Shimoda

The ocean was calling my name a couple weekends ago, so I packed up the kids for an awesome day trip to the Izu Peninsula just south of Tokyo.  A mere 100 miles from Tokyo, don't be fooled, this trip can easily take 5 hours with traffic on any given day, so I opted to leave at 5 am to beat the traffic.  It was well worth it, and we had so much time to see and enjoy this coastline of Japan.

Our first stop on the way was a small, but excellent reptile zoo.  Full of snakes, turtles, frogs, lizards, and even a 3.9 meter crocodile, it was very hands on, and very well done.  Though we did not understand any signs.  A problem we do encounter often!

Loving the turtles!

Feeding the turtles

The crocodile was HUGE

Heading down the coast the coastline was beautiful

Next stop,  Shirahama beach.  A beautiful white sand beach almost completely empty.  It was a relatively cool day in the mid 70's, but it was ideal to us and the kids played for hours in the warm surf, and built a small fort out of sticks and pretended to be shipwrecked.  

Shirahama Beach

Brotherly love

Love the Torii Gates in Japan

photo courtesy of Molly

our little play area

shipwrecked

They could have stayed here for days...

Right next to the beach was a beautiful shrine that had a bright red bridge I just had to cross.

The trees here are reported to be 3000 years old, and frankly they looked it!

Tommy on the bridge

Dogashima, on the other side of the peninsula was our late afternoon stop, and we took a relaxing boat ride along the coast to see the neat rock formations and caves that are found here.

My adventure crew

Getting so big

We went in this cave, in the boat, boys loved it!

Our boat

It was time to head home, and heading up the coast back toward Tokyo, we were treated to beautiful views of Mount Fuji, and endless rice fields.

Emerging from the mist

terraced rice fields

Supper brought us to good old McDonalds, and we all tried the new sweet potato milkshake.  

But when I told them what the flavor was...this is what happened!

Suddenly not so good.

I thought it was delicious!

Yum!

A long but AWESOME day!

saying goodbye

Yesterday, Stanley's beloved beetle died.  Thankfully it was expected, and Stanley had been coming to terms with it for a while.  We only expected him to live until August, so getting a full extra month was a bonus.  Stanley and his friend took Edie outside to bury him, and when I went outside a little while later this is what I found.

Molly felt a card needed to be written, so this morning this was added to the site

My heart hurts for him, but I had to smile at their tender actions for the big, ugly beetle we had in our home all summer.

Stanley turns 8

My baby boy turned eight!  My thrill seeking, fearless boy never ceases to amaze me.  He loves to build and create, and has an incredible imagination.  Always the first to ask if I need help, to offer to take out the trash or vacuum the floor.  He knows exactly how to get under everyone's skin, but has a huge heart and I love him desperately.  All he wanted for his birthday was a chocolate cake with a big number eight made with skittles.  Here he is with our traditional morning doughnut!

Mini Andrew

Brotherly love

Good morning smiles!

Happy happy day to my crazy Stanley!

Friendship Festival

Every year at the beginning of September, the base opens its gates to the locals and lets them see and experience American culture for two days.  Last year they did not have one due to a lack of funds, but this year it was back on and it was alot of fun even for us Americans.  Both Andrew and I worked much of the weekend manning different booths...his for DFAS, myself the cub scout booth, but we did take the kids for a few hours to see the planes they let you go on and take your picture with.  Though we see them almost daily, planes never grow old, and being able to go on them was a real treat for the kids.

Japanese fighter jet and pilot

F-16

If we hop to the states, this is what our seats will look like!

The highlight

They did the parachute training as well, which is always super cool

What I did not take photos of was the hoards of people!  Thousands upon thousands came to eat burgers and steak, to buy American box cakes, freezies and bags of chips.  It was insane.  Security was tightly controlled, but it was so neat to see the Japanese enjoying our culture.