Sumo!

I was lucky enough to win a free trip for two adults to Tokyo to see a sumo tournament over 4th of July weekend! We also took the boys, and stayed at the New Sanno Hotel over the weekend. It was a wonderful experience, something everyone should see before leaving Japan.

at a rest stop on the way down to Tokyo

view of Tokyo Tower from Roppongi

One of the wrestlers going into the arena

the Sumo Stadium in Tokyo

outside the stadium, with the wrestlers' flags in front of the stadium

the sponsors' advertisement flags before the championship match of the day

Lake Towada Kunizakai Festival 2009

Over Labor Day weekend we went to Lake Towadafor the Kunizakai Festival. It is a combination festival of three northern Japan prefectures--Aomori, Iwate, and Akita. It includes floats from the Aomori Nebuta parade, Kanto lanterns on huge bamboo poles from Akita, and giant taiko drums. There are also dancers from Iwate and Hachinohe. The weather was perfect, and we all had a great time enjoying the performances and the traditional festival food.

Dancers performing
Dried fish on a stick, anyone?

huge paper lanterns on bamboo...the men would balance them on their hands and foreheads!
Taiko drum performance

Candace's visit to Japan

All of my friends here in Japan were very jealous to hear that I had a friend of mine, Candace, come and visit! Misawa is in such a remote part of Japan that it is hard enough to get family to visit, let alone friends! I met Candace down in Tokyo, and we did a day tour of many of the highlights. Luckily Candace is used to constantly changing sleep schedules, so she wasn't too terribly jetlagged. Then we headed back up to Misawa in time to catch the festival, complete with the parade with floats. We also visited Tanesashi Coast near Hachinohe, the Hachinohe fish market, Statue of Liberty park, Oirase Gorge, Towada Horse park, Tonomi Clan Park, Shimoda Mall, and many local restaurants. Unfortunately, Chris was TDY to DC while Candace was here, but did get to catch up with her a day or two before she went back to Seattle. The week went very quickly, and the boys had a great time with Candace as well.

At Tonomi Clan Park

Candace and Ian at Oirase Gorge

Candace and Alex at Statue of Liberty Park

Tanesashi Coast

Singapore adventure in August 2009

Christian had so much leave days to use due to the deployment, that we decided to try Space-A travel for the first time in our Air Force careers. Chris had stopped in Singapore on his way over to Iraq last fall, and said it would be a great vacation for all of us. Space-A involved driving 9 hours down to Yokota AB near Tokyo, and attempting to catch a military or cargo plane to Singapore. Basically, it's free airfare, and for a family of five, that's a great deal! We were a little worried because there was a typhoon due to be hitting Tokyo about the time when our flight to Singapore was supposed to leave, but we were very lucky and caught the flight down. The plane we went on was a contract carrier for cargo that was going to the Middle East, but made stops in Singapore. We got there on Tuesday, and were able to catch the flight back on Saturday. Singapore is a very small country, and we stayed on Sentosa Island, about 30 minutes from the airport. It was a wonderful experience, friendly people, extremely clean, and very family friendly! There was so much to do, that we could have easily stayed another week. We hit the Night Safari, the Aquarium and pink dolphin show, the awesome Singapore Science Museum, naure trails, a laser light show, and just relaxed at our resort. The boys had a blast! There were also lots of good restaurants and shopping. Think really good Thai, Indian, and Chinese food! It was a great vacation, mostly for the fact that it was free airfare, and a place that we normally wouldn't have thought of visiting if we weren't stationed in Japan!

The pink dolphin show

Ian going down the waterslide at the resort

Alex and Noah at the science museum

Alex relaxing on the bed in the room

Noah and Ian at the Aquarium

Alex's Daikon Radish

At the yochien, Alex and Ian planted daikon radish seeds in the springtime. They went back to harvest them this summer. Here is a picture of Alex and his enormous daikon radish--he was very proud of it! Unfortunately, I did not get Ian's picture with his.