The Schwarze Family in Japan

2011-04-03T03:30:00.000-07:00

Playing around at Lake Nodake before strawberry picking. Funny sign next to our picnic site.

Outside the strawberry greenhouse.

Picking strawberries with friends.

Strawberry Picking in Omura

2011-04-03T03:13:00.001-07:00

Enjoying some homemade ice cream after all that work.

Christmas in Japan- 2010

2011-04-02T22:40:00.000-07:00

Christmas cookies didn't turn out exactly as hoped, but the kids sure had fun making them themselves. Landon loved the flour!

Making reindeer food with friends.

Spending Christmas with good friends:)

Our first homemade gingerbread house was a success!

2010-12-31T02:06:00.000-08:00

The front of our townhome New Year's Eve morning.

That's one BIG snowball, Jim.

Landon is building a baby snowman.

The girls kept themselves busy building a fort. Jim slowed their efforts down.

So, they started another.

Our little angel!

Ryutosen FAlls

2010-12-30T03:25:00.001-08:00

Summer of 2010: The swimming hole is behind Ashley. The feared rope swing! Jim had to bribe the girls to use it. Megan was too scared until Ashley showed her up. Ashley got $20 for being the first.

Here she goes!

It's a pretty good drop.

Swimming hole from the other side. This became our favorite hangout spot this summer.

Ryutosen Falls.

Halloween 2010

2010-12-30T03:15:00.000-08:00

Landon being his usual silly self. He loves the camera!
Megan and Kaitlyn... BFF's.

Ready for Trick-or-Treating!

Yokosuka and Tokyo, Japan- November 2010

2010-12-28T01:09:00.001-08:00

Waiting at the train station.

The first of many train rides today!

The Shinkansen has finally arrived. We're getting ready to board the bullet train to Yokosuka.

Getting settled in for a long ride on the bullet train... five and a half hours to go at 186 miles per hour!

Our first sightseeing trip took us to Kamakura which is about an hour from Yokosuka. A great little town with lots of shrines and the Great Buddha.

Interesting info. on the Great Buddha statue.

The Great Buddha's shoes.

Funny moment: Megan's shirt sleeve somehow got stuck in her braces.

These handwashing and mouthwashing stations are located at most shrines.

Enjoying some ice cream and souvineer shopping.

These windows are common at most Japanese restaurants. The food is fake and shows potential customers what's on the menu. It all looks so real.

Downtown Yokosuka.

Stopping in a bread shop for an afternoon snack. Yum!

Hard to believe we found our way around in this city with signs like these.

Subway sign. Jim thinks it's funny to ask me, "What does that sign say?", and watch me fall for it every time.

On our way to the top of a mountain to Godzilla Park. What I thought would be a 30 minute walk, turned out to be about an hour and a half.

Not quite halfway.

Godzilla Park... I don't know what the real name of this park is, but Godzilla Park sounds good to me.

Japan has some pretty awesome parks!

Gotta love the roller slides! Just don't lie down and get your hair caught in it. No that hasn't happened to me.

The great Godzilla slide. Landon got a real kick out of sliding out of Godzilla's butt.

We passed many businesses along our way to the park and most of them had bike parking such as this. That's why this nation is so skinny. What a concept.

On the train to Tokyo. It was packed to the rim, but very quiet.

Leaving the subway terminal and about to start our walk to the hotel.

It's been a long day, but we're almost there.

Finally, we've arrived.

Outside the hotel.

Our hotel room. Very nice. The kids beds are behind us. They upgraded our first night's stay to an Admiral's Room because they messed up our first night's reservation. Lucky for us!

An unmarked cemetary right in the middle of homes and businesses. You see things like this a lot.

Awesome! Yes, it's real, and there were many more just like it behind that glass.

An unplanned stop by a park near Roppongi. The kids had a blast.

We visited the Roppongi shopping district our first night to see the Christmas lights. Beautiful!

Tokyo Tower. It's a copy of the Eifel Tower, only bigger.

Enjoying some play time in the indoor hotel pool.

Lobby of New Sanno

Fukugawa-Seiji in Arita (Porcelein Capital of the World)

2010-12-28T00:43:00.000-08:00

I painted my own plate. It says "Schwarze" in Kanji and I decorated it with a Cherry Blossom branch. Lot of fun!
Later I had lunch at a very nice Japanese restaurant. I had chicken in what tasted like a carrot sauce. Very good! The bowl that looks like it has mash potatoes and gravy is actually tofu with a sauce, the turquoise bowl had some pickled roots, the black bowl was egg cooked with fish and mushrooms, the bright blue and white plate is a roll and the middle plate was a slice of bread with some kind of jam.

