Nikko National Park

We took a day trip to Nikko with our cousin Sarah. Sarah flew over with Elin and the kids to help out. We were lucky to have her here for two weeks because with all of the moving in and school registration activity, we really needed her. Thanks Sarah - AKA 007 International Woman of Mystery.

The road into Nikko is lined with what I think are Cedar trees. Some of them seem to be really old because the diameter is huge.

Bridge at Nikko. Sorry, I need to do more investigation to tell you what the significance is. We have information, but most of it is in Japanese.

Savannah at the first shrine. She really took to the peace sign that most Japanese show when they get their picture taken.

Alternate view of the same shrine as the last picture.

Cleansing before entering the Shrines.

Mountain water for drinking. The kids had to drink from every station that they had.

Elin taking a drink.

Garden pictures at Nikko.

Family in the garden.

Sarah finally broke down and took a drink from the fountain.

Peace Ya'll.

Denny at the smaller shrine.

Five story pagoda.

See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.

This gut reminded me of me... he looks like he is ready for archery season. OH YEAH!!!! There are deer at Nikko. I saw deer crossing signs all over the place. I had to stop and ask directions (yes, I ask for directions) and I asked about the deer. I was told that there is a hunting season here in Japan. I am not sure that I will ever get to go, but I am hoping it will happen.

Whiskey barrels. I was told they were offerings from the various makers, but I think it is low cost advertising. Either way... I was thirsty.

This is called a Torii (To ri i). Most shrine have them at their entrances.

I saw these trees with their roots showing and I thought they were kind of cool so I snapped a picture. The wall added to the picture. When I have a camera in my hands I have the tendency to think things are cooler than they are so drop a comment to let me know what you think.

This was a picture I took on the way down from the shrines. The blue sky and the pink flowers on the tree really caught my eye.

We went to the yama (mountain) restaurant and unfortunately, they had a private party going on. Denny and I walked in like we owned the place and we were told that they were closed. It was like Wally World. Anyway, we took a walk to Kirifuri falls. The path is next to the restaurant.

Kirifuri falls.

Elin and Sarah

Nikko has wild monkeys. We saw a lot of them. Supposedly it is hit or miss. We saw this guy on the way down the mountain and took a lot of pictures of him.

We took the windy road up the mountain to the first lake at Nikko. Sorry, I can't remember the name, but I will try to update at some point. We stopped at an overlook and a nice Japanese family took our picture for us.

This was the first of the two lakes at Nikko. Again, I can't remember the name.

On the way back home, we saw this small Shinto Shrine. We went up to it and there was only a woman with a child and one man closing up. There were bells that you can ring and of course Savannah and Denny made a bee-line for them. CLANG CLANG CLANG... I tried to stop them but the woman said it was OK. She went on to explain that she was the wife of the man who was there. He was the Shinto priest that ran the shrine. After that, it was 'go home time'. We had plans to go to Mashiko the next day.

The blog takes a while to update and I have about a week and a half worth of activity to add so stay tuned. We miss all of you. Everyone is welcome to visit. Just let us know.

General Pictures from April

Here are some general pictures from April.










The first night I stayed at the house it snowed. That was April 16 which is late for snaw in Utsunomiya area. I am told it hardly snows at all.










This was a car that still had snow on it the next morning. It looked like an inch or two.








Denny at Houshakuji station.














We ate lunch after Elin's driving practice. Our support member showed us a yakiniku restaurant in Bell Mall. It was really clean and the food was good. Elin took to the seaweed soup.







Denny at the yakiniku restaurant. The kids actually cooked on the grills which was a little scary, but they did a good job. No burns...














The famous "Slinky" is actually in this picture. Can you find him?

Takanezawa Town Pictures

We decided to live in Takanezawa. Although the house option was the oldest and needed the most updates, it was the best choice for location. Savannah can walk to the Takanezawa Elementary School which is supposed to be one of the best choices for foreigners. Dennis is also attending a very good Yochien (pre-school).

This is the park that is about 2 blocks from our house. There are actually 3 parks that we know of within walking distance. Elin, Savannah and Dennis were at the park. They met some Jr. High School students. They took to Denny pretty quick. He blew them kisses and everything. Both of the kids' red hair gets a lot of attention.

This is Savannah's Elementary School and Denny's Yochien. The Yochien has an ocean theme. His level is a dolphin. I believe next year he will move up to a whale.

View looking out over the tracks at Houshakuji Station. This is the Takanezawa station and it is the closest to the house, but still a long way to walk. Biking will not be so bad.

I had a weekend here in Japan alone. I took the train to Takanezawa and walked to the house. This is a view down our main street in town. Many people called Takanezawa 'country', but we are finding that most of the things that we need are within walking distance - grocery, hyaku yen store (dollar store), Kanseki hardware, gas stations, shoe and clothing stores, restaurants, etc. We actually feel like we are living in a city compared to where we were in Delaware Ohio.

The Tori-sen is the grocery store closest to us. We have another one in town, but it is further away so we have not yet been there. If you look closely you can see that, yes, we do have a McDonalds. We don't go very often, but it is comfort food for the kids. A Big Mac Set (meal) runs about 630 yen which is about $7.00. It seems like every time we go into the Tori-sen (which seems like every 2 days), we drop $50.

These are pictures of Sakura or Cherry Blossoms. Many Japanese like to go to places with many cherry blossom trees. They often take lunch and have their meal under the trees. At Honda, there is a main street that is lined on both sides with Sakura trees. It is impressive.

House Pictures

Sorry that we have not been able to update the blog. We did not get Internet until Friday May 7. We are up and running so you should expect regular updates. My first day in Japan, we went to three different houses. I had to choose one of the houses. It was a little stressful. The first house is the one I chose. Here are a few pictures.

This is the outside of the house. It is a little more traditional than the other two options - also a little older. The bathroom and kitchen need updated, but that's not part of the deal.

Our 'yard' is more of a garden. Instead of grass, we have rocks. There were a lot more trees, but they must have died since there are only a few stumps left. The other day, we saw a brown lizard in the yard. The kids named him 'Slinky'.

These are tatami mat rooms. The floors are made from what we think are rice stalks but we are not sure.

We are using the larger room as our bedroom. It's an 8 tatami mat room. The smaller one is our TV room. It's a 6 tatami mat room. As you can tell, they measure rooms by how many tatami mats fit.

The kids' bedrooms are on the second floor. The look about the same. They are bigger than the rooms they had back in Ohio. Also, they each have large walking closets. Overall, if you don't count the basement, I think we have more room now than we did before we left the U.S.