Ryden is an expert on the up-hill grade. The challenge is to keep up with him before he gets out of reach. This picture taken at Shakuji-koen.
Story time is always a hit.
Sharing lunch in Omotesando. (First Sunday)
Leia and Ryden had fun together.
Ken and Papa got the quiet table.
Monday we went to Inokashira Park and had a nice walk around the pond.
Tuesday was all planned out by Norie. A birthday celebration for Leia at Sharks in Mejiro. Ichi and his lovely bride, Mrs. Matsushima, Obachan, and the whole family in attendance. After that we walked through the Mejiro Tokugawa Village, over to the Mejiro Gardens, down to the Jiyu Gakuen Myonichikan, then to the gardens at Chinzan-so. Wednesday we went to the Oi bird park.
Zia has some great pictures of those events. Papa borrowed my camera to download the pictures upon our return and deleted them from my camera before I could add them to my albums.
Thursday and Friday outings were planned with me behind the wheel of the car. I didn't get too many family pictures. We drove to Narai-juku, a historic site along the old route taken between Kyoto and Edo. The buildings have been preserved along a section of the old road and this area is famous for lacquer-ware. We visited these old buildings with a guide and had lunch at one of them. Zia has great photos of that gathering and the wonderful old buildings.
It didn't take Ryden long to figure out how to use the wooden ladle.
We spent the night at the foot of Mt. Ontake that had erupted just half a year before. There was a nice view from the rooms of the smoke rising... you might be able to make it out on the left hand side of the mountain.
Our day trip included a trip up other mountains ... including a long muddy walk up to see the snow monkeys.
No, these are not the monkeys, those were in the hot spring or preening and sleeping among the rocks.
As it was, Leia did not want to leave or quit watching to join in the picture taking. We spent a long time there and it was a long walk back to the car.
Someone agreed to push the button for a group picture ... minus the reluctant Leia.
It was late by the time we got home even though we had to cut out part of the plan. Saturday the crew was off with Norie and we met up Sunday night for dinner at a tofu restaurant and then to cherry blossom viewing.
That tree behind us, a weeping cherry, was all one tree ... absolutely HUGE, planted in 1704! What shows in the picture is less than half of it.
I hope Zia will post some of her great photos. We had such a wonderful time but way too short as the hours seemed to fly. At this point they are winging their way over the Pacific and the house seems very quiet.
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