Nanatsugama Caves

Amber and Kayleigh touching the wall inside the cave.

The Nanatsugama Caves, this is a national natural monument the cliffs were formed by the rough waves from the Genkai Sea. There are 7 caves in all made by the erosion of the Genkai Sea The frontage is 3m and the depth is 110m. The boat went right into the calve were we could actually touch the walls inside pretty neat. The top of the cave.

Kayleigh enjoying the boat ride.

Another cave, very pretty

Us with Teena :)

The boat went kinda fast :)

She is nothing but trouble :)

Nagoya Castle Ruins

Nagoya Castle was built as a base for an attack on Korea and China by Toyotomi Hideyoshi in the 16th century. Very little of the castle is left except for some foundations and some walls. At one time this was the 2nd largest castle in Japan. Legend says the castle's main donjon was completed in only 5 months, it was built over an area of 170,000 square meters. Most of the work was shared by the generals under Shogun. There were 6 entrances to the castle. I really wish it would of all been intact I'm sure it was quite an amazing castle. Amber, hard to believe she just turned 14.

Kayleigh excited about making it to the top.

Beautiful view.

Kayleigh making her way to the top. The view was really nice

Amber reading the sign she can read some Hiragana, and she was pointing to what she knew :)

Cape Hado

Cape Hado is a small cape which protects into Higashi-matsuura peninsula into the Genkai Sea.
Below is an art piece for the Satellite of lover's sanctuary it provides blissful marriage and raising a happy home it was given by the Bridal Mother. Seashells were along the bottom, it was very pretty.

This is the Submarine Observatory on Cape Hado you can go down in there and see the ocean with all the fish underneath through the 24 glass windows, we arrived after it closed so we were not able to check the observatory out.

Cape Hado the Northwest end.

There in the right corner is a picture of Osama Bin Laden, kind of eerie if you ask me. Not sure what the sign says but hope to get it translated soon.

Beautiful beach area

Climbing Mt Fuji?

I will be climbing Mt Fuji in just a couple weeks, I have one more hike to do before the big event. This picture was taken by my friends daughter on her way back to the states. You can see Mt Fuji through the clouds, it is very hard to imagine I'm going to try and climb this beast of a mountain. I'm going with a small group about 5 of us and at least 2 guides, it will be a 16 hour van ride then supper and after supper we will be heading to the mountain for our night climb so we can be at the top hopefully for sunrise. This is a 12 hour hike 8 up 4 down = long day. After our climb we will stay over night in a hotel and get up at 4 am and ride the 16 hours back to base. I am looking forward to the climb and the adventure :) Look forward to telling everyone about my adventure :) July 5th is when we leave :)

Climbing Mt Tara

On Saturday Autum and I set out on another hike, this time to Mt Tara. Tara is highest mountain in Kyushu. We left at 8am and was excited about the new mountain we were going to climb. This climb started at 10am and we came out of the woods at 5pm. 7 hours of hiking, we got to scale 2 mountain peaks, we had a small group and moved pretty fast. This was a little over 11 kilometers of hiking, I along with Autum was very tired after our day of hiking.
This is some Rice fields we walked past on our way to the mountain.

Starting our day of Hiking.

Making her way around the rocks. Nice waterfall in the mountain

Rest time, I was already tired and we only had been hiking for 2 hours lol

This was a guide Bob and he let Autum put in the codes for the next check point. She was mad cause we had to go up those rocks behind her in the picture.

Almost to the top of the rocks lol Almost

We climbed like this for about an hour, I was really tired and very proud of Autum.

View from the top, was nice to see the sky instead of more tree tops.

I took a nap before we headed to the next peak was about a 10 minute nap :)

Going down for now anyway.

Autum slipped and I was able to get it on camera, I told her make sure you use the ropes.

These rocks were on the other mountain peak we went up along with a little shrine.

Finally working our way down to the bottom

After 7 hours of hiking Autum was very tired, we were the 1st group out and were waiting for the others so Autum laid in the road she didn't want to stand anymore.

Private Family Onsen

After our Hike Autum and I went and took part in a Private Family Onsen this is very common for the Japanese People. You shower in one area then relax in the hot water :) Below is our relaxing area, the water was very hot we only stayed in about 15 minutes. This was the bathing area you sit on the stool then bath before getting into the hot area.

this was for after your bath you could blow dry your hair.

The entrance to our private area.

All done relaxing now ready to get home.

Osaki Swimming Beach

This morning we headed out for Osaki Swimming Beach as it is called here in Japan, to me it is a small little run down lake type style but works enough for Kayleigh to play and get a little wet. Tony took leave this week and I'm enjoying the extra alone time Kayleigh is getting with him. Enjoy the pictures.

Jelly Fish

Kayleigh was really excited about going.