Hachgamine Park: Part One

 May 5th was a teacher work day and there was no school for the Elementary School.  It was also "Golden Week" for Japan, so Rylee was out of school as well.  Poor Joshua still had school and was so sad when he found out I took the 4 girls on a fun adventure.  My friend Laura texted me to ask if we wanted to go to Hachgamine Park with her.  Um.... yes!!

We've been planning to go for a while, but it has never quite worked out- usually due to rain.  So I was delighted to go, and very happy to have the opportunity to follow someone else out to the park.  I'm glad I did have someone to follow!  That place is crazy up in the mountains on windy-twisty roads!

The park is built into the mountain and it is quite foresty, and you could not really see the different things to do.  So after cruising the lots looking for somewhere to park the car, we finally found a suitable spot in the throngs of Japanese who also were out to enjoy the day there.  We were by a fun little park.  It also had a little mountainside to climb up and slide down.  The girls were in heaven.

We had a picnic lunch under a lovely shady tree that Marian just HAD to climb.  The Japanese take picnicking very seriously and there were many little tents and picnic blankets all over.  It was crowded but fun. Having little blond girls was definitely an advantage because they were easy to spot in the sea of dark heads.

After lunch and playing almost to their heart's content, we moseyed along the hillside to the roller slide area.  It was 300 yen (about $2.75) for 3 rides down the slide.  We paid, got our tickets and little carpets for sitting on, and headed up the mountain.  It was a good 5 minute climb to the top of the roller slide, but the ride down was awesome!

We meandered around and discovered a lovely flower garden and then a park with fun dinosaurs.  Yes, the girls had to pose with them all!  I really did spare you the majority of the photos, for there were many!  But here are the best of the photos of the day:

There are 3 girls in the tree and 2 of them are mine.

The climbing hill.

Ice cream vending machines are my girls' very favorite thing about living here!

I loved that Marian chose to wear this hat for most of the day.

Going down the roller slide!  It is made up of individual rollers and you slide along them.  It sets up quite the vibration on your bum!

And you can go pretty fast.  Most of us experienced the painful burns that come when your bare skin comes into contact with the metal sides as you zoom along.  I found that slowing down worked best if you pushed your shoes against the sides.

It was warm and they may have been getting cranky from all the hoofing it all over the mountainside. But the flowers looked and smelled amazing!

Riding the dino.

Ryle insisted on wearing her Yochein summer hat.  I'm thinking she was wise, because she avoided getting any sunburn.

Hee hee hee.  I sneaked this shot from afar!

Someone is a ham.

Ys, yes she is!

3 little girls are squished in this din's tummy.

Callie's pose.

Marian does have a good face here.

Ryle may need to expand her "looks".  She's stuck on "cute kid".

Delaney's got it though!

I love the face on this dinosaur.  So appropriate!

And yes, Rylee is pretty a doggone cute kid!

Friendship Day: Part Two .... The Air Show

It rained all day long, and rain is really NOT conducive to a successful air show.  You can't see through the drizzling clouds, and looking up at the sky can result in raindrops in your eyes.  Still, the Air Show went on and the planes buzzed busily all through the gray, cloudy day.  I only got photos of the last act.  It was the "Blue Impulse"- the Japanese precision flying team.  They were pretty good, but some of their cooler things relied on smoke stream.  I know this from pictures posted by friends who saw their Saturday practice.  But they had one where they drew a heart in the sky and some other neat things. Those ended up being too high in the sky and fading quickly into the gray clouds.  They were still pretty cool, and I did take a plethora of pictures.  See the fun below.

Friendship Day: Part One... The Dunk Tank

May 3 was Friendship Day here on the base.  It is a super-duper-gigantic-big deal.  It consists of a static display of the planes here, plus an air show that (this year) included several different performing groups. There are also around 100 vendors, and it looked like half were Japanese, and half were American. The base shuts down to motor traffic and barricades all but the main road to the flightline and the gates are open to the Japanese for the day.  It is a huge event and this year they were expecting 250,000 visitors.  I heard rumors that we were just under 200,000, but it did rain all day long.

I know it is a huge fundraiser for a lot of the organizations here. The HS PTO made 3000+ little cakes to sell, and there were booths with burgers and other foods, and one of the units was selling washcloths with planes on them.  The Japanese are all about the little washcloths, and those were a popular item.  

