Yabusame

This weekend was a festival in Towada City that I've been wanting to see since we got to Japan. It's called Yabusame and it's a horse mounted archery, where the participant shoots three arrows at three different targets as the horse runs down a straight corridor. It was really neat. The fact that it takes place under the cherry trees in full blossom didn't hurt either!

Aside from the action of the festival it was a beautiful, still slightly chilly day, but it's starting to warm up.

The kids shot cork guns...

Rayce ate some meat on a stick...

We just had a great day.

Spring Break Pt. 2

So how could we not go to Disneyland/Sea again this year? We were already going to be in Tokyo so it made sense. This year was cold, really cold, it snowed one of the days. Quite different from the weather we enjoyed last year but we were going to make the best of it, I mean, it's Disney!

We stayed at the Sheraton Grand this year, it was indeed very grand, I should have taken some pictures of the inside.

Monorail to Disney

Look at the handles on the monorail!

Pirate Rayce outside Pirates of the Caribbean.

Disney Sea

The Tower of Terror; This is the only ride Rayce wouldn't go on this year.

Journey to the Center of the Earth.

Is my smile funny? Yeah, I was cold!

Only my crazy kids would want popsicles when it's only fifty degrees out!

Avie meets Prince Eric...not sure if she knew who he was at first.

Under the sea.

So this was the only family picture we took while at Disney and the person who took it totally cut out Avie Jo sitting in the stroller!
We had a great time despite the cold.

Spring Break Pt.1

We just got back from an eight day excursion to Tokyo. The youth from our ward go down to the temple twice a year to do baptisms for the dead but come right back the next day, so we went with the youth on the trip but stayed for the next week for Spring Break.
The Tokyo temple is beautiful! I usually am able to go in and do baptisms with the youth but this time, I had Rayce and Avie with me so we hung out outside while Dan and Danielle went to the temple.

Cherry blossoms were in bloom while we were there and at their peak.
There is a beautiful park right across the street from the temple that has a great park for the kids. It was busy, the Japanese were just finishing up their school break.

The next couple of days we laid low, went to church Easter Sunday and had an amazing Passover dinner with friends (something I might add to our family Easter tradition in the years to come), and got some great pictures of the blooming trees!

The Monday that started our spring break we went to a place called Showa Park and rented bicycles to explore. This park is huge and would be hard to see in one day. IT WAS A BLAST!

It's hard to describe how beautiful it was, it was breath taking.

We parked our bikes to check out the flower fields, the Japanese really value nature and seem to relish it, much more than Americans seem to. They have whole festivals devoted to the different seasons. Haru or spring is known primarily for cherry blossoms. A popular thing to do is to have a picnic under the cherry blossom trees.

My family enjoyed some "cherry blossom" ice cream.

There were many flower fields but I enjoyed the tulips the most. They were not quite at their peak but still amazingly pretty...I took a lot of pictures.

The kids enjoyed all the giant trampoline like playground equipment.

What a fun day! Part 2 to come.