Drawing by Charlotte, Can you Guess?

Under the Weather

Today I was feeling a bit out of it, so I was resigned to spending the day on the couch.  Please, do not feel sorry for me.  I was well taken care of.  As I lay on the couch Charlotte brushed my hair and sang songs for me (most of which are her own creation).  Tennyson cared for me by bringing me an assortment of wooden and plastic foods for me to nibble on.  I am one lucky girl.

10,000 Eisa Dancer Parade in Naha

I think she was the youngest drummer there.

Eisa is a traditional dance with a long history. It originates from a folk song that used to be sung several hundred years ago. The dance style was passed down by groups of young people who would pay respect to their ancestors each summer by marching through their neighborhoods while playing taiko drums.

The unique rhythms and movements of eisa are accompanied by the beating of drums and a beautiful, lively dance that involves the whole body. Recently some people have started using rock and pop music instead of just traditional music to create popular new styles of dance known as "creative eisa." Source  

At the Dental Corps Birthday Ball the Eisa performers danced to Who Let the Dogs Out.   It was fun to see them dance to a non-traditional song.

We attended the 10,000 Eisa Dancers Parade in Naha this year.  I love seeing all the colors and different ages of the dancers.  When all the drummers are drumming in sync and you can feel it as you stand there on the street.  It is amazing.  

Here are several groups walking to their places along the route.

Here are a few shots of a group performing.  They jump and twirl, it is very cool.

Of course our blond brood creates quite a stir wherever we go.  They were more than happy to pose with our kids.  The young men in stripes saw me taking pictures of the kids and just jumped in.  They are laying on Jayce's lap, he thought it was pretty funny.  The last pictures shows 5 photographers wanting pictures of our kids.

The Navy Dental Corps 100th Birthday Ball

This year the Dental Birthday Ball was formal due to it being the 100th Birthday.  It was the best Birthday Ball I have been to yet.

The food was delicious.  The H'orderves, so yummy - the best bruschetta I have had in awhile.  After mingling for awhile we sat down to enjoy our 5 course meal.  I had vichyssoise for the first time.  I like cold potato soup.  Jason didn't enjoy it, but enjoyed the fact that it would have been even more uncomfortable in his jacket with hot soup.

The committee did a fantastic job of decorating and providing entertainment.  The tooth ice sculpture was a nice touch.  The entertainment was Eisa Dancers (more to come on that).  If you remember the opening ceremony from the Beijing Olympics with all the drummers.  It is like that, but a smaller scale.  It is so cool to feel those drums and watch them dance.

Part of the formalities of a Military Ball include toasts after the meal.  There are nine toasts, Jason was asked to do the toast for Family Members.  This is the only toast that you provide the one to two sentences yourself, the others are scripted.  He was fantastic and looked smashing in his Dress Whites.

Here are some pictures of Jason and co-workers, and one with a friend and I.  

Trying to get a good picture at this was like pulling teeth, hehehee.

Losing His First Primary Tooth

Grahm has finally decided to join the rest of the children his age and lose a tooth.  His first tooth came out on July 30.  He is very proud of the hole in his mouth and looking forward to losing many more.  I am guessing that since he has been slow to loose any teeth and he will lose 7 more in the next few months.  Good thing we don't get much corn on the cob around here.

(I screwed his hair up, I cut it like I do Jayce's.  Trying to decide how to fix it, he doesn't want it shorter.)

The Artificial Reward

Since there was no pot of gold at the end of our hike up Mount Fuji we decided that the boys needed an artificial reward and the girls for being drug along for the ride.  So we ended up at Tokyo Disney.  I had always planned on our first trip to Disney of doing something really cool to surprise the kids and film their reaction.  Well, I lost that mommy moment.  But, we had fun...

By the way this was Jason's first experience and he has graduated from kid to grumpy old man.

I am starting to think part of his dental decorations should consist of office signs.  Could be cool.

