There was one last event with Melina’s preschool classmates which was a spring hike through Kamakura. It was a great day with the cherry blossoms in full bloom and all the kids exited make it all the way to the beach. After a nice morning of hiking through the hills we had lunch at a temple before heading to the beach to cool off. Melina was the first one in the water.

I decided to spend Veterans day climbing up a mountain. The weather was beautiful and I needed a day to get some exercise and refresh. Tounodake is one of my favorite mountains to climb as there is some challenge, a good distance to get to the top, and great views of the surrounding area and Mt. Fuji.

Melina wanted a bug net to help her catch even more bugs. So after getting one we went for a small hike in the mountains to see what kinds of bugs we can catch.

A nice dragonfly.

I guess it can also be used to catch fish.

We took the ferry over to Chiba again this year to go camping at the Tangerine grove. The Tangerines seemd sweeter this year and we ate as much as we could.

We didnt get very much snow where we live this year, so we decided to go take a trip up to the mountains for some snow play. We took the bullet train up to JyouetsuKokusai for a two day trip. They have a hotel right on the mountain and very large snow play and sledding areas for kids.

It was a nice day so we decided to take a short hike up the local mountain. On the way up, there was a friendly cat that decided to follow us for quite a while.

Walking with our new friend

Having a snack on the way up

Melina made it almost to the top before she ran out of energy. Then it was my job to carry her back down.

We went to Mt. Takao for a kids hiking day and to see some Fall colors. Melina was a bit tired and didnt want to walk much at first, but near the end she was really motivated when we promised her a cookie at the top. Yanina with her mother, who is visiting our house from Scotland [again], really seemed to enjoy the mountain and tired herself out. She fell asleep halfway up. Haruma seemed to have fun but couldnt make up his mind on whether or not he wanted to walk or be carried. It took a lot longer to get to the top than I expected, but once we were at the top we all got cookies and snacks.

Mt. Nakadake in the Kujyu mountain range is the highest peak in the Kyushu island of Japan.
As Suzuna and Melina were participating in other events, I had the day to myself to go climbing.
The range has a few mountain peaks all fairly close to each other, and my goal was to climb them all.
On the way up, it was windy and I was hiking in the clouds. However, when I made it to the top of the first peak [Mt. Kujyu] the clouds lifted and the weather was beautiful.
1. Mount Kujū (1,787 m
2. Mount Inahoshi (1,774 m)
3. Mount Nakadake (1,791 m)
4. Mount Hōsshō (1,762 m)