Motegi Hanabi (Fireworks)

While we were still on vacation, we finished out the week by going back to Motegi raceway for a fireworks show. It cost us 5000 yen ($50) for a carload. Our friend Heather and her daughter Summer went with us. Actually, we went with her. Our car does not seat six so Heather drove and we paid for the ticket.

We paid for all you can ride passes, but it was so busy that the kids only got to ride a few rides. Savannah even sat for about an hour to ride the motorcycles. I bought hot dogs and yakisoba to eat, but no one wanted since I returned just as the fireworks began.

We met up with three other Japanese families. One of the families had just purchased a new car. Part of the deal was the she got reserved seats. When she went to get tickets, they asked how many she needed. She said 18 which would cover all of us... and they gave them to her. We were literally three rows back from the track. Rows one and two were empty so we had a clear view of the fireworks. It was one of the best shows that we have ever seen.

I usually enter the pictures and movies backwards in time because that is how the blog takes them - the format is a bit frustrating. I got 90% finished and realized that I entered them incorrectly... so you can see the day in reverse.




I didn't get many still photos. The camera wanted to focus too late. Most of them came out blurry like the next one down. This was about the best one I got. I switched over to movies afterwards.





More fireworks.












I believe this is the podium that they wave the flags from to start/finish the race. You can see how close we were to the track. There is an IRL Race coming up in September that we are thinking about going to. I heard it is super-loud because they run on the oval course. We went to a race at Mid-Ohio, but that is not an oval course. Loud, but I hear it is nothing compared to an oval course.





Savannah on the climbing ropes. Again, as it got dark, the camera had a hard time focusing. I thought this would have been a great picture so I put it on here.












Denny on the climbing ropes. It was hard to let them go since there were so many people around and it was getting dark. We are still learning to let go of the reigns a little.






All of the kids on the climbing rope.











Savannah and Denny on the airplanes. The pilot has to fly the plane to the height of the reflective targets. The passenger hits the button to score points. The plane with the most points gets a license. I think they collect licenses for prizes at the end of the day.




View of the mountains at Motegi. This course is literally out in the middle of nowhere. The first time we went, we thought we were lost and then out of nowhere, big signs for the raceway.

Savannah on her motorcycle.

Looking at the front straight-away.

Looking at the back straight-away.








This has nothing to do with Motegi, I just stuck it in here. This was Denny singing a song on his first day back to school. I think Elin is relieved to have them back in school. It was a long six weeks.



Part of the fireworks display.



More fireworks...



More fireworks...



Heather took the kids on the off-road ride. This is the one that the kids would not ride the last time we were at Motegi. I was disappointed. This time, parents did not buy a pass. Heather got a free ride because Summer is under four years old.




Savannah on the motorcycle. They took them in groups of four. One of the boys could not ride the bike so he had to leave. This was the first time Savannah has ever ridden a two-wheeled motorcycle. This comes after only a month or two of riding a two-wheeler. I was nervous that she would not be able to do it after waiting about an hour for her chance, but she jumped right on and took off. Great job Savannah!

Hitachi Seaside Park

We originally planned to stay one night near Oorai, but decided to make it a 2-night stay. We didn't know what else was in the area and the kids really wanted to go back to Hitachi Seaside Park. We decided to go with the ride all day bracelets instead of the individual tickets so the kids had a lot more fun this time. We rode just about every ride there - some multiple times... some 4 and 5 times.

Savannah rode her first roller coaster. She was nervous at first, after we got to the top of the first hill, she was fine. We rode it several more times afterwards.



Denny and I on the dolphin ride. We were stunned to find out that he was not tall enough to ride this one by himself. I barely fit in the dolphin.






The kids and I on the pirate ship ride.








We talked the kids into going on the giant Ferris wheel. They were to afraid the last time we were at the park. This is Savannah pretending to be afraid.








And of course, Denny had to get a goofy picture in since Savannah did. We are not sure, but we thought he was going to do a scared face, but it didn't translate well. Looks more like he ate a lemon.








Elin checking out the view from the Ferris wheel. It went pretty slow so we had lots of opportunity to take pictures.











View of the park from the Ferris wheel. It looks a lot bigger from the ground.











View of the ocean from the Ferris wheel.










Savannah on the dolphin ride.













Elin and Denny on the fire engine ride. Savannah and I were on the next truck. You had to squirt water into small holes in the building. The one who gets the most water in wins. I ended up with the high score of 52 - but there was no prize.









The family taking advantage of the photo opportunity. Elin thought it would be funny to pretend the bear was getting fresh. Yeah, we're mature.











This was the cold room. The prize was about $3 to get in (free with the bracelets). It was literally a freezer that was sectioned off into four rooms or so. They said that the temperature was -30 C. It was nice to get out of the heat for a few minutes. We ended up going in and out about 3 or 4 times.







The kids entering the cold room.

This was near the end of the cold room. The walls were made of ice.

Denny and Savannah with the kappas. A kappa is a mythical creature - kind of like a turtle, but not really. They also have to keep their heads wet or they will die. I think they were a wet cloth on their heads to keep it wet.

