Shirashi Island Villa

I have a stack of journals to read and grade, a final exam to write, yet here I am blogging. I hope you enjoy today's post. Maybe you can leave a comment so I will know that ditching my school work was not in vain....

This past weekend we had a great holiday weekend with great friends!

Friday:We boarded the bus at 3:12 to head down town to catch the Shinkansen. Sara did not want to sit up front with her family, she chose to sit with Dopie (opps, I mean Sophie)



Once at the train station with everyone riding the train, I found out that this was to be Kimi's first trip on the Shinkansen. RJ,being the expert (this was his 5th ride), asked me to take their picture.

After the 40 min bullet train ride, we had another 45 min regular train ride. Sara was getting a bit tired so she got a ride...

I like to take pictures of the man hole covers as each city has their own design
This is from Kasaoka (where we picked up the ferry to the island)

Once we arrived on the island, we walked about 10 mins up the hill to our villa


This is the view from our room

This is the balcony

On Saturday we all headed down to the beach for some fun and relaxing time.


Joe decided to challenge the kids to run and jump in the water
I was so impressed with RJ!

Sophie relaxing
More jumping
Sara got into the act toomore flips by Joe

RJ doing it alone...he is growing up!!
Cute Sara



Mitch, Marie-Louise, Favi and Katie relaxing
Look closely at this picture. (click on it if you want to see it bigger) Notice the tori gate near the edge of the water to the right of the little house like structurenow you can see it is well out of the water. High tide vs low tide.
This is where we had our BBQ later that night.

RJ with our villa in the background
Joe and Katie brought some fireworks for the kids to play with. Mainly they are sparklers.
RJ and Kimi enjoying some fireworks
Then it was BBQ time. Mitch, Zuka and Chris did the cooking while Joe did the talking.
Then it was time to eat!

Yes those are whole fish that the guys BBQ for us. Kimi loves to eat the eyes.

More fireworks after the BBQ on the beach

Katie practicing her "getting kids to eat" skills. She will dive head first into that arena in November.
Mitch and Chris rehashing their idea of a fun late night swim the night before...be sure to ask one or both their version of their story.

Sara and Sophie
After we returned from the BBQ, we found the villa COVERED in flying ants. RJ and Kimi thought it would be fun to catch them

the next morning, I took the kids back to the beach (I figured it was the lesser of 2 evils, Favi and Zuka were on breakfast detail, and Mitch was willing to pack)
We found a hermit crab on the beach. Kimi was kind enough to pick it up and put it into my ready made beach. I carried it up to the villa so the kids could show it off.
Then it was time to leave. Me, Sara and Favi posing by the dock waiting for the ferry
RJ, Kimi and Sara waiting. RJ is happy that he is getting closer to being the same height as Kimi (she is only 2 weeks older than him)

We had a great weekend! Thanks Marie-Louise, Chris, Sophie, Faviola, Zuka, Kimi, Joe, Kaite, Mitch, RJ and Sara for a fabulous beach vacation!