More summer fun, Japanese style

Last weekend we explored the countryside by driving upriver into the mountains. It was really beautiful...the water was so cold (and the air so hot) that there was mist hanging over the river all day. We saw the "sightseeing train" chugging through tiny towns and stopped at some rest areas (basically a bank of vending machines, including ones with pastries and others with hot Udon soup.)

Driving upriver

Throughout the week we did some distinctly American things... Basketball camp (M), a lemonade stand (M+G), and kickball (*me* -- yes I am now a proud 42-year-old member of the women's kickball league on base.)

There was a Japanese element to everything of course...the bball camp had Japanese coaches (with some unique warm-up drills), the lemonade stand had multi-lingual signage (made by one of the neighborhood kids who attends the local school), and my kickball team is named Sakura Strikers 🌸

Japanese Basketball Camp

We did some distinctly Japanese things too...I attended an origami class, and on a different night the girls and I learned how to weave traditional slippers.

M + E also went to a local fireworks show (big in Japan during the summer) and they thought it was pretty funny that the whole show was choreographed to English music, even though a lot of the locals don’t speak English!

Of course we also carried on with our never-ending quest to try new snacks from Family Mart/7Eleven and decipher the drink options in the vending machines.

The translator app has a hard time decifering Japanese

It's still insanely hot here (heat stroke warning issued every day), so we’ve been force to spend a lot of time inside…hopefully we will receive our household goods shipment soon (aka all of our furniture and stuff) — we have rental furniture, but still… I think we'll all feel more settled once we have our own belongings set up.