 1780Y (890 both ways) to spare, take it. That way you ensure yourself a relaxing ride to the Hakone. You can even make reservations a month in advance. You also save yourself one additional transfer between Odawara and Hakone Yumoto station, and with the Hakone Tozan line being so slow, I would take it.
• It’s only truly scenic around Hakone from Odawara to the Hakone Yumoto station.

Other tips:

• If you can help it, don’t bring your big luggage around, just a day pack. There’s tons of lockers at Shinjuku station that you can leave your luggage in, just don’t forget where you placed it. The Hakone Tozan Line can get really busy and it’ll be hard to lug around. The streets of Hakone are also incredibly narrow, we felt it was super dangerous to be walking on the road without a sidewalk, lugging our big luggage around
• Start early. Because the trip from Shinjuku still takes 1.5 hours, and every little train / bus / cable car / transportation takes at least half hour, with places closing at 3-4PM at times, make sure you have enough time for everything or split it over two days.

Our Trip: 

• We didn’t do the Hakone Free Pass, so we took the JR Utsonomiya Line from Ueno station to Odawara station. It’s a busy train lots of people coming in and out, and it took around 80 minutes. We didn’t buy the green car tickets so we just stood around that time.

We actually bought bento boxes at the Ueno station but because we didn’t take a seated train we didn’t get to sit down to eat them, so we just stopped by the roadside and ate our delicious bentos!

• We arrived at the Odawara station and took the Hakone Tozan Line to Gora, and stopped at Chokoku No Mori Station (one stop before Gora) and walked to the Hakone Open Air Museum. It’s 1600Y for the entrance and 1400Y if you had the Hakone Free Pass.
• Personally, I thought I would like it more than I did but I didn’t feel it was worth the money.

• Then, we took the Hakone Tozan Line one stop to Gora. Upon arriving in Gora, we bought the cable car ticket to Sounzan. As I mentioned earlier, they don’t take Pasmo/IC cards but you could pay for the ticket using the Pasmo/IC Card. To get to the Hakone Ropeway in Sounzan, it’s 420Y, or free if you got the Hakone Free Pass.

• Here we are at the Hakone Ropeway! You would need to buy a ticket again for this one if you didn’t have the Hakone Free pass, so buy the ticket for Togendai if you want to get to the bottom of this ropeway, which is 1370Y. We used the Pasmo/IC card to pay for it but you couldn’t just go through with just the Pasmo/IC card.

Super stunning views especially on the right side of the cable car, so if you can stay on the right, you should!

Then you’ll start to see the Owakudani valley on the left side of the ropeway.

I would recommend to stop over at Owakudani.

This place was just so breathtaking!

Then we hopped back on the Ropeway and you could see Fuji-San a little bit more.

Since we went in the Fall / October time, we could see the trees starting to turn orange, which is so gorgeous. It was still honestly pretty warm for fall but I’m so glad to see the leaves starting to change.

At the bottom of the ropeway will be the Lake Ashi cruise, which we didn’t take. We arrived around 3PM and the last cruise that way was 3:40, but we felt like we wanted to head back to the ryokan and enjoy all the facilities there instead of this. Thankfully the info stations could all speak in English and helped us find the right bus to take for our ryokan, and after about an hour we arrived safely in our ryokan. Google Maps is a little easier now too that has all the stops written out, so we were just matching it with the screen inside the bus, to make sure we were heading the right direction and to get off the right stop.

And we got ourselves a little matcha + vanilla soft serve ice cream treat!

• The next day, for our trip home we used the Romancecar because we needed to go to Shinjuku to transfer to the Narita Airport, and it was super worth it! I would recommend it at least for one of your rides, if you didn’t want to do both ways.

I hope you learned a little bit about travelling to Hakone from this guide!

Love,

K

This guide is really for sport bike motorcycle gear, but I am no connoisseur for these items whatsoever, so forgive my lack of knowledge!

First store we headed to was Ricoland, which is perhaps the largest store. This branch at the Tokyo Bay Shinonome is just beside Super Autobacs which we wanted to visit anyway, so it was perfect.

Ricoland

• 2-7-12 Shinonome, Koto, Tokyo 135-0062

It was the one and only rainy day we had in Japan! When we stepped in the store we knew that it probably had a preference for Yamaha, with the large Yamaha selection of clothing and gear, featuring Rossi and Lorenzo.

