June 27 2011: All right, I know, it's been a couple of weeks. But every now and then, there's a day or two, or five where nothing gets done around the house...this was one of the weeks. We did have an outing on the 2oth...Shane's birthday. But first...above is a shot from June 2009. Below, two years later. Same road, slightly different section. I forgot how little she was two years ago, and how much she has grown!
Anyway, on the 20th took a bike ride to "Statue of Liberty Park". Nope, not real sure how far it is. I could tell you the driving distance if I were to go and drive the route. Bicycles take a little longer, as our goal was to stay off the main road and take some back roads. This probably made the route twice as far. Especially since there was a lot of...take this road, wait it's not going in the right direction, cut across to this road, now go this way....there was a bit of a zig and zag effect going on.
Our goal is to by some odometer for our bikes so we can get a better sense of just how far we go out of our way to take back roads. This won't stop us from back roads...they're the best.
So, along the way we saw folks working in the fields and found another shrine.
Naturally there are the vending machines out on the side of the road....nothing else in the area, wide open nothingness...but there's something to drink!
Ahh, nearing our destination. Not sure who this statue is of (and yes, I know my preposition is dangling...and English major, I'm not)
The signs we've been looking for. Sure this sign says it's only 1.2K to Statue of Liberty Park...that's after the 8-10 kilometers we've already gone.
There were actually 7 dwarfs lined up, but only 6 would get close enough together for the photo.
Proof that we made it.
There are lots of trails in the park. So we went around to a side that we've never been on, which of course, loops back to places we've been.
Andi practicing her "superstar" pose. (and no, she has not yet seen that movie....someday, when she's a bit older)
Signs along the way. Top one indicating that no, you can't ride your bike through there, the bottom one saying it's ok. The school kids use the pathways on their way to and from school. Also they use the pathways to do their "laps" for the after school sports programs.

No, that's not some new flowering plant, that's somebodies hat!

Now, below are some pretty flowers, of the non hat species.

A nice house along the way. Oh, we are headed back home. But not by the same route taken to the park, that would be boring. Turns out there are some nature trails that wind around and about.
Along this part we had to stop for a rest, and then to see if we could find any fish in the canal way....we did!

So 5 hours after leaving home, we finally made it home. There are some parts we want to go back and re-explore...I'm all for it, just as long as we don't have to pedal uphill (I loathe uphills)

This weekend (the 26th) was "American Day". An annual event put on by the base to share the American culture with the Japanese. There is a parade that kicks things off. There are a bunch of activities as well, so one can only assume those in these costumes were on the way to an activity...as they weren't in the parade.
I had to take a picture of the security guard. No doubt wondering where the American Parade was. The motorcycles had already done their part (about 100 bikers this year) of riding the route. Seemed like forever for the rest of the parade to catch up.

The color guard.

A dance troupe. The parade wasn't as large this year as it seemed last year. Although there were a LOT of folks out for the event (both American and Japanese), the parade seemed a bit more subdued.

Ok, I know it's just a fire truck. But after spending years around the little toy Japanese trucks, this just seems so HUGE! It's not like I haven't seen and American fire truck in these years, as this is what is used on base. But seeing it outside the gates, on the Japanese roadway, it just seems so HUGE!

Below: Andi with a panda. No, she doesn't look real happy. But she wanted to go up to it. These mascot things still freak her out a bit. There was a Big Bird one....nope, didn't want anything to do with it.

Now there's a rare site (above) sailors in dress whites out in town. They had finished up with their part of the parade and had to walk back up to the base. Just so unusual to see anymore...

Ok, loved this motorcycle. Not so much the bike itself, but the sheer quantity of stuff that is packed onto it. Really, at a certain point, don't you just want to purchase a special trailer for the bike? Or perhaps it's time to simplify your life again.

Some biker dudes.

Military working dogs putting on a demonstration. Really, when somebody says "stop or I'll sick my dog on you" for heaven's sake....STOP! Couldn't help but notice that these dogs were smiling the whole time...they love their job!

Above: Anybody up for some octopus? or squid, or whatever the heck it is? yeah, me either. Andi and I went for the safe chocolate covered bananas.

Below: Apparently even Pooh Bear has a girlfriend. (hard to tell from this angle, but it was a Pooh Bear costume)

The dreams start young! The little kids loved sitting on this bike.

There were a bunch of bands up and down the road. Took a video of this one, but can't get it to load. (and feeling far to impatient to figure out why) They sung in english, but just had to love the wig on the dude on the left.)
So there you go. Two weeks worth of stuff. And I still have stuff on another camera! Oh, I'll save it for next week, on the off chance that we don't go anywhere....