A Trip to Koyosan

Many of our friends have travelled to Koyasan, and we've tried to book the easy two hour trip away, but we've always tried to do it last minute, and failed to book our stay at the Koyasan Guesthouse Kokuu.

First, before I go further with our visit to Koyasan, this little guesthouse deserve some props.  It is the first time we've stayed in a hostel like place since 2000 when John and I backpacked around Europe.  Koyasan Guesthouse is simple, but super well designed for visitors.  We stayed in "capsule" style rooms (one of us each with a kid).  There were also 3 family rooms.  They had a good, fresh breakfast of eggs, fresh bread, yogurt and fruit.  They also had a bar where we able to have a couple drinks before dinner.  They had curry for dinner every night, but we opted to eat at a local restaurant (Shunsai Kameya - 100 meters to the left of the hotel), which was really good!

Now, let me share our opinion of Koyosan with kids.  I would say that I wouldn't go with kids any younger than ours (8 &5 ), although we've had friends that did and survived.  There was a lot of walking for the kids and not a lot of exciting things for them to do.  (When asked what their favorite parts of the trip were - they both answered, staying in the capsule room).

They were troopers as we took long walks through the town and the cemetary and even did a night cemetary walk with us.

Koyosan was serene and a quaint town.  We stayed less than 24 hours there, so we did miss a few things.  Many people go and stay at the temples to learn more about the buddhist culture and experience shojin ryori cuisine.

Our favorite part was walking through Okunoin cemetery with over 200,000 memorials.  It was beautiful and so peaceful.  Moss and tree roots actively reclaiming some of the older markers and memorials.

Jizo - Protector of Children

Laos - Best Trip Ever with Kids

As we were having a beer watching the sun set over the Mekong River, I looked over to John and said,

I think this is our best vacation, ever, with kids

And it was.  Laos is an amazing country, but also on top of that, our kids are now at an age, where we are not lugging strollers or diapers or special snacks or worrying about naptime or finding food that they can eat.  And it was glorious.

We started our trip in Vientiane.

Well, actually let me back up a bit... this trip seemed like it was doomed the week before we left. Five days before we were to fly, Lola got a big case of the chicken pox.  They had just crusted over, so we were able to fly, with our polka-dotted girl:

Then, the night before we left, I realized that I didn't have my AR (Alien Registration) card which I need to get in and out of the country, and am supposed to have on hand all the time.  Luckily, 3000¥ ($27USD) later, and a dozen "Gomenasei" (sorrys), I was released from the immigration office and able to join the rest of the Lemley crew to get on our flight.

Back to Vientiane...  as soon as we arrived at the airport, time slowed down.  The airport was small and calm.  No one was yelling "taxi" or really paying any attention to us at all.  We got taxis to the Ibis Hotel  - where we luckily scored a family room which was perfect - queen for us and bunkbeds in a joining room for the kids.

Vientiane was great - we stayed right on the strip, so we could easily walk to many cafes and restaurants.  And we could walk to the night market and Mekong River within minutes.

We headed off to the Buddha Park for a morning with the kids which was great and our other highlight of Vientiane was meeting up with a friend who teaches there.  It was great to catch up and she took us to a fantastic restaurant Lao Kitchen, which we wouldn't have found on our own, and our love for LAAB began.

We ate it many times in Lao, but was always too excited
 and forgot to take pictures when it came to the table.
Image Credit: wikipedia.com

After two nights in Vientiane, we rented a van and headed up to Vang Vieng.  It was lovely!  We stayed at Riverside Boutique Resort and had a lovely view.  The hotel wasn't the most child friendly place - we felt like we had to keep the kids quiet at the pool, but it was central and nice.

They arranged two kayaking trips for us, which were fantastic.  Our friends also arranged a ziplining day with their older kids and they said it was amazing. The food was great in Vang Vieng with cheap, delicious street food and many western options as well - we had falafel and hummus (which is not always easy to find in Kobe) twice and Mexican (Amigos) to mix it up one night.

After a few days in Vang Vieng, we headed up to Luang Prabang.  We stayed out of the city at Villa Santi Resort & Spa, (they also had a hotel in the city) which was good for the kids, because we could spend the afternoon at the pool.

Luang Prabang was great - there were many excursions outside of the city (Waterfall trips, Elephant Sanctuary), but we had already done a lot of outside adventures in Vang Vieng, so we stuck to the city and did shopping, eating, and templing.  The highlights of Luang Prabang was Living Land Farm, which was an interactive experience where we went through the process of rice.

John and the guys went on a day motorcycle excursion with MotoLao and they had a fantastic time. The night market was fantastic (much better than the one in Vientiane) as well as the artisan and small boutique shops on the main street.