Where to start?? There was a long row of beautiful sport bike helmets – Arai, Shoei, AGV, and some lesser known Japanese brands. The expensive ones were inside a case.

This store also had tons of parts. It was gonna be hard to bring home, so we just skimmed by this area mostly.

Thought it was super cool seeing all the different kinds of exhausts up in the ceiling!

Tires section…

More parts…

And oh ladies, there’s also a section to sit down and relax, read some magazines if you feel like! The saleswoman kept trying to ask me if I wanted to sit down (hahaha!) and wait for the hubby to finish his rounds.

And that’s about it for Ricoland. Next stop, we went to Naps Adachi. Like Ricoland they have many branches all over Japan, but we picked the one closest to us.

Naps Adachi

• 7 Chome-2-17 Ayase, Adachi, Tokyo 120-0005, Japan

This one was nestled in a very residential area, and thought it was super cool that it’s in the middle of nowhere!

The first floor had tons of second hand bikes, but mostly scooters, and no sport bikes. Up the second floor  we found a nice MotoGP selection of goodies, and all kinds of motorcycle clothing/gear. We’re heading to Sepang MotoGP this week so we held back on buying some of the MotoGP memorabilia. I’ll have to update you if the prices are more or less!

I’m also a huge fan of MotoGP so this little section was super fun for me, personally! I just wanted to buy all the Marc Marquez stuff, so excited that he is now the 2016 MotoGP champion after the epic Twin Motegi race.

I liked how this store had it laid out by brands, and the Alpinestars one had Marquez, Lorenzo and Pedrosa’s actual suits displayed! So cool!! We are anticipating not being able to get a photograph with them in person so I am happy to see this already LOL.

Another large helmet area. Maybe it was just because they were on sale, but they had the best prices for helmets across the board. I would recommend buying them here instead of Ricoland for pricing.

Then, we went on the third floor and yep! Parts everywhere. It was really cool honestly seeing everything, it was really fun for me too.

Then we headed to Ueno. We came out the south JR exit and walked east and north, but later on we found another entrance/exit that was a tad closer to the row of motorcycle shops. They were all fairly small in size.

We walked beside the station and turned right after the Iwakura High School (there’s a JR exit close here too), and we found this Big Beat store. Not so much sport bike stuff, but motorcycle gear for sure. It had two floors, and the second one had a small selection of helmets, but nothing spectacular.

Walked a little further down the street and found another Big Beat.

Then, we turned left at the corner of the main street and we found Rabee. It’s the biggest store we found in the area.

Rabee

• Japan, 〒110-0005 Tokyo, Taito, Ueno, 7 Chome−11−10, 上野第９秦ビル

They were watching me left right and centre so I couldn’t really take photos inside! But the first floor had a lot of clothing and gear, the second one had a MotoGP selection of goods, helmets, more clothing, etc. Had some more dirt bike stuff.

Then we crossed the street and found UPC Ride On, a small store with mostly Arai helmets. Right beside it is a smaller Rabee store.

From there we headed North and we found a couple more stores. This one is the first one we found with actual new bikes in it, a lot of the ones were just gear or if ever they had second hand bikes.

More parts…

More second hand bikes…

Some more motorcycle gear…

And that’s about it! Not a huge area in Ueno. Hubby got mostly what he wanted in Ricoland and Naps, and because we weren’t looking for parts we were happy campers.

Hope this guide gives you a little bit of an update on motorcycle gear shopping in Tokyo and Ueno!

Love,
K

But anyway, we have found ourselves wandering through Tokyo the past couple of days, and so we decided that we wanted to try it out! After a couple of google searches, we discovered the following:

• They don’t take reservations, and you can’t line up to get in
• They now have a ticket system. You come in early in the morning to pick up a ticket for 11:00, 12:00, 13:00, 14:00, 15:00 time, for a 1000 deposit that they will return to you once you come back.
• On weekdays it’s okay to arrive somewhere in between 7-9AM and you can still get a good lunch ticket time slot.

We got there around 8:40AM, and there was no line up for the tickets at all. We just peered in, and the awesome chefs let us in. It’s a tiny space, like many of the restaurants in Tokyo. Only 9 seats are available. There was one 11:00 AM slot left and there were a couple of 12:00 slots, which we took. They only seat 3 at a time, so it was perfect as C & I were coming with yet another friend. They told us to come back around 12:00-13:00.

