Apple Picking

A few weeks ago we headed off into the mountains near Mihara, Hiroshima with Obaasan and Ojiisan to a tourist fruit picking farm. We had visited this farm during apple harvesting season last year, but because of my crippling morning sickness I wasn't really able to enjoy it all that much. This year the weather was once again fabulous, I actually had an appetite for apples, and the children were generally well behaved, so all was grand.

They grow all types of fruit at the farm, including kiwi, apples, strawberries, grapes, peaches, and pears, and depending on what time of year you visit you can pick different kinds of fruit. I think they also have a large pasture of chickens where you can collect eggs for purchase. There is a small fee to get into the farm and once you're in you can eat all the fruit you want for free. They give you a small basket and a paring knife for collecting, and peeling and coring your apples if you wish. If you want to bring any home with you, you have to pay. It is a very relaxing and tranquil place with a large field to picnic in and beautiful view of the mountains. Now that we have gone two years in a row I guess it has become a bit of a tradition. Can't say I'm too upset about that!

The apple orchard had about fifteen rows of apple trees in five different varieties.

Next to the apple orchard, the kiwi were hanging large from their vines. Kiwi are the next fruit to be harvested, toward the end of October and into November. 

Last year, I spent the majority of the time policing William and making sure he didn't yank apples off the trees willy nilly and just to toss them on the ground. This year he knew the drill and was pretty good about asking before picking. 

He did manage to yank off a few spotty ones though. 

Theo managed to eat about two apples, which was no simple feat considering that he had one bottom tooth missing and a very wobbly tooth right beside it. Here he is trying to take a big bite while avoiding his front teeth.            

William, who is a little bit more particular about how he eats his apples, waited until they were cored and sliced by Obaasan.

He also enjoyed wandering around with Ojiisan who was much more lenient about which apples William picked.

Rosie even joined in on the fun by gumming and sucking on an apple slice. She wasn't too terribly impressed but kept on sucking nonetheless. 

After eating as many apples as our stomachs could handle, we had a picnic in a large grassy field. The boys loved being able to tear around and shout with not a care in the world.

I remember regretting not bringing our kite last year and so we made sure to pack it along this time. It was a nice breezy day; perfect kite weather.

As if the apples and bento weren't enough, the boys also had a tasty ice cream cone before heading back to the car.

What a perfect way to celebrate the fall!

Visits Around Hiroshima

On the way back from our trip to Oita, we spent three days in Hiroshima City . By the time we arrived, the sakura were in full bloom and that meant tons of tourists, especially in Miyajima, which we visited on one of these days.

Our first supper once we arrived was of course a meal of okonomiyaki, Hiroshima style. Yum!

On our second day, we took the ferry over to Miyajima. The only other time that Dustin and I have been here was in the fall and everything certainly looked different clothed in blossoms. We spent the day at the aquarium, walking around town, and enjoying the views of the Seto Inland Sea from the top of Mount Misen. It was beautiful, but packed with people.

The next day was spent wandering around Hiroshima City. Like Miyajima, it was also pretty packed with tourists and blossom viewers and made me realize how tired I get being in large crowds of people. I am pretty glad that we live in our little city of Fukuyama and not the capital. I like the fact that it is almost shocking to see a tourist or backpacker and that crowds are only found on a few days a year when there is some festival or event. 

We all had a nice time, but I was pretty glad when we got back to Fukuyama and I was able to relax a bit. No one can accuse me of not getting enough fresh air and exercise this pregnancy! 

Cycling the Shimanami Kaido

This is a post I have been meaning to write for a few days and have continued to put off for one ridiculous reason or another. However, even though it is several weeks too late I will now regale you with my tale of cycling the Shimanami Kaido. {side note: this will be a personal narrative, if you are looking for detailed information on taking this trip yourself I suggest you go here or here or here.}

Final bridge connecting Shikoku to Honshu.

My story probably starts closer to the beginning of our time in Japan when I first heard about the Shimanami Kaido  which links Onomichi, Hiroshima Prefecture, with Imabari, Ehime Prefecture. It's a 60 kilometer-long toll highway exclusively for automobiles that links the islands of the Seto Inland Sea with nine individual bridges. Each bridge consists of a road way and a cycle/pedestrian corridor. In addition to the bridges the wonderful folks behind the Shimanami Kaido also designed and incorporated a complete cycle route with access ramps and signs that guide you the entire way. On top that, they even painted a blue line on the highway all the way from Onomichi to Imabari city centre. In other words if you get lost, well you probably deserved it. 

The cycle route is slightly longer at about 70kms

But I digress, when I first heard about it another teacher from my school suggested we cycle it sometime, however when plans were finally made we only ended up driving his car to certain points and cycling around them... also it rained and we got completely soaked. At this point I can not stress enough, if you are going to attempt this trip be aware of the weather. Not only does cycling in the rain suck, but the wind on some of the bridges can become down right dangerous if not given a healthy amount of respect. 

Fast forward to very recently, October 20th to be exact. A second attempt had been planned with the addition of one more to the party and coinciding with me getting a new road bicycle the week before. So with high hopes that the weather would hold two of us set from the starting point of the ferry terminus on Mukaishima, the first of the islands we would have to cross. On the other side of the island we met up with my fellow teacher and tackled the first bridge.

My new bike is the one on the right.
The Trek belonged to the other member of our group
and is a significantly more expensive bike then mine. :(

The first bridge we had to overcome and the only one where
the cycle path is actually below the cars on second level.

The weather held and we could not have asked for a more perfect day for cycling. Once we reached Oshima island the teacher from my school called it a day and turned around in order to return to his car, while the remaining two of us continued on. Just outside of Imabari City my other companion also turned around, so that he could make it back home before dark. I had intended to to finish the entire route so I continued on alone. When I finally reached Imabari at around 2:00 in the afternoon I was tired and hungry but happy that I had finally completed something I had been wanting to do for some time. I was also rewarded at the end of my trip with a bonafide Giant store, which if you know me is second only to discovering an Apple store. :) 

I highly recommend that if you ever find yourself in this neck of the woods and have a day to spare that you spend it cycling the Shimanami Kaido. 

Attempting to not be the tallest one out. Walker-sensei (L)

One of the longer bridges we encountered.

Walker-sensei (L) Fujita-sensei (R)

Fantastic signs that show the effort put into making this one of premier cycle routes in Japan.

Restaurant where I ate my much needed victory meal.

Imabari speciality: Rice, fried pork and two sunny side up eggs.

If you know me you would realize how giddy this made me.
 And the fact that I asked one of the girls working at the shop to take this picture really made her day.

Back Home

Has anyone been wondering if we fell off the face of the earth in the past month and a half? We did, sort of, but we are finally back in Fukuyama. We actually had been in Canada visiting family from the middle of July to the end of August.

It feels great to be back home, but we are still waiting for the internet to be hooked up in our house. They actually won't be coming to set it up until the end of September. I absolutely don't understand why it is taking them four months to do this. We don't have much choice, so mostly I have been silently gnashing my teeth and fuming about being inconvenienced and cut off from the world. Only three more weeks to go!

Here are we are last month, waiting for the bus to take us to the airport in Hiroshima City.

We left in the morning with lots of energy and hoping that the kids maintained their good mood for most of the 27 hours that it would take to get to Winnipeg. 

The trip ended up being extremely uneventful which is the best you can hope for. No children or minds were lost along the way.