Japan - Trip with Trevor: Miyajima

Trevor is our good friend from college - our "group" from our singles ward was Trevor, Katsu, and a whole bunch of girls. Pretty much everyone went to Boston University except for me. Anyways, we haven't seen him in a good 5 years, and so since his family was living in Japan, we decided to go visit. Granted, he lives near Hiroshima, which is a 5 hour bullet train from Tokyo (which is a 1 hr train ride from Katsu's parents), so it isn't a cheap or fast trip, but we decided to do it regardless. A trip is always more fun when you spend it with friends.

We spent most of Friday getting to their place. A taxi ride, two bullet trains, a train ride, another taxi ride, a trip to the American base to get some American food, and then a long car ride, we finally arrived at their home. The first bullet train ride was relaxing for the women who had the babies, but probably torture for the men who had two rambunctious two year olds. Ha ha ha. So nice to have English conversation. By the end of the day, we were all tired. And I felt so car sick! This part of Japan is gorgeous (well, compared to Tokyo, anything is), with the water, the islands, the mountains. Very pretty. And that makes for sickening car rides to get around the islands. They live on the island of Etajima at the naval school there where Trevor is teaching English and American Navy stuff.




We stayed in their Japanese style Tatami room, which was interesting. I would love to have a tatami room, but I was afraid it would be a challenge with the kids, because the doors are made of paper, so the kids can hear everything! Surprisingly, the boys slept not too bad and I expected much worse from Seth since he was coming down with a cold and had some croup cough.

On Saturday, we went off for a day trip with Trevor and his daughter Addie. Because, they live on an island, we took a ferry to Hiroshima and then took a ferry to Miyajima, our first stop of the day. The kids loved the ferries.






Miyajima is supposed to be one of the three most beautiful spots in Japan. The entire island is sacred, and no one is allowed to give birth or die on the island (I wonder how exactly they enforce that ...). The red tori of the shrine/temple is located in the ocean and is supposed to be especially beautiful. The island, like Nara (which we visited our first trip to Japan), has deer running (more like sitting) wild all over the island, which like to try to eat your food. The kids, of course, loved them. We toured the temple/shrine, enjoyed the sights, checked out the little shops, and ate lunch before taking the ferry back. Katsu got a favorite(?) snack - squid on a stick and we got some other traditional snacks too (maple leaf shaped things). Anyways, so many pictures to choose from, I only posted a few and it is still WAY too many. Enjoy the Japanese eye-candy.