Land of Godzilla

I recently returned from the land of Godzilla (a business trip to Japan). A Japanese dinosaur museum was setting up a special exhibit and borrowed numerous fossils from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. I was sent along for technical support and fossil specimen handling. So I worked during the day in the museum and in the evenings our Japanese hosts took us out to different restaurants to try out the food. I really enjoyed the variety of Japanese cuisine along with their great culture. It was an awesome vacation… I mean business trip (Good thing Laura did not catch that slip).



One of the hotels I stayed in had a public bath available to men. I stayed at the hotel for a few nights and towards the end I decided to give it a whirl. It was a very educational experience. I took pictures at a different time when no one was there. I did not want to get beat up and it would have been a bit weird to ask one of the guys there to take a picture for me. You place your clothes in one of the baskets along the wall and then you enter the bath room and you sit on a little stool, wash (left) and then enter the water and soak (right). The third picture is of a typical bicycle parking lot. So many people ride bikes that there are large parking lots dedicated to only bicycles and very few people lock their bikes.


One morning while I was sightseeing in Fukui I came across this accident. Two small cars collided with each other at an intersection and a fire engine and crew were there. No one was hurt. The last picture is of Amy and I at a conveyor belt sushi restaurant. We sat on barstools while all kinds of sushi and other eatables moved along the conveyor belt at eye level. We would choose what we wanted and place it in front of us. At the end you counted up the number of plates you ate and paid. Our host had been here before but had never seen a waffle on the line before so I tried it out.

This was an awesome temple complex that we visited. The setting was up at the base of the mountains where the largest cedar trees I have ever seen make up a grove around the various structures. It is here where monks are trained so no pictures of them were allowed and we were required to remove our shoes and talk in whispers. The gardens and architecture made for an incredible experience. I even got to ring the bell.

Here is one quarry where dinosaurs are collected in Japan. This is literally a quarry where rock is removed with jackhammers and heavy equipment. The Japanese love dinosaurs and nothing stops them from collecting. Also, on one of our sightseeing trips we came across a rickshaw and I had to get a picture with the guide and cart. Pizza delivery anyone. This cracked me up.

Who said one child bike seat was ever enough. The last two images are of another temple sight way up in the mountains above Kyoto. You can see a fountain where people are pouring the holy water over there hands and into the pool. Also, a great view of the city can be seen along with part of the Temple.

Japanese women in traditional dress pose along one of many souvenir streets. Finally, I managed to take this shot of the city of Osaka during takeoff on my way back to the United States.

Land of Godzilla 2

The rooms were much smaller than other hotels but the bathroom was awesome. The bidet is standard in all bathrooms with the water temperature at your control and convenience (you can see the controls on the right hand side of the toilet). I wish we had a bidet toilet at our home in Pittsburgh. There were also some cool squatter toilets in certain locations like some of the temples we visited. The third picture is of a typical street in Osaka.


Here outside the city of Fukui, I stayed in a hotel with a spectular view of the mountainous areas and architectural buildings of Japan. Rice patties dominate the low areas with tree covered mountains surrounding on all sides.

The Fukui Prefectural Museum is located close to the hotel and for obvious reasons is quite impressive. At a distance I thought it looked like a turtle shell but upon closer examination a football seems to better describe it. I met a fellow paleontologist while I was there and had some fun in the park area around the museum when not slaving away inside.


The food was amazing and quite different. Lunches consisted of eating in the museum from these wonderful lacquer boxes with a variety of food choices. I did get the hang of using chopsticks and tried everything at least once. We were invited to a dinner with other curators from the museum in which they tested us to see if we could eat whatever was placed in front of us. We sat around a low table with the paper wall partions separating us from other diners and had a typical male business dinner (Amy was the only woman). My favorite was teriyaki eel. I did try various types of sushi, sushimi, octopi, squid and various other sea creatures.

Just another day at the beach......

