A Trip to Grandma's Part II: Harpers Ferry

The day after the Air & Space Museum, we decided we wanted to spend more time outdoors because the weather was beautiful, so we headed over to Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, a small town that's also a national park about 30 minutes from Grandma & Grandpa's house.

We arrived at the park visitors center and then rode a shuttle bus down to the town. It was a nice ride with beautiful views.

Harpers Ferry is a unique place- it's a town at the convergence of two rivers, the Shenandoah and the Potomac. It's also right near the borders of 3 different states: Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland. Bet you didn't know Moppy would get to see that many states on her American adventure!

Before I tell you more about Harpers Ferry, however, I'll take a moment to tell you about a fun activity we've been doing this summer- rocking! What is rocking? It's pretty simple- you get some smooth rocks, you paint them with whatever designs you want, and then you leave them places for people to find. When they find them, they can choose to leave them, keep them or re-hide them somewhere else. People also usually take photos of the rocks to post to the social media pages for the different local rocking groups.

We didn't go to Harpers Ferry expecting to find rocks- not all locations do it- but when we got there, we found lots! We were so excited!

These were just a few of our favorites. Maybe when Moppy comes home she can help you start a rocking group in Japan! It's great fun and it's a good way to use your creativity, show kindness to others, spend time with your family, and get exercise as you go rock hunting.

Back to Harpers Ferry! Do you know what kind of hat Moppy is wearing? Here's a hint: North vs. South; Union vs. Confederate... these were the two sides who fought in the U.S. Civil War which lasted from 1861 to 1865. It's a big part of our nation's history, and Harpers Ferry had a tough time during that war because it changed hands EIGHT times during the war! This was most likely because of its strategic location: it was on a supply line, and it was the location of an armory where weapons were made.

Since we're from Richmond- a Confederate city- we thought Moppy should fight for the South, so she's wearing a gray soldier's cap.

This is the beautiful church high up on a hill overlooking the river.

Here's another view of the church from further up the hill above it. We hiked up the hill so we could check out the view from Jefferson Rock, where Thomas Jefferson, one of America's founding fathers, said "This scene is worth a voyage across the Atlantic." Maybe across the Pacific too? ;-) 

The view is certainly different now than it was in Jefferson's day, but still very beautiful.

Moppy loved it up there!

The kids and Moppy posed with Grandma.

On the way back down I snapped a photo of this cool ruin of another church. Can you see the railroad bridge across the river in the background?

We stopped to get a photo of the kids and Moppy in front of the church.

Then Moppy got thrown in prison! That mischievous little monster!

Just kidding- she was really just checking out one of these root cellars.

Many of the buildings in the town have little exhibits with items from the Civil War. Here is Moppy with a cannonball. I certainly wouldn't want to see that flying through the air!

Another interesting thing about Harpers Ferry is that it is part of the Appalachian Trail, a hiking trail that is over 2,000 miles long and goes all the way from the state of Maine in the north down to Georgia in the south- and through every state in between! Every year many people make the trek from one state to the other, camping out along the way. As someone who loves hiking, it's something I've always wanted to try, especially if you get to see such beautiful places like Harpers Ferry along the way. Do you have any really long hiking trails like that in Japan?

After exploring the town, we got some ice cream and then made our way across the railroad bridge- but don't worry, they have half of it designed just for pedestrians so there's no risk of getting run over by a train!

When we got to the other side, we found some large rocks down by the river and sat down to take a rest. Looks like Moppy and Audrey are both tuckered out!

This was a sign with an aerial photograph of Harpers Ferry and it shows the different parts of the town, like Jefferson's Rock (near the top) and the church.

This was just a beautiful area down by the river. So peaceful!

And here's one last view looking up one of the streets in the town. We had a wonderful day there, and just like the Air & Space museum, there was more to see than we had time for! So we are looking forward to returning for another visit to see even more.

We hope you enjoyed our day in Harpers Ferry! Stay tuned for one more look at the fun we had visiting Grandma...

Yuki is off to Boy Scouts camp!

Konnichiwa, Tyson, Audrey, Charlotte, and Christine!

Last week, Yuki was gone for 3 nights and 4 days to Boy Scouts camp!

Our stake, Kobe Stake, organizes Boy Scouts, which we feel very blessed! Since the Church is still fairly small in Japan, some boys in Boy Scouts are the only kid in their wards. By coming to Boy Scouts, they are able to make friends with other members of the Church who are their age and support each other and grow together in the faith!

Cuddly Bear was very sad Yuki was gone... She waited for his return at genkan (a space at the front door where we take our shoes off before coming inside the house)...

She could not have survived it if it wasn't for Tag comforting her! Thank you, Tag!!

Beach Day!

Konnichiwa, Tyson, Audrey, Charlotte, and Christine!

This week, we went to Suma Beach. It is only about 40 minutes away from our house with 2 trains, so we go there often during summer.