The dessert was excellent as well. It was a lemon cake and lemon sorbet. YUM!

After all that eating, I needed to do some shopping. In this case it was mostly window shopping... everything was extremely expensive!

After the shopping, I went to a cinema to watch a puppet show. The puppets were all made of porcelein and the entire show was electronically ran.

Some of the puppets.

Christmas Greetings from Japan

2010-10-13T14:29:00.001-07:00

Mod Merry Ornaments Christmas

Make a statement with custom Christmas cards at Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

Scarecrow Festival in Hasami

2010-09-28T04:26:00.001-07:00

Terrace Rice Fields in Hasami. I love driving through the country here; it's so green and calming.
Beautiful!

No, my kids aren't helping this lady pull weeds. She's a scarecrow!

Another scarecrow. Some of them look so life-like. I mistook several for real people.

This one won first prize. Very creative! In case you can't tell what's going on here in the picture, she squatting to pee.

We almost overlooked this one.

Enjoying some rice cakes with the ladies.

I think this is supposed to be a woman helping with birth... not too sure, but Landon sure thought it was funny! 4-year-old humor... what can I say?

Hiiii, yah!

Landon's first school field trip

2010-09-24T00:36:00.000-07:00

We had planned to go to the Scarecrow Festival but ended up at the Science Museum because of weather. Landon had so much fun exploring the museum with his friends. This first ride was some kind of car that ran using only magnets. I really needed Jim here with me to explain the physics behind this thing.

This picture was taken inside a room that was -2o degrees celcius. It was freezing.
The kids got to make music by banging on giant ice cubes.

Playing around with Vinny in the evolution tunnel

This was the sign that explained what to do in an earthquake. The pictures are pretty funny.

Some of us in the earthquake simulator.

Playing with the starfish.

Group shot minus two students that were home sick:(

Enjoying a bite to eat and some laughter before moving on.

White Beach, Okinawa

2010-09-24T00:20:00.000-07:00

We stayed in a cabin during our stay that was a short walk to the beach.

Here is a view of the beach from where we stayed. The views were absolutely stunning and look at that water... beautiful!

We discovered many of these burial tombs along our 5-minute walk to the beach. Interesting.

A view from our back porch.

Okinawa was very tropical looking. Most of the highways were lined with palm trees.

Landon loves these tunnels here in Japan that go right through the mountains.

I took this picture for the sign. This was the highest speed I've seen marked since being in Japan... 80 km/hour. That's about 49 miles per hour and this is the major expressway. If we drove this speed on an interstate in the U.S., a lot of people would be very angry.

I couldn't remember the last time Ispotted a rainbow and it just so happened that there were two perfect rainbows in the sky on this day.

White Beach.

Katsuren Castle Ruins

2010-09-22T00:39:00.001-07:00

Our first day on the island we visited this site. It was a long hike up to the top.

A view of the Pacific Ocean from the top of the castle ruins

This was marked as a sacred shrine. Little small I thought.

Favorite Restaurants

2010-09-19T21:28:00.001-07:00

At the noodle restaurant customers ordered their food via a vending-like machine. After customers make their selections it prints out a ticket that they give to the cook. I guess there are no rooms for era this way.

Landon enjoyed slurping down his noodles which is not considered bad table manners here.

This was my meal. Yum!!! The dumpling-like things in the back are pork dumplings and they are sooo good dipped in soy sauce.

This place is called Arin Karin, our Garlic House. It was another of my favs. The outide of the building is decorated with garlic bulbs.

Again, the translations are so funny.

American Village in Okinawa

2010-09-19T19:49:00.001-07:00

This was a neat little shopping and restaurant district in Okinawa City. It's called American Village because it has a few American restaurants such as Tony Roma's, Nathan's hotdogs and A & W, but most of what is there is Japanese
The village stores were all very pretty.

A lot of things were written in English here.

The big ferris whell at the entrance.

This store had lots of odd and in type items. Landon enjoyed trying on the different costumes. He has decided that he wants to be a pirate for Halloween this year.

The kids LOVED Yogurtland. Customers pick up a cup and go down the line filling their cup with as many flavors as yogurt as they like. We tryed chocolate, vanilla, cheesecake, coffee and strawberry. Then at the end of the line there is a topping bar with every imaginable topping. The clerk then weighs your yogurt and you pay by the ounce. I ended up paying almost $ 20 for two cups of yogurt! I hope Jim doesn't read this. On the up side, it was plenty of yogurt for all four of us:)

Landon is obviously trying to hard to give me a smile.

