Ajisai Yama - Hydrangea Mountain

The military base eased up on their restrictions because Japan is keeping COVID minimal. They are doing a great job at not spreading the virus around. Since the Americans are allowed to travel around Japan again a group has formed from our ward of those wanting to hike and travel together.

Last week and this week there have been many trips! I have only taken my kids on a couple of them. I have been busy with cake orders and my normal life. And Ster has been working until 5pm Monday-Friday. So I feel bad doing too many excursions without him. He wants to experience Japan as well.

Thursday the 25th my friend Charisse was taking her whole family on a hike to see hydrangeas...which is a big deal as they are in bloom. Charisse invited me to hike with them one last time before they move to America. I planned to but then the customer who was suppose to pick up her cake at 10am said she couldn't make it for two more hours. That meant I had to miss the hike trip. Charisse wouldn't have it. She told me to stop being so nice. To tell the customer to pick it up right then or that I needed to find another solution. She suggested having my neighbor hand over the cake.

Brilliant!

Luckily Tonni next door was home that morning and had no plan to leave. So she kindly kept the cake in her fridge and handed it over when the customer came to her door.

At 11:00 my kids were hungry as we were meeting up on base for the day's adventure to begin. So, I decided the kids would have two lunches that day. We had packed Lunchables for lunch and many snacks. But I also picked up some Burger King lunch for them for the drive.

They really appreciated that. 

The families that arrived are the Kartchners, Aunas, Merrells, Pettys and us. I didn't know where we were going or what it was called. So I followed the Petty's who drove pretty fast. Brother Petty had come along and he likes to get from point A to point B as quickly and efficiently as possible. 

I just had to worry about tight streets and busy traffic. We made good time though. It was about a 35 minute drive from the base.

It was a nice day. Not hot but not too cool either. Unfortunately the trails were all muddy. It was a gorgeous mountain. With hydrangeas all over it! And mystical decor as well as a Japanese quoi pond.

 

 Before starting the hike the kids fed the fish a while. Athena was able to pet the fish...which has been her dream lately!

 Tiberias and Porter are good friends. This is their last hike together before Porter moves to Orem, Utah.

 Photos cannot capture the beauty of the scene and experience. And phone cameras do it even more injustice.

It was an uphill hike. Many stairs and even muddy, rocky inclines that were trickier to overcome.

 Pushups, boys!

 When we reached the top of our hike there was an overlook down the mountain. And a cool bridge. Then we hiked back down together to find a lunch spot.

We ate lunch together at some picnic tables. The little kids started playing in the hand washing tub that has a constant flow of running water. They found inside the tub some little crabs! They had a blast holding the crabs, trying not to get pinched, and even had fun when they did get pinched. It was an exciting adventure for them.

The adults talked and laughed like family. We have a love for each other and want sincerely to spend time together. The Merrells and Kartchners were about to move away. The Aunas and Petty's staying here a bit longer with us. And the Petty's I am just getting to know.

It was a perfect lunch time. The scene, the friends, the weather, the food. All were willing to share what food they brought. And Brother Kartchner hiked the rest of the way down to the car to get the watermelon (as precious as gold here). He drove his car up to the lunch place and revealed the watermelon. 

We had no knife. No pocketknife even. Brother Kartchner made a wise crack about non of these scouts being prepared. And Sarah pointed out that we mom's don't allow our scouts to carry them on hikes and for fun. haha.

I would have allowed it if my boys had asked. But they didn't think of it.

Parley (teen Kartchner boy) didn't want to open and share the watermelon. They are so expensive here that we don't eat them often. By this point everyone was finishing lunch and felt full. So we convinced Nathan not to attempt to open and share the melon. It would have been a messy ordeal. But it was sweet of him to want to share it with us even if he had to find an unusual way to open and divide it.

Tiff

My hair is growing. Slowly growing...

 I am trying to learn how to do my makeup. I always knew how to do it to look natural. But I want to learn to do a party look...

 A simple cake:

Adventures Off Base Hinohara Hike, Giant Buddha & Hatnosu River

Hinohara Hike 

The Americans were so ready to go adventure in Japan after being restricted by the military for a while. So a whole group from our church went on one together to Hinohara.

We carpooled from the base to Hinohara. It was probably an hour and a half drive there.

 Left to right: Petty, Baria, Faggard, Hardy, Kartchner, Auna, Roundy. The kids are all mixed up in there so I just named them in order by adults.

Athena started with her bug catching skills.

 As the kids raced up the mountain at the beginning Athena was in the lead. She loves being the leader! But I knew it wouldn't last. She would get tired and end up being last on the trail...slowing me down. But...it turned out that Matthew was also last on the trail! Slow pokes together...

