Yasaka Dam

 Tuesday October 13 was a no-school day.  We decided it was time to go out and do something.  In the interest of full disclosure, it was a toss up for me as to whether there was going to be mass hair-pulling and screaming.  When the kids got up that morning I said we were going either to 3 Falls or the Yasaka Dam, whichever one was closer and Dan wanted to drive to. Dan chose the Dam.  Callie whined that she wanted to do 3 Falls.  Delaney cried that she didn't want to have to do any hiking.  Joshua said why was this the first he was hearing of this (It definitely wasn't!).  Marian whined that she just wanted to stay home.  It was getting ugly.

I told them all that we were going whether they wanted to or not.  I grabbed some snacks and filled water bottles and said yes to bringing Levi.  And we drove off.

It was about n hour drive to the dam.  And there was a lot to it, kind of like spider legs creeping out from the dam.  We drove till we reached a spot that looked useful, and checked out the map there.  Then we drove to another area and finally on to a third.  The view was lovely.  We enjoyed the event, despite the rough start.  Levi had a marvelous time and we did do a bit of hiking and it was nice.

A map showing where things were.  But alas, all in Japanese.

Callie was delighted to bring the dog. And he was delighted to sniff new smells and pee on new shrubs. 

Ryle just wanted to pose.  You can't see, but the rock is covered with Japanese writing. 

I was getting a tad nervous as we spent 10 minutes driving through roads like this. 

See that red bridge?  That was the first stop we made and we ended up making a giant loop!  But it is pretty, right?!

And more of this.

And we stopped at the dam (before walking and then driving over it.) 

All my minions. 

There were a LOT of stairs, and we climbed a bunch of them. 

Marian found this praying mantis, and everyone had to touch it. 

Ryle held it.... till it scrabbled up her arm, and there was some shrieking and leaping. 

Rylee sneaking into Callie and Levi's picture! 

So pretty! 

Rylee was afraid to walk through the tall grasses without an escort. 

Callie thoroughly enjoyed the bushwalking aspect. 

Joshua was unenthusiastic, but a pretty good sport. 

Can you spot the Callie?! 

 We hiked a bit down towards the bottom of the dam, but we couldn't get too close.  So the kids posed in front of the dam for me.

And they climbed this retaining wall. 

And Rylee posed some more cute poses. 

We wore Levi out!  He had a marvelous time.  The weather was beautiful and glorious.  But after running around in his shaggy coat, he was hot and tired, so he took a break.

Family Photo

 A weekend or 2 ago we were at the beach for a baptism.  I decided that since we were al there and we were all dressed nicely, that a family picture was in order.  I'm pretty sure this is the only picture containing our entire family that has been taken in the last 18 months.  I'm sure you can see why we don't attempt this more often.

I think this may be the best one.

It was a gorgeous day an the beach was lovely.  We certainly could have used some assistance in positioning.  But whatever, everyone is present and no one is crying. 

 Not a bad one.

And our silly shot.  Love these guys!

Love my little Girl Scout

 Delaney loves being a Girl Scout.  I signed her up again this year because she enjoys it so much.  One of her favorite events is marching in the High School's Homecoming Parade.  She had a good time tossing out candy and walking with her friends.  I sat on the side and cheered her on.

I adore this kid!

Waving to the crowd. 

Levi enjoyed the parade because he loves everyone. 

And Callie really wants to take Levi everywhere we go. 

How to take the Bullet Train

 I had the chance to go to Yokosuka and took the Shin (also known as the high-speed Bullet Train) most of the way there.  This post is especially for my sister, who is going to come and visit me and she will have to take the train from Fukuoka to Iwakuni.

This is what it looks like at the Shin-Iwakuni station.  It is a smaller station, so you can't get too lost.  That is the train coming in.

 I thought these seat back info signs were nice.  It tells you what facilities are in each of the train cars.  So if you need to find a bathroom, you know where to look for one.

This is me, walking all over Yokosuka off base and having a lovely time. 

These are the 3 tickets for my trip home.  One to show the fare, one for the train ride from Shinagawa to Hiroshima, where I had to change trains, and one for that second train ride from Hiroshima to Shin-Iwakuni.