Enjoying our $ 20 yogurt.

Pan Man-the icon of Japanese children.

I love finding the mess ups with translations.

Lunch at a taco stand. They were soooo good.

American Village at night all lit up. Tonight, we ate at a Japanese noodle house. Love those ramen noodles and gyouzas.

One store we went in had these cute little massaging chairs. Landon sat in one because he thought they were for kids, not expecting what was going to happen. He got so tickled that it was massaging his butt.

Swimming in the East China Sea

2010-09-18T16:32:00.000-07:00

Landon being silly.

Landon spent hours under the water with his snorkel gear. Maybe he'll be a future scuba diver.

Ashley found the biggest snail any of us has ever seen!

Treasures from under the sea. We found a ton of sea glass.

Imperial Gardens- World Heritage Site

2010-09-18T16:14:00.001-07:00

Water Spring

A view out of the Palace

Arched bridge was made from a single block of limestone

Resting place for the royal

Even the parking places outside of the gardens were beautiful.

The Former Japanese Navy Underground Headquarters

2010-09-17T21:54:00.000-07:00

This was my favorite trip out of everything we did. These tunnels were dug using only pick axes during World War II and could sustain 4,000 soldiers. The tunnels still exist in their original condition and have opened to the public.
Map of underground tunnels.

Paper cranes hand at the entrance to the tunnels which represent the thousands of Okinawans and Japanese that died here.

Visitors can still see the knicks in the walls where pick axes and hoes were used.

This is the room were Admiral Minoru Ota along with many of his men and officers died. They pulled hand grenades on themselves in this very room. You can see where scrapnel from the grenades hit the walls.

The tool of choice.

The visit was interesting but depressing. There were so many graphic pictures in the museum of the devastation to the land and the people during the war. So afterwards, we enjoyed a pick-me-up of yummy ice cream.

Pirate Ship Park

2010-09-17T21:45:00.000-07:00

We found this wonderful park on the beach.

She's afraid to drive up mountains around here, but for some reason this doesn't scare her.

My little monkey!

Okinawa

2010-09-17T15:41:00.001-07:00

OKINAWA CHURAMI AQUARIUM

(3rd largest in the world)

Entrance to the Butterfly Gardens

We all wore bright colors to attract the butterflys. They really seemed to like Megan's pink shirt.

The garden had red hats for its guests to put on. I wonder if they dissinfect these things?

The aquarium had this awesome system of nets for the kids to climb on.

Say "CHEESE!"

Couldn't resist taking a shot of this little girl. Unfortanately she was shying away from the camera so I couldn't get her whole face. Aren't those chubby cheeks adorable?

The kids liked that they could touch and even pick up the starfish and sea cucumbers.

This fish cracked me up...look at those big lips and eyeballs! He almost didn't look real.

Another picture of this weird-looking fish.

The aquarium was so large, a person really felt as if they were underwater diving. I guess that's the point!

This was the climatic moment for us... the moment we were all waiting on- the whale sharks. They were HUGE! The pictures don't do justice to the real size of these things. We arrived in time to watch them eat, too. Amazing!

Look at the size of those stingray! They were almost as big as the whale sharks.

This statue was the actual size of the whale sharks in the earlier photos. This gives you a better picture of just how huge they really are.

Getting some relief from the heat. Awww...

The park also had a fountain for kids to enjoy. Ashley was the only one that wore her bathing suit under her clothes, but that didn't stop all of them from getting soaked.

2010-07-22T04:14:00.000-07:00

Landon's cure for boredom... how many ways can I sit in a beach chair? Let's see 1,2,
3.

He's gotta find some way to entertain himself at his sisters' swim team practices.

Swim Team

2010-07-22T04:09:00.000-07:00

Megan and Ashley swimming laps. I can't get over how much they swim in an hour. It makes me tired just watching them.

2010-07-22T03:49:00.000-07:00

This is the octopus that was swimming straight towards me. At first glance I thought it was a starfish. I hightailed it out of the water, and Jim started playing around with it when it grabbed a hold of Jim's knife and wouldn't let go. I'm not sure I'll be going back into that water; not without a full wetsuit on anyway.

RaRaRa Ramen Noodle

2010-07-22T03:46:00.000-07:00

We enjoyed a delicious (oiyshee) ramen noodle and pork dumpling meal. YUM!!!!!!

Foot Bath in Hirado City

2010-07-22T03:40:00.000-07:00

After a long day of walking, it felt so nice to soak our sore feet. These foot baths are found all over Japan. We could really use these in the states!

