Viewing of the cherry blossoms from the sky

Now cherry blossoms are in full bloom!
So many people went to watch cherry blossoms in this weekend.
I also went to watch them.

However, I had a 2 month old baby, I chose "Yomiuri Land" because it had gondola which allowed me to watch cherry blossoms from the sky! As you can see in my photos, we could watch many cherry blossoms without walking. It was a very easy way to watch cherry blossoms!

After the gondola, I also took a bath at "Oka no Yu" in Yomiuri Land. Their bath also allowed me to watch cherry blossoms from the outside bath tub. This was also a good way to watch cherry blossoms!

Mogusa-en

Last week, I took my baby boy to hospital in order to check his health. Fortunately, he was well grown at this point. His weight reached to 4.9kg.

After the health check, I began to take him to outside of my house. Supermarket, restaurant, and shrine (in order to return "Anzan-Omamori"). Also, I took him to Mogusa-en to watch plum flowers.

It took 20min drive and 15min walk to Mogusa-en. I took him there by baby stroller, but walking road to Mogusa-en was so steep, also inside of Mogusa-en was very steep, and it had many steps which I couldn't push baby stroller. so I regret I didn't bring a baby sling.

Mogusa-en was crowded because about 70% plum was bloomed, but there were still less people than the season in cherry-blossom viewing.
This would be a good practice for cherry-blossom viewing!

Yosemite

I was back to U.S.!
Before I'm back to State College, I visited San Francisco on business trip. Meeting was finished on Fri, so I went to Yosemite near S.F. on Saturday.

Yosemite is the most popular National Park in the U.S.. More than 3M people visit in a year, and this is the largest number of visitors in the N.P., the guide said.

It means Yosemite had outstanding feature. At first, our bus stopped at "Tunnel View". We could see Yosemite valley had U-shaped valley which was curved by glacier like Switzerland.

Next, we got off the bus in front of "El Capitan" (photo 1). This is the biggest monolith in the world, so it attracts lots of rock climbers. The guide said very surprising thing. "it had 1200m height, but the fastest climber had climbed it less than 3hours." Incredible!!

Next, we saw Yosemite Falls. It had 739m height with 3 drops, and it is 5th highest waterfalls in the world. However, the guide said "Yosemite Falls had less water in winter, June is the best season to watch it because it had massive water! on the other hand, it had no water on Sept., so I'll recommend you to visit here again in June!"

However, the most impressive thing for me was "Half Dome" (photo 3). It looked sliced orange. Very unique mountain! I like snowy Half Dome. It was worth to come and see it!

0th Birthday

Finally, my baby boy was born on 25th Jan!

He was born a week later than expected, so he was bigger than expected. His weight was 3908g, and he had relatively big hands.
He has hands as large as my 8 months old niece's hands.

Today, my wife and my baby boy discharged from hospital, and came back to my house. After he came to my house, he became a king in my home! We had to eat dinner while he was sleeping. Everything was decided by his mood.

I hope he won't cry at night!

Arriving at USA

After I left USA, I went to Usa.
As you can see in top photo, Usa is a city in Kyushu, Japan.

I was back to Japan on 19th Oct., and I took a late summer vacation for a week. My wife wanted to go to hot spring in Kyushu, so we went to Kyushu. I found Usa shrine near arriving airport. I want to thank my safe trip in USA, we went there.

At Usa shrine, I thanked my safe trip in USA, then prayed safe birth of our baby.
The other purpose to visit Usa shrine was to find "Usa souvenir" for my office because I couldn't buy souvenirs in USA because my luggage was too heavy. I looked for souvenir which had a word "Usa" for fake USA souvenir, but I couldn't find it.

Mmm, Usa had no sense of humor compared to USA!

Leaving USA

The day to leave USA has come.
The flight leaves State College at 6:40AM, so I got up 3AM.
I called taxi at 4:30AM, but taxi company said, "we are busy this morning, so if you accept share-ride, we can pick you up." Thus I shared taxi (also shared the charge) with stranger to the airport. so it was a better thing for me!

However, terrible thing was happened at the airport desk.

"Your luggage is too heavy. You must reduce 14 pounds (7 kg)!".

Fortunately, United Airlines accept 2 checked luggage and 2 carry-on luggage, so I made my luggage into 4 package. But I have no way to measure weight of luggage, I had to check the weight of my luggage at the counter 3 times!
"Your luggage are still 7 pounds over." "It gets only 3 pounds over." "OK!"

While I was packing my luggage, only 20min was left to depart, but the waiting line was so long. I never experienced such a long line in this local airport! I asked the officer and he let me cut in former line, then I could catch the flight...

The last day in U.S. was so troublesome. But when I looked back on my life in U.S., I seemed to spend my life as travel with trouble everyday.
Anyway, the aircraft was taking off State College and I could see a beautiful sunrise from it.
I fell into sleep soon because of the tiredness in this morning.

Bocce Ball

At ESL (English as Secound Language class), I learned an interesting game named "Bocce Ball".
It is played on lawn, and the purpose is to get the set point earlier than other players.
A person throw small white ball as "Jack Ball". Then each player throws their balls. Each player could throw their balls 2 times in each run, and a player whose ball is closest to Jack ball got 1pts. If both of one player's balls are closest to Jack ball, he gets 3pts. We can hit other player's balls, even Jack ball!

Ryan and I played Bocce Ball on the big lawn in front of the Old Main. We set 10pts for 1 game, and the person who get 2 games is winner. Then loser must treat lunch for winner!

Ryan won 1st game, and I won 2nd game. At 3rd game, I had 9pts and Ryan had 4pts. When I threw the Jack Ball, a silly squirrel rushed to the Jack Ball because he misunderstood it as a nuts! After he bit several times, he awoke it was not a nuts. This incident might affect to the game... Ryan got 6pts consecutively and I lost the game.

Thus, I had to treat lunch to Ryan. He ate 3 big pancakes. Then, we made handshake and said "good-bye".

I also ate lunch or dinner with my colleagues and friends before I left U.S.. Especially, I liked to eat Fillet Mignon steak because it had twice thicker than Japanese one, and it costed half than Janapese one.
It was a good chance to say good-bye to my friends, however, it made my shape "American". When I returned to Japan, my weight was increased more than 5kg. Oh, no!