Cup Noodle Museum

Finally went to the Cup Noodle Museum.

And decorate our own packaging.

Cup Noodles from around the world.

And cool art.

We even got to make our own noodles.

Sapporo

We were able to head up to Sapporo Japan to go to the snow and ice festival. 

It started out with a bus ride, then a plane ride, then a train ride, then short walk to our hotel. We froze, ate ramen and sat in the onsen every night. Love the way the Japanese do it.

 

A tubing and sledding set up. The sledding was pretty rough. Sam came out crying and I was afraid my spine wasn't ever going to recover. Good thing they had us wear helmets.

Ice scultpture. The dragons were the best!

Taiwan castle.

Of course Star Wars was the best snow sculpture.

Snow, Snow and More Snow

Seeing as we don't get much snow here in Yokosuka, we decided to go up to the land of snow,Nagano for skiing with the cousins. We also took Mattie's friend Mac Allen with us.

We saw some Monkeys with the snow....

 
 Before.....

   and after.

and a castle

and more snow...

and a polar bear

 and some skiing

 This is the tube that went down the hill in front of the chair lift. It was a very exciting moment!

Hazel at the end of the day

 

Sam and Tom at the top, overlooking Hakuba Alps.

Porter sledding down the bunny hill. Porter (4) decided that he too could go on the lift, so ignoring the Japanese lift operators warnings he went up the lift and down on the sled. :)

Guam

We decided to try Space A and take a flight to Guam. Besides the logistical nightmares of no hotels or rental cars when we got there, forcing us to move hotels every night, we had a great time, playing on the beach and snorkeling.

We even got to ride home in a C130. I can't find the pictures, but I'll post them when I find them.

Climbing Fuji by Emma

On July 18th and 19th, we climbed Mount Fuji, the tallest mountain in Japan, reaching 12,388 feet above sea level.

Here we are on our bus to the fifth station, about halfway up.

When we got to the fifth station we were all full of energy and ready to start our hike.

Our plan was to hike to a hut, or cabin, where