Hirado Castle

2010-07-22T03:19:00.000-07:00

This castle has been around since the 1600's.

Warrior's wardrobe. I don't know how a warrior could walk much less lift a weapon in this thing.

Hirado Castle

As you can see, signs do us no good around here.

Bio Park Zoo

2010-07-22T03:03:00.000-07:00

These monkeys are out of control. At one point Jim had three on him. They would just leap out of nowhere and land on you... then you were kind of stuck trying to figure out how to get them off you. The visit before this one, I was literally chased through one section of the park by a pack of black lemurs! You've literally got to watch your back at this place. We always have funny stories to tell after each visit.

Landon got so tickled by this bird.

Inside the walls of Changdeok Palace

2010-07-13T18:28:00.000-07:00

Jim, I don't think those are your size or your color.

Street Market shopping in downtown Seoul. I was so overwhelmed with the amount of shops... they were on the street, beneath the street and above the street. I could literally come here everyday of my life and still not see everything.

Traditional Korean dress.

These fireplaces underneath the floors of the palace were used to heat the buildings.

Every little nook and cranny of the palace is brightly painted. I'd hate to have the job of keeping this up.

The king's throne.

More painting.

One of the palace structures. This is the throne hall of the king.

2010-07-13T18:20:00.000-07:00

Changdeok Palace

Inside these walls is where the King of Korea lived for 19 years until the Gyeongbok Palace was rebuilt. The Gyeongbok Palace was destroyed during the Japanese invasion.

Nodaki Lake and Falls in Nagasaki, Japan

2010-05-31T04:05:00.000-07:00

Memorial Day Monday 2010: Today we drove south to Lake Nodaki which is located in Nagasaki. It is about a 45 minute drive. There was a pretty cool park and a trail that went around the lake. A great place for nature lover's.

We're hiking down the mountain to get to the bottom of the falls. Behind us, you can see a little of Lake Nodaki.

The falls were breathtaking and the neat part was that visitors can walk behind the falls.

Taking a short break before we head back up the mountain.

AFRICAN SAFARI in Beppu, Japan

2010-05-31T03:39:00.000-07:00

The kids enjoyed playing tug-of-war with someone's dog.

The kids were shocked to see how long a giraffe's tongue is.

This particular lion seemed to be the Alpha lion. It fought with another lion right in front of us because it didn't want to share the food. It was amazing to watch and to be so close to it all. Landon refused to feed them after that; the whole thing frightened him so much.

Landon feeding the lions.

It was so cool to only have inches between us and these wild animals.

The chicken was for the lions, the oranges were for the zebras and giraffes, and the pellets were for the elephants.

The park had all these buses in the shape of different animals. We got the lion bus.

Ishidake Zoo in Sasebo

2010-05-09T19:06:00.000-07:00

Two peas in a pod!

These 3 pictures at the park were actually taken at the Ginza which is a shopping arcade downtown Sasebo; not at the zoo.

Enjoying a treat at the zoo.

Hand-cleaning stations like this one were all over the zoo. I love how they shaped them into animals.

Landon and Ashley enjoyed holding the guinea pigs.

Mother's Day Tea

2010-05-09T19:04:00.000-07:00

Ashley's classroom hosted a special Mother's Day Tea . Ashley wrote a poem for me that you can see in the picture.

Jim's 35th Birthday

2010-05-09T18:57:00.000-07:00

Shirahama- translation: "White Beach"

2010-05-06T05:13:00.000-07:00

The kids enjoyed climbing across the rocks in search of hermit crabs. Megan even caught a baby flounder.

High tide next morning.

Our little beauty queen!

Sunset at Shirahama.

We cheated and made s'mores without the graham crackers. The kids never want the crackers anyway, just the marshmallows and the chocolate, of course! Unfortunately though, the stores here were all out of the jumbo marshmallows, so we were stuck trying to roast these dinky little things. They still tasted great... just a lot more work.

This is where we cooked and ate our dinner. We looked like such ameteurs next to the Japanese who brought everything to their campsite but their kitchen sink. They were all cooking up a feast while we were trying to not drop our hotdogs into the coals! We've got to improve at this whole camping thing. It's embarrassing.

Landon flirting with the locals. Jim and I had taken a walk down the beach and by the time we got back, Landon was entertaining two Japanese girls with his digging skills.

Hermit crabs that the girls caught. We brought them home only to learn that we had to return them to the sea or they would die. Apparently, they're not the same as land hermit crabs. And yes, we did return them.

Shirahama Beach at low tide.

