The Beach and Shopping

Thursday, we went to Minamichita and that area. It was about an hour drive to the tip of what I guess we'd call the penninsula. It was just a string of little fishing villages, but we found a decent beach, which is what we were looking for.

It cost us about $40 in toll fares, roundtrip. I took some pictures of the mountains on the side of the road. They use different "structures" to keep rocks from falling. It was very beautiful and lush! The beach and water we finally settled on were OK. There was a drainage pipe, with a little "creek" draining into the ocean, so we didn't swim in it. There were also what I would call Sand Fleas. They live right at the edge of the water and the sand. There were also some jellyfish. We've been told that the west side of the penninsula is much nicer - away from the port. I did see a HUGE, sea turtle washed up on the shore (I'm guessing it wasn't alive). We also found 3 small sand dollars and some pretty shells.

We ate lunch in the car at Circle K. Circle K, 7-Eleven, and Lawsons are the "big" convenience stores here :) I found the girls some peanut butter sandwiches, a can of Pringles, a ham and cucumber sandwich (cucumbers are big here, too), corndogs, some yogurt drinks, Kit-Kats, Snickers, yogurt drinks, and a Fanta Orange and Coke. I figured the sandwiches and corn dogs would be trial-and-error, but you can't lose with Pringles and chocolate -LOL :)

It's hard to find bread here that is not filled with something. I bought some fish/pigeon bread one day, and it was filled with a creme filling, SO the girls licked all the filling off and then fed it to the critters :)

Last night, we went to Todd and Sue's house for ribs, potato salad, beans, cucumbers and onions, home-grown tomotoes, cantelope, and pumpkin bread for desert. Todd smoked the ribs, and Sue fixed all the yummy other stuff - it was heavenly!!!! They also fixed hot dogs for the girls, and the girls LOVED the pumpkin bread!

Today, Sam and the girls spent the day at Todd and Sue's swimming and playing, while Sue took me to a resale shop, Nitori, and uuugghhh, I can't remember the name, but it's a clothing, grocery store-type place.

The resale store was awesome! They had a ton of misc. dishes, etc. I bought a tea set, with a cute little cast-iron tea pot. The sets are sold with 5 cups, not 6, not 4, but 5 :) I also bought a little, yellow bowl. Once we get into the house, and get furniture set up, I'll know more what I want/need to buy. I also found Izzy a cute little Stitch bag - she loves to keep all her little animals in something. She likes Stitch because he's blue :)

Then we went to Nitori. It's kind of like Ikea and Container Store combined. I bought some penguin ice trays for the girls and a cute stained-glass picture. It's three bathhouses on the beach - of course, I love anything with "3." I have to say the Japanese think of so many things that we should have thought of. They are the tops when it comes to organizational gadgets, and just gadgets in general (those who know me well, know I'm in Heaven with all the cool organizational stuff :).

Finally, we went to the grocery store, where I found 1.5 liter diet cokes - woo hoo!!! For the most part, I can find most of what I would want.

And last, but not least (in the girls' minds), the 2 Belugas at the aquarium had their babies!! We got to see them, and they are adorable. We've been watching them swim as two pregnant mommas, since we got here, and when we went yesterday, they had them each separated with their babies.

I miss you all so much!
~Michelle