Outdoor Fun

June is the rainy season here. And, well, it's definitely delivering. Also, super humid and sticky and icky! But we are still making the best of it, getting outside when we can and just accepting that it will be wet, muddy, and sweaty.

Part I

A few weeks ago, Jacob's school had a "day camp" day at a local campground. This was something between a family fun day and an organized family field day. It was totally awesome, really beautiful, and lots of fun.

First, we got to ride in the little school bus out to the campground:

The campground was really pretty. It also had a pretty fun playground area, which the kids definitely enjoyed!

Then it was time to sing songs and make lunch (which involved both making the campfire and washing the veggies).

Lunch was . . . yakisoba! Here's the grillmaster himself at work!

Which meant that my kids ate grapes, cookies, and juice.

Afterwards, there was a scavenger hunt and some races. This was exactly as awesome and as successful and as hilarious as you'd think it would be.

And then we went home and the parents collapsed. The end.


Part II

Our town had a big international culture festival, celebrating the cultures / traditions / foods of all the different people who live here. I'm not sure if this was a thing when we lived here ten years ago, but it is definitely a thing now - this festival was crowded! There were so many countries represented - booths were selling food, crafts, books, art, fabric, toys, etc. It was really fun. 

It's also interesting because it's my sense that there are comparatively few Americans here and that even Americans + Europeans + Australians together aren't the most significant foreigner group. I think there are far more Chinese, Indians, and South(east) Asians here - but I might be wrong about this. Anyway, whenever we go to Tokyo, I'm always shocked to see and overhear so many Americans and so much English. That is definitely not my daily experience here. It's not that there aren't foreigners here (there obviously are, many of them!) - it's that the distribution makes it a pretty diverse place to live, which is sort of unexpected in Japan.

The international festival also included a ropes / challenge course. Natalie could not wait to try it! She did great!


And then we celebrated with shave ice. Because: duh.

A few more random festival pics:

Part III

A few more random festival pics:We've also been going to the local parks. This takes lots of sunscreen and reminders to drink water, but, well, on nice days we feel like we have to get out because soon enough it will be raining again.

A few more random festival pics:Of course, no post (or park trip) is complete without ice cream. Consider this my sweet conclusion: