Golden Week 2010
Hana’s hair is finally growing!!! She will not be compared to her balding father any longer!!!
Anyway, we have had a great Golden Week. We flew down to Okinawa for a family holiday, then went up to Ibaraki to see the in-laws and drink some beer.
Whilst we were checking into the hotel in Okinawa, Hana made her first Chinese friend. Hana can understand English quite well, and some Japanese, but not a word of Chinese!! But they got along very well, and didn’t seem to have any trouble communicating. Most of the time they just ran around laughing and jumping!!!
It rained a bit on the first day, so we decided to head to the world famous Churaumi Aquarium. What can I say; it’s in the top ten things I have seen in my life. Amazing.
It’s in the Guinness Book of Records numerous times over for things like the biggest Whale Sharks in an aquarium, the first Manta Rays to breed in captivity etc. It’s one of those places that you really need to see to believe it.
You can see in this picture below the size of the tanks they have there. It’s always good to see things done properly. Brilliant place.
Hana was at her happiest when she could eat ice creams in the sea. Onlookers thought she was very funny walking around in the water with her face covered in ice cream!!!
She made a few friends in the sea as well………………
This place is called a “Power Spot” because it is where rituals for priests in the past were done. They believed it was a place that was very spiritual. I suppose it would be a bit like Stonehenge in England. It was a nice place for a walk around, and Hana picked up a small bit of “Power stone” and brought it home, so hopefully that will give us all some power???
Okinawa is much greener than Chiba at this time of year because of its location. The parks were lovely.
All in all we had a great trip to Okinawa, but it would have been better if we had had better weather.
Then we headed up to Ibaraki to Mami’s hometown for some eating and drinking with the family.
My father-in-law loves beer, and I found some really nice beer that he had never drunk before and took a big cooler box full of it for him. I thought it would last a couple of days, but we got through all of it except for two bottles on the first day!!! Oooopps!!!
Hana and Haruna had a great time playing with each other. Hana does tend to use more English than Japanese, but they don’t seem to have any trouble communicating.
Oh, and Mum thank you for sending the chocolate buttons over. Hana and I got through the last of them this afternoon. They were very much appreciated!!!
Anyway, that’s all for now,
take care,
Ed