Day Off!

On our day off we went to the little town of Utazu, a suburb of Marugame.

This is how many plates of sushi we polished off. We LOVED the conveyor belt sushi bars.

Mike's "ass" candy.

Mike the pilot. Sega rocks.

Here I am riding "Anpanman," a very popular cartoon character in Japan.

Jamie outside the store "Hard Off." Okay, it's not what you think...it's a store that sells hardware at discount prices.

Mike and I liked to hang out at the Vivre Shopping Center.

Me and the stuffed animal I won from one of those claw machines. Honestly though, I didn't WIN it.  A young Japanese worker took pity on me because I tried and lost so many times that he finally came over, unlocked the game, and reached in and got it for me!  The character's name is Doraemon and very famous in Japan. It's my all time favorite manga or Japanese comic books!

Standing next to a Godzilla poster advertising the lastest movie. How many of these things will the Japanese come out with?

Relax at the Driving Range

Sometimes on our day off we would go to the Utazu or Tadotsu driving range. We picked up some clubs from Cleantopia a place similar to a thrift shop, only everything is free! The catch is, you can only take one thing per person per day. Mike got really good at driving and I suppose got some frustration out at the same time.

At Utazu driving range.

The Hike Up Sanuki Fuji

One day we decided to climb that big mountain close to our house, Sanuki Fuji.

View from the trail as we headed up.

View from the other side.

Mike in front of a statue located at the top of the mountain.  We encountered some pretty big spiders on our hike, not gonna lie.

Ritsurin Koen

Ritsurin park is in Takamatsu city, about 45 minutes from our home in Marugame. The park is famous for it's beautiful red, orange, and gold trees in the autumn months and for it's cherry blossoms in the spring. The day we went it was perfect weather. Nice and cool and slightly overcast. It was beautiful and relaxing.

Our Second Trip to Hiroshima

Our first trip to Hiroshima took place in autumn and our second one took place shortly after spring had ended, right about the time the weather was starting to get unbearably hot.

This is the Hiroshima Castle from afar and the mote surrounding it.

Castle from close up.

Inside the castle dressed in old style Japanese garb.

Mike playing on the castle grounds. It looks as if he's practicing some martial arts.

The usual gate symbolizing a shrine or temple.

Hiroshima style okonomiyaki. This kind has Japanese noodles inside.

We went to a professional Japanese baseball game. Tokyo Giants vs. Hiroshima Carp. Baseball is one of the most popular sports in Japan.

The baseball stadium.

Our good friend Jason and his students who drove us to Hiroshima. The one on the end is drinking root beer (very hard to find in most Japanese cities) and not liking it at all. It turns out that very few Japanese people who have tried root beer actually like it because they think it tastes like medicine.

We loved cheering in the bleachers.

At one point during the game everybody let their balloons deflate and it looked like this.