When we arrived around 12:15 (yes, we did the fun little trip to the Ikebukuro for the Pokemon Centre) and I just had to visit the Tokyu Hands there for some stationery shopping, there were at least 15 people in line.

By that time, we also saw that they are out of today’s tickets as well, so to note that around this time they shouldn’t have any tickets anymore.

So, the ticket system works like a fast pass in a way, you still have to line up when you come in with your ticket. We waited for about 1 hour before it was our turn to go inside the restaurant.

Here I was, incredibly excited because we were next in line!

Once we got in, we were faced with the ordering vending machine which we see everywhere in Tokyo for these types of places. We picked the top two there with the pictures, the one on the left is the Shoyu (soy sauce, darker, black truffle, more smokey flavor) and the right is the Shio (salt, lighter, white truffle, with a slight mint flavor). For some reason there wasn’t any ajitama (eggs) so we just went on with it. Each bowl was 1500 yen, and it was “the works”.

The little space was really quiet and calm. No music at all, just the two chefs working about. They really looked like they were having a performance, and having so much fun doing what they love. Like there wasn’t a bead of sweat. They were moving about with such grace, I thought it was really nice to see them enjoy what they do without being in the mercy of their customers. I think the ticket system is smart, else if it was all about the line, then they would probably be stressed trying to work as fast as possible.

We weren’t allowed to take photos of the kitchen, so pardon us for the lack of photos. After we bought the tickets, we still waiting for a good 20 minutes for the people to leave so we could finally sit down and enjoy this meal.

And now for the most anticipated thing! C got the Shoyu version and it had the black truffle in it. I had a taste of it and I really thought it was nice and rich but still light. I know you see a layer of oil here, but it really didn’t feel heavy or fatty at all.

Mine was the Shio version. The broth was considerably lighter and you can taste the truffle a little less here, but I felt it gave an opportunity to taste more of the various notes like the onions, and the mint … it was great! The dumplings were interesting because I had never eaten dumplings in my ramen before, but they were good dumplings. They had a huge wrapper that made for awesome slurping. The pork was not very fatty, but it was very flavorful and tender.

It was definitely a very unique ramen, I had never tasted anything like it before. In Vancouver we mostly have heavy thick ramen that you get a food coma out of, and you lose the flavor as you eat it, but this one I felt like the flavor actually started to develop as I slurped out of that bowl. It’s a memorable bowl, I’m pretty sure it’s not the best ramen in the world, but it was pretty delectable. A check off the bucket list!

And after we ate, we lifted up our trays and gave the customary bow and left the small ramen shop.

Love,

K

What usually keeps people to heading to Joffre Lakes honestly has been the long drive heading there. Coming from Richmond, it takes about 3 hours without traffic. We left 6AM today, so there really wasn’t a ton of cars on the road. There was quite a bit of activity and slowness when you pass by Whistler, but right after that, it’s quite smooth sailing as you head up north past Pemberton.

Once we arrived, it was only just past 9, so there weren’t a ton of cars in the parking lot just yet! There’s also two pit toilets right at the entrance to the park. In about 100 meters, you would see the Lower Joffre Lake. So gorgeous, seriously! It was still quite foggy and cloudy at this time, but just beautiful.

Then, we hiked to the Middle Joffre Lake. There’s a little bit of an uphill climb throughout this portion, around 2.5-3 km. The path was really quite nice during this part, not a ton of rocks or muddy areas at all.

Loved weaving in and out of the trees and just seeing the beauty of this place! So breathtaking.

Once did a couple of the uphill climbs, the sun started to peak through the clouds – so incredibly gorgeous! Look at that view! Later on, on our way down we actually was able to see the Lower lake.

We encountered a little section where we could taste some of the clear mountain water, and as expected it was incredibly refreshing. Whoever set this up… thumbs up to you

Ah, it was just so incredible seeing the sun shine through the trees and the fog slowly dissipating… all my worries and struggles just melting away in the midst of the beauty of God’s creation.

Finally, we reach the second lake! This lake, like the first was absolutely stunning with its clear turquoise waters. If you know me you know I love this color so much. Those tall trees just left me awestruck. This little portrait section here was probably my absolute favorite.

Here you can get a little peek of the snow-capped mountains as well.

