Time to go...

Thanks everyone for looking at my blog! It's so great seeing your comments. Just to let you know I will be in NZ for 2 weeks at the beginning of September. I don't think I will have an Internet connection so my blog will be stagnant for a few weeks...but there is plenty to look at and read that I'm sure you haven't seen yet! Don't forget my links on the side to 'kids are cute' 'Japan at it's best' and 'Far far away'. There are also links all down the side of this blog that you may enjoy reading too. The blog archive has all the posts from the past few months if you want to back track...but I will be back with lots of photos of my time in NZ! Until then....
(You know, if there are ever any photos you like and want to keep, you just right click on it and save it and it's yours!)

Jo's School Project

Jo made a lemon tree for his school summer project. I don't mean he grew I mean he MADE it! With clay and wire and lots of florist tape. CLICK HERE to read about it...

Camping

On August 17th, (our 11th wedding Anniversary) we headed out to Kushimoto to go camping. Kushimoto is the most southern point of Japan at the bottom of the Wakayama Peninsula. It's a free camp site on the edge of the water on a huge grassy field facing the pacific. Here I am standing where we decided to pitch our tent. There was no one around us, it was so perfect.

Look at all this space!!

Phew...work over!

Our tent is waaaaay in the background...

Ships on the water

View from the tent door

The sunset over the point.

Ken feeling the summer breeze

First light...

Sunrise over the pacific

The boys playing on a nearby beach. It was really nice...but Jo got stung badly by a jellyfish on his neck, ear and arm and cut our stay short. We decided to go to the hot springs to refresh ourselves and ended up swimming in the hotel pool. It was much more fun!

The hot spring by the sea. Fireworks by the tent

Hot springs again...

Visiting the monument on the point. This is the first place the Americans landed on Japanese soil before Perry. There is a museum dedicated to that fact.

After the jelly-fish experience we decided to try another beach the next day. This beach was deserted and much nicer than the day before. There were beautiful tropical fish swimming around too and we enjoyed snorkeling around.

The Glass House Mountains??

Did I take a trip to the Glass House Mountains on the Sunshine Coast?......

No...just some interesting boulders on the seashore...

The Hashimoto, Kinokawa Fireworks Festival

As I have said on my blog Japan at it's best ,fireworks are a regular event at Japanese Matsuri, or, festivals. The Kinokawa festival is held every year on the 15th of August. It is not as big as the PL fireworks but it is pretty impressive, and lots of people from all around come to see it. We caught the train down with some friends, Erinn's family, Claire's family and Chris' family. We had a picnic dinner near the bridge where the fireworks were let off. It was a lot of fun!

Some girls walking in their Yukata. I met some of my students from University as I walked down! They are in the background. What a nice surprise!

Waiting at the lights to cross the street...

View from the bridge. Those colourful dots are people! Some are walking around the tents and stalls at the festival, and some have positioned themselves by the river to watch the fireworks show. We sat on the other side of the bridge so we could escape the crowds.

A beautiful night for fireworks! The stars came out after this and were beautiful too.








A cool breeze blew off the river as we sat and waited for the fireworks to start.








Jo making faces while we wait.....

It was hard to catch the fireworks with our little camera...and obviously they were much more beautiful and amazing in real life, but here is some idea of what we saw...the show went for an hour and we sat on the grass in awe.