Amanohashidate

We haven't been able to travel much since arriving back in Japan from the U.S. this summer. It has been too hot or we have had school functions or neighborhood shin digs to attend. We were excited to go to Amanohashidate in October. It was a 2 and a half hour drive up to the northern Japan Sea side of Japan. It was truly beautiful and we enjoyed our day. Amanohashidate is a land bridge (picture big sandbar covered with trees in the middle of a bay). The 'legend' says that if you bend over and look at the land between your legs, it looks like it is a bridge to heaven. I am still not completely sure of this one.....I think they just want to get crazy pictures of people bending over looking between their legs....like this :0)

I wasn't the only one that did this. The kids refused but I told Bryce he HAD to do it. I won't embarass him by posting the picture, though.
It was a beautiful view of the ocean and the land bridge itself. They also had beautiful archways of flowers up on the mountain, too. We took a bus further up the mountain to see a temple and pagoda. There were two ways to get up and down the mountain. You could take a cable car or a ski lift. The ski lift appeared to only have single seats and Isaac is afraid of heights so we opted to take the cable car up. On the way down, however, we decided to live dangerously. I thought Isaac was going to puke at first but we all made it safely down and it was a fun ride.

After going up to see Amanohashidate, we decided to go on Amanohashidate. We took a ferry across the bay and then walked back along the beach and trails and trees. You would have thought we had asked the kids to trek west with the Pioneers as much as they complained about the long walk back. One reason....that morning, Isaac had said he wanted to wear his old shoes. I told him they were too small and that his feet would hurt by the end of the day. Sure enough, between the shoes being 2 sizes too small (we found out later) and him getting them wet and ended up with very ouchy feet.



Here is Brynnie with her treasures from the beach. Apparently instead of finding sea glass like we do in the U.S., in Japan, you will find all sorts of pottery on the beach. The kids also found a star fish, crab leg and lots of shells. They also got to chase crabs to and fro. I think the beach may have been their favorite part!