Day 30 - Arashiyama and Kinkakuji (and a return to Lake Biwa)

This morning we finally went into Kyoto itself and arrived in time to be one of the first groups up to the monkey park in Arashiyama where 120 or so "wild" monkeys live on the mountain but come down for food and photo opps each day. It is pretty cool to see them up close and watch them run around and carry babies and wrestle with each other.


There is a hut at the top of the hike where you can go in and feed the monkeys who stick their hands through the chain link fencing in the windows. It makes me wonder who is observing whom.



We got lunch in Arashiyama and then took a small train and a bus to Kinkakuji (Golden Pavilion) so the kids could see some Kyoto culture. I'm glad we haven't done a famous-temple-death-march with them, though. If they ever come back when they're a bit older, they'll know the basics but will have lots of cool stuff still to see.



Ang and the older two went home for a break, and the younger two and I went back to Omi Maiko beach. It was much quieter on a weekday afternoon, and we swam and swam and are now on the train back home. They are shivering in the train AC with their wet hair and suits,  but it's been really nice to cool down. I don't think that I can remember a more hot, humid day in all my time in Japan.

皆んな疲れて来ています。

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Day 45 - All the way home

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Well, we did it! 45 days in Japan with a family of 6 light-backpacking travelers. The weather has been good (but hot), none of us got sick (except some pesky light rashes - I blame the humidity), and the memories will last forever. I am so grateful for Angela and the hard work she has done to make sure we had what we needed for the trip - people all over Japan have commented on how lightly we traveled for a large family (of girls), but we had everything we needed. It was a great way to experience the reality that we can live happily with far less than we have. I am also grateful for the girls who have been amazing travelers. I hope they see the value in what we've done now, and I am very confident they will see it as they grow up. It's been a blast to share Japan with them. I'm grateful for all the people we met on our way. To the Serizawa's for their generosity and kindness to us at the beginning of the trip (and to the Stouts for helping set it up), to my old...
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Day 39 - To Kumamoto

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We took a train to Kumamoto at midday - the Shinkansen makes it so much faster to travel around Kyushu than it was when I was here before. Ang got a pick with her new boyfriends... a boy band that has done a lot PR for trains around this part of Japan that i recovering from a major earthquake last year. We got lunch before boarding a trolley for the trip through downtown to our apartment. The apartment is a really interesting place. I think it used to be an office in a building that has apartments on the upper floors and businesses on the bottom. They have done a really nice job making a cool living space that is plenty big enough for all of us. It's clearly our favorite Airbnb so far on this trip. The kids especially love the "yoga hammock." Walking around the shotengai - shopping streets - has brought back a million memories both of my missionary and student time in Kumamoto, and we took a bus to Kumamoto University, where the memories really hit me like a ton...
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Day 38 - Omuta Memories

After a slow morning in the apartment, Isa decided to have her 1-on-2 date with the parents and we headed south about an hour to Omuta, the first area from my mission. Predictably, it was crazy hot and humid, but we had a nice lunch at a small restaurant near the station and then walked to the church which is on the second floor of a commercial building near the station. No one was there, but lots of memories flooded back from my first days and weeks in Japan in 1988. I remember feeling out of my comfort zone as everything was so new, but also feeling safe because of the kindness of those around me. We then walked to my old apartment which is still there and still looks just as shabby as it did almost 30 years ago... not worse, just the same. We stopped at a 7-11 for ice cream and drinks and then headed back to the station and home to Fukuoka. This evening we went back to Canal City. Ang, Amy, and I got street vendor Hakata Ramen which was good, but a little anticlimactic, and then...
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