Mindy's Memorial Day Hiroshima trip

I went on a base tour with friend Andrea to Hiroshima over Memorial Day weekend. It was a great trip. We flew down from Misawa to Tokyo, then from Tokyo to Hiroshima. The boys stayed at home with Dad! The night we arrived, we went to the World Peace Cathedral and attended church--in Japanese! It was a stone and brick cathedral, and was very pretty. They had some sort of school function going on that evening, and all the children and parents were carrying lit candles. Then we went to a local restaurant and had okonomiyaki for dinner, which you can read about by clicking this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okonomiyaki I didn't care for the dried seaweed on top, but otherwise it would have been really tasty!
The next day we hit all the memorials--A-Bomb dome, Peace Memorial Park, the Children's Memorial, and the A-Bomb museum. It was quite a solemn morning, and a great reminder of all the destruction people and wars do to each other. I'm glad that I had a chance to visit all of the memorials though, before leaving Japan.
Here is a picture of A-Bomb Dome.

This is from the A-Bomb Museum looking down through Peace Memorial Park all the way down to A-Bomb dome.

In the afternoon, we took a ferry to Miajima Island, one of the top 3 places to visit in Japan. There are wild deer roaming around, and there is a "floating" Torii gate on the ocean. Unfortunately, we were there at low tide, so it wasn't so much "floating" as it was jsut sitting on the sandy beach. Oh well! We also saw a Shinto shrine and a Buddhist shrine on the island.

The steps leading up to the Buddhist Shrine on Miyajima Island (below) and the Shinto Shrine (right)

The Buddhist Shrine at the top of the hill

Statues in the shopping district on the island.

The next and last day of the trip, we visited Hiroshima Castle and Shukkeien Garden. We had a wonderful local tour guidefor the whole weekend, and the trip was a great experience. Here is a picture in front of the castle.

Shukkeien Garden

Rainbow Bridge

Noah's First Communion

Noah made his First Holy Communion on May 2nd. He did very well, and also read one of the prayer intentions. Unfortunately, we were not able to take photos during the Mass, so we only received the photo that the professional photographer took. We had a little reception with some friends afterwards. I will post some more pictures when I get the group photo, and a few others. Fr. Myers was our priest.

Japanese School Open House

The Japanese start their school year on April 1st. This past week the school had an open house so parents could see the new classrooms. The first picture is of Alex and Ian in front of the giant Koi Nobori, or Carp Banner at the school. The Japanese holiday, Boys' Day, is celebrated May 5th, and typically in last half of April you will see the Koi Nobori displayed over homes and businesses to celebrate Boys' Day. The Koi (Carp) signifies that families want their boys to grow up and be strong, like the fish.

Ian has graduated from a pink sports cap last year to a lavender this year! He is in the Reisu Gumi, or Squirrel Class this year.

The Robert boys with their good friends, Jacob (pink hat) and Noah (white). The younger classes wear their blue smocks over their sports uniform when they are playing outside.

Ian singing his song

Alex singing his Koi Nobori song

Ian's 4th Birthday Party

The day after we returned from Guam, we had a joint birthday party for Ian and his good friend, Jacob. Their birthdays are only a day apart. It was pretty low key, but the boys had fun! We kind of had a mixed theme with both Shinkansen and Cars. My friend Sharon made the Shinkansen cake, and it turned out beautifully!

Our Trip to Guam (finally!)

We went to Guam for a family vacation the second week in April. We all had a great time! We stayed at the Pacific Islands Club. http://www.picresorts.com/en/Guam/Guam_About.asp The resort had several pools, kayaking, windsurfing, kids pools and kids' club where we could drop the boys off for a few hours in the morning and afternoon, and several restaurants. It was pretty nice. We went with several friends, so there was lots of great company. The weather was a sunny/partly cloudy 88 degrees all week. The snorkeling right from the resort was wonderful, with a huge variety of fish and coral. We took the boys snorkeling, and even Ian had no problems! It was great to have a taste of the U.S. as well, and of course we hit several of the U.S. chain restaurants, just because. We celebrated Ian's 4th birthday while we were there, too! Here are a few pictures...

Our whole group

At the resort overlooking the grounds.

A "dory" fish we saw snorkeling. The boys got a kick out of this one!

Talofolo Falls

Ian snorkeling

Noah on the beach