Great News

Shauntae found out that she was accepted into the IHC Nursing program. This is the one that she was hoping to get in to. She will finish this semester of school and have her associates in science and then she will begin the nursing program in May. We are so excited for her! Way to go!!

March 4, Osaka, Japan

Osaka has a population of 8.8 million people. It is Japan's second largest city. We decided not to do an excursion today and venture out on our own. We took the subway into town. What an adventure. You have to buy a ticket to get on the subway and another one when you leave the station. We didn't know that, and when we tried to leave the alarm went off. That was a good way to get some help. Ha ha. We only went the wrong way once and had to get off and get onto the other subway. We were really proud that we made it back to the boat. Everyone that lives here dresses up really nice, suits and dresses. The younger girls wear short or a short skirt over tights and boots. We had a lot of fun and seen a lot of beautiful country on this trip. I hate to see it come to an end. I am not excited for the long travel back home, but I am excited to see the family again.

Shukkeien Gardens

The gardens were beautiful. while we were there we saw a couple of brides getting their wedding pictures taken. Inspired be Chinese landscapes, the fuedal lord Nagaakira Asano created the gardens in 1620.

Peace Memorial Museum

Peace Memorial Park

The Children's Peace monument depicts a young girl who died form leukemia caused by radiation. The girl believed that if she folded 1,000 origami cranes [the crane symbolizes long life] she would be cured. The girl finished 1,300 cranes before she died. Our guide made an origami crane for each of us to take home.

March 3 Hiroshima,Japan

Hiroshima was a major military base during World War l and ll, and the target of the world's first atomic bomb. At 8:15 am on August 6, 1945, the first nuclear weapon used on man left 200,000 dead and half of Hiroshima destroyed. One reminder, the Peace Flame will not be extinguished until all atomic weapons around the world are eliminated.

People in Hakata

We saw some really cute school children. They had fun trying out their English on us. The bathrooms in Japan are awesome. They have heated toilet seats. (I told Cal when we get home he could put one in for me) They also have buttons on the walls to push if you want extra water, bidet, toilet flushing sounds and deoderizer.

Castle Garden

Kokura Castles Japanese Garden is a recreation of the original 17th century garden. While here we viewed a tea ceremony and was served a sweet. When we entered the tea house we had to take our shoes off before we could enter.

Kokura Castle

This castle was built in 1602. You get to climb approximately 128 steps in order to reach the top of the castle. When you got to the top floor you could look out and see the city. They had a display of 1000 paper dolls that they made from paper, to represent the people and their village.

March 2 Hakata, Japan

We went for a ride on the bullet train. When the train came we had to wait for them to clean it. They even swept, mop, and cleaned the windows before we got on. The bullet train took 17 minutes to get to Kokura going about 189 miles an hour. Coming home by bus it took about 11/2 hours. It was a real smooth ride.

Formal Dinner March 1

Cal likes to eat weird things. Here is a picture of his frog legs and snails.

March 1 At Sea

It was real cold and snowing today, We had a relaxing day and played cards with Dave and Vicky. We really like the people that we eat dinner with everyone is so nice.

Feb 28 Vladivostok, Russia

It was so cold 20 degrees. When we got off the boat we could see our breath. It was snowing. Everywhere we walked was solid ice. A lot of people kept falling down. The Trans-Siberian Railroad is the longest continuous rail line in the world. If you ride on the train from here to Moscow it takes about 8 hours. The average age here is 35. When we arrived here this morning there was an 8.8 earthquake in Chili. We visited the Vladivostok Fortress Museum and the Regional Arseniev Museum.