on saturday, we went on a bus-hike with our neighbors. i think there were about 70 people in all, but i'm not sure. it didn't turn out the way i expected. we didn't really spend time with our neighbors, which is something i kind of wanted to do. we don't really know anyone, except for the nice lady who lives across the street. we've kind of gotten into a gift giving cycle where she gives us mikan one week and we give her sweet potatoes the next. anyway...

we walked with hiroyuki to the meeting place. there were two red tour busses, and we were assigned to bus two. it was almost time to go so we didn't have to wait long. it was about ten in the morning, which is around hiro's nap time, so he went to sleep almost right away. it took almost fifty minutes to get to the park, and it was cloudy most of the way. i was hoping it wouldn't rain!

as we got off the bus, they handed us our bentos and tea. since yoshi was carrying the baby, i took the bentos. we were really loaded with things (diaper bag, extra snacks, picnic bag with leisure sheets and things and yoshi had his own bag, plus the baby of course). though we weren't really hungry we decided to eat right away, so we wouldn't have to drag the bentos around! it was actually quite nice, i ate nearly all of it!

bento

hiro had his lunch, too.

hiro's bento

yoshi and i shared a tea so we could save the other one for later. then yoshi wanted to sit and rest for a while. i took hiro a few feet away and blew bubbles, but it was too windy. some kids in the park enjoyed them, though! so hiro and i joined yoshi on the leisure mat and 'rested'.

get up daddy!
classic 'hide behind the baby' pose
exploring

the park was nice, though it looked a little old and run-down. also, it wasn't very crowded, probably because they were having a festival the next day with free admitance to the park!

there was a kangaroo square, so we went to check it out. there were a lot of kangaroos! you could actually enter one area and were told we could 'kindly touch them on the back'. neat.

kangaroos
they seemed kind of tired and bored to me...

pet the kangaroo
i'm not sure hiro was very impressed...

there was one kangaroo who seemed quite old and didn't jump but just kind of hobbled along...
grandpa kangaroo

bunny
this is a mechanical rabbit that you put money in and ride. it actually looks quite frightening to me...

there was a tower at the park that had a platform that went up and down. we paid and got on. it was quite neat.

waiting on the tower

still waiting

view from the tower

green houses

round garden

since it was a 'green park' there were a lot of pretty flowers, plants and gardens around. there was a greenhouse as well, but we didn't have time to go in. here are some pictures from around the park:

fountain

misty planter

fountain in pond

garden gnome

view pavillion

hiro fell asleep during our final walk around the park.

long day in the park

yoshi waited while i took pictures of gnomes.

waiting for my wife to take more damn pictures

yoshi got tired of waiting...

lazy husband

hiro didn't wake up even as we took him out of the rented stroller, walked to the bus, got on the bus and drove to the genkai royal hotel.

still sleeping

we got to the hotel much sooner than anticipated, so we thought we had an hour to waste (i guess it was for shopping but since the hotel is less than thirty minutes by car from our house, i don't really understand the point....) they actually had the hotel make an announcement and thirty minutes after arriving at the hotel, we started off home.

we had a lovely time, i'm only sorry we didn't really talk to any of our neighbors. i guess we're all a shy bunch....

you can see more photos on flickr.