Katsuura & Kamogawa SeaWorld

Two weeks ago we went to the beach with my friend Michiko Ozawa, her husband Kuni, daughter Yuka, and granddaughter Sara. I'll quiz you later :)

My friend Linda convinced me to join a crocheting club (called the Cackle Club) with a bunch of Japanese women off-base. Michiko started this club with an American about 7 years ago. Linda moved last month so now I am the only American in the group. It's a lot of fun. They try to speak english but every once in a while they all start rambling off in Japanese. I think it's so funny...I love trying to guess what they are talking about just by watching their mannerisms. I'm starting to get really good at it.

P.S. Did I mention that I have NO idea how to crochet? I just sit and make beanies on that round thing with the pegs sticking up. They haven't kicked me out yet :)

The Beach

Shane, Michiko, Tia, Kuni holding Sara, Yuka, me, & Jayden.

Yuka & I are the same age and Tia & Sara are only 10 days apart.

Tia loving the gross seaweed.

See the guy laying down? He fell asleep and his buddies put a stick of butter on his chest...look closely (click on the picture) and you can see it melting :)

Yes that is a pool at the beach! Not only is it a pool, but that is a pump and a hose that filtered the ocean water into the pool. We thought it was so funny so I asked Kuni why he brought a pool to the beach and he explained that his granddaughter is scared of the ocean so he brought it for her to feel safe and have a good time. He is one awesome grandpa. "Kuni, can we adopt you as our Japanese grandpa?"

Jayden spent the whole time trying to catch this crab.

He was having a hard time catching it so he ran all the way back to the tent, grabbed Kuni, and brought him back to catch it for him.

"Kuni caught it"...or I should say "it caught Kuni".

We learned about a really fun tradition while at the beach with the Ozawas. The Japanese buy watermelons (which are very expensive in Japan) and bring them to the beach to beat them with a stick, then they eat it. It's actually a game called Suika-wari. Suika means watermelon and wari means to crack. A person with a stick is blindfolded and gets spun around a few times. Then, he is guided by everyone's calls towards the watermelon and gets 1 shot at cracking it open (and you CANNOT feel around for it). Whoever cracks it open wins.

Jayden saw a bunch of people playing this game, so he went and asked if he could help. This is Shane retrieving him before he did any damage to their watermelon.

Tia saw the same group of people EATING their watermelon and just walked up, smiled, and they gave her some. This is Shane retrieving her and apologizing :)

After retrieving our children twice we decided it was time to whack our own watermelon open.

We are just 1 big family of cheaters. We were peaking, feeling around on the ground, touching the watermelon and then whacking it. Our friends were so sweet and told us afterwards that we were not supposed to feel around for the watermelon and that you only get 1 whack. Ooops, we should have asked about the rules before we started.

The Hotel

Our Japanese hotel room. Michiko and her husband let us stay at this hotel with them through their time-share. It was beautiful. The kids loved sleeping in the same room as us on tatami mats and futons.

While at this hotel we experienced a Public Japanese Bath for the first time. We LOVED IT! It's like going into a VERY hot, peaceful, beautiful, & large bath tub after you've spent quite some time washing and scrubbing every piece of your body. The men and women are separated (because you are completely nude the whole time), so I took Tia and Shane took Jayden (so that we could hold them and have a little cover up :) It is not weird to the Japanese at all because it is something they've grown up with in their culture. I never thought we'd actually do one of these Japanese baths, but it was AWESOME! I've never felt so clean and relaxed before!

The view from our room.

Another view from our hotel room.

The beach is on the top left right by the houses.

Poolside BBQ

Don't we look SO RELAXED (like we are going to fall asleep)???....this was JUST after our Japanese Bath.

The sweet Ozawa family.

Our Japanese BBQ (octopus, crawfish, something in a shell & more). We had so much to eat we didn't know what to do. It was a beautiful, peaceful night by the pool. Everything was misty and you could hear the ocean in the distance. It was perfect.

Jayden and Sara having fun during dinner.

Seaworld

The Sachi Show (Shamu).

The Dolphin Show: the dolphins are singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

The smiling Sea Lion.

Watch the video below to believe it.

Isn't that awesome? He smiles better (and longer) than we can.

The end of a really hot afternoon, but as you can tell the kids had a blast.

This was a way cool road. You start driving across the bay on a very long bridge (called the Tokyo Bay Aqua-Line), when you get to this rest stop in the middle of the water (which is huge and is called the Umihotaru) you drive right under it and into the ocean. Then you are in a tunnel for a couple of miles before you exit above ground again. It was pretty freaky especially when Shane and I started talking about "what if there was a leak, and what if this thing flooded, etc." We were totally freaked and excited to get back up on the ground.

We had the best time with the Ozawa's. Thanks you so much for a very fun and memorable vacation! We ABSOLUTELY loved it!