Nagasaki

Good friends and good times,

What more could a girl want?

Isn't this lovely? This is a rest stop about 1-2 hours into our trip
The rest stops in Japan are really cool.
They have restrooms, shops, food, and some have gas stations.

This is at the Nagasaki Peace Museum.

Really, I think it looks like the guy is going to smack those poor

Kids, are we really promoting peace?

I was told that he is supposed to be swatting away nuclear weapons...

I still think it looks like he is going to hit those kids...

This is Ashley by the cool/ funny statue
I made her strike that pose. ;P

Here I am, Ah, I love this picture...

Here is the lovely Yuka. I really love this family!

If you can't tell from the pose, she is a dancer, a good one I might add.

Haha, here is Aiki. I love this kid. If I could I would take him home with me. :D

He is also a dancer.

Here is Aiki with his mom, Yuko.

She is a dancer as well, a family of dancers.

Even the dad is a dancer.

Here is the place for the site of the 26 Martyrs.

I didn't know this had happened....

Here is the monument and part of the Church/Museum.

I am not sure what this is, but you can see it from the parking lot

of the 26 Martyr site. It looks like a lady riding on the back of a Turtle.

I wonder what it is, any one know?

Here is Aiki and his dad

(I never got his name... Mr. Fujii it is.)

This part of town has a European flair to it.

Aiki found a cat!

The family has about 7 cats,

or so they tell me.

This is a story book Museum. I wanted to go in,

but we were leaving...

A Church! How loverly.
It was way too expensive to go in, so we didn't take a tour,

Only pictures.

I thought this looked nice.

It is right by that loverly church.

We took a nice stroll up the street to see what

treasures we could find.

And look what we found!

Don't I make a great Samurai?!

A Loverly park entrance.

I am not sure why we didn't go here....

They were looking for it. Maybe it

cost too much...

Here is the story book museum again....

It only took him seconds to fall asleep in the car,

Which made his mom happy. Just moments before he and his sister

Were being crazy, then the sugar high wore off.....

ZZzzzzzzz

We got to Nagasaki one day before the Lantern Festival,

So there were a lot of cool lanterns out everywhere.

Too bad we didn't get to see if in all of its glory.

Some lantern sculptures at the mall we has dinner at.

They had a cool inflatable dragon at the mall.

Run Ashley, Run!

Save your self!

A cool dragon lantern at the Mall.

Ok, now for the reason we went to Nagasaki,

The dance competition the Fujii family were in.

Mom and dad were in it, partners,

And the kids were in it too, the where partners as well.

AND the kids won two trophies! They are stinking amazing!

The family owns a dance studio, no wonder they are so amazing, they get hands on instructions.

Look! I got a valentine! This was made just for me by Aiki, see why I love this kid?!

He was my little valentine on Valentines day. :D

Ok, mom and dad, they are in the middle,

she has a black shiny dress on.

It was soooo hard to get any good pictures of them, so I only am posting two....

so there you are.



Sorry this is so long and so late....

Celestia, Over and Out.

Hiroshima

So yesterday I decided to go to Hiroshima. I haven't really done anything
since I got to Otake so I decided to just go and do something.
I called up my IC and she met me at the
Hiroshima JR station and we wen and had some fun.

First thing we did was go and get some Okonomiyaki Hiroshima.

We ate at the station, that restaurant is one of the most famous in Hiroshima,

and we waited a long time to eat, too.

Next we were off to the Hiroshima Peace Park.

Here we see the A-Bomb Dome

This is one of the only buildings that was not completely destroyed

when the A-bomb hit. It is preserved as a reminder and a monument.

If I remember correctly this is a goddess of peace. On the day the Bomb hit Hiroshima there were students there visiting. This is a memorial for them and their lives that were cute short.



There are colorful cranes adorning the sides of the monument.




Children's Peace monument.

This is the story behind the monument.

Also, the girl thought that if she could make 1,000 paper cranes that she would

be healed from her Leukemia, she died before she could finish.

I really liked this monument.
It really reflects the hope children have.

This is the Peace Museum.
I had a hard time in there. The first part of the museum is mostly fact oriented.
But the second part of the museum is very emotional, this is where you see artifacts from after the bombing and read the stories of the survivors. It is heart wrenching. I couldn't see everything there, I had to leave, my heart was torn from me, my heart broke for them.


Here we can see the A-Bomb dome, the fire of peace, and a coffin that holds the names of all the victims of the A-bomb through the arch. This is where they hold the peace convention.

This is the Hiroshima National Peace Memorial hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims

The sculpture in the center represents the time the A-bomb hit

"8:15"

Here I am ringing the bell for peace.

(Oh what a lovely picture....)
I have to tell you, there is a heavy feeling in the park, when you first get there it is mostly a feeling of reverence, but after you go through the museum your heart is heavy.

The entrance gate to the Hiroshima Castle.

Of course I had to go to the Hiroshima castle!

It isn't very big, but it is beautiful.

(It makes me sad that such things were destroyed, but thankfully they rebuilt it)

Hehe, Engrish! I had to stop and take a picture!

I was lucky. The lady who does this isn't there every day, she just happened to be there when I was. This is a Kimono for a princess.

Princess Celestia!

Samurai and archers wore this sort of thing. (at least I think that is what they were trying to tell me...) Don't I just look grand! I totally could kick butt! Whoot!

Last, but not least, Here is a high school that is located across the moat from the castle, I so wish I went to high school next to a cool castle! Lucky kids.

I bet they don't even appreciate it at all.

Slim down?

(a hair experiment... Fail)

I love my Tuesday school!

My sixth graders told me today that they thought I looked skinnier. They drew a picture of “fat” Tia sensei and then an arrow pointing to the new skinny Tia sensei. I thought it was funny! I loved it! Maybe it was because I wore a dress today and I have worn pants every other time they thought I looked skinnier, or maybe I am getting skinnier. We can always hope, right?

My 5th graders were a hoot today! In one of my classes we sang the alphabet song and played a game with it. There were a few letters that were “special” letters and you clapped them instead of saying them. If you messed up and said the letter then you had to go to the front of the class, face away from the class, and as they sang a song you had to write a letter of the alphabet with your bum, it was great! I really wish I could have gotten that on video! Ah, I love my schools.

Today was a good day. ;p