Trick Art Museum

At the base of Mt. Takaosan there is a Trick Art Museum. Needless to say the kids had a blast!!!

Mt. Takaosan

I tried to go hiking on Sunday, but it was raining. Veteran's Day ended up being my day. It was an hour 15 minutes to drive to Mt. Takaosan. Matt and I hiked it 14ish years ago when we first lived here and it's famed for it's autumnal leaves. I took the kids a little early in the season because I don't want to be there with the crowds. It's a pretty steep hike up but it is paved on the one course.  It was about 3 hours of hiking plus the monkey sanctuary and the temple.

These are the octopus cedar trees that have roots that spread out like tentacles. The Japanese were all rubbing this little octopus idol like he was going to bring them good luck. You can see one of the cedars in the background. 

Suspension bridge on the way down.

Hike up to the huge temple grounds

And the huge hotdogs. Cady and Dax both had one:(

What would an outing be without Japanese soft cream...in grape flavor with a temple guard popping out the top?

Only the Japanese hike in business suits

Futagoyama

Another beautiful fall afternoon calls for another hike around our area. This one was about a 20 minute drive from the house and it might have been the prettiest hiking trail we've done so far. There were so many plants and beautiful green ferns.

The entrance was in a little neighborhood called Arden Hills.

The concrete stairs starting the hike were pretty overgrown but it made us feel like we were in an Indian Jones movie.

It wouldn't be a hike without an observation deck at the top!!

We were out and back in about 2.5 hours. I think the hike is a little more than 4.5 km but it felt like a workout with the ascent!

Halloween Yokosuka style

Fair warning would have been nice.....the base allows people to sponsor up to 10 Japanese people on to trick or treat. This is a fantastic idea except it makes for an additional 5,000ish people on base and the need for much more candy. We kept sending the kids out to trick or treat and then we would recycle their candy into our bowls. We bought 600 pieces of candy and recycled another 600 probably before running out. I know our neighbor had over 2000 pieces and ran out. But the important thing is that everyone had a blast.

Zombie Soccer Player and Geisha

Little Devil

By the end of the night we had Matt wearing a mask and hiding around the corner from our front door. We would give him the signal of "That's the most awesome costume I've ever seen" when a big kid came up. He would jump out and scare them to death. Hilarious. The Japanese kids especially seemed to love it but it's all such a new concept to them. No one was expecting it at all.

Tokyo Overnight

The two youngest didn't have school on Thursday so I rented a hotel room in Tokyo at the military hotel with some other friends. We went out to dinner at the Kawaii (cute) Monster Cafe in Harajuku. Harajuku is a trendy and strange little area and this restaurant fit right in. It was a little exhausting with all of the kids and the trains/transportation to and from but it was a fun experience.

The restaurant was supposed to be the stomach of a monster. There was the milk area, the mushroom area, the lips and the bar experience. I didn't get a picture of all of them, but someone must have really been on something to think this up.

This was a huge spinning cake in the middle of the foyer with animals and candy looking stuff on top.

The milk area featured upside down bottles with animal heads drinking from them.

Dax had a monster blt for dinner and the colors were all different flavors of sauces.

Holly had rainbow pasta and the sauces were all different flavors as well as the pasta being multi-colored.

After dinner, we let the kids swim at the pool until 10. 

The next day we took the kids to Shibuya to the street crossing where there could be up to 3000 people crossing at any time. This time it wasn't too busy but it was fun regardless!!

Matt and Cady had a date night in Yokosuka while we were away. They had some yummy Indian and spent some time wandering around off base. They had a great time as well. 

Zombie Nerf Battle

The Youth Sports office across the street from our house was looking for volunteers to be zombies/clowns for their haunted house last weekend. Matt and I signed up and enjoyed every minute of it. It was for 2nd grade and up and it was scary!!! But most of the kids loved it. We probably had about 20 that couldn't do it and turned around. Maybe a couple of tears but it's a haunted house and that's to be expected. The Youth Sports team gave the kids nerf guns and darts so they could shoot all of the zombies/scary things. One shot and we were dead so it was fun to play the parts!! Matt and I were in the first room together and it was hilarious. Sometimes I would just lay on the floor laughing after the kids shot me. The screams and the things they said were priceless.

This is my wedding dress recycled into a zombie bride costume:) 

Kanaya and the Ferry

Sunday was another beautiful day so I scrounged up a plan to see more of Japan. We drove south about 20 minutes to Kurihama...this is the port that Commodre Perry landed in many moons ago to open up the country to the rest of the world. From here, we hopped on a ferry to Kanaya which is about 40 minutes via ferry.

Once we arrived we walked to the rope way which would take us to the top of the beautiful mountains. It was here that we could experience the easter wilderness of the Boxo peninsula and discover Nihonji Temple, the thousands of statues scattered in the mountain, and it's Daibutsu, the biggest Buddha statue in Japan. This hike took about 90 minutes from the rope way around the old temple area to see the different statues and buddha carvings.

One of the beautiful hiking maps you find in Japan. So very helpful.

The rope way up.

The beach view from the top!

 This view is called the View from Hell. We hiked up there and stood out on the outcropping. It wasn't that scary:).

 Another map at the Daibutsu showing all of the things to see at the top of the mountain before you head back down.

 Dax pointed to some green grass and said, "Mom, a wide open space!" meaning that he needed to run even after the climbing/hiking. So they played some hide and go seek and played with a little Japanese 2 year old.

We decided to hike down from the top to the ocean/beach instead of doing the rope way back down.  I read online not to hike because it would take too long. It was another 40ish minutes but so much better than a rope way.....at least for this family. I'd definitely recommend the hike down the main entrance way.

Our kids collected things on the beach and built a house. This is a dried fish that was washed up on shore and fried in the sun on a plate with chopsticks in the kitchen part of the house. They even found some packing foam for a bed. We love it when they work together like this. They truly enjoyed each other.

I finally pulled them away from the beach to eat as I was starving and it was almost 4.

The train station was open air with a  beautiful view of the mountains. It is such a quiet place that the train only come every 30 minutes.

We went to this sushi place by the fish market at the pier. The sushi was amazing. Holly tried her first tuna rolls and loved them. Matt said the salmon was amazing.

We went into the fish market before getting back on the ferry. It was an extravaganza of useless things and food. Holly/Cady both bought a mikan (clementine) stuffed animal to clip to their backpack. They had some cute Halloween themed breads and pastries as well. 

And last but not least was Super Peanut and his fearless friend Peanut Cat. We aren't sure why they existed but of course our kids thought they needed one. They were selling peanuts in this little section with peanut products so we assume that they made up a mascot. 

It was another fantastic and beautiful day in Japan. I wish we were there a few weeks later so we could experience the autumn leaves.