Trip to Chiba

Last week was Golden week in Japan, which is made up of 4 holidays. Lucky for me, my work also gives me the days off between the holidays, so I had the whole week off. Ayako and I joined another co-worker, Heather and her boyfriend, Hiro on a trip to Chiba prefecture which is on the other side of Tokyo from us (south of Narita airport). We had a long drive out there, passing Mount Fuji on the way:
We bypassed Tokyo by going through a long tunnel under Tokyo bay. It actually only goes 2-thirds of the way and the rest is a bridge. Where you come out of the tunnel, there is a building designed as a ship where you can rest and get something to eat. We stopped and had a good lunch there and took some photos:


Before reaching out destination, we stopped and took a cable car ride to the top of a mountain with a good view:
The mountain used to be used for cutting stone slabs from the mountain, but is not in operation anymore:
We arrived at the cottage where we would spend the next 3 days. It was up on a hill and had a beautiful view:
The cottage had all the latest technologies which were fun to play with, including a Nintendo Wii:
and also had a hot tub which we used once or twice a day:
We had lots of great meals that we made together:





One day, Ayako and I took a walk to the beach. We found a supermarket called Odoya. We took a picture of it because Ayako's family name is Odo and 'ya' means shop in Japanese, so basically Odo's shop:
We also found a nice large natural park which was good for birdwatching. They even had some exotic bird in captivity such as these peacocks:

The park also had a good view of the ocean:
On the last day, we drove to Tokyo where we went shopping at Costco and also dropped Hiro off since he was getting laser eye surgery the next day. Overall, it was a good, relaxing trip.

Visiting Hokoji temple

It's the start of a week-long holiday here, Golden Week. On Sunday, Ayako and I had her sister and 2 sons over to play at my apartment in the morning. It was my first time meeting her sister, Sumiko, and her her sons, Neo and Rio.
In the afternoon, we went for a drive north of Hamamatsu to Hokoji temple. I went there once before in my first month in Japan, but it was nice to visit again. Here are some photos from our trip there:
The final one is of some flags blowing in the breeze:

First camping trip this year

Since the weather is warming up, Ayako and I decided to go camping this past weekend. We found a place to camp about an hour away from home. Since it's early in the season for camping, we had the whole campground to ourselves. Also, the forecast of rain probably kept people away. We had cloudy weather on the Saturday, and then it rained all night while we slept. We decided to pack up on the Sunday morning since it looked like it would rain all day. Still, we had a good time on Saturday. We had a nice walk around the area:During the camping trip, I also proposed to Ayako to marry me. She luckily said yes. Since she never wears jewelry, I had no idea what type of ring she would like. I did know that she likes anything baked, and so I had made her a gingerbread ring. A little silly, but she liked it. On Sunday, we looked around at different jewelry stores to find a nice ring. Since she is like me in that we like practical things, she was looking for a small, simple ring. It was hard to find something here like that, and so she decided to forgo having an engagement ring, and instead for us to find nicer wedding rings when we get married.

Wall Climbing

On Sunday, Ayako & I joined Dave & Caren and some of their friends to go wall climbing:
I tried wall climbing once (about 5 years ago) and this was Ayako's first time. It was a bit hard for both of us. I could get to to the top, but only on the easy levels. Still, it was nice to try it again. Here are some pictures from our day:

Pimp My Hermit Cookie

I decided to make some hermit cookies with apple chunks in them:

As you can see, I decided to make a couple of big ones. I knew Ayako would like them since she really enjoys looking at a website called Pimp That Snack, which has some amazingly huge popular snacks. You can see them at the link: http://www.pimpthatsnack.com/projects.php

Attempted cherry blossom viewing

So the cherry blossoms were to be at full bloom on Saturday. Co-workers and friends were going to meet at Hamamatsu castle to sit under and view the cherry blossoms. We planned to do this in the evening time, so that we could view the flowers lit up at night. Hamamatsu castle is a wonderful place to view many cherry blossom trees, which also makes it a very popular place to go. In order to save a good spot, friends had gone the night before, and laid down a tarp saving a good spot for the next day. It was cloudy during the day on Saturday, and then at about 4 pm, it started raining. So all the preparation was for nothing, and the party was moved to a friend's house who lives close by. Still, it was a nice party inside and we did have a few cherry blossom branches for decoration:

Princess Parade

On Sunday morning, Ayako and I made a last minute decision to go north of Hamamatsu to see a special parade and to look at the cherry blossoms that have started coming out. Lots of people turned up since it was a beautiful day to view the cherry blossoms:We continued walking through the small town of Hosoe where a parade was taking place. Ayako was surprised to meet a friend (with husband & son) from high school there.
We stopped along the street to watch a parade go by. There were people dressed in traditional costumes:There was also a 'princess' chosen for the town each year. She is chosen by being pretty but also for being small & light since she might be carried sometimes.

There were also people with baskets over their heads playing flutes. They are dressed as a type of Buddhist monk(called Komuso) who wore baskets over their heads to suppress their egos and played flutes for meditation. Samurai spies were known to have also dressed this way as a disguise but could be found out if they couldn't play the flute well for another monk.
Finally, Ayako got to pretend she was the princess:I am hoping the cherry blossoms last through the week since next Saturday we are to join a cherry blossom viewing party. If it rains hard during the week, there won't be many flowers left though.

P.S. This is my 150th post...Yeah!!