CHA CHA'S VISIT

When my cousin Adriana is around, there's always a story to tell. First, nobody really knows 'Adriana', but everybody knows Cha Cha. Is it because she likes to dance? No, not really. But for the full story, you'll have to ask her. For now, our story begins as we are about to get onto one of the worlds tallest farris wheels (112 meters talls) in Osaka.Once inside, we realized what a wimp I really am when I screamed like a girl as Cha Cha stood up and started to rock the cage. I really wasn't scared, I was just concerned about the example that ChaCha was setting for RJ and Sara. At least that's the story I'm telling! After everyone calmed down, we got a nice photo with Osaka in the background.

On our tour of the Himeji Castle, Cha Cha thought this guy was really cute!
Here we are at the Osaka Castle. A first visit to this castle for everyone.
At the Osaka Castle, we got really thirsty for a Dorink.
ChaCha just 'loved' the Himeji Castle. Here, she hugs one of the two main support posts just as every tourists to the castle does.
Cha Cha, Mind Your Head!
On the top floor of the castle is this shrine. Sake and coookies were being offered to the gods.
I caught this really good photo while ChaCha was admiring the view from the top floor of Himeji Castle. During our trip to Taiyo Park in Himeji, RJ took his turn rotating the ball in the lion's mouth. It is said that if you are succesfull the lion will come to life and bit off your hand. That doesn't sound like success to me!
Sara found a friend as we ate ice cream in Taiyo Park.
Here we are at the bus stop on our way home from Taiyo Park.
Cha Cha saw the face in this wall at the Himeji Castle right away. Can you?
At Taiyo Park, there were three new fixtures at this exhibit. I don't really think they match though?

This is the entrance to the Great Wall of China portion of Taiyo Park. The girls took their turn trying to march like the men.
We stopped for a break in the shade on our tour of the Great Wall.
The Great Wall of China took us near the Pyramids of Egypt. By this time, I think the kids were a bit bored.
No, RJ isn't stoned. We were trying to take a picture of his "Matcha Mustache". Matcha is Japanese for 'Green Tea'. This was at a tea ceremony at our friend Toraya's house.

Cha Cha does her best model pose near this covered scooter.
Here's ChaCha with our friends Hino-san and Toraya-san after the tea ceremony.
Cha Cha and I took off for a day trip and visited the Port of Kobe. This is near the earthquake memorial where we could still see damage from the 1995 Kobe Earthquake that killed over 6000 people.
RJ and Cha Cha admire the fauna outside Toraya-san's house.

At the tea ceremony, we sat in the tatami room and ate wonderful sweets and drank green tea.
Toraya-san dressed in her full kimono for the occassion.
Back near the Port of Kobe we rode the glass elevator to the 18th floor of the Ecolls building. It was free to ride the elevator and we got an amazing view of the port area. No Cha Cha, your cell phone won't work to call Tyler from here either!
A perfect picture of ChaCha in front of the Himeji Castle.

Are you wondering why Cha Cha is changing clothes during the tour of Himeji Castle? It's because we did parts of the castle on two different days. The first day was a weekend and there were so many tourists it would have taken 8 hours to get to the top. So we stopped on the 2nd floor and went back to finish the following Monday.
As Cha Cha and I wondered around Osaka, we found some very interesting signs. I only wondered, "What killed the dog" when I saw this one!

FAMILY DAY IN HIMEJI

A few weeks ago, we strapped the kids and a picnic lunch to the bicycles and did a mini-tour of Himeji. This is the view from the top of one hill.

This is a very famous shrine where people come from all over Japan to pray for better eyesight or to heal opthamologic deficiencies. The scary thing is that when this was pointed out to me, the guide told me that when he was young, he would often see cars from Hiroshima and Tokyo at this shrine. I wanted to ask if most of those cars had body damage upon arrival, but I was too chicken...
Too busy to take the stairs? How about a 2nd story slide ride at this school?
These are the stairs to the top of the hill where we took the photo of Himeji Castle. 91 stairs. And steep! More photos from the top of the hill.

DOWN ON THE FARM...

