mas flores, The Goldenest Week of All (pt. 3/4)

Alright, last day for Chichibu and the beef of the GW.  We didn’t have the full day at our disposal so we didn’t do too much.  We went across the way from our cabin area to the park area.  Before we headed out we had some breakfast and took a few 記念写真s in front of the cabin:

So there was this flower garden area that the wife wanted to visit but it wasn’t the best season.  The flowers seem to be coming late this year but since it was right there and only half price we decided to go in, they had some places like this:

But there were many more places that were just flowerless and green/brown, like this:

Either way, it was pretty nice but it would have been excellent to see all bloomed-out!

After the garden we didn’t have a whole ton of time left because the bus that we needed to take into town only came sporadically so we just kicked it in the area for a couple more hours.  We wanted to rent a bicycle-car kinda thing but with MJ and the stroller the logistics weren’t gonna work out well so we decided to hop on the little train and head over for some lunch:

After lunch we walked back towards the garden area stopping by some strangely included Greek-style fountains and crap:

And then it was into town to wait for our train.  Because of the bus situation we had around an hour and a half or so to kill so we stopped by Mister Donut:

You can kinda see all of our collective tiredness on the face of the boy in the first picture.  It’d been a long couple days but it was a lot of fun.  So around 3:20ish we hopped back on the Red Arrow and headed back into Tokyo and eventually home here to Saitama.  Shortly after we departed  Chichibu, it started raining.  It was kinda like it was sad to see us go… But, then again, it was raining back in Tokyo so maybe it was sad to see us come back? No country.

Good trip.

芝ザクラ, The Goldenest Week of All (pt. 2/4)

Alright, our first (and only) full day in Chichibu. The day started pretty early even though, for the boy, it ended late. First, the boy helped me put the beds back into their “sofa” alignment:

Then we walked over to the main building:

And had breakfast:

After breakfast we jumped on the bus and headed into town and from 西武秩父 station we took a little walk, that turned into a little more of a walk… The direction we went ended in a choice; a really steep hill to the right, or a not as steep steep hill to the left.  With the stroller, we took the not as steep steep hill, which was still very steep. Anyway, it added a bit to the journey and if we hadn’t headed in the direction we did first it wouldn’t have been so bad.  Oh well, this is where we finally arrived: This is 芝ザクラ (Moss Phlox) and it was A #1 on the wife’s to see list in Chichibu. It was pretty cool but seemed to be kinda patchy in places.  Made for some nice pictures though, just wish it had been a bluer sky kinda day: 

After touring the little valley we stopped off for some くるみ豆腐 for the boy and the wife an I each had an ice cream cone. Then we visited some sheep:

And then we headed back to the station: for some Chichibu Soba and soba beer for lunch:

The beer was actually really good but, sadly, not made in Chichibu, or Japan for that matter.  Actually it’s made by Rogue Brewing in Oregon.  But really good.

After we finished lunch, the boy woke up from his nap (thank you for sleeping during lunch so your parents could have a quiet meal!) and then we made a zig-zag journey back to the cabin.  At one point we were waiting for a bus at a different station and a mentally handicapped chick came up and stole the wife’s hairband… kindly, she gave her one of her own as a replacement: A while later her and her mom (?) came back and they returned the wife’s hairband just before the bus came to pick us up but it was a strange little experience…

Then we got back to the bus stop near our cabin and I took these pictures of the parking lot, pretty well shows what the weather was like for all but the first day:

When we got back to the cabin our hot plate had been delivered and later we went to pick up the meat and vegetables and we had a little barbecue on the front deck of the cabin, not as cool as a grill but safer and at least it keeps consistent heat, a little blurry this picture, but the best one I could get: Maybe I’ve mentioned this before but because the boy never really crawled he doesn’t understand that he can go under things, which is really helpful to us, and so we moved the table to the corner so he wouldn’t mess with the plug and so he’d be furthest away from the hot plate.  He then spent the next hour or so re-arranging the chairs on the deck, couldn’t sit down…

So that was day two of Golden Week, it was a really good day and the boy went to sleep really easily.  Good day.  Now I’ve got to get ready for work…

Fast Five, The Goldenest Week of All (pt. 1/4)

For real? I’m supposed to go back to work tomorrow?  Goddamn. This GW has flown by but it was a good one. I’ve had a ton of pictures to go through and not nearly all of them will fit up here, not even just the “good” ones.  Even those won’t fit on my Flickr feed at once (since I’m not a paid member) so I’m gonna do these one day at a time (except for Wednesday probably, hence the 1/4 part). Probably be finished re-capping the whole week by the end of this weekend.  I took 1,221 photos or videos these five days… let’s take a look at some of those.

So the vacation started early on Sunday morning as we got up early and headed to the station and off to Chichibu (秩父).  Here’s what Chichibu looked like when we got there: There were warnings about the possibility of rain on this day but it ended up being the best weather of the week.  The only time we really saw any kind of blue skies and it was pretty warm too.

The first order of business was to head to the wife’s Grandfather’s (and Grandmother’s) grave to pay our respects.  This was for me the first time  to visit a gave of someone I know or someone I know knows in Japan (or maybe ever) so I was a bit interested in it as a cultural study.  We did the things that I had always heard about: washing the tombstone, praying, offering flowers and incense etc.  What I hadn’t expected was the kinda light-hearted nature everyone brought to the affair.  I guess I always had the more Christian, gloomy version in my mind but everyone was up-beat and jovial during the festivities. Some pictures, starting with g-pa’s view for eternity: Here’s a locally brewed Chichibu beer (that I can’t really recommend) that I shared (the wife actually just poured one over the tombstone) with g-pa on our first meeting: Family photo time, MJ woke up from his quick nap just in time for this: And here’s MJ offering his great-grandfather a タンポポ: So after the visit we went to a restaurant that is run by MJ’s great-aunt’s friend.  It was really tasty 焼肉 and there is a barn near where they keep the “meat” that we visited as well, here’s some pictures from that:

After lupper we headed over to where we were going to stay for the next two nights.  Everyone else headed back to the station and back to Tokyo but this is where we stayed and here’s a bunch of pictures: Here’s the inside of our cabin:

This place was truly awesome! The wife gets massive points for her selection, way to go wife! It was like camping but not as rough and a perfect medium when traveling with a little baby. Lots of green around and the facility also features a restaurant and onsen.  It’s kinda out-of-the-way but there is a bus stop near that will take you into town.  There’s also a bunch of stuff around like go karts and tennis courts etc.  The place is called スポーツの森 if you’re interested, highly recommend it if you’re in the area. Here’s some more pics from the evening of the first night:

We were pretty lucky that our cabin was pretty close to the front so it meant we didn’t have to do a lot of walking back and forth and there are also a bunch of vending machines around in case.  There are around 98 cabins but it seemed that many of them weren’t actually available, guess they open them up during peak summer season. On the second night I took a walk looking for milk in one of the vending machines but only made it a little ways away because suddenly there was no more illuminated path… and it was pitch black (and I didn’t have a flashlight) so seems like no one was out that way.  I would have been more willing to go deeper if it weren’t for all of the mamushi warning signs everywhere… didn’t get to see one though.

Anyway, that was nearly it for the first day, the boy was tired beyond belief and really struggled to go to bed but eventually did, long day, busy day and he got a busted lip shortly after we arrived.  Can’t blame him for being cranky. Oh, and I ate pheasant… it wasn’t great. I’ll be back soon with day 2!