Hong Kong

We flew out of Tokyo early morning the first day of Spring Break and landed at Hong Kong International Airport about 9:30 in the morning ready to spend that whole first day exploring the city. After two frustrating hours at the airport having trouble with our debit card and on the phone with our bank we had Hong Kong Dollars in hand and were finally ready to go.

After finding our hotel pretty easily we checked out the area around the hotel including the jade market.

We stayed in the Kowloon area of Hong Kong.

Later that night we made it over to Hong Kong Island to check out the tram and ride it to Victoria Peak. Hong Kong Island is amazing, clean, with spectacular skyscrapers and more greenery than you expect.

This is me trying to get a shot out the window of the city because sadly at the top of the peak it was so foggy, visibility was nonexistent.

Rayce and Avie with wax Bruce Lee.

The buildings here are pretty impressive; I've never been in another city quite like Hong Kong.

One of the many double-decker buses that occupy Hong Kong's streets. Hong Kong has one of the easiest and most accessible public transit systems of any city we've ever visited. More to come.

Shiraito Falls

We've been out of town for a couple of weeks on one last hurrah before we move in August. I hope its not the last but I have a feeling life is going to get busy with all the changes soon to come. Our trip was to Hong Kong, Siem Reap, Cambodia, and two locations in Thailand. I'm starting with a short day trip we took just outside Tokyo. We went to go see a phlox flower field near Mt Fuji but after driving almost two hours from where we were staying we found out the flower fields weren't open for another week! The area surrounding Mt Fuji has plenty of other things to do; we ended up visiting Shiraito Falls which was just another 15 minutes away.

Look at these amazing cherry blossoms!

A clear day's view of Fuji.

Shiraito Falls. We definitely weren't expecting this, the pictures online just didn't make it seem as grand as it is.

I was trying to let Rayce just explore but pretty confident that he was going to fall in any second.

These are the kind of places I could stay all day, but ice cream was calling to the kids. This was a great start to our trip. If you're ever around the base of Mt Fuji, check out Shiraito Falls!

Egg Hunting and a Masquerade

To be honest, Easter (egg hunting, baskets, all that secular stuff) is not my favorite. I love talking and celebrating Jesus Christs triumph over death and his resurrection. The other stuff I can do without. My kids don't get Easter baskets, I know, gasp! My Mom was the same way so maybe it's inherited.

We did color eggs.

It requires intense concentration.

It was a beautiful day, still cold, but the sun is rising earlier and staying later.

And they're off!

Rayce has had that Easter basket since his first Easter, I can't ever get rid of it.

My very excited Avie Jo. Danielle has been our egg-hider for a couple of years now. It's very convenient. Although she was kinda just tossing them this year, I had to yell at her to be gentle, they're are extra large crows lurking around for popped open plastic eggs.

It was a success! Later that night Avie and Dan went to the Daddy Daughter Masquerade Ball at the elementary school. Avie Jo looked quite lovely in my mask.

Little cutie! Before long this one will want to stop hunting for eggs on Easter too! Nooo! Until then, maybe I can improve my attitude on Easter and just enjoy it.

Frozen Falls

On Friday Dan took work off and we had planned to go snowshoeing in the Hakkoda Mountains while the kids were in school. I had been wanting to do this activity for a while and was super bummed after driving an hour and a half we discovered the road was closed to our destination! It was a pretty drive in the snowy mountains and luckily close by is the Oirase Gorge so we drove around to check out the frozen waterfalls.

We had to pull over and snap a few photos of the height of the snow.

It's usually higher than this, the season is winding down. Pretty impressive, right?!

Our plans didn't quite work out but boy, it was still pretty awesome!

Mustaches

Can't grow a mustache? That's okay, Rayce and Avie will make you one...out of paper...and tape.