As we entered the park we caught a glimpse of Winnie the Pooh and Tennyson became immediately obsessed.  I don't think she has even  seen the cartoon.  So, Jason (in one of his many - not grumpy old man moods) decided to take her in the Pooh store and she went nuts.  She sleeps with Pooh every nap time and night.  I think you can see that Daddy likes making his girls happy!

In the morning we hung out as a family (that included our friends), we rode some rides.  Charlotte was tall enough for some of the big rides.  So I took her on Thunder Mountain.  She did pretty good until one of the dark parts when you get jerked around a bit.  It was a tad bit too intense for her.  I was proud of her, she did great.  We just need to get Jason into rides.

When you are at Tokyo Disney with  American kids, be careful where you feed them.  1.  It is expensive (I think lunch was $60), and 2. Some Japanese food is better than others.  We checked out a few and then thought we had found a decent one, but hamburger was really hamburger steak slathered in sauce.  No one was thrilled. 

After lunch our friends took the boys to do some of the more adventurous rides and we took the girls to the girly stuff.  It was so much fun.  I am looking forward to taking them again when Tennyson is a little older and maybe even doing the whole princess thing.

One of my favorites that we met was Mary Poppins.  All of the characters were very nice and stayed true to their character.  It was fun to watch the princesses arm movements.  I love how Mary Poppins keeps her heels together when she is standing.  We saw Mary Poppins twice and she remembered Charlotte and her name.

The girls loved the Merry Go Round, but then again our family has a thing for horses.

Tennyson has seen the Dumbo movie and had fun on the Dumbo ride.  We almost missed it because you have to be awake to ride the ride.  Tennyson had fallen asleep on my shoulder in line and didn't want to wake up.

A few of the other characters we saw.

Grahm wanted to go on the Teacups (he likes to get dizzy like his momma).  So we ran off and Charlotte decided to join us.  Neither one of them got sick and I had it going pretty fast, their heads were rolling.

We all met up for a few more rides and dinner.  For dinner I hunted down American food (I know boring, but I wanted my money eaten and not trashed).  Tomorrowland has yummy burgers and fries.  The burger has a different kind of sauce on it, but it was still yummy.  The girls loved the Mickey Mouse shaped chicken nuggets.

The boys loved Space Mountain and had to drag Jason back for one more ride.  I missed being with them to see them experience it all, but they didn't have to hang out with any princesses.

We watched 2 parades.  One during the day and the other at night.  It was fun to see and there was so much more to do.  It was super nice to be in Japan and not have to panic if I lost sight of one of them for a sec and to leave your bags in your stroller while you go on rides and no one is going to steal anything.  In fact they are always rearranging the strollers outside of rides to keep the parking nice and tight (valet parking for strollers).  One time our drinks ended up spilled and they were offering to get us another one.  Super nice, we didn't have them replace them - we left them on the foot rest of the stroller.

We had to tell Tennyson that Pooh and Tinker Bell (her other new obsession) had to go nu-nite so she would leave with out a fight

Traveling on Honshu

While we were on Honshu we decided to see a few things and were able to use the public transportation there.  It is super easy and everyone is very helpful.

This is some of the country side we were able to see as we sped along.  It is beautiful, even when it is misty and foggy.

Here we are in the Subway with all our luggage.  We are almost to the hotel and so glad to be almost done.

At most of our stops we had to change lines, which would mean a few flights of stairs (sometimes there would be an elevator handy - but not big enough for all of us).  We were all beat by the time we made it to the hotel in Tokyo.

Traveling without luggage and without hiking sticks is much easier, especially during the morning rush.

On our walk to the hotel we saw this dentist and we couldn't resist a picture.  This would be fun to see in the office one day.

Here we are outside the hotel after dinner.  The kids loved the fountain and its ever changing colors.

We were super lucky and made it out on our first attempt, so lucky.  We had to get everyone up at 4am to make the 2 hour train ride to the military base and then no taxis are allowed on base so we had to walk with luggage and kids all the way to the terminal (I am guessing about a mile, Jason can correct me later).

