Ryusendo Caves

Shortly before we left San Antonio, we visited the Natural Bridge Caverns. Since then, Aiden has been asking about caves in Japan. I assured him we would find some, so I did. Monday (our Monday, not yours), Aiden was out of school, but Ness had to work. We left Ethan in daycare. It was a perfect opportunity for Aiden and I to have a father-son day. I took the two of us on a road trip about 150 Km south. We had some decent directions so it wasn't too hard to find. It just took what seemed like forever. But you know, it was ok because we didn't have the youngest boy screaming (his only efficient way of communicating at this point) in the backseat.

We stopped along the way for a second breakfast at McDonald's. Aiden needed ketchup for his hash brown, so I sent him to the counter. Keep in mind that we were quite a ways from the McD's near our house that sees Americans all the time and where they understand English rather well. Aiden asks me all the time how to say words in Japanese, so I thought this would be a perfect opportunity for him to use a word or two. I armed him with his vocab and away he went nervous, but rehearsing his line ... "kechapu o kudasai." Success! He was pretty proud of his accomplishment.


Aiden managed to stay awake all the way to the last 20 minutes of our trip to the caves. He was enjoying the wind on his hand but couldn't resist the call for a catnap.


The Caves were small, but had some interesting features (clear, deep water for one) that we hadn't seen in previous caves in both New Mexico and Texas. They were also quite damp and cold. Aiden was all to happy to get back outside where it was warmer and no possibility for a bat to come swooping down on him (not that that was likely).


After a lot of walking, Aiden wanted to enjoy some of the refreshing spring water from the caves. He is a bit of a germaphobe sometimes, so he refused to use the community cups provided.


Getting Aiden to eat Japanese food isn't going so well ... yet. We did find some ice cream to have for lunch. It wasn't the most nutritious of lunches, but hey, it was a special day.


Since we have GPS coordinates back to our house, we were able to take a faster route home using the handy-dandy Garmin. I knocked off about 30 Km and an hour from my return trip (partly because we didn't stop at McDonald's again). The map software we have is a little old and doesn't have all the finished roads, so I did have to navigate a little on my own. All in all, it was enjoyable, but I think we'll find something closer to home next time.

Living the adventure,
Marty

The Gersts in Nippon, er, Japan

You read that correctly, we're in Japan. After I returned from my deployment to the not so fabulous desert, we packed our bags and headed east (actually west, but to the Far East). We now reside in Misawa, Japan. My assignment here is supposed to last until August 2011, but as fickle as the Force is, we could leave here in a year or 10. It seems that every assignment I'm at the rules change. Of course I'll keep you posted on any changes.

I know what you're thinking, "Gerst, you're a slacker about keeping us posted." Well you're right, but you'll have to trust me on this one. We're a long way from home and we have a lot of people to keep in the loop. As was the original intent of this blog, this is the best way for us to update everyone with the same info.

As for what you've missed, well, you missed it. Let's stop living in the past, shall we. Let's start fresh (and any other cliches you can think of). And let's do that with the next update.

Hajimemashite,
Marty