Japan - the rest of the trip

The long saga is finally over (if only our jet lag was over ...)

Sunday in Etajima we just spent chilling with Trevor's family and left Andrew with them while Katsu and I had a nice lunch of okinomiyaki, Hiroshima style, in the city a ferry ride away from Etajima ... Kire, I think it was called. I think I like Katsu's homemade version almost as well which we ate quite often this summer (what else can you do with so much cabbage). Andrew was so happy to have so many toys to play with, I think. Oh, I almost forgot, after we got back from lunch, Trevor took us on a walking tour around the campus where he works. Here are some of the pretty pictures:





Monday, we took the ferry to the train to the bullet train to the bullet train to the train home. In between the two bullet train rides, we took a two hour break to go see one of the most amazing castles in Japan at Himeji. It was beautiful. I'm glad we went and it was probably best that we didn't go with Trevor's family as we had to carry the kids all the way up on small wooden stairs/ladders cowering down to avoid the low ceilings in slippers while carrying our shoes (This is common in Japanese temples, but I have never seen this in a castle before! As a westerner, I have a hard time going up stairs while keeping slippers on.) But, it was worth it. We had to rush at the end to catch our bullet train and I was so worn out. Now, I know it was because I was getting sick. And almost as soon as we got home, Seth threw up. And the sickness started ...










So, we just spent the next two days mostly hanging out at home instead of using our rail passes more. We did spend one afternoon picking out a futon and all the accessories (sheets, etc) at a local store for Katsu's family to ship to us in St. Louis. A japanese futon is NOTHING like what we call a futon in the US. When we get ours, I will explain better with pictures.

And on Thursday morning, we left the house at 5:45 am to start the journey home ....
And some last minute pictures early before leaving (our new camera seems to take amazing pictures outside, but inside ... not so much)