Home and Back, Kamakura and Hanabi

Hello!

Happy birthday, Jacob!

Even though we traveled back to the US for three wonderful weeks in June, I won't go into much detail about our trip. After all, most of you live there and we even got to see some of you, woo hoo! So just a short recap: we flew on the nonstop 787 Dreamliner from Narita International Airport in Tokyo to Denver International. We spent a few days in Denver recovering from jet lag and catching up with good friends. Then we went to Colorado Springs to visit Joe's amazing parents and to celebrate Jacob's second birthday. Jackson and Jacob had so much fun swimming in the kiddie pool, while the adults relaxed in the backyard. Then it was on to Rapid City, SD to see my awesome parents. We had such a wonderful time and I know Grandpa and Grandma B did too when I said, "ok, I'll see you later!", and I went shopping or to have dinner with girlfriends while they looked after the little dudes. I'm convinced that my boys have the absolute BEST grandparents in the world on both sides. After spending about a week in South Dakota, we headed back to Colorado where we saw Joe's family again before flying out to Texas to see my brother, Lucas, get married. It was the most beautiful wedding! He married a great girl named, Reyne, and we were so happy to welcome her to our family. They were both so truly happy. From there, we flew back to Denver, stayed the night at a hotel near the airport and the next day we flew back to Japan. Whew! So even though we were in the US about three weeks total, we spent a lot of time traveling! I wouldn't have had it any other way, as long as we were able to see our loved ones.

Buddhist temple in Kamakura

Ok, back to life in Japan. Our first trip out of Tokyo, once we were settled in again, was to a town called Kamakura. It's such a cute little town; it reminds me of a Keystone, South Dakota or a Manitou Springs, Colorado, if you're familiar with either of those towns. There was one main street lined with shops where you can get nice souvenirs and little restaurants where you can find all kinds of different cuisine. At the end of the street, was a Buddhist temple. The temple was beautiful, they always are, but the main attraction was about two miles in the opposite direction, because there in sits the Great Buddha. Standing (sitting) at over 13 meters (44 ft) tall and weighing in at 121 tons (267,000 pounds), the bronze cast of Buddha is great indeed. The sculpture's story is pretty cool, too. It was built in 1252 and has survived many natural disasters. You can read more about it below. (I'm not sure why the format is funny, but I wanted to make sure the picture was big enough so you can read it.)

The Great Buddha

Side view of the Great Buddha

A sign near the Great Buddha telling its story

Tokyo Skytree

A couple of weeks after we visited Kamakura, we saw the most incredible fireworks (or hanabi, in Japanese) display. Japan has these cool festivals throughout the year to celebrate various events or seasons where there is usually food, music, and men and women dressed in traditional clothing - yukata (similar to a kimono), in the summer time. The festivals in late July across Japan also feature incredible firework displays. The one we attended was near the Sumida River, the river that runs through Tokyo, and also near the Skytree, the tallest structure in Japan (634m or 2080 ft tall). We went early to find a spot on the grass in a nearby park, laid out our blanket and bared the heat to see the display. The hanabi began at 7pm sharp and continued for a full hour and a half. Both Joe and I thought we had seen some cool fireworks before, but nothing compared to these. There were hanabi in all different shapes and colors. Some even had an ombre effect to them where they would light up going from dark to light colored. There were smiley faces and hearts and even Hello Kitty! (Of course none of our photographs do them any justice. The one below was about the only one that is in focus!) They were definitely worth the wait and the heat! When we were visiting Japan last summer, we had tried to check out this same display but they were rained out after 15 minutes because of a torrential downpour (that's a whole other story!). We were happy we went back this year to see the fantastic, full display.

Hanabi

Next stop is a little beach town called Shimoda that we vacationed at in mid-August (the weekend before I climbed Mt. Fuji). Then we are up-to-date!

Thank you so much for reading. I love you.

XOL