Once you get the tickets, you have to pass through a turnstile, and it wants your tickets.  If you know which one it wants, you put it in.  I am not that advanced and the one time I did put my ticket in, it didn't come back.  There is typically a little window with helpful people in uniforms there and if you show them your tickets they will either tell you which one to put in the machine, or will hand tag it for you and pass you through.  I love nice people! 

The Shin has reserved and unreserved seats.  For this trip, I had a reserved seat from Shinagawa to Hiroshima, but unreserved from Hiroshima to Shin-Iwakuni.  Reserved means you are on a specific train car and have an assigned seat.  The only downside to this is that if you miss your train, you are out of luck and have to buy a whole new ticket.  The unreserved seat lets you travel on that train any time and any day for the next 7 days (I think.)

This is my reserved seat ticket.  The numbers in parentheses are the train departure and arrival times. So I know that my train leaves at 13:57 (or 1:57pm) and arrives at 17:56 (or 5:56pm).  The unreserved seat has no times on it because you are not limited to a time.

Under the time and a little to the right you can see  "4   12  E"  That is for train car #4, seat 12E.

I think this is the overall fare card. Kind of the receipt, but I think they take this back when you reach your destination. This is the one the machine sucked up and did not return.

The Bullet Train at Hiroshima. 

There are little food kiosks at the station.  However, they seem to like to make your connections a little too tight to have time to grab a bite to eat when you have a reserved ticket! 

They do have signs and they blink back and forth in Japanese and English.  This one tells you the info for Track #12  It says a Hakata Train will come through and depart at 6:02pm.  I can't read the destination though! 

Usually the first 3 train cars are unreserved seats.  You can see the "1" by the door, denoting this as car #1.  The red writing that you can't see unless you biggify the picture says "non-reserved" 

I like this feature a lot!  This is on the ground by the track. It tells you what will be stopping in this specific spot. The yellow tile indicates that car #6 on a 16 car train will be stopping here.  The green tile tells you that the Kodoma line has an 8 car train coming through and car #2 will stop right here.  This is great because you can make sure you are standing in the right spot, because the trains only stop for a minute or two.

Dental Disaster

I took this cutie pie in to see the dentist.  She had started complaining that her tooth hurt. When I looked in her mouth, sure enough, I could see actual gray holes in her back teeth.  It took 3 weeks to get her in and while I already knew she had at least 2 cavities, I was a little astonished to hear them say she had 5.  And 2 of them are deep enough to get the baby tooth version of a root canal.

Mind you, she was in there about 8 months ago and they filled 2 cavities back then, so these 5 are new in the last 8 months. I'm pretty sure that she is brushing her teeth with sugar.

Fun with Ferrets

 A gal here has a couple of fun pets, including a set of ferrets and a set of sugar-gliders.  The sugar-gliders wouldn't cooperate, so they stayed in their cage.  But the girls were beyond delighted to play with the ferrets.  They were awfully cute and fun, but yikes, the smell.  I had to change clothes when we got home, since all I could smell was ferret.

Callie thinks it is true love.

They were SO playful! 

This one just wanted to play and hide in Marian's hair. 

 She managed to contain it just long enough for this photo.

And now Callie wants her own

(never gonna happen!)

Why we don't buy many apples

 Actually, fruit isn't always this horrendously expensive.  Mostly just on base.  If you buy it off base and when it is in-season, it isn't too awful.  But it is rough when nothing is in season!

Yeah, you only get 5 apples in this bag.

Branch Beach Day

 Last Saturday our branch had an event at the beach.  I wasn't sure the first Saturday in October was going to be warm enough to swim, but the kids didn't care.  The grown ups thought it was a bit chilly, but the kids jumped right in.  Ryle was a little concerned about the blobby jellyfish, but the ones here (so far!) haven't been the stinging kind.

We had a lovely afternoon with our friends at the beach and I didn't take very many photos at all.  Partly because the way the sun was made them all very dark.

Marian swam all over but was disappointed that there was no fun stuff to find at the bottom.

Ryle did overcome her jellyfish fear, but was sad there was no one to swim with her.  And then she got cold. 

Joshua did not get in the water, but had a marvelous time digging in the sand and making a fairly impressive castle.   

 Callie had convinced me that we should bring Levi.  He did not want to go in the water, but he had fun sniffing lots of stuff.

 The tide was the highest I had ever seen it, so the beach was a lot smaller than I thought it would be. But it was still gorgeous.

I was there and I liked it!

And it was a lovely day!