Leaf Grabber Rake - No Stooping or Bending

When we lived in NY I bought this rake for Gene.  With his bad back it is very hard for him to bend over to pick up the leaves.  This rake does it all.  I checked the internet for one like it and didn't find one, but there are several versions.l  Using a rake like this one can sure make a tedious job get done fast. 

Just bury the rake prongs in the leaf pile;

slide the handle down so the prongs close and grab the leaves;

move the rake into the bag, release the handle, the prongs open and the leaves drop into the bag all at one time.

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The Fourth Island

Shikoku; the smallest island of the four main islands in Japan and that's the destination we're headed to in Day 5.

Took this very cutely decorated Anpanman character Limited Express Shikaze train from Okayama to Matsuyama, just minutes before it's set to depart from the station. It took about 2 and a half hours to get from Okayama to Matsuyama.

Arrived Matsuyama Station, looked around for an English map of the area but can't find one. Had lunch at a nearby cafe eating sandwiches and an anpanman bread for Raimie.

Instead of taking the streetcar, we decided to walk around the area. Firstly we walked towards Matsuyama Castle but after arriving at the ropeway station, decided not to "waste" money so we just contend ourselves with looking at the castle from afar; and then walked again and this time all the way to

Dogo Onsen but with a few stops at nearby attraction along the way.

Got on board the Limited Express Ishizuchi at 5.37pm and arriving Takamatsu Station at 7.57pm. The area looked pretty quiet with most shops at the station and along the way to our hotel closed or closing; so we decided to just eat a konbini bought dinner.

Sightseeing in Takamatsu the next day! Not to mention running! :)

A Chicago White Castle - Home of the originasl Slider Hamburger

Growing up in NY we had White Castle nearby, way before McDonald's and all the other fast food carry out restaurants,. Now when we travel we make it a point to find a White Castle in states where they are.  There are none in NM and CO so we have to go east!!

The buildings are very distinctive and have looked basically the same forever.

The onions are put onto the grill first then the square patties are laid on top.  Notice the holes in the meat to allow for even, fast cooking.

Then the bun 1/2's are put onto of the burger to heat them alittle.

This is our lunch tray for 3 people.  The yellow carton is a cheeseburger.  There are 12 burgers there.

When we would go to NY to visit we always got a huge sack of White Castle and would build things with those cardboard boxes.  Now they even have trivia on them.  

White Castle hamburgers are probably not the healthiest of food but once in awhile they are yummy and a throwback to many great memories. Try them, you may like them. 

Synchronise Your Watches!

When one has the habit of arriving the train platform just minutes before the train departs, it is imperative that our watch is synchronised to train station's time. ^^

Day 5 : Huis Ten Bosch. Got on board the train just seconds before it departs. Same thing happen when we took the LEX Okayama to Matsuyama. heh

We went to this recreation of the Huis Ten Bosch in Netherlands theme park, located in Nagasaki Prefecture. Raimie had requested a visit there for his birthday present. As a trade-off, he agreed to cancel the trip to Ultramanland in Kumamoto for this.

The view inside the Dutch theme park. One can almost be forgiven for mistaking us being somewhere other than Japan.

Since our main reason is for One Piece attractions, that's what and where we made a beeline for. The One Piece attractions, ships and gift shops!

Mommy, Son & Chopper!

The Thousand Sunny ship. We got onboard it (gotta pay up extra for the privilege) to set sailing on it.

Raimie and the ship

Onboard the ship, with Monkey D Luffy

Daddy and his "new girlfriend"

Setting sail. Brrr.... Cold & windy

We didn't spend a whole lot of time there, and went back at 3.00pm, arriving Hakata Station at 5.00ish. We went back to our hotel room and picked up a few stuff, and took a Limited Express train to Moji Station.

Moji Station

We spent a couple of hours eating takoyaki with a blogger friend, Hanny and her Sons. We had planned to only make a short stop there, but I guess when one is with good company, time does flies. Before we knew it, it was almost 11.00pm! Thank you so much to Hanny and her family for putting up with us! If you remember, when we came to this part of town in 2008, Hanny played host to us too!

