Super Mom and Enoshima

Well how do I put this...I am awesome.  Incredibly awesome.  And so is Kevin.  One of my wonderful friends from Washington brought her family out here to Japan for 3 years and we were super excited to see them again.  She needed someone to watch her kids, all 6 of them, yes 6 of them, ages 8 and under with one set of twins, let alone my two kids and that would be like 3 sets of twins.  And not only did I watch them, but I watched them for 3 full days including staying over night...AND NO ONE DIED!  They were fed, semi-clean, dressed, and mostly happy.  Kevin was diligent in cleaning up at night since I couldn't keep my eyes open past nine at night.  We sure did owe the Peterson's for many, many favors, but don't worry they are taking our kids overnight so we can go see some snow monkeys! 

Here are the younger five kids: Taylor 5, Charlotte 3, Cora 3, Amelia 1, and George 1!  The older three are school age luckily.

Gettum up!  This is the playground right next to their house (the building you see) which was so nice because I could just take them out during the day. 

 On Saturday we went to Enoshima Island.  It was 70 degrees, sunny, warm, the beaches were packed with sun bathers and surfers.  I did not think of the Japanese as big surfers but it is HUGE.  Tons of shops and people it was like an Asian Southern California!

The Island from the train.  It was beautiful going along the water.

The Peterson's came so Cora was able to hang out with her friends again!

That building to the right is a huge Onsen (hot spring spa) with all different levels and types of tubs, even a co-ed one where you wear swimsuits.  Sounds awesome.

Those squids were a big hit in this area, tons of venders with them.  So gross.

I read in the news that Utah is getting its first Lego store...just years behind Japan.

So on the Island it is like another loop with different sites you see.  Supposedly the Island was made by the goddess of love, song, and wealth.  This is the start.

Oh another view of that Onsen, Enospa.

Here are the three older Peterson kids, Abby 8, Gwyn 8, Eli 6, and Charlotte and Cora again.  Love the human art.

I love the relief sculpture and gold accents.  Now that I have seen a ton of shrines I am getting picky.

Here supposedly if you wash your money in the sacred water it will multiply.  Cora kept trying to steal that kids money.

The view from the top of the island.  If you buy a day pass you get to ride the escalators up to the top, which of course we did, but then you have to walk down the stairs on the other side to see the things there and to go home...you have to go up those stairs and down the stairs on this side...not sure why they only put escalators on half of it.

This is Miami Beach's sister city, Fujisawa.  Kind of cool.

Genius!  They have stands all over where you can set your camera to get a self shot!!

Even a little part to put your iphone to take a picture.  Now apple just needs to include a timer on the camera app in its next software release!!  I love technology friendly Japan!

This is a replica I think of somewhere in Windsor Canada, which is also a sister city here.

The SeaCandle.  It is a huge observation tower.

Looking down at the gardens and shrine/view.

The kids would NOT turn around.  Do you see George's cute shoes??  Bought here.

Kevin making me nervous with George!!

So these Sea Hawks are everywhere, well everywhere people are with food.  I thought this one was getting pretty close...but...

THIS ONE TOUCHED ME!  We had like 5 people warn us about them while we were eating our lunch, but Kevin just wasn't thinking and was holding his pb&j slightly outwards from his body and within a second this bird came flying between people right over Kevin's shoulder snatched his sandwich, his wings brushing my face and was off.  Kevin still had most of the sandwich in the ziploc bag, but the bird removed the bag and ate the rest!  Scared me to death!!

Gardens.

Also they were the sister city to somewhere in China, Korea, etc.  Not sure why they needed so many sister cities.

I love my boy!  He was/is sick but still smiley.

Street performers.

Scariest statue, but the only thing Cora said was "high five!"  Not the most observant, but probably a good thing in this case.

Inside the shrine.

I do not know HOW they do it, but this is paper thin squid.  Everyone was eating it, a huge line to get one fresh...weird.

So there is a love bell and you are supposed to get a lock and write your names on it and lock it to the fence behind the bell and your love will last as long as the lock is there.  So we had to buy a lock of course and it gave Cora a chance to color.  Then Kevin wanted to mark our territory.

Kevin + Katie!

Another shrine with the coolest dragon statue above it.

LOVE BELL!!!  It was SO loud, after we rang it I thought I was deaf.

It was super hard to find a spot to lock ours own.  I wanted ours front and center from the bell so I had to do a little maneuvering, but it is there!

All the locks!!!

Then you hike down to the caves, it was a lot of stairs, but so beautiful!

Not quite like Mt. Timp Cave, it had statues everywhere and when you got to the deepest part we saw this!  Hello.

They gave us paper lanterns to carry around.  Cora has never been so happy.

Then we went to Enoshima Aquarium, it was supposed to be incredible, it wasn't.  A few things were cool, but it was pretty expensive for what they had. 

A ton of large crabs together, that was cool.

They had a whole room of jelly fish.  I love jelly fish!!  But as you will see in the next few pictures all of them are upside-down.  Not sure why!  You may think it is just a rotation from my camera, but seriously they were all going down when I saw them!

Called upside-down jellies...so cool.

I love the octopus!  Why don't they have more octopi at aquariums?  Probably because they eat them!  This one was so cool.

Dolphin show...it was lame.

The view.

We were a little late on the picture taking, but a ton of bikes with surf board racks attached.

We were taking this picture and Cora yelled, "ALL ABOARD!"  Pretty cute.

The Enoshima train line is famous I guess because they had a whole store selling products for it.  Cora kept bugging this kids trying to play with them.

I love that they have 7-Eleven stores, Honda Stores, and Great Buddhas for sell as the shops/landscaping.

Then today, Sunday, we took it easy, went to Church, napped, had a pot luck, and just didn't go-go-go!  It was nice for sure.  I have only a few more things on my list of must-dos and all of them are scheduled!  5 1/2 more weeks!  Ah, crazy.