Weekly Home Update

We cheated and took photos on Friday when we were out at the Botanical Gardens. Here are some shots of the progress we could detect.

See the framework in front of the living room window - that's a double car carport - and to think I wasn't sure of the view out the living room windows. ::snort:: You can also see topsoil they've brought in....we suspect they are going to plant grass if they brought in such nice soil.


The vending machine has been moved to the front of the subdivision, and a fire hydrant installed - right.


WOOT! FIBER OPTIC internet here we come....


Ours walls are finished...I'd hoped that alcove was a desk area, but it appears to be shelves of some sort...also nice...maybe I'll use the bakers rack for a desk area. LOL


We have tiled front steps

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

~ Coram Deo ~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Translation Please

Kim, Tammy, Stephanie...anyone?

We are ranging off the beaten path. It's an adventure not to have a clue what the road signs say, the building signs etc. BUT most smile and communicate that they wish they understood us. ::snort:: We do the same back.....saying "I am American" and "Do you speak Japanese?" hasn't proven helpful. "Toire wa doko desu ka?" has been helpful. I was all prepared late last night with, "Summie mysin, Misawa Air Base wa doko desu ka?" but we couldnt' find a single person on the road or along the roadside to ASK. LOL

These are signs we really wish we could have read. Is this Kanji or Katakana? We think most the signs are in Kanji, so this may be what we need to learn. We do recognize Misawa and Shiriya now. ::snort::

I REALLY want to know what THIS says...don't flush the rubber duckie?


It would have proven helpful to now what this said


I'm assuming this is warning you not to get in the ocean?


This must promise a wonderful onsen - any idea what the name of it would be?

Next adventure - we'll pack some food...guess what when you get outside of Misawa there aren't ramen stands, sushi spots and Circle K's on every corner....but there IS a never-ending supply of Coke vending machines. ::snort::

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

~ Coram Deo ~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Shiriya Lighthouse - The most North Eastern point of Honshu

We set out to find an adventure today; and we did. Maps around here are fairly useless....90% of our roads have no names. We'd heard of a beach, Shipwreck Beach, that is fun to explore. We headed to the Veedol Memorial and thought we'd keep heading up the beach until we found Shipwreck Beach.

It was a great drive. We went through some picturesque towns. We drove through the mountains. We saw some great waves.....Eventually we found a roadside map.... We decided we were very close to the North East corner of Honshu and we should aim for THAT instead of Shipwreck Beach, which we somehow missed.

This perplexed me....The writing isn't in Kanji and I know the sign for bathroom...and the figure seems to have a beard..but it IS pink and the one on the other door was blue....I took a chance that this was for bearded women.

We also found a fun looking building. Unfortunately, no one inside spoke English. They did have a sheet of paper with English/Kanji on it and we TRIED. I wanted to know if their building was open to the public. They said it was an "energy plant" and then they pointed to the phrase, "public relay station".....but that didn't really answer my question.....and they had mean looking guards all over the spot.

Who would have guessed the Travelocity gnome gets way out here? ::snort::

We kept driving. We arrived at Shiriya Lighthouse and jumped out...

...to discover wild horses. There were signs and photos of horses in winter. We surmise these are somehow special horses and they winter over at the lighthouse. We imagine they are from the Tonomi Samurai stock...but we are imaginative. We'll have to do some research and maybe make this trip again in the near future.

We headed out to the farthest point to take a photo of the clan on the NE Tip of Honshu...








I heard a motorcycle and a man was desperately motioning that it was time to close and the gates would be locked. At least that is what I guessed. It was sad. We'll have to do this again. We were robbed of really looking around and exploring this location. LOL

We stopped at the beach on the way home. Wonderfully loud waves, a full moon.....

Then we drove and drove and drove. Poor Mike. It was dark and there are few street lights. The vending machines were helpful as provided splashes of light in the dark landscape. ::snort:: The roads were INCREDIBLY windy and NARROW in the tiny towns we passed through.....eventually we found our way back home.

The Garmin Etrex receives mixed grades for this trip. On the way up it continually told us we were in the middle of the ocean. On the way back it got us home....that and the blown up photos of the map we'd snapped earlier in the day. ::snort::

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

~ Coram Deo ~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Speed?

