Oita Trip Dec 2008

After the kids finished at school, we left directly to Oita. There are many Onsens (hot springs) there, and a number of atractions there. Although it seems, the most popular are the soft serve ice cream stands, that seem to be on every other corner. I think my favorite flavor is the cheese soft serve. YUMMY!!!

We stayed at a hotel that had a numbe

r of onsens, which we used a lot. When we got there, we just spent the afternoon relaxing.

We also went to　Akagawasou Onsen,　赤川層温泉 which is one of the 100 best onsens in Japan. Although on this trip, we thought it was one of the 100 coldest onsens in Japan. It was beautiful though. The outside bath was next to a real 

waterfall. Check it out here... sorry, all in Japanese. I tried to find it in English, but ended up searching in Japanese. I guess I am getting a little better at Japanese, but ver

y slowly.

http://www.onsen-isan.com/gensen/kyusyu/akagawaso.html

http://poohsuke.web.infoseek.co.jp/akagawaonsen.html

The last night we were in Oita, and we were lucky enough to have a little snow. When we woke up, everything was white. We got the kids up, and they loved it. Of course we walked right down to the onsen, and took a nice hot bath. It was great! 

This was the womens bath, but it was so early I was sure it would be fine. Half an hour and nobody else came. Lucky for us both I guess.

More pics from our trip at the following...

http://picasaweb.google.com/stephenkenyon/OitaTripDec2008#

Hope you are all well,

Steve, Shiho and the kiddies.

Kids Preschool x-mas show 2008

Hello All,

So the kids had their show, and seemed to have a great time. Hanano did not want to watch so much, so we had to take turns taking her outside to play in the playground. There were a bunch of other little kids there, so we had a lot of company out there. Miyabi played a keyboard, and Joe played triangle.

This is Miyabi's class in their first show. They each went 2 times, so it was a lot of fun.

Here is Joe's first time up. 

More pics at... http://picasaweb.google.com/stephenkenyon/TheKidsSchoolChristmasMusicalShow2008#

Enjoy,

Steve et. al

Hanano's Fish shop 花心乃の魚屋

These pics are of Hanano setting up her fish shop on her Grandmothers heater.

We think she has just been watching us a lot. Since she did this without any help from even Joe or Miyabi.

Some pics of the kids 12-3-08

Hello All,

Just a few pics of the kids.

Hope you are all well,
Steve, Shiho and the kids


Who is this?
This is Hanano's naughty look.
This is our bath tub in Kitakyushu.