Showa Park

We went to Showa Park back in the fall when the leaves were changing. Most of these pictures are just me playing with the camera.

Eedie calls these the bumble bee's house. "Don't go in the bumble bee's house or steal their honey and they will be nice," she says.

The girls love holding hands.

Eedie in her giant track suit.

All it takes is a little ice cream...

...to bring...

...these two...

...together.

Get that corn out of my face.

Playing on the giant marshmallow. 

These girls were trying to get a picture while jumping all at the same time. 

This girl was jumping crazy high.

The V's first time on the little roller slide.

This was a new playground. This slide was 2 stories tall.

I thought Mike was going to hold on to her the whole way down...

but he didn't.

More slides

They didn't last long on the netting area.

The girls really got along well on this trip.

This and the next few pictures are of one of the gardens where the leaves where particularly beautiful. 

This was a teacher and student working together to paint.

All the girls

A great view of the pond from one of the pavilions

Annabelle found some great leaves for her collection.

Mt. Takao with Flat Stanley

Our nephew in Salt Lake sent us a Flat Stanley. It was the day after Thanksgiving, so we decided to head over to Mt. Takao to take advantage of the day off.

On the way up in the cable car.

Flat is seen here preparing to hike to the summit of Mt. Takao. From this vantage point one can see much of the Tokyo Metropolitan area.

Flat decided he wanted to climb through the stone seen above. For good luck one need only rub the shinny hole in the stone and proceed to proceed to clang the metal rings with a big stick (seen in the following picture).

Clanging the metal rings with the big stick.
Flat Stanley has lots of luck now I suppose.

A monk in front of one of the shrines.

Flat taking in the beauty and the fine craftsmanship of one of the shrines. To the right can be seen a tengu or mountain god.

There were lots of these ball things. The wheel the ball could be turned. 

The leaves were amazing.

Flat with a couple of the many statues around temple grounds.

Flat sneaked up on this guy for another great photo.

Magical stones

Flat enjoying the incense which brings good fortune and according to one local devotee, "it is good for your brain and makes it smarter."

A monk came up to show us his shell that he had been playing.

Flat met this young monk charged with walking the grounds playing a giant sea shell like a trumpet. The sea shell is in his hands. 

He seemed a little confused when we asked to take a picture with Flat Stanley.

We have no idea bout this sign, but watch out!

Some first grade Japanese kids even took a picture with Flat Stanley for us.

The kid in the front right is hilarious.

Flat Stanley even got to experience the long lines in Japan.

After a cup of hot chocolate and a hot ginger ale Flat poses for one more pic with some statues. These seven particularly jolly carvings caused one of Flat's travel companions to think of the Seven Dwarfs.

                                

Seven of these guys in a row.

This was a sewer cover we saw as we hiked down to our car. It kind of looks like the guy is wearing a hat that some Catholic leaders wear.