The Boy Scouts booth was a Dunk Tank.  As a Scout, Joshua was expected to assist and work the booth to be able to claim some of the money to pay for Scout Camp this summer.  In a surprise move, Dan volunteered to sit in the dunk tank for a shift.  

Friendship Day was rainy.  It was a consistent light rain all day long.  Ug.  We headed out to the flightline around 1pm.  We live right off the main road and had seen a steady crowd of people walking by since 7am. And music had been blasting since 6am.  Delightful.  It took us an hour to get to the event, walking in the rain with hundreds and hundreds of other umbrella-toting people.  We got to the Dunk Tank, and I had thought I'd take the girls over to the static display, but between the relentless rain and massive number of bodies and umbrellas, I lost all motivation.  Plus, the kids were delighted to hang out by the dunk tank and encourage others to lob balls to make their dad fall in.

Dan was the last shift of the day and between the distraction of the air show, and the unending rain, it was a slow shift.  I don't think he minded.  The girls were delighted that I bought 6 throws for them and they were able to put them to good use.  Dan may have gotten a wee bit chilly there in the cold and wet. We hung out till the last air performance was over, and then joined the throngs clogging the streets, heading for the main gate.  

I loved that Dan is carrying Delaney's Barbie here.

A small view of the crowd that was heading for the fun.  And it looked like this ALL day long.

My cute girls, happy to walk in the rain.  (Callie was not happy to walk in the rain.)

Ready for some dunking!

Joshua, showing off his softball skills.

The girls are lined up for a shot at dunking Dan!

Riley had a blast.

Whoo!  Look at that throw!

Good effort, Delaney!

My 3 cutie pies, ready to do it again.

Fun with Poster-board

 The Elementary school had a "Spring Fling", which was a mini-carnival sort of thing.  They had lots of little games to play and it is their big money-maker.  I got to assist a little.  I signed up to help make 2 of the games.  I did the "Where's My Pants" game, which required 3 small buckets and a boodle of legos.  Each bucket held one mini figure, top separated from the bottom.  The point of the game was to be the first to find your lego minfig's pants.

The other game I signed on to make was the "Creeper Toss".  That was super easy as well. (Why do you think I signed up for it?!)  I needed to cut a posterboard into a Minecraft Creeper face.  They already had the beanbags for the tossing.  I thought it came out quite nicely!

Not the sturdiest thing ever, but very cute!

Green spray paint for the board, black paint for the outlining of the eyes and mouth.

I did buy poster board in bulk, since the Exchange runs out very quickly. It was fortunate, since Marian had a science project.  A pretty AWESOME project, if I do say so myself!  She posed the question of what would happen if you substituted peanut butter chips and white chocolate chips in a fudge recipe. 

 In case you are wondering, all 3 make delicious fudge (using the original recipe from the marshmallow cream jar).  It was a lot of fun and enjoying the results was quite tasty.

And this week she handed in her pasteboard for the science fair.  I have also discovered the joy of sticker paper.  It is a normal sized sheet of paper, but is sticker paper!  It is marvelous!  I print the page or photos on it and then you peel off the back and stick it where you need it.  Awesomeness!

Kokeshi Doll Painting Take 2

 Today I went and painted Kokeshi Dolls with Delaney and Rylee.  This time I did not do a doll myself, I just sat with them and tried to assist.  Both of them knew exactly what they wanted to do and they did not want any help from me.  It was an incredible trial for me to sit there and not snatch the paintbrush away and neaten everything.   Delaney did let me paint an extra layer on hers, and Rylee did let me outline her stuff in black, and I was happier after that.

Intense concentration with the first brush strokes.

 Ryle wanted a sparkly pink body.

And she was very intense with her painting. 

Having a good time. 

Looks random to me, but it is a bow and a.... I have no idea.

She did want sparkles in the hair, but she's unhappy because I put them in the wrong spot. Sigh. 

Happy girls and the dolls turned out pretty cute!  Can you tell what Delaney's doll is?! 

 Delaney's doll is a Girl Scout!  And Rylee's is a pretty pink and purple with a flower and butterfly on the front.  They had a really good time.  I was impressed that they worked so hard on these dolls for about 2 hours and did not get bored.

Me and my sweet cutie-pies!