Mt. Unzen/ Day 2

2010-04-14T16:25:00.000-07:00

Getting ready to load up and head back home.

Our private hot springs bath.

The water comes directly from the natural hot springs in the ground and then cold water is added to bring the temp. down so that humans can get in.

We had a reservation at this hotel for a private one-hour hot springs bath. The city of Mt. Unzen have dozens of hotels that offer hot spring bath- both public and private. There are even stations set up in the city that are called "Foot Baths" where you can sit, take off your shoes and soak your feet.

This is the top of Mt. Fugin. It's one of the newest, if not the newest, mountain in Japan. It was formed the last time Mt. Unzen erupted which was in 1990. You can take a skyride up to the top.

Here is Mt. Unzen. You can see in the picture the lava tracks from the last time it erupted! Pretty cool. Shimabara City is located at the bottom. On our drive down the mountain, it was really neat to see the lava flow damns that have been built to save the city the next time this things decides to blow. Also from this deck, we could look out across the Araike Sea and see Mt. Aso. Mt. Aso is another volcano that is still very active. We hope to make a trip to see Mt. Aso close up while we're here. I was told you can actually go up to the very top and look into the volcano dome!

There are pockets of steam like this one everywhere in the city.

Isn't that so sweet!

Taking a potty break. He saw his daddy do it, so of course, he had to do the same:)

Hiking up to the top of the mountain.

This was a nice veiw of some of the city and the pond. The pond was bright green from all the sulphur in the water.

I got Landon to unplug his nose long enough to give me a thumbs up. He kept saying he wanted to go home because this place stunk. Literally, it did.

Boiling water pools like this one were everywhere.

We arrived in Mt. Unzen and spent the morning walking around the park called Jigoku which means "hell" in Japanese. (The Japanese believe that if they do bad things while living on earth, they will be thrown into a pit of fire when they die.) There were pockets of hot water that create all this steam coming up from the ground all over. Landon kept plugging his nose and commenting on how badly it stunk. It smelled like rotten eggs because of the sulphur. However, it was the coolest thing to see all the pools of boiling water at the surface of the earth. Along your walk through Jigoku, there were places to buy fresh boiled eggs that were cooked using the hot spring water right there in the park.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010:

This morning, we headed over the mountain to the town of Mt. Unzen. The city practically sits on a volcano. If you look closely at the sign you might see another name you recognize. I'll give you a hint... Jim detests the name.

Our Stay in a Japanese Ryokan

2010-04-14T15:53:00.000-07:00

These toilets are great. I told Jim I want to buy one and take it back to the states with us. The best thing about them are the seat warmers:) You can see at the top what looks like an armrest. The buttons are all digital with options like warming the seat and playing music while you do your business.

The kids playing around after breakfast.

Landon had fun entertaining us with more of his "funny faces" at breakfast.

Megan eating white rice for breakfast... she can't get enough of the stuff.

Our overnight stay included a buffet-style breakfast. There was something there for all of us. Megan and I tried tofu and didn't like it. But we did have things like ham, scrambled eggs, rice, soup, salad, bread, pastries, Jim had some sushi, fried egg rolls and coffee. It was delicious!

Settling down for bed.

After getting back to our room from dinner, the maids had came in, removed the furniture and made our beds (Japanese style). The kids and I slept comfortably, but Jim didn't like his bed. He complained that it was uncomfortable.

After our hot springs bath, us girls enjoyed pampering ourselves with the different body lotions and facial lotions.

Megan has just gotten out of the hot bath and is cooling off.

Ashley is enjoying her soak.

Inside the public baths, there are these cleaning stations set up. The Japanese believe that the hot springs are for soaking and relaxing, not cleaning. So before you enter the tubs, you have to bathe yourself using a station like these. Al of these necessary cleaning items are provided for you including a scrub brush.

While waiting for the elevator to take us down to the hot springs, Landon wanted me to get this shot of his shoes. These are the slippers that you were around the hotel.

The inside of our Ryokan. Notice there are no beds. This hotel does offer more westernized rooms, but I requested that we stay in a Japanese room.

I can't remember what they call these robes, but these are what guests put on to walk around in and lounge in inside the hotel. They were very comfortable. Here, we are about to head downstairs to soak in the hot springs before dinner.

Shimabara Castle/ Our First Road Trip

2010-04-14T15:26:00.001-07:00

This is the bell tower on the grounds.

This is Landon's new "funny face". He loves cracking the girls up:) Next to him is armour that a guard or soldier would have worn.

A view from the Observatory Deck of the castle.

