Well this is a little tardy but nevertheless here is the last days of our stay in Japan. With the kids both not attending school we had some time to go out and do some day tripping. One such day has us at a museum of war. Kind of a dark place. Some nice gardens though.
Just so happens it was Cinco de Mayo. We didn't take any pictures of the war memorabilia or the life size diaramas depicting war in all its gruesomeness. The kids were thoroughly impressed by it, at some points they were actually scared. Nice work parents.
After the temple we stopped for a snack and then tried to find the onramp to the freeway. The last month or so in Japan was marred by some extraordinarily bad luck or poor decision making in my driving. So many back tracks it was insane.
Another day trip involved using the tickets to the flower festival we had purchased. This was supposed to be a trip to take with my mom and her hubby when they came to Japan. However, with the tsunami and earthquake happening two days before they were supposed to arrive the trip never happened. But we decided to soldier on and see the festival any way. Within half an hour of arriving it started to rain. We ate our bento lunch under cover and then put on some rain capes and tried to take a look around.
Within the hour we were wet and defeated and headed back home, once again making some major long cuts in an effort to save time and money (unsuccessful on both accounts).
And with that our time was up. We enjoyed the last couple of days hanging out with family and eating home cooked food. Then it was off to the airport. Some teary farewells and a grueling 17 hours later and we arrived in Vancouver at the same time and on the same day that we left. It is nice to hear English all around but we really miss our Japanese family. We hope to be back there soon. If not to live then at least on an extended vacation.
