Japan: Playground zip line

Not actually so Japanese-themed, but just good, happy fun. Hooray for good public parks, in any country!

Japan: Gifu Festival

As part of the Gifu Festival, Sam and Nina's soccer club paraded through the neighborhood. (Nina is behind another girl and hard to see, but she is blowing the whistle as the parade goes by her house.)

Onlookers donated money, so the parade was both festive and a fundraiser for the soccer club. (That's Sam on the left, with the whistle).

Downtown, there's a bigger parade.

 Also a big flea market, where the girls got these kimonos.

The girls were excited about their kimonos, but for the most part they enjoyed a brief visit to this park more than the festival activities.

Japan: Gifu from Mt. Kinka

Gifu, like many Japanese cities, is nestled in among mountains. The city's most famous mountain is Mt. Kinka, home of a castle that had military and political importance in the 1500s.

 We took a ropeway train to the top of Mt. Kinka.

The replica of the historic castle apparently failed to make much of an impression--we have no photos of it. But the views of the city from the castle were terrific.

More than any other visual spot on our trip, the view from Gifu Castle was an amazing contrast between dense development and undeveloped mountains.

Gifu is also known for its rivers and high quality drinking water.

Mostly happy, but also somewhat tired

Japan: Little Samurai

On our last full day in Japan, we visited historic Gifu castle. It was our excellent good luck to be visiting on the day of Gifu's local festival, when there were extra activities like dressing up as adorable samurai.

 Excuse me, did I say adorable? I meant to say fierce.

Castle defenses -- check!

Ready to defend her sister, the noble (or scholar, or some other unarmored person).

Hazel was very serious about her samurai responsibilities...and undaunted by the weight of her heavy armor.

Unrivaled in battle, our noble samurai was eventually defeated by the most insidious enemy of all--the sheer exhaustion of travel, fun, jet lag, lack of naps, adventure, and late bedtimes of a four-year-old on the road. (In the interest of full disclosure, I don't think this photo was actually taken on the same day we went to Gifu Castle, but it captures Hazel's state on most days of the trip.)

Japan: Life Is Candy

Indeed.

Also, Krispy Kreme doughnuts. Only with some different flavor choices: tuna fish and sakura (cherry blossom). The tuna fish had a perfectly respectable tuna salad inside, but it didn't match the sweet doughnut exterior. (Swap this for a savory outer bread, however, and you might be on to something.) The sakura was sticky-sweet and floral.

No comment needed for the kids' reactions.

Japan: Safari Park Zoo

We visited a zoo where you could pet and feed capybaras.

Capybaras!

And kangaroos!

But mostly, our kids just wanted to hold cute small rodents.

On the one hand, we thought, "We're in Japan at a zoo with capybaras and kangaroos, and you just want to hold bunnies and guinea pigs that you could find at any pet store in America?!" On the other hand, who can argue with a smile like that?

 So we spent a long time hanging out with the bunnies and the guinea pigs...

...and the dwarf hamsters too.

I don't think our photo collection reflects just how ubiquitous this sort of photo prop was in Japan. I have to say that I think this is one of the better ones of them.

The big attraction of this zoo was the safari park ride. We rode in one of these caged, animal-themed buses...

...and got to feed large animals with tongs. Lions!

And grizzly bears!

Being able to get this close to bears was pretty amazing--definitely the highlight of the safari park. (But I think the girls would have traded it for a dwarf hamster in a second.)

Japan: Land of the Little Prince

Near Mt. Fuji we stayed at one of the strangest places I have ever visited. Our room and much of the resort had a Little Prince theme, but this place had so much more than just The Little Prince.

There was a giant bell...

 reindeer sleds...

igloos...

a gorilla statue...

a restaurant where you can drink grapefruit juice out of a hollowed-out grapefruit skin...
 

a giant bounce pillow...

 

walkways made of Christmas lights...

a trail through a fairy tale forest...
 

that ended here...

 tipis...

little round huts for guest rooms (with starry constellations projected onto the domed roof, planetarium style)...

a tent with carnival games, but no people to staff them...

...a tinkling music box soundtrack, cherry blossoms, pillars of fairy lights, and Christmas trees covered in flowers.

As far as the kids were concerned, this place was a magical wonderland. (Bonus points for catching the song playing in this video.)

It was bizarre...

...but fantastic--especially with kids.

Japan: Mt. Fuji

Mount Fuji and one of its surrounding lakes.


Hiking Mt. Fuji with kids was completely out of the question, but hiking up a neighboring (and much smaller) mountain was fun...

...and gave us some fantastic views.
 

A triumphant Nina and her dad, near the top of the climb.

Triumph all around, at the very top of the mountain. There was some whining and complaining on the way up (Honeycutt-Dills only, none from the Sugiyama-Allen kids), but all of them were thrilled with their accomplishment when they made it to the top.

Juniper leaving some coins as an offering at the Shinto shrine on top of the mountain. It is hard to imagine that a similar spot in America would have a shrine or monument so well cared for, or that the monetary offerings would be so safe.

On the way back down!

Not pictured: Hazel arriving at the very bottom wearing no pants, with her jacket tied around her waist for modesty. She went down the steepest part of the mountain on her bum and picked up some unwelcome prickly burrs.