One building on the the castle grounds was being used as a statue museum. This museum is said to be the only one of its kind. All the statues we saw were hollow and were created much like the Statue of Liberty- using the same techniques.

Landon was trying to look like the statue, which is of a man boxing. He's such a little character!

This was one of the many statues we saw. I don't know what this statue is called because everything was written in Kangi, but it's certainly not the god of love.

Driving up to the castle. The grounds were decked out in azaleas. As you can see, they are all beginning to bloom.

One of the two doors that sit side-by-side to enter the castle. Pretty big!

A picture of the castle through a window in one of the nearby towers.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010:

Tuesday morning we took off on our first official road trip in Japan. We headed to the city of Shimabara- about a 2 1/2 hour drive. The drive was beautiful and we got to see some of the countryside. Our first stop was Shimabara Castle. The castle was built in the mid 1600's and it has survived many wars, earthquakes and a tsunami that killed more than 10,000 people in the city! The castle sits up very high which is what saved it; however, the tsunami was so big it reached the foot of the castle.

2010-04-05T03:43:00.000-07:00

There were 7 kids on our Monday fieldtrip today. Here are most of them all lined up looking at a waterfall.

Here were some pretty flowers growing along an old wall. I'm so glad spring has finally arrived!

One of the snakes we encountered today. We weren't sure if this one was poisonous so we kept our distance.

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This was the walking path around the stream.

Hiking Trip #2

2010-04-05T03:32:00.000-07:00

Monday, April 5, 2010

Today, Landon and I went on another Monday morning hike. This time we visited a town well-known for its tea- Ureshima (not sure if I have it spelled correctly). First, we visited a park and saw a lot of waterfalls, some wild ducks and 2 snakes (yuck!). Then we all piled back into the bus and took a quick drive up a mountain to a popular resort/hotel where we walked inside to take a look around. The owner was very nice and even invited us to come in and take a look at the hot springs. I wasn't too sure at first that I wanted to do that, because there were naked people bathing in the springs, but I really wanted to see an unsen (or hot spring) so I took a quick peek inside. The springs looked so peaceful and relaxing. The Japanese love hot springs and use them often because they believe the springs are theraputic.

Sushi Date Night, Part 2

2010-04-03T21:05:00.001-07:00

After filling our bellies with fish, we went out for dessert at Ikuta. I've been wanting to try this place out for awhile. These are the desserts we picked. The first one on the left is the bakery's #1 seller and the second is a new item of there's. They were SOOOOO good!

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Sushi. Oishii (delicious!)

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You can see a few of the items behind me on the conveyor belt. Next me are stacked mugs. You take a mug and fill it with hot water (hot water spicket was also at the table) yourself for tea. The tea bags were in the container next to the mugs. The hot tea I did not like.

Sushi Night Out

2010-04-03T20:49:00.001-07:00

Jim and I had a date night and decided to try out a local Sushi place. Jim loves sushi, but I've never tried it until now. Behind us is a conveyor belt that the cooks place sushi and desserts on. All you have to do is take off what you want then stack up your plates. After you've finished eating, the waiter comes by, totals up the amount of plates you have, and gives you your check. We ate all sorts of things, and I have to say, I didn't try anything I didn't like. It was really good:) I did cheat a few times and picked up some plates of fried shrimp rolls which obviously aren't raw, but I also ate several that were raw. It was amazing to me how full I felt after only eating about 5 plates. We had a total of 10 plates so our bill came out to be 1050 Yen which is only about 11 bucks. What can I say, I"m a cheap date.

2010-04-03T20:44:00.000-07:00

Making Easter eggs the day before Easter

You might recognize this alpaca from an earlier picture on my blog. The zoo set up a small petting zoo at the Easter festival.

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Ashley has got her hard hat on and is about to experience what a real earthquake feels like.

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Megan is taking some time out to check out some of her goodies. She just learned that the Easter bunny really doesn't exist:( The kids were playing hide-n-seek the other day and she hid in the closet where I was stashing the Easter goodies and told me later that she didn't believe in the EAster bunny and realized that we were the Easter bunny. She has now been sworn to secrecy so that Ashley and Landon don't find out.

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A race to get the most eggs. I tried explaining to Landon to run to the very back to get eggs while everyone else is fighting over the eggs up front. He sort of caught on.

2010-04-03T05:47:00.000-07:00

Landon stopped to give us a big thumbs up. He's inside the firetruck checking everything out.