 At the beginning...when Athena was too fast for me and was leading the whole pack...she almost got lost. The group of kids stopped for a rest and Athena thought she knew which way they were going to hike. So she went ahead alone! When I caught up to the group they started hiking again and I saw that Athena wasn't there! I asked Luke and he didn't know.
So I yelled her name. She yelled back to me.
She had taken a wrong route and was going the wrong way! Luckily she didn't get too far before she heard me calling her. I looked around and could see her through the trees a way off. She could see me too. She yelled that she had gone ahead alone. I told her to come right back. Luckily I didn't have to go searching the mountain for her. This happened pretty close to the beginning of the hike too!

 Above: Emily Petty, Sarah Auna, Emily Faggard, Charisse Kartchner, Tiffany

 Once we reached the waterfall we stopped for lunch. Half the group , including us, had hiked up the mountain enough. We were ready to put on swim suits and play in the water. Apparently the person who organized this trip hadn't planned on that. The Petty's wanted to continue hiking to a different water area to play . But we were tired. So we played in the water we found. Athena and Luke loooved it! I loved being there too. But Tiberias prefers the beach over river water play. So he wanted to go home.
We did have to leave sooner than I hoped when I realized that half the group was leaving right then and half the group would be staying until dark (hiking another three hours). I didn't bring my car from base. So, I had to make a decision. I knew my kids wouldn't hike another three hours. They were tired. So, we had to leave sooner than we were ready. We split up into two separate cars for the ride home.

On the drive to Hinohara I rode with the Petty's. It turns out that the Petty's in our ward now are the son and family of the Sister Petty that was in our ward in Italy. She was an older woman with long blonde hair. At the time we lived in Italy the Petty's we know now lived in Germany and would sometimes visit Mom Petty and go to our ward for church. We went to church with them there apparently. Fun fact.

On the drive back I was in the car with the Hardy's. It was good because I didn't know the Petty's or the Hardy's well at all. So, we got to know each other a bit better.

 Luke and Scott climbed the waterfall higher and higher. I had to hike pretty far up the trail to catch up when it was time for them to head back down.

Great Buddha of Rokuya and Hatnosu River

 Thursday June 18th we went on another adventure. It was Ster's day off. He has every other week day off and then works late on the days he works.
We took our next door neighbor Jesus Mendoza(Luke's friend) with us on this trip. We left home at 9:30am and drove about 40 minutes to the Buddha of Rokuya. It was farther from base than I thought. It wasn't much faster to drive there than to drive to Kamakura where Ster and I went without the kids that one time to see the giant Buddha there. The Buddha at Kamakura is a lot older and it's a better experience, Ster and I decided.
The new one is fun but it's worth it to drive a little longer to go to Kamakura instead.

The kids were able to experience seeing the giant statue and it had a little chapel type thing inside it but only underneath. You could not go inside the statue itself.
There was a lit candle near a golden Buddha. Ster paid 100yen to get a stick thing that you apparently should like from the lit candle and maybe say a prayer. Ster tried to show the kids how to do it but he accidentally put out the flame!! There wasn't a way to fix it. No lighter!
OOoops!

 Rachel Moore and her boys joined us on our Buddha visit. She is in our ward.
We ate lunch after hiking back down the hill from Buddha. The kids played a little bit. Then we drove another 30 minutes to Ome for some water play.

We parked the car and the kids changed into swimwear in the restrooms. Then we walked down the street and found stairs that led down by a waterfall and into a riverbed. There were cool little caves etc.

 The river water was freezing! But the kids were happy to play in the sand and in the water. It was warm but not hot outside. A tiny bit humid. But once you've been in that cooolld water it feels good to be in that warm air.

 

 Luke and Jesus did polar bear swim! They would go all the way in and then run out to warm out. They got to the point where they could stay in there for like two whole minutes!
And I tell you, Luke was more adventurous because his friend was there! If it had just been our family I bet Luke would not have done more than wade in the water to his ankles one time. Then he would have sat around doing nothing the rest of the time.
My kids would have complained the whole time if Jesus wasn't there! But having that one friend there made it more fun for my kids. They had a better attitude! It was so nice!

We walked back up stairs and to the restroom. What's amazing about Japanese toilets is the water feature! Like a warm bidet. And after swimming and playing in sand that's really convenient! Athena appreciated being able to clean the sand off her body before sitting in the car for an hour drive.
The kids changed into clean clothes and dried off.

 We had a great time. However, it was a lot of time in the car! So on the drive home we watched Lilo and Stitch. We stopped at a 7 eleven about 20 minutes before getting home...to surprise the kids with ice cream. We all chose an ice cream and ate it in the car. That was super fun! And it made the last stretch of road trip easier. We arrived home around 3:30pm.