Sunday, September 25, 2005

KenMin no Mori

JiXiang and I just got back from camping at KenMin no Mori.
Basically ‘Citizens Park’
This blog will probably gibble up my layout because I am going to add a lot of pictures to it.
Li stayed behind, mostly because there was no room in the car.
I went up with my friend Jean and her two kids, Yuki and Rae. We shared a cabin with another lady and her daughter.
The people going were from a group called ‘Earth Family’, which I have decided to join. They are a group of families that are all mix race. In most, but not all, one half of the family is Japanese. All have kids. It is a wonderful experience for these kids to play together and get to know one another. School is hard enough as it is but, in this country, ten times harder if you are mix raced. It is good for these kids to socialize. It is also wonderful for us parents.
I have tagged along to some of their things in the past but have never felt the need to join the group. After Jean invited me last week I decided
-Ya know? Maybe we should join? It is a good opportunity for JiXiang to play more, it is a needed opportunity for me to ask other parents questions in a language we can both understand, and if I can get Li to tag along, a great opportunity for Li to mingle with other men from mix families. We may not be here for ever but it would still be a useful group for us while we are.

This weekend we went cabin camping in the middle of NOWHERE!
It took a little over two hours to drive there on a one and a half lane road that was a tad scary when other cars were coming. It winded its way up the mountains past Igawa Dam and into the forests where the cabins were.
In total we filled about five cabins, and the weather held out for us.
Basically we were extremely lucky and it was great.
JiXiang had a few panic attacks at the beginning due to so many new faces but by the evening she began to loosen up and by Sunday morning she was great and loving everyone.
We pot lucked food according to each cabin, and because of the number of kids we ate dinner in three separate cabins but actually shared all of the food. Good fun. We had a potluck style breakfast on the picnic tables in the morning.
In the evening we played with little fire works and saw a HUGE frog of some sort.


Then today, Sunday, we headed out to look at Igawa Dam and take pictures of the lake, and then we headed to this totally cool WHITE Buddha in the middle of a forest that was actually made but a dentist. Not sure why, but it was.
It was also HUGE and really cool.

Then we stopped at a soba noodles restaurant on the way back for lunch.
From there we all separated and headed home.
JiXiang was a star and slept most of the way back then had a giggling match with Yuki the rest of the way.
An all around good weekend.

Ill post pictures later.
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Posted by (Top)Andrea::9/25/2005 :: 1 Comments:

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