Our Weekend Getaway to White Beach

It was a beautiful weekend...what better way to spend it than outdoors doing tons of cool stuff. I swear the kids are on permanent vacation and fun over here in Japan!!

Our first stop: Katsuren-jo site Castle Ruins

Our friends came up to the castle site with us and it was very neat. Lots of history and lots of fun for the kids. Although at one time they were playing in a "cave" and a Japanese lady came up to me and pointed to a sign that said "sacred shrine" and started talking in Japanese...almost like she was scolding me...oops. Needless to say, we left the cave and went on our merry way!

After we walked up the long, steep cobblestone driveway, we then headed up the stairs...

Elijah A.K.A Spidey

The kids fighting off the bad guys...

My peace sign and his spidey power....

Say, "Cheese!" and I will give you some M&M's....yes, that was the only way they would do it!!

View from the top...

Noah A.K.A. Iron Man...

Now onto White Beach...just the 3 of us!!! We stayed in a suite, played on the playground, played putt-putt, went on a nature hike, played video games, ate lots of junk food and fell asleep watching a movie together. The next morning was full of more fun and games. White Beach was hosting a "Spring Fling" full of bouncies, jet skiis and banana boat rides (both of which, :( ,the kiddos were too little to ride), train rides, clowns, Japanese live music, picnic food. It was hot enough to go swimming in the ocean but I didn't bring our swim suits...

But before the festival began, we decided to go exploring. There is a sign offbase about a nearby island and I have always wanted to check it out. We got halfway over the brigde and I turned around at the rest stop because I was afraid I would run out of gas...and I didn't have any yen to buy Japanese gas. Oh well, maybe next time. We still got to check out a pretty place off the bridge:

Now, on to the festival!!!!!!!!!

Noah jumping around like a monkey...

Elijah pretending to shoot the bad guys....

Noah climbing up one of the bouncies...

"Cheese!"

Remember...turn the music off on the side of the blog to hear the videos!!

Now for the clown show!!

Elijah's act with the clowns...

And, yes, I still took the quick picture...then I ran up there to get the crying little guy.

Okay...so maybe I should tell you why Elijah is crying after he literally begged me to be able to go up on stage with them. (And when it was time for a volunteer from the audience, he didn't even wait to be picked. He just went up there!!) Okay...so there were 2 shows. Noah went on stage on the first show and he got a balloon and Elijah didn't....so he was bummed. But another act in the first show was an adult male from the audience on the stage. The clowns blew up balloons and made a hat with ears, a belt with a tail, a nose, handcuffs, and a leash(remember all made out of balloons) Then the clown walked him by the leash to the picnic tables and blew up another balloon and tied him to the table. During the second show, after Elijah's act, the clown started making a hat and another balloon for Elijah. It was supposed to be a King's crown and a sword, but he thought he was going to be handcuffed and tied to the table!! Yes, sad....but funny too...lol...poor little guy...

Noah's act with the clowns....

(This is about the 5th attempt...)

It definitely was an awesome weekend...sure wish Tim was home to spend it with us. White Beach is where his ship docks. I kept looking down the empty pier and it made me miss him soooo much!! Kids kept asking when we were going to pick him up. Glad this is a short tour...