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.

Young Jedi

This past week, Hazel attended Jedi camp at the local Y!

She was a little disappointed that there was no actual light saber training, but on the last day the kids did get to bring in costumes and accessories for the Jedi Parade. (Thank you, Paula, for Hazel's costume.)

The kids thought that the silly version of one of their camp songs was an absolute hoot--I believe the line about "Luke Chickenwing" brought out these big smiles.
 

Our family went full on for Star Wars this week. In addition to Jedi camp, we introduced her to The Clone Wars and watched both Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. The climactic final battle was pretty intense for Hazel ("Is Luke going to turn to the Dark Side?" "Is Darth Vader going to die?"), but she absolutely loved both of the movies.

Hazel was very proud to leave camp with a certificate that proclaims her an official Jedi!

Japan: On the road

 

We had an empty train car for the last leg of our journey home from Osaka. The kids loved it!

Hard to believe that just a few hours earlier, Hazel had been so exhausted that this is how we left the park with Japan's littlest mountain.

We spent a quiet day in Gifu, doing laundry and letting the kids recharge. Our biggest adventure was a walk to the river that runs through the neighborhood.

And then we were off on our next adventure--

a road trip to Mt. Fuji.

Hazel and Nina kept each other happy and entertained the entire time. Their friendship was adorable throughout the trip, and especially convenient for the long car ride.

Father's Day/Sleepaway camp

This year we celebrated Father's Day in some ways that are typical for our family. The girls made posters and gifts, and we had a lingering big breakfast.

 

We visited Toccoa Falls (one of the tallest waterfalls east of the Mississippi). Toccoa is a Cherokee word that means "beautiful," and these falls and the surrounding region are aptly named.

The girls clambered like mountain goats and enjoyed getting close enough to the waterfall to feel its spray.

But this Father's Day, it wasn't all about Aaron.

We were up in Toccoa to drop Juniper off for sleep away camp at Camp Toccoa! Here she is claiming her top bunk. She was a little bit nervous in the week before camp, but by Saturday night she was just excited. ("I'm too excited to sleep! I wish it was already tomorrow!") She was delighted to head off to camp and looking forward to making new friends (but also hoping that there wouldn't be anyone mean in her cabin, especially not her bunk mate).

When we left, she had just joined a circle of other girls and was learning how to play Poison Dart Frog--a favorite camp game.

Japan: Mountains

While in Osaka, we visited Mount Tenpo. At 4.5m above sea level, it makes the somewhat dubious claim to be Japan's lowest mountain.

 The Mount Tenpo park was full of blooming cherry trees--some of the nicest we saw while in Japan.
 

Mount Fuji was a more impressive sight. The surrounding landscape would have been beautiful even without Fuji-San: lakes, hillsides covered with yellow grasses, several mountains in the distance. And then on top of that already amazing landscape was the tallest mountain of all, seemingly rising up out of the clouds themselves.

One of our favorite activities in Japan was hiking up to the top of this smaller mountain near Mount Fuji. (We got a boost by starting the hike from an observation site that was already well up the side of the mountain.) The hike was fun in and of itself, and on the way down we were walking into the view of Fuji-San.

Japan: More crazy signs

Our last blog post featured this area lit up at night. The over-the-top advertising was also fun to see during the day.

Osaka is known for its tako yaki, an octopus dumpling. Our family had mixed reviews on the dish. Juniper liked it; Hazel didn't; and both of the grown-ups could take it or leave it. This little tako yaki stand was doing all it could to capitalize on the popularity of the local dish.
 

In addition to the giant animatronic octopus with moving tentacles, they had a loudspeaker blaring a dance remake of the Hallelujah Choir from Handel's Messiah, but instead of "Hallelujah, hallelujah" it was "Tako yaki, tako yaki." It was cheesy and silly and delightfully full of cheerful happy energy. All at 10:30 in the morning.
 

 The giant sushi hand and the blowfish were also pretty fun.

Japan: Osaka lights

From historic Kyoto to modern Osaka.

Our hotel's biggest selling point was being a block away from all this. Kevin described this popular tourist district as Times Square meets Bourbon Street. (But cleaner.)

Spammy and Salamander!
 

Super Million Hair!

Many thanks to Chikako for being willing to stay back at the hotel with all four sleeping children!