Everyone needs a little R&R

We took a little time off these last two days to get away. Do some sight seeing.  Have a time of rest.  Have a little family fun.  Build some stronger friendships. {Thanks Winters family for letting us tag along. We had a blast!} 

We went to Kagoshima, Japan.  For those who don't know where Kagoshima is. . . . here is a little help.

We live in Japan.  Japan is made up of four main islands.  We live on the southern island of Kyushu in the city of Fukuoka.  We live on the top of the island.   We went to Kagoshima, at the bottom of the island.

I am from Texas and I am always amazed at how quickly you can travel from one place to another - outside of Texas.  It took about 4 1/2 hours to get to Kagoshima.  That would be from Dallas to Merkel!! 

 

We left early on Thursday morning. 

Our first adventure was stopping to see a waterfall. 

 

Starting to see the waterfall . . . I was impressed already.

Crossing the river . . . sidewalks and bridges are so uncool.
 Lets just walk across the stones.

Beautiful!

The kids skipping stones.

Next we headed to the zoo.  I have to say, it was one

 of the best zoos I have ever been to.

I have to thank Jonah, Eli and Alyssa for the great photos.

When the animals would not look at us they would

 begin to speak "tiger" or "llama" to them.

We ended up with some great pictures.

I took 157 photos at the zoo. 

I will only post my favorites.

 

Alyssa and Eli

Black bear enjoying a soak in his tub!

Red Panda - didn't even know there was such a thing!

A sloth . . . just hanging out.

This is ash.  It was everywhere. 

High School Mascot!! 
Goooooo Badgers!!

This penguin was playing with Jonah at the glass.  It was so cute!

Got to see feeding time with the seals. 
This seagull caught a fish for supper.

 

After a long day it was time for the hotel and bed.

We all went to bed with the excitement of

going to see the volcano the next day.

We woke up to a fresh blanket of ash.

 

 

all the cars were covered . . .

everything looked grey . . .

you can see it blowing off the trees . . .

Mike brought a bag home with us . . . ugh, thanks, honey!
 

 

Now it was time to get on the ferry and ride over

to the island where the volcano is.

 

 

 

 

Once on the island we headed to the Observation Deck to

see and learn about the volcano.  As we were all

getting out of the cars the volcano began to erupt.  So very cool!

 

This is the cloud of ash moving over the water and
heading to the city of Kagoshima.



 

And here are just a few pictures from a park we found. 

Kids needed to run off some energy!

 

yea, he's 15 years old!

 

 

 

I hope you enjoyed our vacation . . . .we sure did!!