Pictures of our house

I finally took some pics of our house.  No judgement on the mess, I know if you have kids you know what I mean.  If  your house is perfect you either have a cleaner or our lying.  Hehe.

Here is our car, the second one.  The first one was much nicer but since we have to back in every where I banged it up a bit and they gave us another one. The first one was much nicer so now I have learned how to back in.

 The front of our house.  No lawn but lots of weeds.

 The living room, Pretty big size and big front window.

 Big kitchen, The table is rented so it is pretty short.  Laundry room off the back.

Another view of the front of the house.

 The side of the house where we hang our laundry.

Julia at the park down the street.
It is very humid this week. so I am feeling a little stressed and short tempered.  Waiting for the cooler weather.  Good news... I am down 5 pounds.  The walking is paying off!

Our Daily Walk

On most days we talk a walk around the neighborhood in the morning before it gets to hot.  Most of the people on the street are walking their dogs and they all know Julia. The stay at home ladies stop by to say Hello to her.  She of course loves the attention and thinks she is a star.  Here is a our street.  The houses are mostly shielded with brick walls and lots of bushes or trees.

There are these little walk ways that the school kids use to walk to school and we use as a short cut sometimes.

 The green tea field at the end of our street we pass everyday.

 A man made lake where kids have boating lessons and it has a path around it we take.

 Another path that leads to the park or around the lake. Lots of kids riding bikes to school.

 A view of the  park and community center from the top of the hill.

 Just for fun... Julia in her new hat while she is shoe shopping.  She walked around the Toys R us for an hour.

Izu Peninsula

The trip began pretty uneventful and the drive was nice with some very cool tunnels.  Jeff said "Japan is a civil engineers blank dream"  you fill in the blank.

Next was a spiral bridge. Yes that is right - spiral.  I don't have any pictures because I had to keep my eyes shut or throw up.  Here is a picture I found on the internet.


Once we made it there we had our hotel right on the beach.  Once again, check in is 3:00 so you have to wait.  So we checked our luggage and headed out for lunch and touring.  We found a place where Perry's ship landed and it turned out to be a temple and fun little walk through the town with narrow streets, shops and restaurants.  Very cool.  Apparently President Jimmy Carter had stopped there once so they had statues of him.

 Another Shrine

On the way back to the hotel we found these cool rock formations that you could walk out too.  There were lots of people fishing and boating.

After checking in we hit the beach.  We had a great room with a view of the ocean and a beach right below.  The beach was a little rocky and the water a little cold but it felt great since it was 97 and 80% humidity.  So we hung out and watched the surfers. The best part of the hotel was that they sold beer in a vending machine!    Bonus!

 View from our hotel room.

Out for dinner at a French restaurant.  But it was mostly pasta and pizza. The new French I guess.
It was full moon over the ocean.  Then up at sunset with the surfers.  After breakfast we hit the beach again for a few hours.

 I like the sand better than the water.

 Too much fun and sun.

View from the beach.
Then we headed down the coast where we found some other cool parks and took a boat ride through some rock formations. We also had a sweet view of Mt. Fuji. All in all it was a fun and relaxing trip!

 Mt. Fuji in the background.

Mt. Fuji!

Day at the Beach

Off we went to the beach.  It was about 30 minutes from the plant.  We pulled up and there were lots of families and surfers.  I was unprepared in that I had sun screen on everything but my back. Can you say lobster.  That would be me.  Julia was not to sure of the waves at first and much preferred playing and eating the sand.  The water was very refreshing, not cold at all like in California.  Waves pretty small on the shore.  Sand was scorching hot, so had to run down to the water.

 I like sand, especially eating it.

Then what do you do after a day at the beach.  Not hamburgers or hotdogs, of course you go out for Chinese food.  Julia had her own kids meal of fried rice, chicken (I think) and fries.  They had a little British flag in it, not sure why.

Except for getting burnt, had a great time.  Lesson Learned:  the sun is hot here!

The Longest Wooden Bridge in the World & Sushi

Saturday we went to a great sushi place.  No idea of the name because it is in Japanese but has two little sprouts on the sign so we call it the little green guy place.  Sushi comes out on a conveyor belt and you can either choose from there or use a touch screen to order your own and it travels out to your table on a mini Shinkansan train.  Very fun!  The best part is that it is only $1.25 per plate of sushi.  Only beer, Mizu (water) and juice boxes to drink and little desserts come around too.  Julia had fun but may have touched a few items -oops.  Entire meal less than $20 for a belly full of sushi.  I highly recommend the crab sushi.  Large chucks of crab on the rice, yummy!

Then we took a drive to the world's longest wooden bridge.  The Guinness Book of Records as the longest wooden walking bridge (897m) in 1997.  It was right near a huge Apita (Like a Super Target).  The railings were very short so I was nervous walking over it and had to focus on the middle of the bridge so I did not freak out.  Beautiful view and on the other side we saw two little fox playing near the water, but when I got close enough to get a picture, they ran off.  Julia thought it was a blast because it was windy and dare I say it, somewhat cool.  Which means I did not sweat 10 pounds off.

 I think he does this on purpose to make me nervous.

 And we are off to the other side.

 Sun setting around 6:30pm

 We made it!  Now to walk back.

 Some of the shrines on the other side.

 Ready to walk back.

Enjoying some milk and chillin with Dad after my long walk.