Hinamatsuri

Callista's Pre-school class celebrated Hinamatsuri on March 2.  It is a Japanese Holiday that in English would translate as "Girls Day".  The girls collect these beautifully ornate dolls and display them starting in February. But once the holiday is over, you must put them away immediately.  Superstition says that the longer the dolls are left out, the longer it will take for them to get married.  They wore their Kimonos, sang a song for us, then shared a snack with us, and then we got to make this cute craft.....

the Emperor and Empress of Japan.

Callista and her friend Selah in their Kimonos!

I would like to get a set of those dolls and figure out the exact time for them to be left out so she won't get married until around the age of 25!

Snow Day

YETI SNOW TOWN

At the base of Mt. Fuji is a small ski place called Yeti.  We stayed at a rustic lodge close by the night before, and woke up to a breathtaking view of Fuji.  Not very smart of us, but we thought, we'll take pictures of the mountain when we get to Yeti.  BIG mistake, the clouds rolled in and Fuji disappeared.  Callista was so confused by this concept.  Huge mountain there one minute, gone the next.  It was a good lesson in Faith.  We knew it was there......we just couldn't see it!

Up the road a few minutes was an amusement park called "Grinpa".

It was themed after the "Sylvania House" collection of animal figurines and their houses.  This was quite an attraction for us because Callista fell in love with Sylvania House products here in Japan after visiting a few stores out in town.  Santa even brought her a "bunny house" (as she calls it) along with a cute family of bunnies.  Well, here is her house, except it is full size!

 Paul was just too exhausted after playing in the snow so he enjoyed a nice nap in the 29 degree weather!

The highlight for everyone was this obstacle course.  It even warns you that you should stretch before you attempt it....

so here they are....s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g!

It took about an hour for them to complete!  They were definitely exhausted by the time we got back in the car to drive home!

My note to their teachers went like this....

"Please excuse Chloe and Ryan from school today.  We are studying the properties of water once it turns into it's solid form".  They were both excused!

Valentine's Day

愛しています

Aishite Imasu = I Love You

Chloe and Ryan both made Valentine's that said,

"Valentine...go ahead and break my heart!"

Once the recipient breaks the heart they find a few heart shaped Dove chocolates.

 Callista saw these flower shaped Valentine's from Family Fun, and wouldn't stop talking about it until I took her to the commissary to buy the lollipops.  Good thing she did bug me about it......these were the last ones we could find!  Sometimes, I really miss Target (actually that's all the time)!!!!

Ryan's variation was in blue and green.  After all, 

"pink is a girl color, and I am not a GIRL!"

Happy Valentine's Day!

By the way....in Japan, Valentine's Day is only for the ladies to buy their men a gift.  Good thing I didn't learn about that until after the fact! 

Lost Tooth

Look who lost a tooth!

The tooth fairy left him 200 yen for that baby!



Huis Ten Bosch

Huis Ten Bosch is a replica of a Dutch Village complete with windmills, blooming flowers, and gondula rides.  This was the Cinderella style coach in the entrance that us girls could not resist climbing inside.

 Then, of course, the dragon guarding it was calling the boys.

 This is "teddy bear land", and you can guess who was in love.

 Trying on wooden shoes.....

 Sitting in enormous wooden shoes...you just can't tell because our budding photographer daughter cut off the shoes.

 The handsome knight on his white steed!

 The ferocious Ninja saying farewell to his Ninja steed.

 The river and buildings using our sketch setting on our camera.

 The silly pirates!

 The sword fighting pirates!

 The gondula ride.

 The Japanese are really into their trash sorting.  Only in a Japanese Dutch Village can you find the cutest garbage receptacles ever.  I just hope you can read the Kanji to understand which garbage goes into which hole.  I always end up tapping someone's shoulder, holding up my trash, and shrugging my shoulders as cute as I possibly can.  Usually......it works!

The 99 Islands and The Lantern Festival

On Friday afternoon we took a cruise on "The Pearl Queen" around the 99 Islands of Kyushu.

 It was very peaceful, tranquil, and COLD!

 Technically there are 208 Islands around the tip of Sasebo, but many of them are insignificant rocks, so they have named this area the "99 Islands".  This area is famous for it's Oyster and Pearl Harvesting and every restaurant in this area offers oysters prepared in many different ways.  I'd like to say we tried some......but we didn't!  I was, however, hoping to get a little "Mikimoto Pearl" action, but that didn't happen either.

At the end of the cruise, Chloe announced that she felt like we had been on a ride around Neverland on Captain Hook's ship.....Ryan, and Callista completely agreed.

The Nagasaki Lantern Festival

After our cruise we drove over to Nagasaki.  To celebrate the Chinese New Year, China Town in Nagasaki has a lantern festival.  It was breathtaking.

 This picture of Callista was not only taken by us, but by about ten other people.  There is just something about a blonde haired, blue-eyed girl in pig tails that the Japanese just can't refuse to take a picture of.

 The bottom half of this picture is a river with lanterns from above reflected on the water.

Who knew you could do so much with paper?