Boys in Nara!

We also took the boys to Nara Park - perhaps the best place to go sightseeing in Kansai.

Boys in Osaka

Our friends came to Japan! First Louis and Josh came, and Tommy joined us a few days later. We had a lot of fun exploring Kansai, eating, doing karaoke, playing arcade games and drinking.

Wakayama Adventure World!

We went to Wakayama Adventure World last year and had a great time. Link here!! Recently, 2 baby pandas were born.. so we had to visit again.

Skiing in Biwako Valley

To our surprise, we were able to go skiing fairly near to our house! It only took us about 2 hours to get to Biwako Valley, and although it was small we certainly did go skiing. They also had a special deal to rent everything for the day - hence our matching outfits!

Kagoshima Day 2

 The next day in Kagoshima, we visited Sengan-en. It is a beautiful garden and the old house of an important Japanese family. Again, we could see the volcano from the garden. I guess it's not a bad place to build a house!

Sakurajima

We were lucky enough to have another three day weekend, so we visited Kagoshima in Southern Japan. Kagoshima is famous for black pork (which we ate), shochu (which we drank), and Sakurajima: an incredible active volcano. 

Koyasan in the Snow

SJ came to Japan, again! We visited historic and religious Koyasan once more, and were delighted and surprised to be greeted by snow!  Click here to read my earlier entry.We also just bought a new camera, so it was fun for us to play around with all the settings and figure it out. Do you think these pictures look better than the ones before?