Nagasaki weekend

 

We spent 2 nights in Obama which is about 45 minutes from Nagasaki.  Highlights from the weekend include seeing the Nagasaki Peace Park and museum, Penguin Aquarium, walking through a few temples and finding one of the best playgrounds we've been to built at the top of the mountain with about 5-6 big playground structures.  The girls also put on a few dance/flashlight shows for our nightly entertainment. 

Here are a few photos. 

 

 

 

 

Dance show take#38!

Beppu - Oita weekend trip

September 18-20 we drove across Kyushu Island to Beppu famous for the onsen hot springs.  Literally parts of the city are steaming!  We stayed at a hostel/ryokan and slept on the floors which the girls loved but was pretty uncomfortable for us.  We were quite happy to find a Starbucks in the morning a 2 minute walk from the hotel! 

We went to Monkey Park trying to look for the monkeys, but were off by a few hours - apparently they only show up in the afternoon and we were there early in the AM. 

We did find a nice public hot springs to try with many different baths.  They are completely nude and separated by the sexes.  Small children were there too.  The girls were great sports, but after a little while Bella couldn't stand the sulfur smell (I think the mud bath put her over the edge).  And me trying to check out all the baths from the cold, to very hot, to open air one ended up somehow seeing a few men (fortunately we were all crouching in the water so not exposed).  Once we decided we wanted to leave and were crammed in the changing room, Morgan had a funny quote:  "Hurry up!  There are naked people in here and I just touched someone!"  Even though I thought our trip through was quick, it was funny because Jeff was already done and waiting for us.  Naked men hot baths isn't really his thing.  It was an experience. 

On Sunday we went to Harmonyland which is the Hello Kitty amusement park.  We had a good time and it's quite reasonable, but very small scale.  They had a fun parade and dance show at the end. 

It goes without saying that Jeff is a fabulous driver.  With our smart phones it's very easy to navigate and plug and go. 



 

thank goodness for Kindles!

almost all hotels have free Wi-Fi (for Netflix!)

STARBUCKS!

Leaving the onsen - this is a picture of the mud room

 

Both girls were starving so we bought them the kiddie spaghetti.  Morgan who had a stuffed nose couldn't smell the intense seafood smell  Bella refused to eat it.  Morgan asked what the slimy things were and we told her mushrooms but they were something else - octopus, or oysters?  Here she is chowing down.  :-) 

 

Jeff's Birthday Weekend

Jeff's birthday was over Labor Day weekend.  We went for sushi (and everyone loved it!), a pirate cruise at 99 Islands National Park and then to a very fun, almost terrifying Japanese playground Saiki Bashi Park (check out the vertical slides that Bella went down twice and loved!).  Here are a few photos.