Plum grove - Dec 13th

This Saturday, Chad had a cold so we went somewhere fairly close - the Plum grove.  First we started out the day at Starbucks, then headed on the train one stop to Taura (where we used to live).  From there we walked to the entrance of the park and then hiked on up (it's quite a hike uphill), this week the kids did much better - no one had to be carried!  Once we were there we had a picnic and the kids played on the nearly empty playground for a long time.  I have so many pictures of Tristan because he had me watch him do all different things from one end of the playground to the other.  Of course the other kids had a blast too and we even timed how fast they could do the whole course.  When we were done there we went up into the observation tower where once again we could see the "whole world".

Kamakura - Dec 7th

Last Sunday we decided to spend the day at Kamakura.  First we took the train and walked up to the shrine.  After looking around and getting a fortune, we walked through the Kamakura street market where we bought a fried potato patty (it was like a hashbrown but with a panko breading and it was made from purple potatoes) - very good!  We then took the electric line train to another part of Kamakura where we walked down to the beach and let the kids play for about an hour in the sand.  There was a sailboat race going on and Chad was thrilled to watch part of it.  After that we walked to the Great Buddha where Chad took Abby and Tristan inside of it.  The interesting thing about the Great Buddha was that it used to be inside a large temple but a tsunami destroyed it (the temple) about 500 years ago.  Maybe I learned this last time but just didn't pay much attention.  Anything that involves a tsunami certainly peaks my interest now, especially all the tsunami evacuation routes that they have posted.  On the way back we decide to walk the whole way along the beach instead of taking the electric train.  We accidentally passed the turn to go back to the JR train station and once again we had some tired, whining children.  Tristan was up on Chad's shoulders and I gave Abby a piggyback ride for a bit.

Waiting for the train

Jamie's buying a candy dipped grape.

All the kids decide to get one!

I believe this was a wedding going on.

This was the fortune I bought.  In order to get the fortune I had to shake a box full of wooden sticks until one came out a small hole. The attendant looked at the number on the stick and then gave me the fortune that corresponded to it.  Apparently I have good luck :)

And apparently you have to tie your fortune here if you want it to come true.  You can see that all the English ones are pink.

We had to get a picture of Flat Stanley with us. (It's a school project)

You can see the shrine up on the hill in the background.

You can see on the map that all the tsunami evacuation places are marked with a wave symbol (some of these are simply tall buildings)

Lots of fishing boats down on the beach

Kurihama flower world (Dec 6th)

On Saturday we went back to our all-time favorite park in Japan, Kurihama flower world, or otherwise known as Godzilla park.  First it involves riding the train a few stops to the end of the JR line, then we have to walk about a mile to the park and then another half mile or so, through the park up to the playground.  I can't wait to visit the park in the Spring, when all the flower beds that they have covered now will be in bloom.  Unfortunately, Tristan was happily playing on the playground and didn't know where the bathroom was so he ended up peeing his pants and I didn't bring any extra clothes because that hardly ever happens anymore.  So we ended up having him sit in the sun for about an hour to dry out and then he went right on happily playing again!  On the way home there was some serious whining from the kids, but they'll just have to get used to this no car thing.  We stopped at the Aeon mall and got a treat from the bakery and a baguette to go with our dinner.

Crazy ad on the train

Kurihama station

Jamie practicing some moves on the way to the park

The covered flower beds.

We bought some Japanese convenience food on the way up to the park.

We all love these dry flavored ramen noodles.

Why we call it Godzilla park (inside is a slide).

The roller slides.

Tristan loved going up in all the towers, he said "You can see the whole world from here!"

[the whole world]

[the whole world - part 2]

Tristan poking his head out of the tower window.

There was also a mini zip line.

Abby bought a roller-slide seat (almost like a bendable shovel) and we all shared it.

Journey to Japan - Dec 1st

The difference between our flight to Japan this time vs. our flight in 2011 was astronomical.  It was SO much better.  Of course, having the kids be old enough to entertain themselves was a big part of that difference.  Also, this time our flight was operated by ANA (a Japanese airline) rather than United, and the atmosphere in the cabin, the attention from the flight attendants and just in general, it was a nicer flight experience. Here's our rough timeline:

10:00am We arrived at our gate all checked-in.

11:30 Pre-board (not many kids on the flight so they let us pre-board)

12:00-ish: Take-off

We had the second to back-row of the plane which meant that we had the 3 middle seats plus the 2 seats on the right side of the airplane (normally there are 3 seats on each side but this row only had 2), so no one else was sitting with us.  Chad sat with Tristan on the right side and I sat with Jamie and Abby in the middle.  The kids quickly figured out how to watch their individual tv's and also got out their video games and snacks.  We were served drinks and dinner.  There were no American style dinners by the time they got to our row so we got the Japanese ones.  They weren't bad but I wasn't really in the mood for fish and it was quite fishy.  That was the one thing I didn't like about ANA was that every time a meal was served, the whole cabin smelled like fish.  I watched a movie called the The Giver (not bad, a lot like Divergent) and then I finished knitting my dish cloth.  Some people slept for awhile and then they brought out the final meal which none of us ate much of (out of the American meals again) and then soon after that we started to descend.  At this point, Abby felt pretty sick and she had to keep the barf bag handy.  She made it though and felt much better after landing.

3:40pm: We arrive at Narita airport.  We proceed to customs and almost don't get our SOFA stamp (the stamp on our passport that will allow me and the kids to stay longer than 90 days).  The shipyard had not yet put out the official letter yet that was supposed to have had all our names on it and the orders only have Chad's name.  We showed birth certificates and a marriage license but still the custom's officer said she could not stamp all our passports.  Finally Chad showed a copy of an email from work and she agreed. PHEW! [enter big sigh of relief]  And it was a bit ironic considering the email copy was so much less official than all the documents she refused to accept.

We then took a van that we had rented (with driver) along with a coworker of Chad's.  It was a perfect fit for all of us and much more relaxing than having to haul our luggage on and off the train.

6:00pm (or so): We arrive at our new apartment - the front desk staff move all our luggage up to our room for us.  We check-in and move up to our apartment.  Abby's stomach was pretty messed up from the plane and she had an accident in the bathroom.  Normally it wouldn't have been that big of a deal (thankfully she made it all the way to the apartment), but given our lack of cleaning supplies and how tired we all were, it was a bit overwhelming.

Chad finally figures out where his coworker Matt is located in the building and he brings us the air mattress he picked up for us at the NEX and also some dinner that his wife made.

After dinner we make beds and all go to sleep.

4:00am: the start of our week-long struggle with jetlag!