The Schwarze Family in Japan

Monday, April 5, 2010

This was the walking path around the stream.

Hiking Trip #2

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.

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Sushi Date Night, Part 2

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!

Sushi. Oishii (delicious!)

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

Easter Celebration at Nimitz Park

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.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

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

Can you find Ashley?

The kids had a blast jumping in the ball pit.

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.

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.