Laos is a beautiful country.  The Lao people we interacted with were kind and welcoming.  We always felt safe in Lao and never felt taken advantage of and bargaining was minimal.  We were rarely hassled or asked to buy anything.  The food was fantastic (although in Luang Prabang we didn't find as many gems as we did in Vang Vieng and Vientiane).

Laos is a country we definitely want to explore again!

Kop Chai Deu

Kop Chai Lai Lai

Summer Photos

From Summer 2014

Last Week of School 2013

As teachers, this is always a busy week at school.  Luckily at this school, it is not the end of the semester, so we don't have the added chaos of posting final grades and writing comments.

We had birthday parties for Luke at the bowling alley, which was a blast and then a party for Lola for her friends yesterday.

We wanted to show our appreciation to many people at our school who help us through the year.

We had school celebrations - Maximo's Dance Party, Middle School Talent Show, the Hour of Code.

I had to finish my coursework for my Certificate of Educational Technology and Information Literacy course 4 (one more class to go!).  I finished a whole 24 hours before the deadline, but had to put in about 5 hours of work, last night.

Needless to say, it's been busy, and now we can relax with the kids for three weeks.  We'll be spending most of that time, home, in Kobe, but we'll go to Nagano for a ski holiday between Christmas and New Year.

30 Things You Should Know and/or Will Love about Japan Series: # 30

#30 - A quick summary of some of our favorite things we didn't write about (sorry about the all the food - we love to eat and food in Japan is good!):

Yakisoba - literally "fried noodles", it's sometimes served with a bit of pork and pickled ginger.

Image Credit: www.photoree.com
I'm just realizing I never posted about "plastic food"

It's an easy go-to meal, especially if we can't read the menu and the kids enjoy it too.
Something we haven't tried (and don't have a lot of interest in trying), but can be found in most convenience stores is the yakisoba sandwich - a massive carbo load. "Yakisobapan"

Image Credit: www.ifood.tv

Gyoza - fried dumpling (potsticker), usually with minced pork filling.  Eat these fast around Maximo.  He loves them and will try to eat more than you!

Creative Commons Image by Roger T Wong via Wikimedia

Takoyaki - a ball shaped pancake (like a fritter, but not fried) with octopus on the inside. Another thing I like "nashi" (without) mayonnaise.  It's usually covered in a sauce and bonito flakes.

Image Credit: www.mamaloli.com

Painters Outfits

Image Credit: www.flickr.com by Kelly McCormick

The shoes being equally as awesome (we've never tried them though).  I'd love to know the history behind this uniform.

Image Credit: www.news.3yen.com

Wasabi Almonds - I can't believe I don't have a picture of them.  We get them from a local sake brewery.  They are so, so good!

Momoji (cakes) - Momoji are maple leaves.  In Miyajima, they specialize in these little cakes, which have different flavored centers.  I like custard and chocolate, but bean paste is also yummy!

Image Credit: www.21food.com

Kobe Beef - It's so good.  We're going to take you to our favorite place!

Image Credit: www.keioplaza.com

Robotoyaki - translates to "fireside cooking".  Picture yourself sitting up against a display of food.  Behind that is the cook who will prepare what you order (or point to), then serve it to you on a paddle (yes, like a flattened boat paddle) as he reaches over to hand it back to you.

Image Credit: www.nationmultimedia.com

There are also many places which we haven't even begin to talk about, but we didn't really want to spoil it for our family. We want them to experience these places first hand, in real life, not through photos on our blog.  Barely off the plane, I'll whisk them off to Hiroshima and Miyajima (as long as the typhoon stays away).

We'll also go to other amazing places, which are all day trips from our house:

Kyoto - including the Golden Pavilion and Nishiki Markets (KNIVES!)

Arashiyama - we'll see the monkeys, bamboo forest and walk around town

Miyajima - oysters, deer, the beautiful torii gates, many temples, a great little island!

Nara - Todaji temple, more deer, gardens, parks.  Japan's first capital city.

I've enjoyed writing these posts, even during a hectic time of the school year, with multiple trips.

Hopefully, in the future, I will add in a few more "Living in Japan" posts to our normal posts which are smattered with pictures of our kids and our travels in Japan and throughout Asia.

Come to Japan... it's an amazing place.
No we're going to try to squeeze in all 30+ of these posts + more into 14 days.  Let's see how we do!

Jetlagshppedthd...

We have an uneventful trip until the last leg of our trip from Kobe to Savannah was delayed about four hours.

I think we've turned the corner on our jetlag.  It has controlled us since we arrived.

The kids have been sleeping in the car a lot!

