Fun In Japan, Part 1

The two weeks we were in Japan were full of little moments each day.

Some days were spent just hanging around Alex and Kana's apartment.

such a gorgeous view!

have I told you I love the ocean ??!!

Their apartment overlooks the sea.  The clashing waves were music to my ears.  I would often sit outside listening to the sounds of waves, children at the park and birds chirping while reading my kindle, writing in my journal or perusing Facebook on my cell phone :-)

Other times we would walk down to the sea wall.  If the tide was low enough we would look in the tide pools for creatures.  

brain coral, this one is fairly small

don't step on a sea anemone, it's spines contain poison

When the tide was high, we would see plenty of surfers enjoying the water.

the sea wall is great for walking or riding a bike

When we went around the area sight seeing, Kana was the primary driver.  Ron got a cute photo of her in the rear view mirror.  FYI-The steering wheel is on the right hand side.  We decided not to get an international driving license so we were passengers :-) 







The streets are full of interesting shops and restaurants.  One thing I found absolutely amusing were these soda/water/coffee machines on most corners.  This one is located in the garage area of an apartment building next to the seawall.  Alex said, "You never know when you might get thirsty".  The water typically sells for 130 yen.  The yen coins come in handy when you want a water.  Yes, we put many coins in various machines during our time on the islands...  Alex was right :-))



We did get to meet Kana's parents while we were there.  The language barrier was difficult but with Kana as a translator, we had a nice evening out to dinner.  Speaking of which, Ron and I had not used chopsticks before our trip.  We are experienced enough now and we even bought a pair for ourselves.  We plan to practice our chopstick skills!  Alex and Kana will be here in the summer so we'll have to show them how good we've gotten at using them :-)

The flowers on the islands are quite beautiful.  Here are a few shots of some of the local varieties to finish up this post.  As always, you can click on any of the photos to view them larger.

 

We arrived back home late Thursday.  Ron got sick during our trip and we were worried about our flights and his stuffed up sinuses, but all went well.  I managed to get a bit of the sickies too, but thankfully it's just a mild case of a stuffy nose.