A near deserted Kokura Station. We were waiting for the shinkansen to arrive for us to get back to Hakata Station.

WOW: Preparing for the Holidays in Florida

our Christmas Star, made of Philippine capiz shells, hanging from our RV dashboard

a fifth wheel spreads Christmas joy at the Resort...

In the Philippines preparations for the Christmas season starts as soon as the months turn into …ber (September through December). But America waits for the completion of another important holiday, Thanksgiving. So now that we are settled in Florida where we will be for another 4 months, I can no longer contain my excitement. My children, sons-in-law, and grandkids are coming on New Year’s Eve! So I have been maximizing what’s left of my brain power (if ever there was any to start with!) and Bill’s wallet to come up with décor fit for an RV, special holiday meals, and longed-for gifts!!! It was Thanksgiving 2009 when we last had a holiday reunion in Mazatlan, Mexico!

a motor home lights up the campground!

another brightly lit motor home at the resort

Décor fit for an RV

There is not a lot of space so my tree is a little one and it now houses our Christmas ornaments from our initial travels, before we shifted to refrigerator magnets. Those Christmas stockings for the surprise stuffers from Mr. and Mrs. Santa are also up!  Little poinsettia plants are adding lots of reds and greens. Then a bit of the Philippines hangs as a bright Christmas star (it is made from Philippine capiz shells). A holly wreath filled with Christmas lights completes our dashboard counter top.

Unlike many of the RVs in this Orlando Thousand Trails Resort, this year all of our decor is inside because we spend Christmas at a Vacation Internationale condo in Tampa from Dec. 20-26. There will be no need to take down big décor outside the RV when we move it for storage and reinstall them for the family when they come for New Year..

another fifth wheel gives it all out for the campground...

Special Holiday Meals

From Seattle will come Trisha and Deejay and their children, Yeye and Kenji (Krishna is not able to join us because of work and school). Claudine and Arnold and their children Ashton, Andre, and Enzo will be flying in from Calgary, Alberta. They will all be staying at the Maingate Lakeside Resort Hotel some 6 miles from the campground. Sadly, April will not be able to fly from Manila this year because she is spending her first Christmas with a new beau.

That makes 11 mouths to feed and the RV kitchen is quite small (please see http://rvcruisinglifestyle.blogspot.com/2011/10/wow-cooking-and-eating-in-rv.html )!!! So for New Year’s Day brunch I will serve a combo of homemade American breakfast of biscuits and sausage gravy and an authentic Filipino breakfast of longganisa, garlic rice and fried eggs plus the left-overs from the New Year’s Eve Party of Christmas ham, queso de bola, and ambrosia. As per Filipino tradition, I should also have 9 different kinds of round fruits for lots of good luck in the coming year (I will cheat a little and just have 9 different kinds of oranges-this is after all, orange country)! Then a standing rib roast and lots of roasted vegetables will grace our table for New Year’s Day dinner!

Christmas Gifts

Since Christmas gifts are placed under the tree, our gifts should all be pretty small (great for the budget, too!)! Kidding aside, we have asked Trisha and Claudine what each child wants. So, as requested, Bill and I will treat all of the kids to the newest theme park in Orlando, Legoland, while their parents do some R&R on their own! Anyway they already have welcome gifts of beige boots, hot wheels set, dinosaur T shirt, and remote control cars that we have collected from our various trips.

Unfortunately, Bill’s children and grandkids will not be able to join us (Suzanne and family in Denver, Colorado, Jim and family in Boise, Idaho, and Cristine and husband in Anchorage, Alaska).  We have been searching on line for items on their wish lists for direct shipment. We are also sending the little items we’ve purchased over the past months as we remembered things they like while we were touring. We hope to watch them open their gifts via SKYPE so that we can share a bit of electric Christmas joy!

our complete Christmas dashboard from the inside...

we now come home to this at night!