OK - the plain one loaded in 10 seconds flat...this one in 10 - 30 seconds on my laptop.....is this better? Less than a minute? Maybe 30 seconds? I really don't like plain, but maybe I'll have to do that....

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

~ Coram Deo ~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Hachinohe Botanical Gardens & Children's Land

It's 3:44 a.m. and I'm barely coherent...I thought I'd cheat and find a website for you to read all about the gardens....Misawa Life has some info. I decided to go with this as you can read the directions and see that I'm NOT exaggerating about the fact that there are no STREET SIGNS down here. LOL

After the pottery class we followed another family out to the Hachinohe Botanical Gardens and Children's Land....it was well worth the drive. From our home, it will be about 25 - 30 min, I think. I plan to make this a trip we take again. The entrance is FREE. There are acres of gardens (which we ran out of time to really explore), amusement park type rides, go carts, monkeys and static displays. All, except the rides, are free. This was a field trip with Misawa Home Educators.


I couldn't resist. ::snort:: Jared continues to adjust.... (honestly, they are so considerate here...these sinks are for children)
We enjoyed the view of the park/city from the ferris wheel


Arielle is a sport and took Stacia on the dolphin ride so that I didn't have to!


Ah, baby monkeys





LOVE the vending machines....





Obligatory tourist shot

This stone slide is great fun for the KIDS....a bit rough....but a great way to get down to the go-carts. We did check and it IS a slide.



Notice the KNEES for Mike and Jared....











Jared thought I was taking a photo of him and a Kanji sign because he's our Kanji expert...but I took a photo with the alarming statue instead. ::snort::

These are pedal powered...Stacia and I got in the first one and I realized she couldn't reach the pedals. The pedals were cramped for me and were downright torture for Mike and Jared. LOL

















Why is Nolan drinking while they hold up the ship? ::snort::




I believe this will be a favorite outing, one which will be easy to repeat.

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

~ Coram Deo ~
Living all of life before the face of God...

1st week of school

Whew...a week of school done! Text books are starting to come in...next week will be a bit easier for me to plan - lesson wise. LOGISTICALLY to, come to think of it. ::snort::

Day 2 - Another Day of School at the Weasel's Den...it rained all day and the den was LOUD...the library was closed at Jared couldn't escape. LOL

PE in the fitness room at the TLF - no signs saying they couldn't use the equipment


Valiantly trying to study Samurais in the Weasel Den


Math Games


I diligently studied these signs trying to teach myself to read Japanese


Computer Room at TLF

Day 3 - PARKS....the day was bright and sunny. We headed to a park/playgound in the housing area to study. Jared stayed at the TLF - I knew he wouldn't wake up Mike.

Spelling, Creative Writing, Dictation

Recess

After 4 1/2 weeks in the TLF, I FINALLY figured out how to easily haul groceries up to our floor. LOL

I realized on this day, that I need to be properly prepared with prayer and worship before going to the commissary. It depresses me. Soon we'll live up the road from a wonderful, year round, farmer's market. I ended up paying $7.40 for local milk at the commissary...didn't realize it was that much as it was sold in a smaller container...organic milk may be nearly the same price. ::snort::

Day 4 - Exercise is over. We did school at home and Mike went to work at sane hours.

Day 5 - Mike is off work until Tuesday. Arielle, Nolan and Zander attended a homeschool pottery class. The class was FULL and I'm praying it's the start of making lots of new friends. We headed off to Hachinohe on a field trip with the Misawa Home Educators after the class. We had a blast and were blessed that Mike was able to attend with us.

All in all a good first week of school.

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

~ Coram Deo ~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Plain Blog

I have it on good authority that the blog takes "forever" to load here in Misawa. I've removed items in the side bar.... The only thing I can think of is the template I switched too a week or so ago....as it was loading fine before then. There is also the chance that the problem is VERIZON and not my blog....but I'll go plain and see if that helps....actually I'll change templates soon here and see if a new look helps the loading time.

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

~ Coram Deo ~
Living all of life before the face of God...