A Journey of Epic Proportions

Photo source

Jason, Jayce, Grahm and I embarked on an epic journey.  We climbed Mount Fuji.  Mount Fuji is one of the worlds tallest freestanding mountains (no it does not even make the top 100 tallest mountains).  Mount Fuji is beautiful cone shaped volcano.  Its peak reaches a height of 3,776 meters or 12,388 feet.  There are around 300,000 climbers annually.  An interesting fact is that many Japanese have tried to climbing Mount Fuji but only about 1% of the Japanese population have reached the summit.  Check out more facts and history here.

Here is map of the different trails that you can hike.  We took the blue trail, Fujinomiya trail.  It is the shortest route.

Each trail is divided up with stations/mountain huts.  You can buy snacks, oxygen, and even sleep at the mountain huts.

OUR STORY: (warning over 40 pictures)
I decided awhile ago that I wanted to climb Mount Fuji for several reasons.  1. I crave a little geology in my life, especially one that involves hikes and volcanoes. 2.  I wanted to give my boys an awesome life lesson.  One of those life lessons about doing hard things and pushing through and how it is worth it at the end of the trail.

We started trying to catch a space available flight to Honshu (the largest island of Japan) on Wednesday.  We finally made a flight on Friday (our last day to try).  We arrived at Naval Air Facility Atsugi around 3pm.  From there we took 2 taxi rides and 3 trains to arrive at Camp Fuji at about 6:30pm.  We were staying on Camp Fuji and meeting up with friends who had hiked Mount Fuji the night before.  They had graciously offered to watch the girls for us.  We were trying to hurry and catch the last bus that left at 7:20pm.  We quickly realized that no matter how quickly we rushed that we were not going to be adequately prepared for the hike.  So we decided to slow it down a bit and spring for a taxi.  This allowed us to eat dinner and really get the girls handed off with their owner manuals.

It was very foggy as we stepped into the taxi.  I prayed and sang church songs and tried to not watch the road as we wound our way up switchbacks with extremely low visibility.  I thought we were going to die.  After paying about $100 to reach our starting point, Jason agreed that it was a nerve racking ride.

Here is our picture before we started our climb.  Everyone is smiles and anticipation.  This is at about 9:30pm

This is the sign they had explaining their new eco-friendly toilet system.  All the hikers have started to leave their mark on the mountain.

Early on in the hike, about an hour in.

Jayce is getting done and discouraged fairly early on in the hike.  I work with him until he needs his Dad to go on. Jason figured out that when it got tough that the two of them could link arms and get through it together.  They had to link up just right.  It was fun to see them work together and Jayce's attitude change.  So proud of him for getting through is low moment.

Here the boys are at 1:30am, and at 3,010meters.  The boys are getting tired.

Here we are at about 2am.  Jayce is doing much better and the boys take turns hiking with Mom and Dad.

Snack break at 3am, nothing like a little Jerky.  After their first energy bar they wanted anything else.

After hiking with his Dad for a bit, Jayce has a second wind and is enjoying the hike.  He is noticing differences in the rocks.  He found this spot that could be a fracture.

At this station (I don't remember which one) there was a Torri Gate.  Torri gates mark the line between sacred and not sacred.  Mount Fuji holds sacred significance to the Japanese culture and Buddhist religion.  This was about 4am (about 30 minutes to sunrise).  I think at this point we could actually see stars.

We are still on the slopes and we were able to see a bit of the sunrise before clouds rolled in and obscured our view.  Here we are between cloud layers.  You can see the unkai (cloud sea) below us.

This is another picture of the unkai.  It was gorgeous.

At about 4:30am the boys were really struggling.  Grahm who had been doing so well and not complaining had reached his low point.  He wanted to just be done.  Grahm and Jayce complained of feeling dizzy so we decided at the next station we would spend the $12.50 and get them a can of oxygen.  If it made them feel better it would be worth it.  Even I felt a short dizzy moment. I am glad we had the boys to keep us hiking slow.

