Fun in the Snow!

I know that you are all enjoying your snow in the U.S.. We had a chance to go out and FINALLY have fun in the snow in Japan. Friday night, we headed up to Mt. Rokko taking every mode of transportation known to man (van, train, bus, cable car, bus and feet). We were told that it was too icy to drive up the mountain without snow chains on the van. We didn't want to pay $200 for snow chains so instead we opted to go by public transportation. Funny thing was, we got up there and there was nothing but a slight dusting on the sides of the road. Obviously, they didn't know we were from South Bend, Indiana! We got up to the top way too late to do sledding but we did get to go to the Ice Sculpture Festival and enjoy the beautiful night view of Kobe. We were FREEZING COLD (I know...nothing compared to Indiana but keep in mind that we don't have our thick Indiana skins anymore....our fat, yes, but not our skins :0)

Do we look cold? Because we WERE!Beautiful evening view of Kobe. Funny thing...we were told that there was a "giant ice slide" for the kids to sled down. We got there and it was the length of about three bathtubs. We had to laugh at that one. The kids still enjoyed it!

Saturday morning, we headed to church to do our assigned cleaning. It only took us an hour and then we headed back up the mountain...this time deciding to drive. It was a mess of hairpin turns, this way and that, but no one got car sick so I consider that a good day!

This is the scene we found at the top of the mountain...beautiful and boy have we missed the snow. This place is the only place in Kobe where you can go skiiing and sledding. We were excited because if you can go skiiing...it must be somewhat of a decent hill. That is all it was...a hill. A mole hill really. We get to the gate and they charge $15 per sled to rent and then an admission fee on top of that. $115 we are ready to go sledding. Yes, the cheapest thing to do in Indiana in the winter cost us $115!! That's OK...we still had fun!
Yes, this was the extent of the hill! There is Isaac in the middle of the picture and Brynn is coming down behind him spread eagle. We had two mishaps with Tanner that day. First time I sent him down the hill, a little boy stopped right in front of him and stood up only half way down the hill. Tanner plowed into the boy and the boy went airborne. Both were OK. I thought...let's try this again. Bryce told me to put him closer to the edge. I thought he meant the edge closer to where the guards were standing and the people were walking up the hill. He meant the other side. I sent Tanner down again, this time he went careening into the crowd of people trekking up the hill. He took out a few people and knocked down a little girl. Thankfully no one was hurt but he didn't want to go sledding anymore after that. I had to force him to go down with me a few times and then we were good again.
After sledding for an hour or so, we went and played in the man made snow. We made miniature snowmen and had a very small snowball fight until we all got entirely out of control and had to stop before they made us leave. We can't WAIT for next Christmas at Mimi and Poppa's for the snow!!!!!