GODZILLA park!!

One of our favorite parks is Godzilla Park or it is really called Kurihama Flower world. It is this huge park with tons of flowers and at the top is this really cool playground. We took Granny and Gramps there and had so much fun. I was also surprised to see them sliding on all the slides--it is so awesome that the kids have such active and fun great-grandparents!

Riding the train to the top of the hill!

Granny and Gramps LOVING the roller-slide!

Gramps coming down Godzilla's tail--he almost got stuck!!

There were all of these cute little japanese kids in different colored hats.

Kailey sliding down with some random japanese lady!

Gramps and Granny in the train!

Climbing Cade!

ZIP-LINE!!

View from the top!

Chinatown

One day we took Granny and Gramps to chinatown in Yokohama-it is such a fun place to wander around and has TONS of yummy food.

Cute picture of the boys!

Panda stuff is EVERYWHERE in Chinatown!

Everything is also so colorful!!

Mikoshi Parade

In Japan, fall is marked by mikoshi parades. They are religious processions featuring colorful costumes and elaborate mikoshi. The mikoshi is a sacred shrine carried by men on their shoulders or pulled. Anyways, tons of fun to watch. While Granny and Gramps were here, the city of Yokosuka had their annual mikoshi parade. It starts out in town and then comes on to base where it finishes. It is tons of fun to watch--here are some of the pictures.

The guys that carry the mikoshi wear these short coats, oftentimes with nothing underneath!!

Carrying a mikoshi

Kailey and Cade and I helped pull this mikoshi--there is Kailey in the bottom corner--we had so much fun!!

With the really heavy mikoshi, there are tons of men carrying them and they occasionally will stop and do a little dance to give them a break--you have to see it, but they kind of shuffle their feet and it looks like the mikoshi is going to fall, but it gives everyone a break.

Tons of colorful and unique outfits!

Half Marathon Mommy (and Daddy!)

Last month, while Granny and Gramps were here, the base had their first annual 'Great Pumpkin Half-Marathon' and Eric and I ran it. I have been running in the morning with two of my good friends, Breclyn and Kendal and I talked them into running it with me. Both of them had never ran a single race before and the most they had ever ran at one time was 4 miles, so this was a big thing. However, we started training during the summer and just worked our way up to it. While it wasn't one of my better runs, which was frustrating, we all finished and had a fun time and then to reward ourselves we went to the onsen (naked japanese bath house--it sounds crazy, but it is the best--one of the things I will miss most about Japan!!) The half-marathon was on base and we ran by our house twice. Granny and Gramps were so cute to bring the kids outside and cheer us on--it was so fun to run past our cute cheering section!!

Eric in action--he did awesome!!

Kendal and I running together!

Our t-shirts we had made--we are kind of slow, hence the turtle.

We joked that this was our 'Engrish" shirt--Japanese are constantly misspelling English words--we meant to spell 'peace' not 'piece'--I guess that is what happens when you live in Japan too long!!

Me, Kendal, Bethany (one of the volunteers), Breclyn and our other friend Deborah!

Splashing at Mikasa Park

We enjoyed some beautiful weather while Granny and Gramps were here--for the most part it was in the 70s and a few days in the 80s. One of the gorgeous days we went to a park that is right outside the gate--Mikasa Park. It is one of our favorite places to go to. A couple of times a day it has a water show--it is like the Bellagio, just a lot smaller. We went with some friends of ours and here are some pictures to show how much fun we had!!

The kids watching the water show with our friend Mallory!

A random Japanese guy taking pictures of the kids--this happens all the time, but it is Japan!! This guy took tons of pictures of the kids, it was pretty funny--they were just oblivious the whole time!

The kids splashing in the water, while Granny watches them.

Splashing in the water--the kids were SOAKED by the time we got to the car--Ethan and Kailey ended up practically swimming in the water--it was pretty funny!

Fuji and Kamakura

One of the days while Granny and Gramps were here we drove up to Mt. Fuji (or at least attempted to). We didn't realize it was a japanese holiday and the roads were packed. The weather also didn't cooperate--we ended up driving to one of the lakes right at the base of Fuji and walking around, however, it was so overcast that we never saw fuji--frustrating when it is right there!! We did have a great time.

The kids loved sitting in all the cars!