Easter Celebration at Nimitz Park

2010-04-03T05:40:00.000-07:00

Saturday, April 3
Today we went to the EGGstravaganza at Nimitz Park. The kids played games, visited the petting zoo, bounced on the Moonwalk and went Easter egg hunting. Landon got so excited when he saw this firetruck at the park. The Japanese fireman even let Landon climb inside the truck. You should have seen Landon's face light up when he got inside! Megan and Ashley enjoyed riding the Earthquake Simulator ride. Landon was pretty upset when the operator of the ride told us Landon was too little to ride.

2010-04-01T22:53:00.000-07:00

Landon loved the extra-long swings. He kept saying the swing tickled his belly.

2010-04-01T22:51:00.000-07:00

Can you find Ashley?

2010-04-01T18:03:00.000-07:00

The kids had a blast jumping in the ball pit.

2010-04-01T18:00:00.000-07:00

Mt. Eboshi Park has a lot to do. They have downhill grass sledding, a skating park, racecars, a bike area, ball pit and a lot more. It was too cold outside the day we went, so we weren't able to do everything.

2010-04-01T17:57:00.000-07:00

This shot was taken about halfway up the mountain. It was a great place for a picture. If you look closely, you can even see the port where the ships are docked when they're here.

Mt. Eboshi Park

2010-04-01T17:53:00.001-07:00

Mt. Eboshi is the highest peak in Sasebo. On our drive up to the top we pulled over and got a good shot of Sasebo City.

Saturday, March 21, 2010

2010-03-23T05:08:00.000-07:00

Megan and Ashley love the new Chinese dresses they bought at the Oriental Bazaar today.

Peacock Park

2010-03-23T04:57:00.000-07:00

I heard about another great park called Peacock Park, so Landon and I hopped in the car one morning and took off with somewhat of an idea on how to find it. The funny thing over here is nothing is marked. Other than the major expressway, highways, etc. roads aren't named here, so you have to know where you're going and people here use landmarks when telling you how to find a place. Well, I ended up missing my turn and not knowing it and driving a 1/2 hour further than what I was supposed to. After pulling into a 7-Eleven and miming to the Japanese woman (who didn't speak any English) where I was trying to go, I finally figured it out. The park turned out to be worth all that time finding it.

Isanoura Lake

2010-03-21T23:26:00.000-07:00

Monday, March 22, 2010

Today Landon and I hiked around Isanoura Lake which is 5 kilometers around (something like 3.3 miles). It's a beautiful lake lined with Cherry Blossom Trees. They are just beginning to bloom as you can see from the pictures. I learned of something really neat today. Each Cherry Blossom Tree was planted by a newly married couple and then marked with a wooden plaque that contained their names and the date in which the tree was planted. How romantic:) Also, if you catch a falling blossom in the palm of your hand, your wish is supposed to come true.

Nagasaki Lantern Festival

2010-03-18T15:03:00.000-07:00

Every year, during the last 2 weeks of February, the Japanese celebrate the New Year and have Lantern Festivals. This was a neat thing to experience. We drove to Nagasaki (about a 2-hour drive) to see a Lantern Festival there. By the way, just in case you aren't aware, Nagasaki is one of the two places we dropped an atom bomb! The city was beautifully decorated with lanterns of all sizes and shapes and at night the sight was even more beautiful when the lanterns all light up. Check out the pictures at the left side of the screen going down.

Nagasaki Bio Park Zoo

2010-03-18T14:28:00.000-07:00

This zoo was like no other we've been to. These park owners want their animals to be happy and comfortable, so there are few fences to contain animals. Because of this, visitors of the park can interact with most of the animals. We were able to get up close and even feed animals like monkeys, bats, kangeroos, and hippos. Jim and I joked about how many animals must come up missing on a daily basis at the zoo, because it seems not much is done to keep them caged.

2010-03-18T06:12:00.000-07:00

Sakai Park is like no other park we've been to. The park goes up the side of a mountain and at each level there is a different section of the park. There were some breathtaking views on our hike through the park. Behind us is a really cool artificial grass sledding area. We look forward to trying this out in the Spring. The park also had a zipline that the kids really enjoyed. Jim and I even gave it a try:) Oh, and check out that slide. It was literally straight down! For kids? Seriously?

2010-03-18T06:02:00.000-07:00

Trip to the Aquarium at Kujakushima Park

What a fabulous place. We went with some neighbors of ours and had a great time. The aquarium had just undergone renovations and had reopened.

