Courageous Joy

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Vacation Days @ Home

We spent the 15th doing laundry, buying groceries, playing wii, catching up with friends (doggy and others) and turning in the rental van....a great vacation. I'm nearly ready to do it again.

We even received five boxes of groceries!

The kids have spent a lot of time catching up with friends, enjoying the snow storms....they built the car AROUND Nolan and the poor boy was COLD by the time he got in. ::snort::

The 17th Michael was sick so we spent the day at home rather than attend church.

We fell in love with Japan again on this trip. It was GREAT family time. People we met and things we saw have led to meaningful conversations. The whole trip was like a giant field trip for our younger three as they are studying Japanese History this year.

Choosing Joy!
©2013 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Racing for Home

We began our race home to Misawa on the 13th. We drove from Osaka to Camp Zama. Before we left, I HAD to go out on the window ledge...oops - look who noted my early a.m. adventure. He joined me.

Lots of apartments in Osaka

Love the rest areas in Japan

Fujisan

Mt Fuji - they climbed that ::grin::

It was great to catch up with a couple of PWOC friends at Camp Zama: Kristin and Amanda. I relished our relaxing hot drink and the visit was even more refreshing. We were impressed with Zama's lodging and free breakfast. The next morning we took off for Misawa.....We savored our last tastes of spring. We knew what waited for us in Misawa....

WINTER...snow....Misawa didn't disappoint. We've had nearly non-stop snow since we arrived home.

35 FW photo

Choosing Joy!
©2013 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Nolan's Delayed Birthday

Military families are used to celebrating milestones on "off season." One deployment seven of us waited our birthdays for over 6 months for Michael to return home. Today was Nolan's long awaited birthday celebration.

We went bowling.....

Nolan chose Karinbas for dinner. Then he opened a variety of gifts and enjoyed the Death By Chocolate cake he had requested. He was secure in the knowledge that a vegan mom who would make this for him loved him greatly! ::snort::

Zander is counting down to HIS birthday celebration now. I believe Friday or Saturday will work.

Choosing Joy!
©2013 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan

The Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan is the biggest aquarium in the world located at the ward of port in Osaka, Japan. (Or so the guide book reports). There are 27 tanks with a total of 10, 941 tons of water featuring animals from the Pacific Ring of Fire area. The largest tank is 9 meters deep and hold 5,400 cubic meters of water.

Michael took these photos:

This was a real sample of the giant Japanese salamander we'd seen at the museum in Tokyo. LOL

Via Google Images

When Zander saw the advertisement in our hotel room he let us know he really, really wanted to take pictures of this whale shark....

At some point in our trip through the aquarium Zander left his camera sitting "somewhere." I love Japan. When we exited the building we stopped and asked at the info booth and it had already been turned in.

I LOVED this feature. A big room filled with seats...what a great spot to sit and relax....and enjoy the fish.

By the time we left it was far to cold and windy to ride the ferris wheel. We did stop and grab dinner. I enjoyed the view of the port while we ate.

We weren't able to see Kyoto. That's o.k. We DID see an awful lot of interesting spots.

Choosing Joy!
©2013 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

They're Real!

An incredibly fun sight in the middle of a big city! We watched to be sure they were real - though there are some dropping on his hat. LOL

Choosing Joy!
©2013 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Toilet Magistrate

This may be my favorite sign so far.....I wish there wasn't quite so much sun...but oh well. I seriously think I'll frame and mat this for future bathroom walls. Who knew world peace could be so easy to accomplish...and that there were Toilet Magistrates in Osaka!

Osaka Castle

We woke up bright and early and decided to have breakfast in the room.....oranges, nuts, Starbucks rolls.

We hit the train station at rush hour.....Stacia wasn't so sure about this. (I was discreet with the photo - I've learned from the best as we are often accompanied by clicks when we go out. ::grin::)

Our destinations for the day - a castle and an aquarium....

Other than driving days, most of our vacation is easily classified as "School". We have just finished studying the Edo time period....and were familiar with the names surrounding Osaka Castle. We were SO glad Pat and Lila had suggested we do this. We had considered Himeji Castle but it was being renovated.

From the roof

This is a decoration from the roof....we debated if it were a fish or a dragon on our way to the castle....It turns out it was mythological creature: a fish/dragon which was to protect from fire as it spits water when it gets hot? On fire arrows were used in battle, so fire was always a possibility. There was no mention of this at Osaka - but Tracy shares that at the Emperor's Castle in Tokyo they learned water was pumped to the fish in case of fire and it spit out water. Maybe they did the same at Osaka. I can't remember the name of the creature.

They wanted Y300 to try on the Samurai helmets. I told Zander to duck down and we'd stage it. LOL

As we exited the castle we were met by school children who are learning English. Their teacher asked if they could ask us some questions. It was GREAT FUN!