It's what everyone wants to do!

On Friday we went to the train park off base. We met with some friends and played and had a lot of fun. We started to play tag and I noticed a couple of Japanese children (a boy and girl) watching with interest. So I walked up to them and said "excuse me, do you speak English?" in Japanese. I figured I may as well get the basics out of the way. When the girl answered no, I attempted to ask them if they wanted to play tag with us; using hand gestures. The girl got the point, but the boy didn't want to play.

The little girl played and seemed to have a lot of fun. I went to get a drink of water from the drinking fountain after I'd played for a while. The drinking fountains aren't like America where you have to put your mouth to the nozzle and siphon the water. It shoots the water WAY up in the air. After squirting myself in the face a few times I realized this was greatly amusing the two Japanese children, who were watching.

I know how to entertain younger children, having four younger siblings, and I did House of Faith where I worked with hundreds of kids under the age of 12. I KNOW how to make them laugh. Acting stupid works at the house, at the schools, and it has been proven to work in Japan! lol

So I shot myself in the face a few more times to make them laugh. But then the boy walked up and turned off the water. I assumed he was going to show how to do it. He turned the water on again, full pressure, and put his hands in it...consequently spraying me with water. That really made them laugh. And so they did it again and again and again and again; until I was thoroughly soaked.

Oh well, it was bonding!

D2

There has been rumors....

....That Lady Liberty was spotted in Japan. They are confirmed! lol We drove out to Oriosi (a town near bye Misawa). On the outskirts of town was a park with the Statue of Liberty. It stands at the same latitude as the original in New York. It is also the largest in Japan...I didn't know they had very many of those here!

I don't think it is the same height as Lady Liberty in NY, because she seems a little bit shorter and to have gained a few pounds, but it is still really cool.

I've always wanted to get a picture in front of the Statue of Liberty...but never expected to do it in Japan!

There was a lake and a beautiful nature walk. There is also fishing, I don't think it can get better than that!

This has been voted the best picture of them all

There was also a park with a super long slide. The parks a lot funner here than State-side, but the parks are also a lot more hazardous than in America. I guess you can't have both!

Shiny threads like these have started to appear around the rice fields. We guessed it was to keep the crows away as harvest time neared.

Last Week!

Alright, a quick update from last week!

Monday-(this will get its own post) we went to the Statue of Liberty Park.

Tuesday-We continued to work on school. My math/science arrived! Yay! I wrote an essay on Saigo Takamori, maybe I'll post it. I also have doing a lot of research into Japanese Feudalism. Last year for school I studied European feudalism, and so I plan on writing an essay of comparison.

Wednesday-Same old! I've been doing books on the culture, listening to my Japanese tapes, and math. I also did extra research on rice farming and wrote an essay on that. I really like to write; I don't think I'd ever want to go into the business. You'll notice that I've started labeling a lot of the posts since I've been in Japan as, "Jared Meets Japan." A friend suggested I write a book about my time here in Japan. I figure in a few years I'll go back, collect all of the posts with that label, edit it, and then try and get it printed as a book. It's worth a shot!

Thursday- I did school while Mom and the younger four ran to the farmer's market (which is just down the road from where we will be living). They had an adventure, and that deserves a separate post!

Friday-I finished research for the Japanese feudalism and wrote the essay; I did more for school that day, but for school that was the headlight! We then met some friends at a park off base, which will also get a separate post!

Saturday-We mostly hang around! lol

Today-Arielle and I helped out at the Sunday School kick-off. It was a carnival/luau sort of show! We went to church, Dad preached. It was pouring rain! That about sums it up!

Never Forget

It is hard to imagine it has been 8 years since 9/11, the biggest terror attack on American soil ever. I still remember that morning very well. I was 7 and it seemed impossible to me that someone would want to kill Americans; but as I've gotten older I have realized that there is evil out there. That there is people who are consumed by their hate for America that they would kill thousands of innocent people every day if they could. I am writing this to remind us to never to forget, but also to never let it happen again. There are still people out there bent on killing us.

The terrorist would kill millions if they get the chance, we cannot let them get that chance. That is why we shouldn't allow N. Korea to get away with testing nuclear weapons. That is why we must remain strong in the face of Iran and all other hate filled radical groups who hate liberty and freedom.

The fight for freedom is one that will always be fought, from generation to generation. So, as a generation, let us rise up and continue the fight. The fight that our fathers started during the Revolutionary War, and that our brothers continue in Afghanistan. With one voice let us say, "We will not fade away into the darkness, we will not be defeated, we are Americans so let liberty ring!" Despite what comes against us, we will stand.

Air and Aviation Museum

On Sunday we went to the Air and Aviation Museum. I was surprised when we entered and realized this was going to have a LOT of stuff to do!

I love the Japanese, and their little cars!

As you can see the grass is well kept up! lol

Inside they had all sorts of things to do. This was a pulley system. Alex lifted him and Stacia with no problem using the pulleys.

This is a mimic helicopter.

Flight simulators. Arielle and I did good, we nearly crashed landed, but we straightened it out. And I accidental turned off the throttle while in mid air, but other than that it was a good flight!

You know those little needle things that you put your face in? They had a full body sized one of those. Yay Longhorns! I wasn't sure if the horns meant something bad here, so I etched it out very quickly!

This would shoot you 26 feet in the air

This would spin around...not fast though.

This globe was rotating. There were little lasers that resembled guns (ironic) and you would "shoot" the country you wanted to know about and information on that country would pop up on the screen.

No Gravity! I'm FREE!

There was a music festival outside. We bought meat on a stick...I can pronunce it, but I can't spell it right now, maybe later! This made their day! They even gave us one free one after we had returned a few times for more. They laughed and smiled and were very friendly!


There was so much to do in there! We barely scratched the surface, and I don't have time to write more about it right now. A lot of the rides and stuff was stuff that astronaut trainees would do. I had a lot of fun!

Saturday

On Saturday we went on a road trip to Shiriyia light house. It is about 50 miles North of us, but it took us 2-3 hours to get there. Why? Well the speed limit is slow. Also we were driving on very twisty and narrow roads! It was funny, we got to the light house and was just starting to take pictures when a man pulled up on a motorcycle and started to wave frantically that we needed to leave. Bummer!

The Light House

The Setting Sun

The Moon over the ocean

Here is one of those roads!

Wild Horses. That's right, Wild Horses!



A Texan must have helped with the translations on that one!


The drive home was fun, but it was dark. The roads were narrow and the only light s you really had were the vending machines along the the road! We were originally looking for a shipwreck, but didn't find it.