It appears that this blog has again fallen victim to the absurd dereliction of my blogging duties. In hopes of a subsequent redemption from anyone who may be reading this, I would like to explain this post...

On the day that my cousin came to visit, we decided that since we were going to Osaka to get her, we would make a day trip for the family. Upon our arrival at the train station in Osaka, we found this very interesting clock. There is an hourglass in the middle and exactly one hour's worth of sand. At the top of each hour the glass rotates as the clock chimes. It was something very unique for us to see.We chose to spend the better part of the day at a museum full of Japanese farmhouses. These farmhouses have been brought to this area from all over Japan as a display of the types of homes built in the various regions. This farmhouse is attached to the stable because the horses from this region of Japan are very valuable.


RJ and Sara enjoyed walking and having their pictures taken. For most of the time, I think they were thoroughly bored.
These fish flags symbolize the impending arrival of Children's Day. The number of fish on the flag represent how many children live in the home.
This was a tiled mural of one of the farmhouses in the museum. On each side of the mural is the entrance to the restroom!

I think this farmhouse comes from the southernmost part of Japan, perhaps near Okinawa. The house is actually in what we would think of as the attic and underneath the house....that's where the cooking, relaxing and other family activities took place.
Sorry, I can't remember anything special about this house.
Can you guess what is special about this grouping of stones? Scroll down for a hint... RJ and Sara promised to give us a good pose because we promised them some...ICE CREAM!!!

After the museum, we went to check in to the hotel. Merry and Sara stayed there while RJ and I boarded the bus for a 1 hour ride to the airport to pick up Adriana. Stayed tuned for more about her trip and a rare, 'family day in Himeji'.

MORE CANDIDS

I promise, this is the last post with boring 'candid' photos of the kids!

SPAGHETTI SARA

A couple of days after taking those photos of RJ from my previous post, I made Sara some spaghetti for lunch. And I patiently waited for an opportunity. Here's what I got (along with some very stubborn spaghetti sauce stains to work on)...

RJ'S GROWING UP

So, I got this new Nikon D40 digital camera. And...I have this really great kid. Just like chocolate that falls into peanut butter (or peanut butter that gets on chocolate) makes a great candy, the camera and kid combination creates something really cool too! I hope you like these first few photos...

WATAYA

This is my friend, Mr. Sawada and he owns a store called 'Wataya'. I met him through another friend of mine, Mr. Uchiyama, who introduced us because Mr. Sawada needed some English editing done for some marketing materials. After I completed the work, Mr. Sawada invited Mr. Uchiyama and I to his store. This is where we sat, talked and drank juice boxes during my visit.This elevated area that you see in the photograph below was originally the living area of Mr. Sawada's grandparents when this store was their home.

What I learned was that Mr. Sawada's family has been in the cotton business for over 120 years. Currently, Wataya offers custom dyed cotton products, as well as the opportunity to dye your own items. Mr. Sawada was gracious and let me try to dye my own denim bag. It turned out really good, except that I sent it to my Mom as part of her Mother's Day package without first taking a picture. I guess you'll have to ask my Mom to see it!

Did the dying process produce some noxious odors? You bet! Mr. Sawada explained that the dye being used is actually a living organism and that is why it smelled so bad.

I also got the chance to try to spin cotton into thread on this antique Japanese spinning wheel. It wasn't as easy ands Mr. Sawada made it look!I really enjoyed the architectural style and materials used in this building that was built over 120 years ago. It has withstood earthquakes and wars.

Mr. Sawada is quite the artist. He used colored pencils to draw the poster that is on the wall in this photograph. The split logs on the wall were taken from a sake factory that was being torn down. The sake factory was over 350 years old when it was demolished, so you can only imagine how old those logs are...the stories they would tell if they could speak!
The front of the store boasts more of those sake factory beams.

The single thing that I am most grateful for while living this year in Japan is the personal connections that we've been able to make. These are experiences that aren't in any tour book and the ones that I'll cherish for as long as I can remember them. It has made me a believer in the old addage, 'people will forget what you said, they will forget what you did, but they won't forget how you made them feel'. Today, I'm feeling a renewed sense of the inherent goodness and similiarity in the lives of normal working class people.