At 5:30am Jason and Jayce reached the summit of Mount Fuji via the Fujinomiya guchi trail.  A total of 8 hours.  Jayce looks thrilled.

Here are Grahm and I reaching the summit.  

Grahm posing for Dad, looking like he just wants to be done.

This is our we made it to the summit picture.  I am so proud of my boys.  It was the hardest thing that either one of them have ever done.  Proof that they can do hard things.

I had planned on hiking around the summit a little, I knew with the boys I would not be able to hike the entire rim.  It was windy and cold at the summit and no one was interested in anything but being done.  Jason and I walked over to the crater.

Yup, that is all we could see in any direction.  Clouds.

You can see how low the visibility was.  It would clear a little and then cloud up thicker again.  Here is the post office at the summit.  We didn't send anyone any mail.  We also didn't find the stamp for the climbing certificate.

This sign explains some of the history of Mount Fuji.

This was one of the shrines at the summit.

We decided to go in the hut and enjoy some hot noodles.  I thought it would be cool to say we ate noodles on Mount Fuji.  Well those little cups of hot noodles (that cost $0.50) were a whopping $10.  Also the flavor was pork and shrimp (yes, mixed).  You can see how much Jayce and Grahm ate, at this point any time they held still they fell asleep.

The rest of the pictures are of the hike back down, we headed down at about 6:30am.  The visibility would come and go, sometimes quicker than I could get my camera out and take a picture.  One of the souvenirs that you can purchase are walking sticks.  Then at each of the stations/mountain huts you can pay $2.55 and have it branded to certify that you made it that far.  Our sticks had prayer bells on them (I think).  There was still snow in some places.

Here is a spot where is cleared up a lot.  Grahm is really tired.

The boys letting me take a picture.

This was the farthest we could ever see.  

You can see the roof of one of the mountain huts.

Here is a picture of our sticks getting branded at one of the stations.

Here is a nice clear picture before the clouds come rolling back in.

I am loving the rocks, I love the red scoria, pahoehoe flow, bread crust bombs, and more.

This is a shrine.  There were two logs on either side of the trail and they are studded with coins.

Here Grahm is showing you how rocky the trail is.  The trails are clearly marked with rope and are well maintained.

I liked the rocks peaking through the mist.

Here are the boys at 7:30am.  I like the barren rocky slopes with the dots of green.

Jayce and I are about 30 minutes slower than Jason and Grahm at descending at this point.  So they had a good rest while waiting.

You can see another little shrine tucked up in the rock.

We past this guy at 10:30am, he was packing in food.  I wonder how high up he his going with his load.  I guess that explains the spendy noodles.

This is a picture inside the 6th station. You can see the older gentleman branding our sticks and souvenirs to buy.

Grahm taking a nap at the 6th station.  His little legs were shaking so bad that Jason tried to carry him for a bit but there is too much loose rock.

Here we are finished and ready to climb into our taxi.  We reached the fifth station at about 11am.  We decided to spring for the cab rather than have to wait for the bus going to our area and then find a taxi to get us to the hotel.  When you have exhausted little boys you do crazy things.

Grahm was asleep in about 1 minute.  Jayce would have been, but he started to feel sick.  The taxi pulled over and he got out and emptied what little bit he had in his stomach.  Poor guy.

We were at Camp Fuji for 2 nights and almost 3 days.  This was our view of Mount Fuji the entire time.  We never saw the mountain, not even a shadow in the mist.  My boys hopefully learned a life lesson.  It was not the one I hoped for.  I wanted them to arrive at the summit, see the sunrise, feel the love of their Father in Heaven, appreciate this beautiful Earth, see how far they had come and feel that overwhelming sense of accomplishment.  Instead, they learned that they can do hard things and that some times you do hard things and there isn't anything great at the end.  A much harder lesson than I wanted them to learn.  Hopefully I didn't kill their desire to ever hike again.  

It was an awesome trip.  I am so glad that my boys shared this experience with me.  I have a small sense of what we accomplished  that night, but I really want to go back.  I want that visual impact of seeing it all.