Savannah had homework a while back where we had to fill in the letters. We were given a "ka", then a space, then a "pa". We had to go through the dictionary trying to come up with a word that fit. The best we could come up with in 45 minutes was kappa which the dictionary said was "a fish out of water". Frustrating that I can't do first grade homework.

Savannah on the merry go round.

The orange tubes were a walking path. at certain intervals, they had some obstacles that ytou had to get through. This was toward the end of the day. It was hot and we were starting to get tired. Of course, the tube led up to the back side of the park. The exit was up near the ferris wheel.

After the tube, we decided to stop for a cool treat. Denny chose ice cream which he proceeded to dribble down the front of himself for about 15 minutes. I think he dripped more than he ate.

Savannah chose an ichigo (strawberry) snow cone.

Denny and Savannah on the smal cars. These were $1 a ride, but not included in the price of the bracelet.

Walking through the tubes. The coaster in the background is the one Savannah rode for the first time.




Savannah and I rode this ride. This one about made me sick. We rode another ride that went around in a circle after this one and that just about made us both sick. We were dizzy and lightheaded afterwards.

Denny and Savannah on motorcycles. Savannah's must have had something wrong with it. She kept running into the walls. The attendant had to help her about 10 times until she got it figured out.





These are the platform cycles that we rode the last time.




Elin and Denny on the dolphin ride.

Sun Beach near Ooarai

On Tuesday, we ventured out to the beach. From our house, the beach is about 1.5 hours away. We get on the expressway because we can drive faster. Typical speed limits are about 40 - 50 km/h (25-30 mi/hr). It is frustrating to get anywhere sometimes. Based on my interpretation of the speed limits on the expressway, I think it is 100 km/hr (62 mi/hr) but most people go faster. Unfortunately, it is a toll road, but time is money. I believe it was 1750 yen ($17.50) to get home. Worth every yen...

Anyway, after we left the aquarium, we went to our hotel in Mito which was about 15 minutes away. Elin and Reiko Sensei booked it. Since it was a little out of the way, we got a good price. It was a large room with two double beds. It had a large desk and a small table/chair set. Overall, it was a really nice hotel for $105 a night. For the money, it was very clean and quite. There was a train depot next to it, but I did not hear it once during our 2-night stay.


Savannah 'patiently' waiting for the rest of the family to get ready to leave the hotel.








Denny checking out the view of Mito.













Picture of the bridge and river. Denny actually took this picture which I thought was pretty good for a four year old.








This is Savannah's picture from our hotel room on the 11th floor.








Sun Beach. We lucked out and had really nice weather. There was a lot of cloud coverage, but for us, that's a good thing. We were worried about sunburn, but we used a lot of sunscreen and didn't have much of a problem - except for a few areas that got missed. We usually use a sunscreen stick on the kids faces. It looks like a glue stick. Denny didn't rub his in so he ended up with sunburn streaks on his forehead. Also, it is hard to get the kids' eyes so they had a little around their eyes. Elin had a nice patch on her butt just under her swimsuit line. I wore a shirt and hat so I was pretty well covered.



There were umbrellas set up all over the beach. We played the foreigner card and started to set up shop under one of them. Before we were able to drop our stuff, someone was there asking for 2000 yen ($20). Elin said she didn't care what it costs, we were going to have an umbrella.







Denny and Savannah with their new inflatable tubes.










View from the beach.













Another picture of the ocean.









Denny and Elin trying to make a sandcastle. The sand would not come out of the bucket so they never did succeed, but they had fun trying.

Beach bum.

Denny playing on the beach.

Savannah on the beach.

Denny going out to sea. I think he was following the bikini in front of him...

They had restaurants along the beach. We didn't pack a lunch so we stopped in to get a little lunch. We washed Denny off at the beach about three times. Each time, he would come back and start rolling around in the sand. We washed him off and walked to the restaurants. By the time we got there, they were covered again. Magically, each restaurant has showers. 100 yen ($1) for about a minute of water. We didn't have much choice at that point.

Denny eating his ramen and onigiri (rice formed into triangles). We think there was a soy based sauce brushed on the onigiri and then grilled. I think I was the only one who liked them.

Savannah with her favorite food - Shouyuu ramen (soy based ramen). If you are a follower, you might remember her favorite restaurant is She-she ramen near the house.

Elin and I had yakisoba (fried noodles). Usually, there is meat in the ramen and yakisoba, but there wasn't any at the beach restaurant... just noodles.

Finishing up our lunch.

Denny playing in the water.

Savannah riding the waves. She did this for literally 5 hours that day.

Ooarai Aquarium

It is Obon week in Japan. I think Obon is the time of year that Japanese people remember their relatives who have past away. I think the holiday is from the 13th through the 16th, but Honda has 6 days off (10 counting weekends). I don't go back to work until Tuesday. It is a good opportunity for travel because most people are working so the crowds are not that large. We took advantage of this and went on vacation early in the week.

