Tours Around Town

Last month when we arrived in Japan we got to go on a couple of tours around the area. Here the girls and I are in front of an old Samurai home.

Helen demonstrates how to cook fish inside the Samurai house. This is part of a Shinto Temple that we visited. Here are Helen and I in front of the Shinto Temple. Did the girls appreciate the fine architecture, lovely paintings, impressive bell or beautiful woods? No, they were most impressed by the fish. Yep, they would have jumped in with said fish along the gate if we had let go of their hands for even a second.

This is a Buddhist Temple we visited in Misawa. Luckily we practice being reverent every Sunday at church so the girls happily folded their arms instead of touching momentos that families keep in the temple.
We got to go to the indoor fish market in Hacinohe. I have never seen such varied fruits of the sea. Jane and I took a quick turn down the fruit and vegetable aisle instead of exploring the fish. I couldn't handle the though of Jane grabbing on to the various squids right at her eye level (we hadn't brought a stroller) and the smell did not agree with me. Ryan and Helen happily volunteered to explore and take pictures for us.

What are these? I don't know. Will they bite Helen's finger? She doesn't know. It's always better to err on the side of caution.

Helen found more octopus! They always bring a smile to her face.

These fish heads were particularly exciting because Ryan taught her to look inside and see what was in there. It also appears from this picture that Helen has her eyes peeled for flying fish as well.

Festival in Misawa, Japan

On our first day in Japan they celebrated our arrival with a festival in Misawa. Okay, they had it planned all along.We walked up and down the main street and enjoyed these pinata-like creations which had been hoisted over the street using bamboo shoots.

Here is a picture of one of the street food booths. I would consider this one of the more "safe" options because everything has been deep fat fried. Jane is a big fan of the cheese balls at the far right end.

Here is Helen's favorite vendor. Those are bananas dipped in chocolate and then decorated. The pink sprinkles taste the best if you are three and your name is Helen.

At a grocery store near our home we found these treasures. Helen loves finding octopuses, as you will see in future posts.

Hawaii Part 2

Above you can see the hotel where we stayed. In order to help Ryan with his slight apprehension (fear) of heights we were lucky enough to be in the very top corner room. Perhaps if you blow the picture up really big you will be able to see the girls and I waving.

Helen really enjoyed playing on the beach with her little bucket and shovel.

In the last blog post we went to the perhaps one of the least visited spots in Hawaii (The foster Botanical Gardens) and here we visited Pearl Harbor, one of the most visited locations. As you can tell by Helen's smile, the heavy artillery gun was one of the highlights from this spot.

Jane and I check out the periscope.

The Battleship Missouri as well as the Arizona Memorial are visible in the water. Helen was really disappointed that we couldn't visit any of those sites.

This action shot is from the Polynesian Culture Center, also among the most visited sites in Hawaii. Here Ryan's teaching the girls a native New Zealand game in which you throw and hit sticks together.

That little palm leaf fish provided hours of entertainment for all of us, but for some reason Ryan was ready to throw it away after the first 30 minutes.

We walked over the the Laie Hawaii Temple from the Polynesian Cultural Center.

We even stopped by BYU Hawaii on our way. As it inspires no nostalgic memories in us, we didn't stay long.

The girls on the beach of Waikiki at sunset. I have decided that Waikiki may single handedly supply oncologists with all their skin cancer cases in any number of places that probably should never see the sun.

Ryan had us walk barefoot on the beach for a little ways, in memory of his favorite poem that goes something like this . . .

Footsteps in the Sand, adapted by Ryan

As I looked back at my journey over the metaphoric sandy beach of family life,

I noticed that in the most difficult portions there was only one set of footprints.

So I asked my father, "Is that where you carried me to keep me safe?"

My father replied, "No, that's where you wanted to pick up a jellyfish and threw a tantrum when I told you no, so I carried you under my arm and sat you on a rock for a 2 minute time-out."

A week before we came to Hawaii, one of the speakers at church told a story about a child being washed out to the sea. Why such a story should come up in Iowa is beyond me, but it does explain the extremely suspicious look I am giving those "friendly" waves.

Here's a clip of the girls trying to imitate the Hawaiian dancers at the Polynesian Culture Center.

Hawaii Part 1

On our way to Japan we stopped in Hawaii for a week, strictly because it was less expensive for the Air Force to fly us to Japan on this route . It turned out to be an even more brilliant idea than anticipated, because it allowed us to adjust to the time change half-way to Japan. Here is a picture of Helen's favorite flowering tree at the Hale Koa hotel where we stayed.This was the chapel that we attended in Honolulu. Actually, I think that they called it a tabernacle. I think it's always a good idea to go to church in locations that have the 'hallways' outside. That's a pretty good sign that the weather never warrants air conditioning or central heat.

