Well everything is fine here in Japan. We had the kids sports festival last month, and it was pretty fun. The kids really liked it. Pics are up at the following. These are for most of August and Sept. as well. They also include some pics from our trip to Nagoya and Osaka.
Last weekend we took a trip to Beppu with one of Shiho's friends, Beppu has a bunch of hot springs and is located on the Pacific Ocean. We stayed at 2 different places over 2 nights on the way there, and it was a lot of fun. Both were lower cost hotel type places, and they both included BBQ style dinners with the price. They were actually more like hostels I think. The first one was just us staying there, and the owners were just wonderful. The second one was even better as far as the facility, but the owners and the food was not quite as good. All about business and ended up charging us more than we expected. We enjoyed the trip, but will return only to the first one.
The area is famous for their hot springs, so we ended up going to 3 over the 2 & 1/2 days of travel. One the second day we went to an onsen that was not so hot, but the water was like naturally carbonated, and after a few minutes, tiny bubbles engulfed your skin. A very interesting and wonderful experience. Almost made me feel like I was lighter or something. The last onsen we went to in Beppu before coming home was the best. They had a number of different baths, but my favorite was the sand bath. I did the hot sand bath, while everyone else did the medium one. Mine was so hot, that the kids did not want to walk on the sand. I was just sweating and the sand sicking to you.... an interesting experience. 30 minutes of the sand treatment, and we were on to the baths... fun, fun, fun!
We just got back from the Tsuwano this evening. We stopped and camped one night in on the Sea of Japan, and that was really great. The water was actually not too bad, and was so clear. We want to go back soon.
While at Shiho's moms, we had a BBQ with some friends, put up some motion detecting lights in the front and back of the house, and generally relaxed. I even got the winter tires put on the van, while on the way to the hot spring and hardware store. ('8
Hope you are all doing well,
Steve
