Noriko and Emily on one of the playgrounds.
The next day we went to a different park that also had a huge playground. Yuri's on one of the slides.
Me and the kids, going down another slide.
I had a few hours to kill today so I went on a 12 kilometer walk. As one does. Spent a lot of the time walking under the shinkansen tracks. Japanese roads are so narrow that there are mirrors at the intersections. The thick post in the background is one of the support columns for the shikansen; they are spaced maybe every 4-5 meters.
Remember: blue circles are strictly prohibited in Japan. (Actually i think this means "no parking", based on the placement of these signs.)
Typical speed limit in cities is 30 kph (about 18 mph). That's the shinkansen track in the background.
One can buy milk tea with chocolate in it. I think i've found a small slice of heaven.
Japanese cities are full of canals. And the canals are crossed by bridges. Many, many bridges.
Typical parking lot by the train station.
Japan is not all shiny happy Harajuku stuff. Like any country, it has its industrial areas. This is a typical shipping yard where trains and trucks meet to exchange containers.
I once thought the octagon was an international standard for stop signs. Either i'm mistaken or Japan doesn't care about such standards. Either way, this is a Japanese stop sign. Obviously, it says「止まれ」。
Nearly every street in Japan has a gutter. The sides of the gutters are usually perpendicular to the street itself, and they descend anywhere from 30 to 200 centimeters below the street. This one is on a small street so it is only about 30 cm (12 inches) deep. Still, there are no sidewalks, the streets are narrow, and it is kind of scary walking on most streets. Cars go slower than in the 'States though and are good about slowing down even further for pedestrians. So the *real* danger is minimal. Major roads do have sidewalks. It is just all the little side streets that do not.
We took the kids to a small dairy farm.
It was a small family farm, and pretty much like small farms back home, had hand-built entertainment for the kids such as this see-saw.
Hanging out on the swing.
There was a cage with rabbits in it. The kids had permission to feed them anything that was green. The rabbits got to eat a lot of weeds that day.
Making butter by shaking cream.
Butter is almost ready. Yuri's swirling the bottle so it condenses into one blob.
Carefully pouring out the milk while keeping the butter in the bottle.
Fresh butter! We ate it with crackers. Good stuff.
Cows have big tongues. The man on the right is one of the family that owns the farm.