Granny and the kids

I think this is such a cute picture--Gramps and Granny and the kids

Cade LOVES dogs--every time we see one he stops and points and gets so excited!

Another day we went out to Kamakura, which is the ancient capital of Japan. They have tons of temples out there--this is one of our favorite ones!

Enoshima Island with Gramps and Granny

Eric's grandparents came and visited us for the last 3 weeks and we had so much fun with them. I feel like we are so lucky that we had such a great opportunity to have them all to ourselves and how many kids get to know their great-grandparents so much and have great-grandparents that are so active and healthy. Anyways, here is the first of many posts of what we did while they were here. One of the first places we took them was to Enoshima Island. Here are a couple of pictures

Eric and the kids

Cade and Ethan washing their hands--you have to do this anytime you visit a temple or shrine.

One of the street performers had this monkey that did all sorts of tricks--here he is jumping over posts on stilts--we had so much fun watching him.

Another street performer--this guy did magic and illusion tricks--he was okay, but we have seen better.

Looking at flowers with Granny!

Our Mt. Fuji experience--it was one of a kind!!

I had a video I tried to upload that we took up on the mountain that shows how windy and crazy the weather was, but unfortunately I couldn't get it to upload. However, a couple of weeks ago, Eric and I and our friends Brandon and Kendal Keith tried to hike Mt. Fuji. Eric did hike Fuji the month after we moved here, but the other 3 of us hadn't. Here in Japan, it is one of those things that you just have to do. The climbing season is from June to August and the mountain is about 2 hours from us. The mountain is divided into 9 stations. Most people start hiking at station 5 and then station 9 is the top. It takes about 6.5 hours to hike to the top. We went up the night before and stayed at a marine base that was an experience in and of itself. Here are some pictures of our trip.

The night before we went out to dinner at their officer's club. I don't know if it was being away from our kids or what, but we had a little too much fun and thought everything was hilarious. We thought it would be so funny to make a sign that had a 9 and then hold it up at all the stations and say we were at station 9--like I said, we were a little slap-happy.

We were the only ones in the O club and had so much fun shooting pool, playing darts--it was a lot of fun. Here we are showing our darts!!

Here are Brandon and Kendal the morning of our climb modeling their "rain gear" they made out of trash bags!!

At station 5 and it is already raining and cold.

Checking out the map to make sure we are going the right way--the trail started off by going down and Kendal and I were convinced we were going the wrong way, but the boys were right and we were on the right path.

By the trail map again--there are 4 different trails that go up to the summit.

Not the prettiest hike, but this is what the first part of the trail looks like--switchbacks on this volcanic gravel. The second half of the mountain you are literally climbing--with it being so rainy and then when the wind would just gust so hard, sometimes I felt like I was going to fall off--I am sure if I had, they would have made a "made-for-t.v." movie about the crazy white girl that fell off Mt. Fuji.

When you climb Mt. Fuji part of the experience is to buy hiking sticks (like the ones we have) and then at every station you get them branded with different japanese characters and pictures. It is really cool. However, you can't read the sign, but it says, it is too wet to brand the sticks. So basically, we have these sticks with nothing on them. Kendal and I are going to buy a wood-burning kit and make our own signs!

I know it looks sunny here, but the clouds would sometimes break for a minute or two and you would think that the weather was getting better and then it would start raining again! It was very deceiving!

Is it Station 9??? No, this is like station 7--but they all look the same, so you can't really tell!!

Stopping to warm up at station 7--who knew cup of noodles and hot chocolate could taste so good!

A group of kids we saw hiking--the japanese are so funny because they are all TOTALLY decked out in their hiking gear and it is all so colorful.

So to end our adventure, we ended up making it to the 8th station and had about 1 1/2 hours left to get to the top and they had closed the mountain--the Japanese guides at the station told us we had to come down and it was too dangerous to continue on. LIke I said, it was freezing cold, rainy and very, very windy. We couldn't even go back down the regular trail (which I was kind of glad, since we had pretty much rocked climbed up), they made us go down the bulldozer trail, which they NEVER usually let people go down. So, even though we didn't make it to the top, I am still counting us as doing it, because if the weather had cooperated we totally would have made it. Despite the crummy weather, we had a blast and really enjoyed ourselves and feel like we had a unique Mt. Fuji experience!!