A Walk in the Park

After two weeks of avoiding blogging I am running out of excuses why I can't park myself in front of the computer and let everyone know what is happening in our lives. The weather has been so wonderful lately that I have been trying to keep the boys outside about as much as their little bodies can handle it. However, seeing as William decided to wake up at 5 am this morning (again), I find myself with lots of free time in which to blog. We have been pretty busy in the past couple of weeks so I might have to post every day before I am caught up to current events. I hope William doesn't take that as his cue to wake up at 5 every morning!

I have been enjoying spring to no end. Usually, April - May in Manitoba was a time of melting snow, flooding, mud, brown grass, and chilliness. Just to remind myself of what it was like, I checked out a post I had written almost exactly a year ago in Manitoba. Here in Fukuyama we transitioned in a span of two weeks from relatively chilly to warmth, green life, and a profusion of flowers.  There are so many plants doing wonderful things that I finding hard not to stop and inspect them all. The sakura have long since dropped all of their petals but since I am so behind in posting, here are a few pictures of a picnic we took while they were in full bloom.

We traveled with our neighbours to Senkoji park in Onomichi, which is about 10 minutes west by train. The park is on the top of a 140 meter hill and has a cable car that you can take to the top. The kids were overjoyed to take the cable car.

Once we arrived at the top, we were treated to a breathtaking view of the town and harbour with pale sakura blossoms everywhere you looked

I don't think we will ever get a family picture where Theo doesn't look like a caged animal

William's favourite part was yanking the petals off

and Theo's was climbing the trees. What boys!

I found a patch of gorgeous shelf mushrooms

The cherry blossom season was short lived but I am glad that we were able to enjoy the beauty of the cherry trees at Senkoji park while they lasted.

A Wonderful Day in the Rain...

I have been looking forward to getting out and exploring parts of Japan that aren't Fukuyama. Not that I don't love my city, because I do. However, when another teacher at my school asked if I would like to bike part of the Shimanami Kaido with him I jumped at the chance. The Shimanami Kaido is actually an expressway that connects Onomichi in Hiroshima Prefecture to Imabari City in Ehime Prefecture on the island of Shikoku. Alongside the expressway is an incredibly well developed cycling route with rest stops, bike rental places, and intense infrastructure all put in place to enjoy the Seto inland sea by bicycle. The forecast called for rain today but we didn't let that dampen our spirits. At ten o' clock we loaded our bikes into his car and started out for our first stop the Kurushima-kaikyo bridge, which is about 6.4 km, and is the final bridge connecting the island of Oshima to the main part of Shikoku.

Kurushima-kaikyo bridge as seen from Imabari City

We had nice ride across the bridge in which I blew through the toll gate not knowing that cyclists have to pay a small toll of ¥200 and had to sheepishly come back and throw my change into the box when I noticed my teacher no longer behind me. Once we got to the other side he kindly bought me lunch at a wonderful little restaurant with a fantastic view and equally fantastic food. It seems everything on the menu comes in little dutch ovens and served with a side of warm bread and a salad with vinaigrette made from locally produced citrus that is to die for.

Deliciously warm melted cheese, vegetables and meat
all simmered in a Dutch Oven.

 After lunch we headed back to the other side, loaded up our bikes and drove to Hakatajima Island where we unloaded our bikes again and proceeded to ride the entire circumference of the  island. During this portion of our ride it began to rain... a lot! We were soaked to the bone by the time we got all the way around the island, that being said I still had a lot of fun and I think he did too. Once we were completely around the island and the rain had subsided, he headed to the car and I continued by bike through a shipyard where they were christening a new ship and finally over one more bridge to Omishima Island and the Tatara Shimanami Koen (Park). There we packed up our bikes and headed over to the Tatara Shimanami Onsen for a much deserved soak in the those soothing hotwaters. All in all a wonderful day.

Ship building as seen from the Kurushima-kaikyo.

Some of the amazing infrastructure build solely for cyclists.

Hakatajima IC bike parking and tourist center.

The incoming rain on Hakatajima.

My fellow teacher at a little rest stop on Hakatajima where we
enjoyed some delicious snacks that Laura sent along with me...
...just the energy boost we needed to keep cycling in the rain.

Ship christening on Hakatajima.

Approach pathway to Omishima Bashi Bridge.

Omishima Bashi Arch Bridge.

Tatara Onsen where we spent some time relaxing after a hard day cycling in the rain.

Manhole Covers

One of the first things that we noticed here was the beautiful, creative, and varied manhole covers. Our city has a few different ones that I have come across, and every new place we go I notice at least another one. I love the attention to detail that is placed on even functional everyday things like the sewer system. Here are a few we have seen:

This manhole cover can be found in downtown Fukuyama and features the two symbols of the city, the rose and bat.

and in color...

This cover is bright and polka dotted with the beloved bat symbol in the center.

This cover is another common sight downtown

This cover doesn't use the typical rose symbol shown above, but a more art nouveau version. 

This is my personal favorite cover with the cute firefighter spraying water from a hose. It is the most common cover in our neighborhood.

We found this pretty festival themed cover in Onomichi during the lantern festival.

This cover features multicolor paper cranes and was found during our trip to Hiroshima City.

Lantern Festival

On Saturday, we went to Onomichi to a paper lantern festival that is held every year in October. Onomichi is a smallish city that is about 15 minutes west of us by train. This was my first time there, but since we arrived after dark, I still have very little idea of what it is like for the most part. For the lantern festival, a few thousand lanterns are lit along the waterway, in green spaces, and along the approaches to shrines. It looked as if the paper lanterns were all hand made by students and featured everything from Doraemon to stag beetles to self portraits. 

Some of the lanterns were placed to form pinwheel patterns and circles, like this shot of Karlee and William

Theo had a ton of photos taken of him by absolute strangers which would be creepy and rude back home. It is probably pretty lucky that Dustin and I are laid back about people taking photos of our children at every turn because it happens every time we go to any sort of event. Theo is the last person to mind and plasters on his cheesiest grin.

I am impressed that Theo managed to wade in a sea of fire and paper without knocking anything over or lighting himself on fire. 

William almost put this candle out with a stream of drool that escaped from his mesmerized face.

A close up view of some of the drawings featured on the lanterns

We all shared an amazing crepe creation from a tiny shop on a side street. One was vanilla ice cream and strawberries rolled in a crepe and the other was bananas, chocolate, and custard. Unfortunately we didn't get a picture before they were devoured. 

It was an extremely peaceful, candle lit evening and well worth the trip.