Hello Kitty HarmonyLand!

Ont fabulous thing here is the ITT (Information, Tours and.... something) office.  They plan trips and stuff and you just sign up and go.  Marian and I went to Kyoto on an ITT tour.  They also do a Hello Kitty Harmony Land trip.  I know Delaney would LOVE to go, and I knew that the rest of the family would not.  So I took one for the team and signed up for me and Delaney and Rylee to go.  It was a 5.5 hour drive out, we had 5.5 hours there, and then the bus ride back home. We departed at 6am and arrived home at 11pm.  It was a looming time on the bus, but the girls were thrilled!

The entrance.  It is a pretty small park.  You can see Hello Kitty Castle and the giant ferris wheel behind it.

Inside the Kitty Castle was anything and everything Hello Kitty.  It was pretty impressive.

The Kitty Bathroom.

The Kitty character was awesome. She was very animated and posed with everyone and would do hugs and high fives or whatever.  She was just lovely, even with the grown ups who wanted pictures with her.  

I was surprised to see this totally unattended "bumper car" area.

Then we learned it cost Y200 to drive them and they went fairly sedately along.

We went to the Kitty Robot ride....er, not ride....activity?  You go into the building and they give you a "key" which you place at certain stations.  You then complete the task at each statin to "construct" your kitty robot.

It was pretty fun and I actually enjoyed it!  The girls loved it and they got their very own "Staff Card" with their photo on it at the end.  For an additional Y500.  Yeah, lots of nickel-and-diming.

Rylee really wanted to ride the carousel, but NOT the ferris wheel.  The ferris wheel is 60 meters tall and had 40 carriages!

My 2 cuties.

Delaney thought this teacup on the carousel was just the cutest thing ever!

Rylee chose a very obscure spot on the second deck.

Since Delaney wanted to do the ferris wheel, I talked Rylee into it.

The start wasn't bad.

And look!  COWS!  Actual cows in Japan!  I was starting to think there weren't any.  This was very exciting for me.

Ryle suddenly realized we were going really high and it wasn't fun at all any more.

I confess, with the noisy wind rocking us and sounding very scary, I was a little concerned myself. Look how high we are!

They were both a little distressed.  I put some funny videos on my phone and they were distracted enough till we were descending.  It was a 20 minute ride!

Our favorite vending machines!  And check out the writing:
"Good taste, health and happiness with the Angel, the 'Messenger of Happiness' as our symbol.  We have contributed to a richer life."  

Awesomesauce!

We rode the Tea Cups, and they went SO fast!  Delaney loved it. 

Rylee let me go faster than I thought she would!

Love these girls!

There was a little arcade, but the girls had enough to do that they didn't ask for money to play.  They just posed for me.

Delaney found money in a vending machine and spent it on another bumper car ride.

Rylee rode the carousel again while Delaney waited in line for a ride Rylee didn't want to go on. 

And then I lost my phone.  My freakishly expensive iPhone that I cannot live without now.  Poor Delaney was so upset, sure it was her fault, because she wanted to go on the ride I was sure I'd lost it on.  I looked for it and the ride operator was super sweet and checked every car for my phone, but we didn't find it.  I was starting to sweat.  I let the girls ride another ride, and we watched an entertaining show (all in Japanese!).  We went to a quiet spot and said a prayer.  I was hoping that someone had picked up my phone and taken it to the lost and found.

So we walked down to the entrance to the Information desk.  I explained I had lost my phone.  The lady sis not speak English.  I repeated it.  Her eyes lit up and she exclaimed "Lost. Phone."  I nodded. She went to a box, opened it and pulled out my phone.  I was ecstatic.  Delaney and I cried tears of joy.  I could not believe it.  I looked at my phone and I had send Dan an message right before I lost the phone.  The message was from 90 minutes earlier.  I love Japan because it is such an honest country!  We had to go give a quiet thank-you prayer and the girls were so happy.

Gardening Fail

I was trying to visit with my friend.  Her children were being delightfully quiet and out of the way. My children kept coming to pester me and ask me questions and would not let me have an actual adult conversation.  I thought I would be clever and give them something to do.

We had purchased some seed packets a few weeks ago. However, I hadn't figured out where to buy a sizable amount of potting soil, and we didn't have any planters yet.  No problem, I can put the kids to work and get them out of my hair for a bit, I thought.  So I told Delaney that this would be an excellent time for her to plant the seeds.  She was so excited!

I suggested she get some of the plastic cups (red solo cups) and use the tiny bag of soil we got at the dollar store, and she could plant the seeds in them.  I was delighted to be able to converse with my friend uninterrupted!  For a whole 3 minutes.  It then took me another 5 minutes to realize what had occurred without my supervision.

She had taken 4 plastic drinking cups.  She carefully filled them with dirt, and dumped the entire contents of each of the 4 seed packets into them.

