Diller Sisters' Visit!

WOW! Sorry we are so behind on our blog! Life is busy but good. :) We definitely have to do some catching up and what better way to start than with Joel's sisters' visit in June! After an entire day's delay on the West coast which unfortunately resulted in a lost day to tour Tokyo, they finally made it to Japan safe, sound and ready to tour!

It was SO exciting to see them!

We are only going to be able to highlight the fun we had in a whirlwind 9 days, so here goes:

Homemade pasta with calamari and shrimp, yummmm!

Brave girls getting ready to eat sushi (it was broiled salmon) ;-)

Allison and Anne were SO adventurous and went exploring out on their own while Joel and I were at work! They made it to Yuu beach for a day in the sun and then to Miyajima Island another day!

HA HA HA! The squatter toilet! (it's actually quite effective)

Some AWESOME signs on the trains... we were on a lot of trains...

Joel took the girls to Hiroshima for a day and they explored some beautiful gardens nestled in the middle of the city.

Another classic Japanese train sign

We took a gorgeous, scenic, curvy, river route to Tsuwano, known as "Little Kyoto".  They are famous for selling many products constructed with their homemade paper. And there's a steam engine that takes folks to and from Tsuwano too!

Got the map and now we're ready to go exploring! It was Joel's and my first time there as well, so it was a super fun and entirely new adventure!

All along the roads there are "ditches" with live Koi. It was truly beautiful.

 

Making friends :)

Getting ready to start our hike up the mountain to the castle ruins!

Lots and lots of Torii gates

I think these are "wishes" people tie up outside of temples for good luck

Giant knotted rope above the temple entrance

We were able to ride these rickety ski lift type chairs (no seat belt or safety bars!) to the very top of the mountain

You had to duck and run to avoid hitting the bar at the top!

View from the top

Beautiful castle ruins... similar to the ones we visited in Okinawa

Gotta end with this picture - guess where we are? LOL! Gotta have the true Japanese baseball experience!

We would have had more pictures to post, but Annie took all the good ones with her amazing camera. These ones do OK summarizing the trip, but SHE has all the super cool ones (hint hint). ;-)

We had a GREAT time with Allison and Anne and are so very grateful they made the long, expensive trip out to see us! What terrific memories and fun we'll never forget!!!