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.)

First Day of School

Juniper heads off to 2nd grade, and Hazel to her last year of preschool!

 Taller than the mailbox now!

And this big girl is up to the mailbox now.

If you want to track their first day progression: 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010