Tokyo Fun Trip: The Beginning

 After crunching numbers and looking at the options, we decided it was cost effective to go on the chartered tour done by the base, the "Tokyo Fun Trip".  I signed up to do it with Delaney and Callie.  My choice of companion was based solely on who would be easiest and wanted to go the most.  The middle girls won.

So, Wednesday evening at 10pm Dan dropped the 3 of us off and we got on the bus.  Yep, an all night bus ride.  What's more fun than that?!!  We were lucky in that the folks who had signed up to sit in front of us cancelled, so we were able to spread out more.  Still, there is really no way to comfortably sleep on a bus.  Callie seemed to do pretty well and probably slept close to 8 hours.  Delaney played and read, and only got 3-4 hours.  I may have gotten 5 on the bus, but I dozed off and on most of the drive, even if it wasn't actual sleep.

The busses here do not have bathrooms, and the bus will stop every 2 hours.  Somehow it helped to break up the drive and made it not as horrible.  Stops are only 15 minutes, but we had an hour for breakfast at 8.  Then there was another 2 hours of driving and we stopped at Yokosuka military base for 2 hours.  That was fun because they have a Dunkin Donuts!  We got a dozen for the road.  We had lunch there and did some shopping.  Then it was back on the bus for another 2 hours of driving to our hotel in Tokyo.

We got settled in and I decided we needed to find the Temple before I was going to go for reals.  Dan had said it was easy to get to, just turn left.  We walked and sweated for an hour and didn't find it.  I took the girls back to the hotel, because it was too hot and miserable.  I called Dan, got the accurate directions- 2 left turns!  It really was a 10 minute walk from the hotel, if you went the right way.

I was saturated with sweat by the time I got back to the hotel, and I'd promised the girls a dip in the pool.  That meant no time for a temple session Thursday night.  But the girls had a blast in the pool and it was quite refreshing.  We had a late dinner and went to bed.

The signs in the bathrooms are always great!

The rest stop neat Mt Fuji had a lot of Fuji themed stuff. 

Udon noodles for breakfast? 

They thought it a marvelous breakfast. 

Slushys are not to be found around us, so we were delighted to find a slushy machine at the rest stop. It was melon soda flavored.  Double score!

Delaney was in a fit of giggles over this sign and demanded I take a picture. 

 What is this?!!  American Girl Doll stuff at the Yokosuka Exchange?!!

This was the view from out (7th story) room.  See what that is right in the middle there?! 

 In the middle of crazy-busy downtown Tokyo is this lovely park.

And that lovely park is right next to the Tokyo Temple. 

Yep, I found it!  Can you see I'm dripping sweat?! 

 And it is near the Swiss Consulate.  I thought Mom and Dad might appreciate that.

Relaxing by the pool after a cooling dip. 

Bowlin', Bowlin', Bowlin'

I forgot to post about Bowling!  A week or so ago, a friend invited us to go bowling.  I was a bit astonished that all the kids wanted to go.  I was also quite delighted that we had such a good time.  I won, by the way!  I was on the team with Joshua, Marian and another friend.  And I was the only one to break 100... but not by much!

I forgot the camera, so the photos are from my phone.  Check out our good times:

A Trip to Bunny Island

 It was a 2 hour drive to the ferry and then a 15 minute boat ride to the island.  We chose a blisteringly hot day (is there any other kind here in the summer?!!) to go and that was a poor choice.  We were hot.  The bunnies were hot.  No one wanted to move much and sweat was plentiful.

The kids loved the bunnies though, so it was worth it.  I had hoped for some bunny-swarming photos, but it was to hot for the bunnies to leave the shade.  We may need to go back when it is cooler.

We saw this delightful sight at the ferry station.  So cute!

Mommy was nearby.

 I was a little surprised that it was a little-bitty ferry!  But we made it on and it got us there just fine.

The moment we stepped off, there were bunnies!  We brought 3 chopped cabbages, a bag of carrots and a bag of chopped celery. 

Cabbage was the favorite. 

The girls were SO excited to feed the bunnies! 

Bunny Island hosted a facility that made poisonous gas during both World Wars.  There are still some remnants of the buildings there.   

Marian was delighted. 

Dan fed bunnies too. 

Cute Delaney. 

Callie had to do as many poses as possible. 

Ryle wanted to hold them and love them and call them George! 

Marian thought these guys were funny- all stretched out in the shade and too hot to move! 

No, you are not suppose to pick up the bunnies.  This one was docile enough and happy enough for food they he did not protest.  ...at first! 

Delaney and I hiked up a steep trail to see what was at the top.   Spoiler- there was nothing at the top, not even a view.  Just a fence.

Marian is happy to have a bunny and Rylee is cross it isn't on her lap. 

Brings new meaning to the phrase "snuggle bunny"! 

And if there is a tree, then Marian must climb it. 

Ryle spent the second half of the trip doing this.  She was mad we wouldn't let her bring a bunny home. So she ran and sulked. 

This photo does no justice.  Marian was a hoot.  She put cabbage on the end of this stick and was "fishing" for bunnies. 

Rylee climbed and posed in the tree for me. 

Hey!  Those are my favorite people!  And a funny thing here- all of us independently chose to wear blue that day! 

Beautiful ocean from the island. 

Delaney thought she was so funny.  The bag is empty, and the bunny is curious.  Delaney is delighted. 

Callie wanted a meditating photo. 

And Rylee was happy to have a lap-o-bunnies.

On Fire

 When school let out, Joshua had a bunch of papers that needed to be trashed.  I have lovely, fond, end-of-school memories of dancing around a barrel of burning schoolwork, with the Hallelujah chorus paying at top volume.  I thought it a shame to deprive my son of such an experience, so I immediately got on Amazon and purchased a fire pit.

We had uncooperative weather for a bit, but last night we finally had everything we needed.  I had to run out and buy wood, and I had to search high and low for appropriate skewers, but we were ready!  Joshua took control and got it started.  The girls immediately descended and could not wait to roast marshmallows.  The s'more-making got in the way of schoolwork-burning so I think there is still paper for next time.

The kids had a great time.  Joshua got a minor skewer burn on his arm, but Callie was attacked by a flaming marshmallow and got burned on her cheek.  It blistered and is a little painful.  Poor kid. Aside from that, they can't wait to do it again!

My chief fire starter.

Lighting up the homework. 

Yeah, everyone wanted to play with the fire. 

All my lovelies, roasting their marshmallows. Dan commented how fabulous it was that all 5 kids were having a good time together and no one was fighting.

Serious business for Rylee. 

Delaney was pretty intent as well. 

When you are cool, the sun shines on you 24 hours a day!