Shuri Castle

We are in the middle of the rainy season, so when Saturday morning looked beautiful we got ourselves together and drove to Naha to visit Shuri Castle.

We tried to go once when Brendan was still pretty little, but there were so many stairs that we decided to come back either without him or when he was a bit bigger.  To his credit, he walked all over the entire park.

He wasn't wearing his listening ears, but that's ok.  We had a good time anyway.

I've toured several castles, but this was my first Japanese castle.  Versailles it was not.

The entire castle park is free. The only part you pay for is admission to the castle itself.

This is about the time Tom took over the camera and I ended up with Peanut duty for the rest of our tour.

 You have to take your shoes off for the inside tour.

You are not allowed to walk on the tatami mats.

Brendan tried, and this guy was there to stop him.

Green tea was brewed in here.

You have the option of paying for tea, and I'm guessing that they serve it the way they did back in the 15th century.  Unfortunately, we knew Brendan wouldn't cooperate enough for us to experience that.

 

To make the place a little more interesting for kids, there are stamp stations throughout the park.  You collect your stamps and then you get a prize at the end.

We had to make sure he collected his prize.

It started to drizzle on us just as we were leaving.  But we didn't let that stop us from getting an ice cream.  Usually when I ask him what kind he wants, he looks at the flavors and says, "Green!"  Mint chocolate chip happens to be my favorite so we usually share.  This time he picked probably the funkiest flavor they had and I had no interest in sharing.

We expected him to fall asleep in the car on the way home, but he stayed awake the entire trip.  By the time we got home he was asking for "night night."

Feels Like Summer!

Daddy had to work for a few hours on Saturday but thought he'd be able to meet up with us by lunch.  So Brendan and I decided to stay pretty close to home.  We headed to the zoo with one thing in mind:  riding the choo choo.

You have to get a ticket out of the machine in order to ride the train.  Brendan knows exactly where to go to get his ticket, and he knows exactly who to give it to.  In between rides he watched it go by.

We have no idea why he sticks his chin out like this.

After about four rides on the choo choo I convinced him to go see the horses.  He said he wanted to ride.

We waited in line behind four other kids and he kept telling me, "My turn."

They were trying to explain to him that he needed to hold onto the reins, and considering the language barrier, they were doing a good job.  But he took one look around and had one word to say:  "Down."

And that was the end of that.

Since last week was Kodomo No Hi, there were koinobori all over the place.

And now that the weather is warm, no trip to the zoo is complete without some shaved ice!

After he got up from his nap, Brendan had his first experience with the sprinkler.

Here's a link to a video, in case you're interested.

And then somebody had the bright idea to hand him the sprayer.

 

 

I had to go inside and take these from behind the glass door after he sprayed me and my camera.

 

Mother's Day photos to follow!