They have some beach houses at the beach that sell foods and drinks during summer (this photo was taken when we were leaving the beach), so we got some takoyaki from there for lunch when we arrived at the beach and ate them in our tent.

Takoyaki is made from a mixture of flour, eggs, and water with diced octopus, fried into round balls using a special moulded pan. Tako means octopus!

You eat them with some takoyaki sauce, mayonnaise, green laver called aonori and shavings of dried bonito called katsuobushi. It is definitely one of our favorite Japanese foods, and Tag loved it, too!

After eating takoyaki for lunch, Yuki, Tag, and Yuki's mom enjoyed some swimming in the ocean with our big turtle float!

This is Suma Beach. It is located right behind Suma Aquarium and has a very beautiful view! Can you spot the bridge on the left side of the photo below? It is called Akashi Kaikyo Bridge and it connects the mainland Japan and Awaji Island. It is actually the longest suspension bridge in the world at 1,991 meters/6,532 ft/1.237 miles! Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco comes 14th at 1,280 meters/4,200 ft. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_longest_suspension_bridge_spans)

Another thing that might be interesting is... Can you spot those blue floats in the ocean? They indicate that people cannot go beyond those floats. Once, Yuki has gone rather close to one of the blue floats and he was pulled back to the shore by a life guard... We are not sure if you have them in the US, too...? They are not that far from the shore as you can see, though. Japan is a very strict country and there are many rules we need to follow.

A few years ago, Suma Aquarium, which is right next to Suma Beach, started this project where they partition a part of the ocean with some floats and nets and let their dolphins swim there during summer.

We could see dolphins swimming in the ocean right next to us, and it was really cool! They were doing some training, too, and we could see them jumping!

We love spending the day at the beach, and today, we felt grateful we live in a port city, Kobe, where we have the beaches close by!

A Trip to Grandma's Part I: The Udvar-Hazy Center for the National Air & Space Museum

We're on the move again! This week we're visiting Grandma in Lovettsville, Virginia. Lovettsville is about a 3-hour drive from our home in Richmond, and it's only about an hour from Washington, D.C., the capital city of the United States of America. 

Grandma had the great idea to take us to the Udvar-Hazy Center for the National Air & Space Museum. It's about an hour away from her home, near Dulles International Airport, and it is HUGE!

There are hangars with LOTS of airplanes- and even the space shuttle!! Can you see it through the doorway way back there behind Christine, Moppy, and Charlotte? Trust me, it's bigger than it looks!

Here is the Blackbird, one of the fastest jets ever designed. Too bad it costs so much to fly!

Here are the girls in front of a Japanese plane, the Nakajima Gekko "Irving." Read all about it below.

And here's another Japanese World War II plane...

This plane made us feel very sad. It's the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. What a terrible, terrible war. But this is why it is so important for us to learn from history so we don't repeat such awful times.

Our extended family is very connected to everything air & space- this is Grandma in front of the Boeing 707, which she says was her favorite plane to fly in when she worked as a flight attendant for Pan Am back in the 1960s. It was a very glamorous job back then! She actually met the kids' grandpa when she was working at Dulles Airport. He was a pilot- he had his own company where he would return people's lost luggage to them. He flew all over the place! They aren't married anymore, but Grandma remarried someone else who had an interest in the air & space industry...more on that later. ;-) 

We ate at a McDonald's in the museum for lunch. The restaurant had big windows so we could watch the planes flying into Dulles Airport. They flew so low, we thought they were going to land in the parking lot!

Next we stopped at the gift shop- can you spot that Moppy?

We stopped at this machine to buy Moppy a special souvenir so she could remember her time with us. It's a pressed penny!

You put in the money, plus a penny to be pressed, you pick the design you want, then turn the crank and your penny comes out flattened with a design pressed into it. These machines are very common in the U.S., especially at tourist spots. It usually costs between $0.50 and $1.00- plus a penny- to make one. Moppy's arms weren't quite long enough, so Christine helped her out.

We got a quick photo with an astronaut. (Actually just a cutout. But still very cool!)

And then we went to see the space shuttle. This was our favorite part.

It was SO BIG!

This is the space shuttle Discovery. It flew 39 missions between 1984 and 2011 and spent over a YEAR in space! When Grandma remarried, she married Grandpa John, who worked as a software engineer for NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration). One of his jobs was to work on the computer software that made the space shuttle work. How cool is that?

I think this picture gives you a good idea of how big it is- check out the engines on that ship! It was really amazing to see it in person.

Just behind the space shuttle were these neat models of Japanese rockets- a definite must-see for Moppy.

You can read all about them!

Here's another view of the museum- look at all those airplanes! The one that says "Air France" in the back is the Concorde. It was the fastest passenger jet in the world when it was operating. It could fly twice the speed of sound, and made it from New York to London in only 2 hours and 53 minutes- a flight that usually takes about 7 hours and 30 minutes! Unfortunately, just like the Blackbird, it cost too much to operate, so it went out of commission.

We had a wonderful time at the museum and we hope to go back again soon- there was still so much we didn't get to see!