From this point, it’s only about 1 km left. I am guessing it rained yesterday or perhaps through the night, so it was really muddy. There’s a ton of rocks as well, but I love varied terrain when I hike, so this was really fun for me.

On our way to the Upper Lake, we found this amazing falls. It really looked like a ladder with tons of water thundering down the slopes.

Here’s my friend RV saying hello!

And finally, we reach the third and final lake… the Upper Joffre Lake! So absolutely breathtaking. The glaciers / snow-capped mountains, the turquoise waters and the beautiful green trees. Could not help but praise God and thank Him for the perfect weather.

We arrived around 10:40 PM here, so that meant our hike in only took about an hour and 20 minutes, and we really weren’t rushing through it at all. When we headed back, it was a little faster so we finished around 2.5 hours in total. Way far from the 4-5 hour hike that was stated! I promise you, we stopped so many times to take photos.. the drive took longer to get here. On our way down, there was definitely a ton more people on a seemingly quiet Tuesday morning, so I can totally imagine that it would take longer on a busy day.

Here’s a snap of me and RV at the third lake. I’ve known RV since I was 3, and it was so nice to catch up with her since I hadn’t seen her for almost 2 years. It’s always such a blessing to pray and worship with a fellow Christian friend, and enjoy little adventures like these together. These friendships are so scarce and hard to find, so I really praise God for her.

All in all it was such an amazing trip, so beautiful, and so blessed to be able to do it. I really need more breaks like these, seriously! My heart is so full.

Love,

K

Nowadays, I classify runs and walks more for relaxation and of course exercise, rather than for competition. It’s a completely different perspective, and purpose, but doing sports has always been a fulfilling thing for me, I really do enjoy it. I’ve always thought of myself as a sprinter, so I never thought a long run or a half marathon was something I could do. I could do a long walk, or a long hike, but running the entire time is a completely different story. Endurance running is only half a physical challenge, and half a mental challenge to keep going. One thing that has really helped me focus while running has been reciting my Bible verses. I’ve mentioned in my previous posts that I’ve been doing this journey of going through all the Psalms and memorizing as much as I can. Right now, I’m attempting to memorize the entire Psalm 119, and by God’s grace I’m more than half-way through! Woohoo! It’s just an amazing “mantra” to focus on and it’s incredible enriching to think about God’s word while “struggling” in exercise.

Now, I will admit that I have only been running since June, so it’s not an incredibly long preparation for this half, and I hadn’t been running for more than 5-10km. Half marathons are 21.1km. That’s a ton more!! I have a funny behind the scenes story to how I ended up running this race, but regardless, I said yes to running this Seawheeze half marathon. I heard so much good stuff about this run and I would say it was really worth it. Like the course is beautiful, the cheer stations are awesome, there’s so much entertainment that I didn’t even think so much about the run, I just had fun being there!

Friday August 12 was the package pick-up day! I heard it was going to be crazy busy and all, so I really wanted to miss the crowds because I still had a ton of work to do. We went around noon and there was literally no line up, including the entrance to the Seawheeze Showcase store. I would say, Lululemon is SO smart coming up with “limited edition” merchandise like this because of course people want some kind of memorabilia running this race, so you end up spending more money than you already did just getting into the race. Because I’m so tiny most of the small sizes were so picked through already, but I snagged myself a pair of shorts and socks with the course design on it. Lululemon is all about not being too loud about the shirts, so they don’t have anything that say “I ran the Seawheeze 2016”. The gear bag that came with the running package also came with a pair of shades and some Nuun active pills and plastic water bottle. I would say I am a lover of dark colors and gold, so I definitely loved the bag design this year!

Fast forward to the start of race day. I didn’t check in a bag because I was trying to pack light and I felt it was unnecessary. I didn’t want to have to check in a bag and have to pick it up afterwards when it’s so busy. Besides, there’s a ton of water and refreshments throughout the course. So I just brought my ID and card and some cash, my phone, an extra ponytail, some advil and that’s it! After the race, they gave us little bags for the goodies we got and I felt like I made the right decision.

I took the transit to get to downtown because of all the road closures. It’s only $2.75 on the weekends, so that’s a huge bonus than the regular $4.

I arrived around 6:30 and thought it was still the perfect time to get there. Tons of people already, of course, and just so blessed to be living in such a beautiful city!