So far, we have had a lot of fun - except for yesterday. Elin took another shot at getting her license converted. The kids and I decided to weed the yard because it was starting to look like a jungle. I weeded and the kids packed them in bags. I offered up 100 yen ($1) per bag thinking I had them because I was going to use the extremely large garbage bags that we have. I didn't specify bag size. Savannah proceeded to bring down the bags that they use to play store. They are about the size of a plastic grocery bag - or smaller. After 3 hours of weeding, she racked up 21 bags and Denny had 8. 18 of her bags fit into one big garbage bag. I suggested using a big bag several times throughout the day but she kept saying that it was OK to use her small bags.

I didn't say anything until the end of the day about the bag size. I told Elin about it and looked at Savannah and told her I knew why she was using the small bags. She just got a big smile on her face. She got me good on that one. On the flip side... it was 3 hours of cooperation, no fighting, etc. It was worth $10 an hour.

Also, Elin passed her test... on the second try. Due to a forgotten turn signal on my second try, it took me three times. She let me know about it. I was happy that she passed, but I was hoping that she wouldn't. Not because I wanted to be better than her, but every time she had to take her test after the first time, I had to take vacation. I have not used any vacation days since I have been here. I feel a little guilty taking them for some reason. I have 21.5 days until the end of the year so I was looking forward to having an excuse to burn one. We have Obon shutdown and also a shutdown at the end of the year so I will not be able to use them all. Honda pays you for the unused days so that will give us extra money at Christmas time. Oh well, at least we both converted our licenses. Hopefully, we won't have any more of that stress.

The Ooarai aquarium was the first stop that we made on our 3-day trip. If you remember from April, we tried to go here during Golden Week, but the navigation system didn't want to cooperate and we ended up at Hitachi Sea-side Park. We've got the navi under control so it was an easier trip this time. The pictures are in chronological order. They seem out of order, but you go in and out of the aquarium through the tour so you get a mix of inside and outside.

This is the third update that I made today so don't forget to check the archived entries. The archived one should be the Ichi man nin pool. I still have to add our day at the beach and Hitachi Seaside Park. We decided to go back to the Seaside Park because there were areas of the park that we did not see, but we ended up at the ride area all day again. Oh well, the kids had a blast. We bought the all you can ride passes instead of the individual tickets so we rode a lot more rides - some of the 4 and 5 times. Savannah rode her first coaster too. We are also headed back to Motegi Twin Ring Raceway tomorrow. There is a really big fireworks display that we are going to see. We will probably end up at the rides there too. Busy busy busy.


The aquarium is right on the beach. I snapped a few pictures as we were walking toward the entrance. We think it was a private beach for the aquarium because there were only a few people on it and they were fully dressed.






Here are our tickets. 1800 yen ($18) for adults, Savannah was 900 yen ($9) and Denny was only 300 yen ($3). So it was about $50 for the whole day not including lunch which ran us another 2000 yen ($20) or so.










Photo opportunity. It looks like the fish ate the kids.












And of course, we had to do it as well.












Savannah and Denny at the first exhibit. Denny was already 'fighting the power' and would not turn his head to get his picture taken. Overall, he only had one meltdown during the day. That included a 1.5 hour car ride and about 5-6 hours at the aquarium. It was a pretty good day.







Family picture in front of the Great White Shark exhibit.










Savannah came up with this idea on the spot. I didn't realize what she was doing until afterwards.









We crossed this bridge about 3 or 4 times looking for a restaurant to eat in before we went to the aquarium. We never did find one so we ate at the cafeteria inside the aquarium.







Savannah at the play area. About 20 minutes after she started playing, we noticed a sign that said (in Japanese) that elementary school kids were not allowed to play in the play area... Oops.








Denny trying on an octopus hat.













I took some more pictures as we were leaving the aquarium. Here are a few of them.

We made a wrong turn and had to pull over. I thought this area looked neat so I snapped a picture of the boats.

We stopped at Coco's restaurant for dinner. It was one of the first places we saw. Based on our troubles finding a restaurant at lunch, we decided to stop. Denny ordered pancakes. He is holding a tube of chocolate to use to draw on his pancakes. If you look closely, there is a rather large scoop of what we thought was butter. We about had a heart attack. We quickly found out that it was actually ice cream. So let's recap -2 pancakes, chocolate and ice cream. There was also peach jello, but I am not sure if it had sugar. I have my suspicions. Next time, we need to try to read the menu a little closer.

Most of what I took inside the aquarium were movies. NOTICE THE AMOUNT OF BACKGROUND NOISE. It was at this level about all day.

They had a small reptile room. I thought this guys eyes were funny so I took a movie of him. I was moving my hand around and his eyes followed it.



This is part of the dolphin show that we saw. The seats filled up quickly but we found some seats right up front. After a little while, we noticed a sign on the seats in the first 5 or 6 rows. Basically, it said that we were going to get wet. They were selling plastic blankets for 300 yen ($3), but we passed. Good thing, because we didn't get wet at all. This was the dolphin high jump.




Dolphin triple jump.

Trained seal.



Denny and Savannah at the touch pool.



This fish scoops up sand into its mouth and we think filters out food. You can see the sand dropping out below its mouth.



This may be the worst job at the aquarium. I think these are great white sharks in this tank.

The coolest jellyfish ever. Denny made us go back towards the end of the day to see them again.

This was the biggest tank and it had thousands of fish in it as well as other animals.