JapanGirl64

  Its fun to travel around Japan, but honestly we don't need to even leave Zama to enjoy the sights. One Saturday we took a bike ride down by the river and all the rice fields had just been planted.  We saw a couple of  huge white egrets out in the field but when we tried to get a picture with them they were startled and flew away. It was so beautiful! On Juneteenth, Kimball had the day off so we went to Odaiba to see the Small Worlds Museum of Miniatures. Dave and Liz and fam had gone and told us about it. There is so much to see and do in Tokyo that I don't think we will ever run out of new places to visit. It was interesting to see the detail that they have put into creating this place. But also very strange - lots of random things in among the scenes (like dinosaurs, robots, and out of scale animals) Quite unique! One of my favorite parts of this museum was watching the kids watch the robot things - I don't know what kind of robots these were but the kids sure seemed ...

  On May 30, 2024 I turned 60 years old! As luck would have it, the first big summer fireworks show in Japan just happened to be that same day. What a perfect way to celebrate! The Zushi Beach fireworks festival was spectacular! It was extremely crowded but worth all the hassle. The fireworks were  shot off from a barge in the bay and because there were no trees or anything else to block the view from the beach you get a full view of the entire sky.  We took the train and as we got close to the venue we began hearing announcements about the expected crowds. Once we got off the train we joined a river of people all making their way towards the beach area. On the way there we passed by so many food vendors and at one of them we picked up dinner to eat once we got there. It seemed like people had been saving their spots for a while, but we just dove into the mix and found a little patch of sand to spread out a out tarp. (I feel so local now that I have the Lawson Store tarp ...

 We had a great time with Dave, Liz and all the kids! We rode the trains a lot and saw some lovely hydrangea gardens. We went to Kamakura and Enoshima (the beach) and ate some great food - including my personal fav - Okonomiyaki!  One major highlight was getting together with Uncle Takamichi, Ken and Jun. We found out Uncle Takamichi turns 99 this month!