Glorious Cherry Blossoms!

 I absolutely LOVE Sakura season!  The Cherry Blossoms are so gorgeous.  They last only 2 weeks, from bloom to gone, so you gotta enjoy them while they are here.  When we went a week earlier with our guests, they blossoms were barely peeping out.  I went on Monday with the Sister missionaries and the flowers were in full glory.  So I HAD to take more pictures of them.  They make me happy!

Spring Break: Universal Studios (The adventure Home)

We left the Park with plenty of time to get to the Shin station.  We managed to get on all the correct trains to get us there, which was nice.  We arrived to the Shin station in plenty of time.  The kids slept a bit on the ride.  We got on the 9:32pm Shin.

Getting a little zonked on the local train.

There was a 10 minute wait to get on as it was closed for cleaning. 

 It was right about this time that we realized this was the last train of the night and it stopped at... Hiroshima.  It did not continue past Hiroshima. We knew that trains stopped around midnight, but had assumed if they sold us freaking tickets to Iwakuni that they would have made sure we got there the same night.  Nope.  No other Shin was leaving to go to Iwakuni till morning.  Gulp!  Our train pulled in to Hiroshima at 11:44pm and was done for the night.  When showed the conductor our tickets from Hiroshima to Iwakuni he said, "First train at morning".  Not helpful.  He suggested the 12:08am local JR train.

Our problem was that the van was parked out at Shin Iwakuni.  We did take the local train home (1 hour vs the 10 minutes on the Shin), and we arrived at 1am to the Iwakuni  JR train station (which is NOT the Shin Iwakuni statin.  That is 30 minutes away).  My darling friend Hope had texted to see if we needed a ride home.  We did.

I took 3 kids and grabbed a cab ($14).  Hope took 4 others and dropped them off at home.  Then she went back and picked up Dan and took him all the way out to the Shin station to collect the van.... at 1:30am!  I love her!  So it was a very veery late night for all!

Spring Break: Universal Studios (Part 2)

 Rylee and Delaney and I went to the kiddie area.  They enjoyed all the rides, and I was glad the wait times were only 30 minutes or so.

We rode the teacups, which were Cupcakes here.  And we went very fast!

Posing with the toy car. 

Delaney cracks me up! 

Rylee really wanted to ride the carousel.  She was a little disappointed that we were the last ones on and had to ride the not-moving rooster.  Although she was happy to ride the rooster.

Jenn texted me this gem of hanging out with the big kids. 

This was a hot air balloon ride.  You can't tell that we are high above the ground. 

The girls thought this was so fun! 

They had a great time here.  And the competition to get a duck was fierce! 

They had this awesome "ride"!  Only for kids, and they drove these cars on a real track. 

They loved it and had so much fun.  They felt very grown up because they got to drive. 

Blurry selfie with my lovelies. 

 This one is for my dad!

We met back up with everyone and found an awesome anime section. 

Much fun to pose with this. 

Even more awesome to pose with this.  Although no one wanted to play it up. 

And this kid with is little daggers was too cute.  Josh coveted his side gear. 

Guess where we went for dinner?! 

The kids were very excited to go to an American restaurant. 

It was good, but yikes!  So pricy!! (2/10 would go again.) 

Heading home.

Spring Break: Universal Studios in Osaka (Part 1)

 On Thursday we went to Universal Studios.  The JR Line was offering a deal which included Shin tickets, local train to Universal plus Park tickets and free Butterbeer.   It had some other freebies but those were in Japanese and no one bothered to find out what they were.  It said it included a timed entry to Harry Potter, but that didn't work out.

We had to be out the door at 6am to get to Shin Iwakuni, and we rode the 6:38 bullet train up to Osaka and then got on the wrong train twice while navigating to Universal Studios.  It was packed.  That was less fun. But we enjoyed the Spiderman ride and found the second half of the Terminator one almost worth the first part (which I'm sure was amazing, but it was all in Japanese). Our Harry Potter passes did nothing for us and we still waited for 2 hours to get on the ride.  Delaney was very angry about this and had a massive meltdown, to include kicking her hag through the line and whining incessantly.  The other kids did amazingly well and did not complain at all.  Okay, they complained about Delaney, but not the wait!

Eventually we split up and I took Delaney and Rylee off to the Kiddie section and they had a much more enjoyable time.  The lines were shorter and they could go on them all.

Marian and Adrian on the Shin.

Thinking we are almost there!  Just two local trains left.

What?!  We took the wrong train?!  Yep.   

But we got there! 

Sitting on the floor since the line is not moving at all. 

They managed to entertain themselves pretty well.

The Spiderman ride had fun stuff to check out while waiting in line. 

Rocking the 3-D glasses. 

The Harry Potter area was amazing! 

But SO SO SO crowded! 

My "Look at me!  I'm at Hogwarts!" photo. 

Sampling the Butterbeer. 

Pronouncing it delicious. 

Skeptical. 

Likes it, but is jealous her mustache is not as good as Delaney's. 

It came with a souvenir mug.  Very cool. 

Marian liked it and consented to a picture. 

 Josh is looking all manly.

Like he's got the real thing.   

Spring Break: Shopping Silliness

 Wednesday was spent driving all over to the different shops to acquire important things for our guests to take home.  Marian was insistent that we go to You Me Town.  We also went to both the big and little Recycle Stores, Daiso and the Exchange.

Perusing the candy at Daiso.

Sibling shenanigans at You Me Town. 

And odd looks from Callie.