Shinagawa Aquarium

Hearing about the Shinagawa Aquarium from some friends, we decided to check it out. The tunnel through the large tank was great, sea lion show amazing, but the highlight for everyone were the "hand cleaners"...

Back to School

The kid’s first day of school was Monday and it was the day the typhoon was going to hit! How exciting for all of us. There were rumors that the school would not open, because of the storm, but everything stayed open. The kids all go at the same time this year and got a ride from Mom. The wind was too strong for umbrellas if you wanted to ever use it again! As it turned out, the storm didn’t hit our area until later that afternoon, so after an early dismissal, we all made it safely back home…didn’t even lose power!

Anyway, here are a few pictures of Devon (13, 8th grade), Alex (8, 3rd grade), and Katie (6, 1st grade) dashing to the car!

Another Tokyo trip

At the last minute, we decided on a day trip to Tokyo. Our plan was to have brunch at the New Sanno hotel and try to find the 59ft "Gundam"... a huge robot display that is part of the campaign to bring the Summer Olympics to Tokyo.

After brunch, we took subway over to the park where this guy was supposed to be. The concierge at the hotel gave us great directions so we set off, knowing that if we just got close, we could find the guy...after all, he is 59ft tall! There were posters everywhere for him...even on the train.

Well, it proved to be a challenge so Alex proposed we take a ride on the ferris wheel and look for him at the top...so that's what we did! And, as luck would have it, our gondola was pink with Hello Kitty!TM so you know it's safe!

At the top, we could see him on the other side of the park...if you look close, he's the guy near the water, top right of the island, next to the tall building.

Once we got down we headed in his direction as the crowds steadily got larger and larger. The path leading to Gundam was surrounded by trees, so once again, we lost sight of the guy, but we just followed the crowd. As we got closer and closer, we could hear the people up ahead "oooh!" all at once when they rounded the final corner and could finally see him...

You have probably already scrolled down...the anticiaption is agonizing, I'm sure. We felt the same way...must see the Gundam... must see the Gundam....

More people...this guy must be bigger than Hasselhoff. Can't wait to see him...

And here he is....

Yes, that's it. A long way for that. Sometimes, he shoots steam out of his helmet. Not today, though. Today, just get the eyes...

Yes, it was sad...at least we got to see the Statue of Liberty! This was outside of one of the malls in tha area.

All-American Rejects Concert

Tonight on the Naval Base, the All-American Rejects came and played in the bowling alley parking lot for free. It was a lot of fun and they kept it nice and clean! There were little kids everywhere, even all the way up front...Devon and Katie loved it, but Alex didn't like the noise. We'd put a picture of Devon up, but we didn't see him all night! He was up in the crowd with some friends...

Mt. Fuji

The big adventure last week was our climb of Mt. Fuji-san. Only Shari and I went on this one and it was good we did! Katie and Alex would not have been able to do it. Devon may get his chance later this month when we go again with friends. As th saying goes..."The wise man climbs Mt. Fugi once. The foolish man climbs it again!" We arrived at the mountain at 5:15 AM, at the 5th station, which is at 7560ft. We bought the souvenir walking sticks and started up the mountain at around 5:45 A.M. It was very early for us (especially since we caught the bus to the mountain at 2AM), but we were wide awake and excited to get moving.





The trail started out very easy, on a well groomed path with a gradual ascent. So gradual and easy is the first 30 min that there is natural tendency to move a little faster, thinking "this is easy." Don't be fooled though! It gets very hard, very fast...

There were multiple "stations" during the climb that were very cool. At most of them, a stamp is "branded" onto your walkng sticks for the price of 200 Yen (about $2). In all, we ended up with 14 stamps on our sticks, including one from the top, signifying our victory over the mountain. Other climbers, headed up as we headed down, looked at our sticks and congratulated us in Japanese. The sticks were expensive, but proved very useful to help us up and slow us down during the descent. 4 hours and 35 minutes later, we arrived at the top, having climbed to 12383 ft over a trail length of 3.6 miles. The top was breathtaking. The view off the mountain was poor since there seemed to be clouds all around, but the crater was visible and very deep. The mountain last erupted in the early 1700's and there were volcanic rocks everywhere.

We grabbed a couple rocks, ate some lunch, took some photos, and then headed down the mountain. It was not an easy trip down. The trail was more groomed, but very steep. It was a different path down, taking 2 hours and 30 minutes, covering 4 1/2 miles with multiple switch backs and finally wrapping back around to where we started.

Overall, this was a great experience for us. We knew going in, it would be tough, but it still suprised us. The closest comparison we could come up with was maybe 5 hours on the stair climber at the gym...with only half the oxygen you are used to! Breaks, clif bars, and lots of water are key to success. We learned after our climb that several people have died trying to climb it in the last few months. Most of them were due to very poor weather, but some were due to just pushing too hard. Towards the top, some light-headedness would let us know we were going too fast!

Now that it is done and our legs have recovered somewhat, we are eager to try it again! It was such a great feeling being at the top, even though the oxygen level was about 60% of what we were used to at sea level. Maybe in a few weeks!