Mikawa Mu Underground Kingdom- Marian's Field Trip

 On Thursday I got to chaperone Marian's field trip. I was kind of excited about this one.  I thought it was a mine in the mountain that they'd converted into a fun underground "Indiana Jones type experience.  Mostly because that's what I'd heard.  It was less impressive than I anticipated.

I joined 25 sixth graders on an hour long bus ride.  That went better than I thought it would!  We were suppose to hike a kilometer up into the mountain to see a Buddha park and something else, but 5 minutes into the walk, thunder and lightening appeared and we did an about-face and headed back down.  We made it to the Mine (I know it isn't a mine, but that's just easier to sat and type than Mikawa Mu Valley Adventure) just after the rain started, so I was really glad the main part was all inside.

So, the mine isn't really a mine, and I don't think it was ever actually a mine to begin with.  It is an entirely man-made place with a random mis-mash of Egyptian, Mayan, and who know's what else replicas inside. There is some game that you play in there, but the teachers did not hand out that stuff, since the kids were not there to play a game.  The class was suppose to locate 5 different things inside and write descriptions of them.  And draw sketches of each item.  The kids had a good time running around the dark path and finding the stuff.  I was impressed that it was okay in Japan to have wet, slippery, steep stairs in the dark.  I feared for my life once or twice.  But it was fun and entertaining.  It was not impressive enough for me to feel the need to take all the family back. Perhaps if the game was in English, but without a clue what it was..... not enough to make me want to go back.

It had mostly stopped raining by the time we completed that portion.  Then it was lunch and the kids could pay extra and pan for gold or dig for "gems" (polished, pretty stones). They enjoyed it very much.

View on the aborted hike up the mountain.  It is so lush and green here!

On the thundery double-time hike back down.  This is what Japan really looks like, outside the city.  Very mountainous, very green. 

 Marian is trying to get enough light to write her notes.

Me and Marians amazing and awesome and perfect teacher!  You can't see that behind us is a giant round stone.  I forgot what it's special name was- "Something Sphere"

That is Marian taking her notes on this waterfall.  It was lovely, but loud! 

Marian and her friends. She did not want to be in this picture! 

These giant heads were everywhere.  Marian loved them.  She joked that she was sitting on Santa's lap!

The 3 girls I was in charge of.  They were a good bunch. 

This was my favorite thing- the reflecting pool.  It was so pretty! The picture really does not do it justice. 

Must pose with the giant head. 

Such a pretty flower growing on the side of the mountain. 

Ah, Japan, I do love you! 

So pretty. 

Marian spent a good bit of time seriously panning for gold.  She rejected any advice from me because she knew what she was doing.  But she did not get any gold. 

She did get tired enough to sit down though.

It was a fun time and I am glad I went with her!

Hiroshima Botanical Gardens- Callie's Field Trip

 On May 7, I spent the day with Callie on her field trip.  We left the school about 8am and didn't get back till 2:15pm.  It was a bit over an hour drive to the Botanical Gardens and we spent about 3 hours there.  It was gorgeous!  The wether was lovely and perfect and I only had to chaperone 3 girls, who were very good, and it was a lot of fun.  The kids had little questionnaire journals and had to answer questions about different areas of the gardens and they were suppose to draw some sketches.  So it was kind of a self-guided tour.  It was a wee bit difficult to answer some of the questions since 95% of all info was in Japanese.  So there was some guessing going on.

Callie made friends with a Duck.

Beautiful flowers.  Can you spot the Callie?! 

I did enjoy the flowers more than I thought I would.  There were so many!  And so much variety.  I decided I should have become a botanist. So much beauty there.

They called this the "Mickey Mouse" Flower.  Fun, isn't it? 

Oh, the glorious colors!! 

Callie is trying to find out which of these blooms year round.  We never did figure that out. 

Not thrilled about the photo.  But look at all the colorful flowers here!

Oh, the loveliness! 

Be still my heart!  The look like adorable little ribbons! 

And there was a little playground to play at.  I was impressed how, with just this piece of equipment, all the kids were engaged, playing and having a great time. 

We spent a bit searching for the Japanese Garden.  We finally decided this was it.  Were we right? Who knows!  All the writing was in Japanese.

But it had a Koi Pond, so it had to be the right place.

The Rose Garden was glorious. 

I quite enjoyed it all.

Taking the class photo.  I didn't think the other moms would appreciate the full picture, so you just get Callie, and the pretty flowers. 

Did I mention the pretty flowers?! 

Sigh.  This kind of beauty is good for the soul!

Hachgamine Park Part Two

 The park had this awesome Obstacle Course set into the mountain.  So you walked, hiked and climbed up and around the mountain and encountered these obstacles.  The kids LOVED it.  You paid  300 yen and got a white apron thing you wore to show you'd paid and you could just go for it.  We may or may not have gone in order.  They were numbered and I made the girls turn around at #27 when we ran out of time.  So there may have been more stuff, I'm not sure.

Since I am now 10 days behind on posting this,  I'm just going to tell you that it was fantastic and the girls had a marvelous time and here are the photos.