The best place that we visited was the Foster Botanical Garden in Honolulu. If you have not heard of this particular tourist destination, it is probably because tourists don't go there often. We nearly had the whole park to ourselves. We made Helen part with all the treasures that she had picked up off the ground before we left.

Sometimes at the end of a long morning it's hard to smile, even when you are next to some lovely orchids.

Helen was willing to smell all the flowers right at her height. Please note the treasure clutched in her hand.

This is a famous cannonball tree. Lucky for you all, they haven't invented smell-o-net yet. This was the worst smelling tree of the whole place.

This palm tree made me feel like we were back in the Jurassic Period. I have seen the much, much smaller cousins of this palm, but never anything this enormous.

This was Ryan's favorite gigantic tree. He and Helen could even take a rest in the roots.

Helen and I were really excited to find this tamarind tree. I love tamarind!

Jane got really good at smelling all the flowers while we were in Hawaii.

Here is the fruit from the blue marble tree. So exciting!

Ryan and I were both impressed by the variety of these plants, whose names have currently escaped me.

I am not sure if there is anything as fun as making sand castles early in the morning before anyone comes to the beach. We only had to share the sand with the birds and they merely added to the excitement. I hope Grandma Johnson notices how these two girls look like the Sunbonnet Sue's from the quilt she got for Christmas. Helen is putting the flowers in for eyes on the butterfly sand sculpture for the finishing touch - she thought of that detail herself.

Jane was really good at monitoring Ryan's work on the gigantic sandcastle.

Johnson Family Campout

We are officially back on the 'net.' Last week our household goods shipment arrived and we are going through the exciting job of reacquainting ourselves with all our belongings. I had no idea that our packers in Nebraska had actually vacuum sealed the toy boxes under very high pressure, but I have a sneaking suspicion they did because the boxes exploded when they got into our house.

We also have a bunch of wonderful pictures to sort through, and we thought we would tell the story of our summer chronologically over a few bog posts. Today you get look at the Joshnson Family Campout.

Here is a picture of the First Aid Relay Race that Ryan was in charge of. The kids and Spencer did a great job getting Helen's leg splinted and then the boys showed their muscles with the fireman carry.

I am not sure how Jane figured out that she would enjoy a sucker, but she spent the whole time Ryan ate his trying to get her hands on it. At one point she grabbed the end while it was in his mouth and jerked his head a full 90*.

Brice taught an excellent knots course. We don't have a picture of the application of this skill later in the camp out, but Brice was impressed with the boy's creativity in tying one another up or to each other or to inanimate objects like trees.

Classic Camp Songs by Craig. I think that I will be able to teach my children their right from their left thanks to the song Craig taught: "1,2, 3, 4, 5 Once I caught a fish alive". What a treasure!

I think that it is clear from this picture that it is Helen that is the secret weapon on the winning side. Kite Making with Doug: It's hard to tell who had more fun, the kids or the parents putting these flying machines together.

Miles in action. Here is Hunter with the man-eating Tulip Popular tree. You may not know that it is carnivorous, but the expression on Hunter's face makes it clear that he knows and he is not getting a millimeter closer than necessary.

We take our snack time seriously. Helen was particularly proud of this snack because she learned to make gorp with Grandpa and even sampled it before the trip.

Here are Craig, Heidi and Owen enjoying a long hike.

If you will note the sign in the background (It reads "Extremely Dangers Keep Off"), we think that hikes with 12 children under the age of 10 are best done near sharp drop offs. It adds to the excitement and overall enjoyment of the event.

Here are Helen and Chloe showing off their stylish camp t-shirts/dresses. As a side note, that is the only time I ever saw those particular toys in their mouths not caked in dirt, although it wasn't the only time I saw them hanging out of children's mouths.

This is the picture of the "fast" kids on the hikes. I only got a picture from the front of them after we had to turn around because we had taken the wrong turn.

Here we are hiking. I would like to point out the foresight in choosing bright orange for the t-shirts. In addition to helping us recognize members of our own group, no hunter or animal would mess with such a brilliant color.

Have you ever seen so many happy cousins campers? This was a serendipitous moment; in a matter of minutes they would all be soaking wet from the small trickle of a stream you can see under the log. Don't worry, I don't think anyone 'fell' in.