Exploring Sasebo

2010-03-18T04:30:00.000-07:00

Thursday, February 5, 2010

We ventured out into the city today. First we visited an ancient shrine. It's customary to cleanse the hands first and then use a wooden spoon to put water into your mouth to swish and spit (this is to cleanse the mouth before entering the shrine). Next, in front of the shrine, I threw a gold 50Yen coin in the fountain for good luck, pulled the rope to ward off evil spirits, and made a wish ( I can't remember if it was done in that exact order:)

After the shrine, we drove out to Kujokoshima Park (home of the 99 Islands). You'll see some of the tour boats in the picture. Unfortunately, it was too cold to go out on one of the boats so we'll save that trip for a later time.

Then we were off for a Japanese lunch. Luckily, we had a Japanese translator with us to help us with our order. However, we did find out that this particular place did have the menu in English. The food was very, VERY good.

After lunch, of course, we had to make a trip to the bathroom. I'll just say, the bathrooms are different here. What you see in the picture is what most bathrooms here have (a squat potty). Most also don't have toilet paper, so be sure you bring extra tissue with you. Thankfully, one American toilet was there and boy what a treat- a heated seat! I've got to buy one of these to take back to the states with us.

Landon's 4th birthday!

2010-03-17T21:52:00.000-07:00

Shortly after arriving, we celebrated Landon's 4th birthday. Not having any of our things, we managed to pull something off halfway decent. Landon helped me make his dump truck cake and even our new neighbors brought over gifts. He had a great time:)

Our adventure begins

2010-02-27T16:04:00.000-08:00

Saturday, 23rd of January:

We said our goodbyes to everyone yesterday and drove over to Tampa. This morning we had to get up at 3AM to get ready for our flight. We're flying out at 6:40 and must be there 2 hours in advance. We got ourselves dressed and headed downstairs to catch the shuttle to the airport. Everything was going very smoothly until we got out of the shuttle with our things and realized Jim left his briefcase that contained all our flight information and passports in the shuttle bus that was now gone. We had a small crisis on our hands. Jim had to catch a taxi back to the hotel to retrieve his briefcase. Fortunately for us, the hotel was only about a 5 minute drive and he got back in time for us to check in and pass through security. What a morning!!! Hopefully the rest of the day will be uneventful.

We arrived in Houston, TX around 9:30 where we had to deboard and switch planes. We grabbed some breakfast/lunch and boarded our next plane.

Arrived in Hawaii safely. I hate flying. I was a nervous wreck and trying to conceal it from the kids was nearly impossible. The last thing I wanted to do was pass my fears onto them. Hawaii looked amazing from the air...I hope the next time we come here it will be for more than just a layover at the airport. Next stop...Guam!

Sunday, 24th of January:
I was so relieved when we touched down safely in Guam. Only one more stretch to go and it's a short one! We've reached about 20 hours of flight time at this point and we're exhausted. The kids slept most of the flight; however, Jim and I got very little sleep. Landon really liked to fly. He loved being served drinks and food and thought it was so cool that there was a potty on board. For the next 2 nights we're taking a break and staying in a hotel in Guam.

Monday, 25th of January:
We rented a car for the day and drove around the whole island of Guam. What a beautiful, peaceful place! They call Guam "the poor people's Hawaii" and I can see why! The mountains, blue-green water and the cliffs take your breath away. We found a natural saltwater pool that was safely nestled between two cliffs that protected the pool from the ocean's currents. The water from the ocean hit the cliffs and formed these 20+ foot waves. The water then waterfalled into this natural pool. Stunning! We put on our swimsuits and jumped in. It was at least 20 feet deep and the water was crystal clear so we could see straight to the bottom. We wished we had some snorkle gear with us because there were some really colorful fish.

Tuesday, 26th of January:
Off again. Thank goodness it was only a 4-hour flight to Fukuoka, Japan. After arriving, we learned real fast just how efficient the Japanese are. After we got off the plane, of course I had to make a pit stop by the first lady's room that I saw. I made it quick and we were off to customs and then to get our baggage. By the time we got to the conveyor belt to get our luggage, our's was the only luggage left. As we approached, there were 2 Japanese women (they obviously were airport employees) looking around with worried expressions on their faces trying to figure out who these bags belonged to. We couldn't believe that the airport staff was that quick to unload the baggage from the plane. So that 2-minute pit stop to the bathroom almost caused problems. After collecting our stuff, we headed for the exit and found a Japanese man holding up a sign with our name on it. We followed him to the van and loaded our stuff up and buckled in for another 2-hour trip to Sasebo. I couldn't understand how it would take us 2 hours when Fukuoka is only about 50 miles from Sasebo. What we di dn't know though was that we would be driving mostly through mountains and at a speed no more than 40 miles per hour! They drive so slowly here! Oh well, it was better than flying.