I hurried to go to my corral. There was a ton of signage so seriously people shouldn’t get lost. I found the 2:20 corral and also found some friends, which was a huge bonus. There were definitely limited breathing space, haha. I’ve never ran with so many people. When I run around my neighborhood it’s always just me, myself and I. That arch was the start line, so around 7:15 our corral started moving, which was fantastic! The first 2 km was really busy, so many people running around you, I felt like I couldn’t even do my normal pace because everyone was around me. I was concerned that I was training in Richmond where it’s flat, and there are some uphills in this course, but honestly none of the uphills was bad at all for me. Maybe all that quad and ham strength over the years have accounted for some benefits.

We started off in the heart of downtown and made our way across the viaduct and then along the seawall. That was fun, it was so beautiful, the weather was seriously absolutely perfect. I didn’t take a ton of photos in the first 10k at all because I was so focused on keeping up a good pace, and you had to really weave around people because some would just stop randomly. I passed the 2:20 mark and the 2:15 mark, and right when we were hitting the Burrard Bridge we could see the 1:30 groups sprinting across. It was amazing to see their athleticism, sprinting for such an incredibly long time. After the Burrard bridge, we ran all the way to Balsam St and then made a U-turn. I saw my friend Jessica and her fiance, and it was so awesome to see people cheering for me.

I was initially planning to pace myself after 10k but I felt strong and my breathing was good, so I kept going. After the Burarrd St everything was pretty much flat and we were entering the Stanley Park, which is seriously just gorgeous! The shade also helped as it was getting hotter by the minute.

And oh, I’ve forgotten about the cheer stations! They were so fun and energetic. If I was them I would have lost my voice after an hour. For a couple of minutes I wondered if they had a script to know what to say, because I would run out of cheers. Haha! We saw a spin class, mermaids, people on a boat cheering, one guy was like floating on the sea with his jetpack, and just tons of positive energy all around. There was also water and electrolyte stations every 3 km. I’m not used to drinking that often during my runs, so I drank every second one I saw, so I stopped 3 times. I guess it’s a normal thing but seriously there were still a ton of people who couldn’t put their cups in the trash at the least. When you have to stop to drink you might as well take the extra step instead of throwing. There were some food stations but I couldn’t bring myself to eat, so I just left it for the end.

Around the 18km mark I started to feel slight numbness in my hands and just fatigue in general, I pushed for around 2km more but around 20km (LOL, I know), I decided to walk for a little bit.  It wasn’t very long, because the end was in sight and I knew I had to finish strong. I think if I trained for this more I could definitely even push for a 2:00 finish, and if I didn’t walk I should have finished a sub 2:10. But I did what I could and I didn’t want to hurt my knee too badly. Mostly it was just my right knee, the one with the ACL reconstruction that had some pain and the outer side of my foot, but my left leg was fine. At this point, I couldn’t even recite verses, I was just repeating one verse over and over.

Finally, we were one corner away and I broke off to the final sprint and finished 2:14! Yay. All I really cared about this race was finishing, it was a huge bonus to finish in a good time, at least for myself. Achievement unlocked.

Here’s my sweaty face right after I crossed the line.

Everyone got draped a gorgeous medal just like the Olympics and it really did feel like I was an athlete in the Olympics and I had just finished my event. And seriously, look at that beautiful view behind me! Psalm 95 and Psalm 100 was like on repeat in my head at this time, just so thankful.

Then we had to do the walk of shame, just kidding, the slowest cool down walk ever as we went up the ramp to get our brunch, water and freebies! Yay! Met up with some friends as well, Flo, Cal and Cory!

And me doing the medal bite!

If you noticed they didn’t have the bibs at all, I figured Lululemon didn’t want us to pin up our gorgeous Lululemon attire (I think 95% of the people were wearing Lulu’s, and 45% of them were the special edition ones from yesterday’s haul). Instead we had this paper strips with chips in the back, that automatically got our times every 5, 10, 15 and 21.1!

Overall that was such a wonderful experience, I really would do it again. The 21.1 km flew by and I felt like I accomplished so much and it was only 930am! And really, you can’t complain when you get to run with such awesome entertainment and cheer squads, beautiful view, and tons of freebies to boot. I love my Saje products so I was very happy to get my little runners reward afterwards.

And that’s a wrap! Maybe next year C can run it with me, and hopefully by that time he would be so much healthier.