But now that the plans are all set, we gleefully transition into the execution phase and spend some real dollars...then come home to a brightly lit M'A!!! Costco and Florida’s awesome flea markets and outlet malls…here we come!!!

  

     

The Third...

time we visited Kyushu. Our first visit was in 2007. Second one was in 2008. Third one in 2011.

Day 4 in Japan, we woke up in Yufuin. I wanted to wake up at 5.00am but somehow only managed to wake up at 7.00am.

First thing, had a hot spring bath to warm up the muscles before going out for an early morning walk with hubby to a nearby Lake Kinrinko (more like a pond to me).

Lovely view of autumn with splashes of colour everywhere we turn at Lake Kinrinko. More of the lake later. We spent about an hour there, before making our way back as tour groups started to swarm the lake area.

While Zaini head back to our cottage, I did a short run around for about 30 minutes. While doing my cool-down walk, got stopped by Japanese tourists asking for directions. I must look like a local. LOL

Passing time, Zaini had a more leisurely pursuit - enjoying his baths while looking at the colours of autumn while soaking in the hot water.

Returned to Hakata later, arriving at 3.00pm. Rested a bit in our hotel room before making our way out again, only to find that it was raining that evening. Decided to gamble it and made our way to Nakasu and Tenjin area and walk around looking for the famous yatai (food stalls). When it looked like the rain wasn't letting up, we quickly made our way to

the nearby Canal City and window shopped. We spent a couple of hours there and just when Raimie started complaining about getting tired, we found stores selling his favourite anime & tokukatsu series merchandises so he was happy for a while there. Deciding the rain wasn't gonna stop, we decided to just make a dash back to our hotel which was nearby Hakata Station.

 Rain did stop for a while and allowed us to enjoy the splendour of the illumination in front of Hakata Station. They are awesome!

The last activity for the day, and the most important one at that, we bought a cake to celebrate Raimie's birthday moments before the store closed.

Happy 9th birthday, Son! And as agreed, his birthday present was to be given the next day and we had to travel to Sasebo to present it to our Son. ^^

And The Second Part Is...

Day 3 in Japan. Lots of time in trains and it was great! Get ready for photo laden post (again!)

We started the day by waking up at 5.00am because I had this crazy idea of wanting to go out for a run and Zaini knows better than to thwart me. 

It was raining and freezing cold Thursday morning, but my lovely hubby accompanied me and walked with me to a nearby park. He went back to the comfort of our hotel room as I started doing a few loops by the river (or big drain?) near Nissan Stadium.

Had breakfast and yes, I like to combine eating rice and Japanese side dishes along with bread. There is such a thing as too much rice for me! ;)

Took the shinkansen Hikari to Shin-Osaka station from Shin-Yokohama. Then, got on the shinkansen Sakura to Hakata before making our final ride on Yufuin No Mori express train to Yufuin.

And when we are onboard a shinkansen, there is one thing we must do especially on long journeys. We indulge with enjoying ekiben! Yummy.

Last time we were at Hakata Station was in 2008 and the station was still undergoing some massive renovation. It is totally a swanky station now. Foreign tourists friendly too. The JR ticket offices here are much tourist friendly than the one at Shin-Yokohama.

On board the Yufuin No Mori express sightseeing train. Friendly crew. Raimie even got a sticker from that nice conductor.

 Some lovely sights to see enroute to Yufuin.

 Arrived our cottage that we booked through a friend around 5.30pm and here we are by the cool fireplace waiting to check-in.

There are two hot spring baths to enjoy all to ourselves at our very own cottage and dip in we sure did. Plenty of time too. The place has an indoor bath and an outdoor one too. Guess which one is our favourite?

By 7.00pm the town of Yufuin is pretty quiet. We found a store/mart called On 365 or something that sells a lot of thing at bargain price. 

Then, it's back to our warm state-of-the art cottage and dip-in the baths some more. I wanted to wake up at 5.00am the next day but I guess I slept so comfortably that I only woke up at 7.00am this morning!