An Amazing Day...

 

 

 

Neo Park II

These turkeys are probably feeling extra safe this time of year- since they're in a park... in Japan... where Thankgiving is not so popular.

 

 Interesting bird...

Oh... puppies.

Oh... little baby goat. And what is that kid doing in the background? 

 

Isaac decided he wanted to take the dog for a walk. Or was it the other way around?

 

Ahh! I have lama-face!

 

Isaac's favorite part of course, drving the hamburger truck...

As evidenced by the look on his face.

Happy Halloween!

I told Erin to just say "Accio Candy!" and then we wouldn't even have to go out trick-or-treating. But she didn't want to do it that way.

 

 Ikey loves keys and locks and cars and doors. He spends most of his day trying to get keys, and then trying to get someone to take him outside to the car doors, where he holds the key in close proximity to the lock and then tries to open the door, while making some wierd car motor noise. He seems a little obsessed. I guess he'll either become a locksmith or a burglar.

Best T-Shirt ever

No comment necessary.

July 20, 2012 - Happy Birthday Ikey!

Here's the one-year old enjoying wearing his birthday hat and opening presents. He of course hated the hat on, and enjoyed much mor the packaging of all the toys rather than the toys.

 

I think we were just going to give him a cupcake or something, but the neighbor one-upped us with this cake... maybe three- or four-upped us.

 

Issac enjoying some of that fancy cake... 

 

But to trump everything, was Isaac's first try of Big Dip ice cream. It was, after all, The Big Dip Day!!!

 

He also received a pretty sweet Samurai helmut from some good friends, the Naomi and Rachael Yamada. He wouldn't wear it which was dissapointing since he would have looked awesome in it.

 

Paradise Found

This here is Komaka Island. It's about a 15 minute boat ride from the main island of Okinawa. We decided to go check it out. It's uninhabited, about 1/4 mile long, and not much here except for a restroom. Not even a soda machine which was a little dissapointing. But there were other things to make up for it...

 Like amazing scenery,

...and snorkeling... (look closely in the water)

 ...and more scenery. A view from my shady rock overhang.

Ahhhhh, this is the life! were Isaac's first words.

This is pretty cute.

Little Man finally gave in to a nap.

R.O.R. (raugh out roud)...

Typical Japanese beach wear. This photo made up for the no soda machine.

Tadake (Ta Waterfall)

We went on a sweet hike up a river to a waterfall.

Most of the way was walking through the river.

 And more walking through the river.

Along the way, there are several deep pools that you can swim in, and one spot is perfect for jumping in. Check out our two little daredevil girls...

At last the destination... 

Neo Park

Here are some pictures from a place called Neo Park. It's kind of like a zoo. The beginning was quite interesting. After paying a nominal entrance fee, we wandered around a big empty space with no one around until we came to a door as shown below, with a sign posted that read "GO." Hmmm, well so we just open this door and "GO?" What about the giant birds waiting just outside the door? Are they going to stay outside? Come in? Peck our eyes out?

 We finally decided to go for it. Erin was not all that happy to be surrounded by the big birds. But they were pretty harmless, although a bit intimidating. We bought some food to feed them and the big group followed and swarmed us for about the first 100 yards of our journey, before they left us alone.

 Ahh, but then we reached the petting zoo with puppies and all was well and forgiven. This is of course where the bulk of the time was spent.

There were dogs to be walked...

Isaac was stoked to have his own puppy to pet.

And he was really stoked about his first giant tortoise ride!

Overall, Ikey was just stoked about the whole day, as you can tell. 



Helping Hands in Rikuzentakata

This post will be inadequate...

My friend Clint and I were able to go and do some volunteer work up in northern Japan where the devastating tsunami struck last year. We went to the ex-town of Rikuzentakata in the Iwate prefecture. Pictures will not do justice, but Google this town's name and you can see and read about the horrific events that took place over a year ago and what these poor people have endured over the last 14 months, and how long they still have to go...

We flew to Tokyo on Friday, and boarded a bus with about 30 other Japanese Mormons, mostly from the Tokyo area, in a volunteer group called Helping Hands. (You can check out the website at www.helpinghands.jp, there's an English button). We left Tokyo about 10:00 PM and traveled through the night arriving at Rikuzentakata about 8:00 Saturday morning.

Here's a couple of pictures taken driving through where Rikuzentakata used to be. Once it was a town of about 24,000 people. The waves that hit them reached 36' in height just minutes after the 9.0 earthquake struck. Some people evacuated the the 4th floor, and were still in water up to their chests. About 10% of the population is dead or missing, and most of all of the buildings were washed away out to sea. There was a grove of 60,000 trees along the coast. All but one were destroyed. Make sure you read about the Tree of Hope if you Google this place.

The man I'm standing next to is Ken. Well that's not his full name, but I kept forgetting how to say his real name so I asked him if I could just call him Ken-san. Obviously there was a bit of a language barrier, but he spoke a little English and I spoke a little Japanese... He's a farmer, makes a living by selling his produce at a market, and has probably done that every day for a very long time up until last year. The farmland is now useless because of the salt water, and I've read it will take several years to be suitable for growing again.

 Ken-san and Mrs. Ken-san and some of the volunteers.

This is a panoramic view I tried to take. Ken-san's house was one of the few that actually survived, as it was a little higher up. It's the red roof house on the right hand side. He said there used to be about 30 houses in this little area. There is one lone house standing you can see towards the left-center. Ken-san just shrugged his shoulders and said "We don't know..." It was probably completely under water.

 

We helped Ken-san try and clear out his orchard of apple and plum trees, and green tea bushes that were so overgrown you couldn't even tell they were there. Luckily they were far enough up on the hill that the salt water didn't kill them. But all of his farmland below was destroyed.

 

Here's our group taking a break and enjoying some homemade mochi (gooey rice ball is how I can describe it) from Mrs. Ken-san. We worked all day on Saturday, spent the night in a nearby town, and headed back to Tokyo on Sunday. I had to leave that place with mixed emotions. I was very happy to go and help. But at the same time felt very depressed and useless against the almost insurmountable mountain of work that is left to do, and the almost inperceptible amount of work that our small group did. As we waved goodbye to Ken-san and his wife as we departed, he was smiling and bowing and waving, and I hoped at the very least that us being there helped them feel that they had not been forgotten.