Love,

K

I really wish I could tell you good news. That after these past couple of months of silence on the blog, that we’re all healed up.

Let’s backtrack a couple of months. Our last colonoscopy really gave us a ray of hope.

You know how our colon is like this upside down U shape? From your butt, it goes up from your left side and then it turns into a sharp corner and goes across your body, and then goes down again on the right side. Our new doctor had wanted to take a look and see how his body was doing before she planned out her next plan of action. Clement’s colon was looking pretty inflamed and ulcered all the way up from the butt, but once we hit the corner, Clement said that it was the first time he had seen his colon look clearer and not red. There was scarring, so for sure colitis had ravaged that part before, but for the first time in a very long time, we had hope that he was healing. His doctor said that the lower part of your colon is the hardest part to heal. And because he’s been sick for so long, it’s taking even longer to heal. She prescribed Clement some really high dosage of steroids for 8 weeks to help keep the inflammation down in hope to induce healing in the lower part of the colon so he can finally get out of this flare-up, which has been a year and a half in the making.

We ended the bout of steroids about 2 weeks ago now, and sadly, the symptoms have returned and it just feels like there hasn’t been any progress. For a little while there, Clement looked like he was getting better. We had a really good week and we were honestly so hopeful. Then all of a sudden, we had what it seemed like the smallest of arguments, so easily avoidable, and he started to turn for the worse again. I can’t help blame myself for that – here I was, supposedly supporting my husband and yet I caused him more stress that probably made him sicker. Honestly, it’s been so incredibly heartbreaking. Lord, when is this going to end? Is it ever going to end? People wonder how I’m coming through all this and I will be honest with you. It’s been really hard seeing my husband, so full of life, having to hold back on life because he’s not well. I know it sounds selfish compared to what he’s experiencing, but as a type A person, it’s been so hard not being able to really help. That it seems like in spite of tears and hours pleading with the Lord, all the things we’ve done, nothing is giving us relief.

And it’s also been hard because chronic disease is not easy for a lot of people to understand. When you look at Clement, you may not know that he is sick. That he worries about going out and the availability of washrooms and the proximity to our home. He’s really got one of those invisible diseases, plus he’s really good at hiding it. If you ask him for help, he will do his utmost best to do it. He would do his best to not let this sickness stop him, but the reality is, this sickness has. Behind close doors, and accidents, and the bleeding and the tiredness, the reality is he’s so sick and I can’t believe he’s been sick for this long. As his partner, sometimes, I don’t know how much longer his body is going to hold up like this.

I mustered up the strength and the time to write this post today because I’ve been feeling rather overwhelmed. I’m coming into Month 4 of being self-employed as a business owner and there’s really been tons of learning experiences and I’m coming to the point where I really feel like I need help – like an assistant. I’ve been praying and I’m still thinking about it as my business has been growing, praise God, but I am also struggling with the ability to trust another person with my work. But I know I probably have to do it, because I want to achieve that balance, of managing my work and still be able to do things for myself, and be a wife to my husband. I’ve been missing days to go out on a walk and pray and memorize my Bible Verses, so I thought, today, in spite of my overflowing inbox, I will put that aside and trust that God will see me through that. That though Clement’s flesh may fail, and my heart may fail, God is still the strength of our heart, and our marriage and our house, and He’ll see us through it. One of the reasons I was writing this post because I’ve felt called by God to start a prayer chain online. A lot of you have heard our story, and I really want to make an impact for God through our story. In the next 40 days, would you please commit some time to pray for Clement and I? It could be 7 seconds, it could be 7 words, it could be 7 minutes, or 7 times a day, at 7am, or 7pm, whatever will suit your needs. You can set an alarm and a timer for yourself so you won’t forget. 40 days in the Bible generally symbolizes a time of trial and probation, and I thought it would be good to come together to commit this time of tribulation for Clement’s healing. Please pray that God would have mercy upon Clement and to heal his body completely of this disease. That God would continue to bless him with long-suffering and perseverance, to see him through this journey of ours. Please pray that we would finally have relief from this flare-up. For wisdom what to do, to know when to rest. That God will continue to raise him up for His Kingdom. Please pray that I would have patience and kindness and wisdom to know how to be a wife to Clement in this journey of ours. That I would find the balance in all my responsibilities. #40daysforClement 40 days from now will be May 17, 2016. Thank you so much in advance.