We are camping out in our house right now but we are slowing starting to fill it.  We are heading off to some yard sales and antique stores this weekend.

We've ordered the wood flooring and have to wait another week for it to arrive as well.

I'll be checking in to post what we are doing and to share pictures.

Maximo fell asleep in Home Depot

Maximo fell asleep at Carlitos

Lola was like this all dinner - fun first meal out.

Summer is Here!!!

We finished a busy week and a crazy school year.

Lola making sushi with Masa at the Anpanman Museum.

Maximo's class party on Wednesday

Maximo's Swim Report 

Last Day of KA with Ms. Maiko and his friends

Celebrating the end of year at Kochan's with Kobe Beef

On the Rokko Liner with Dad

We're spending the weekend relaxing and tying up loose ends before we head "home".  Maximo is fighting a fever, that we hope he doesn't give to the rest of us.

Here is the end of the Spring 2013 Photo Album.

And some highlights of Maximo's school work this year.

Hamamatsu Kite Festival - May 2013

If you are a FB friend, I already summarized this trip:  "Best Festival... Ever".

This festival is held in Hamamatsu, Japan in the Shizuoka prefecture.  Here is more information about the festival.

For us, it was an EASY two hour Shinkansen ride to reach Hamamatsu.  We stayed at Sorriso Hotel Hamamatsu - which our friend, Trish, found.  It was perfect - a block from the train station, so it was easy to get to with our luggage.  It was clean and really reasonably priced for a Japanese hotel.   Unfortunately, I didn't book a family-sized room, so we were a bit packed.  But, that was totally my fault, not the hotel's.

After we checked in on Friday, we meandered around the hotel and saw food stalls being set up, and some examples of the wooden sculpture floats set up near the mall right near the hotel.  Our friends, the Carrothers, were returning to the festival for their fourth year, so we let them tell us what we should see and do.  They did not steer us wrong.

We then caught up with them at the International Food Festival.  There was a DJ playing 70s and 80s dance rock and the kids loved running around.  We got a bit of food to eat.  When it started to get dark, we headed up to the road to find a place to watch the parade.  Hundreds?  of neighborhoods were donning matching happi coats and pulling their beautiful floats through town, while women and young girls would play music from the float.  It had such a nice community atmosphere.

After a while, we headed back to the hotel, for a not-so-restful night sleep and John and Pat headed out for a night on the town.

The next day, we headed out to the Nakatajimi Dunes.  The city provided buses for ¥500 to get out there.  As soon as we got there, we were blown away.  There were over 100 (very large - 3 meters long) kites in the air.  It was a really windy day, so there seemed to be a lot more "kite fighting" that day.  It was a little unnerving sometimes and in some areas as these large kites were coming down.  But, there were always people from the "neighborhood" who were running after the kites - to reduce damage to their kites and I think protect bystanders.

We went to the beach, but it was really windy and the sand was blowing everywhere, so it was hard to stay out there for two long.  Lola was fighting a cold and a nasty fever blister on her tongue, so she was a bit fussy.  Around lunch time, we headed back to the hotel for an afternoon rest.

After that, we ventured out again for some (more!) street food for dinner and to watch the parades.  First the parades started out as more traditional parades with bands and baton twirlers and then the floats came back out.  It was great to see little kids walking by their town elders and just thinking that these kids will be participating in these events for the next 70 years or so.

On the last day, we went back out to the dunes.  It wasn't as windy, so there wasn't as much fighting, but there were still many, many kites in the air.  We spent a lot more time at the beach and the kids had fun playing in the sand.  When we went back up to the field, we just hung out on a tarp with the Carrothers and let the kids play while we picnicked.

Soon we were back on the Shinkansen heading home.  It was an amazing trip.  We will definitely return next year!

Here are more pictures of our trip.

Another Trip to Oji Zoo

We are on Spring Break this week.  It's about ten degrees too cold for us me to really enjoy being outside.  But for the children... of course we'd do anything ^_^

We went back to Oji Zoo with some friends.  It's super close and cheap, and a great place where I can manage both kids by myself.

A really great thing about Oji Zoo is that it has hundreds (don't quote me on that number) of cherry blossom (sakura) trees.  Even though it's still not peak time in Kobe for cherry blossoms (as many of you know, there is a published cherry blossom forecast), there are still many trees that are in bloom right now.  There are many different varieties, so they all bloom differently.  In many places, including Rokko Island, the sakura trees were planted in a very well thought out way, so different areas have different things blooming for maximum nature enjoyment/viewing.

We had our first picnic of the season under the warm sun and cherry blossoms.

The kids were great and had a fantastic time.  Maximo fell asleep sitting up on the train ride home:

And here's the start of the Spring 2013 photo album.