We have so many pictures this year, I hardly know where to start. Some of the pictures are from Angie, she took over 200. We took something less than that but got some great ones. This is the back seat of the car on the way down to the beach. This year we tried something different. We decided to leave at 3am and drive all the way in a day. We arrived around 130pm. I liked that, what I didn't like was that I was too excited to sleep and didn't get to sleep until after 1am so we didn't leave until 4am and the kids were just starting to go to sleep again at about 530am and we stopped to pay a toll and it all started all over again. Kids were VERY tired and after all the leaving early we still sat in traffic for 2 hours in the same place south of DC. That was infuriating. Next year we will take 81 down, even though it adds an hour, it still saves my nerves. We took 81 back this year and really enjoyed the drive. We drove past Shenandoah National Park and I want to go back and do some exploring one of these days.

So, we got there and Allen hauled all our stuff up to our room and then it was craziness. Sunday was our first official family walk on the beach that Jake managed to turn into full on body surfing and Julia and Jo became sand crabs. Here we see the whole Shaw family, first walk on the beach (THANKS ANGIE). We see Julia, Mayci and Chandra in the background, note, this is the ONLY time Julia actually wore her beach hat in the entire week, good thing we got a picture or that would really have been a waste of money~ And we see Jo in her absolute favorite beach pastime, sitting in a sand whole, later you'll see a picture of her eating sand and walking in waves with Allen those are the entire sum of her vacation, that and sleep.

Here we have Allen, Travis (packing Malan) and Rafal, acting cool. Laura and Jo taking a walk in the waves and Max and Jacob just shortly before the "don't get too wet" thing went completely awry and full on body surfing began.

The girls were happy in the sand, Jo, Mayci and Julie. Jo in her hole.

We spent time at Sandbridge Beach, where the house was, Chesapeake Bay, which the kids love and Virginia Beach, a great place for Boogie Boarding. And watching military maybe SEAL? training. We've seen it every single year we've gone to Virginia Beach.

Here are the girls at Chesapeake Bay. Jo in the water with Allen, in her hole by mom and Julia on the beach towel, well away from any kind of water! Jo was crazy about the water here, she would run down to the edge of the waves and grab Allen's legs and try to pull him into the water, she wanted him to hold her hands. Julia absolutely wanted nothing to do with the water this year. Jacob, on the other hand, couldn't be kept out of the water. Here is he and Max playing some football in Chesapeake Bay.

Next post, Virginia Beach and the Pool. Jacob learned how to play Marco Polo this year, it was funny.

Unlimited Beach Week

It's a strange name.....Unlimited......unlimited what?? Everything has a limit. But I digress, that was the name of our beach house this year. This is what it looked like. Yes, that IS a pool in the back and a finger of Back Bay Wildlife Preserve. Think that's pretty good......

Here's Julia and Mayci hangin' out in the HOT TUB. I swear it was more popular with the kids than the adults... or maybe they just had more time to use it. No, I don't know WHY you need a pool noodle in two feet of warm water, THEY, needed three between them.

So, you may be asking yourself, what more could you possibly ask for? This room wasn't bad.....

With it's private deck, monstrous bath with dual head shower and king bed, with two huge armchairs.

Thinkin' you maybe should have come with us this year?!?!?! I haven't even posted the good stuff yet! What makes the vacation over the top, crazy fun and has them beggin' to never leave?

You have to have some of these..........

Seven men and some sort of stacking game using architectural blocks ...with no instructions.

They actually stopped the game and had Angie come take a picture of this amazing creation....Trust me, it was a big deal. It was wonderful, just watching them play together. I see most of them every Sunday doing their various jobs in primary, bishopric, elders quorum......but this......was......important and memorable and fun and , oh bother, I'm not saying it the way it felt watching these guys just have fun together and all the oooooohhhhssss and aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhsss and then these gigantic roars of laughter and disbelief.... Amazing.

You also need lots of these..................................Oily skinned muscle men like Max...
Rex and his pig. Malan, crackin' himself up again while Jo considers the punchline....

Kids watching TV in Scott and Margie's Room. (Julia, Miriam, Jake, Mayci, Jojo, Marcus, Max and Liesl)

Pool sharks, on the prowl (Max, Jake and James) ...and crazy card playing girls...(Julia, Miriam, Liesl and Mayci)

I learned this year that an UNO ATTACK game is almost but not quite as important as a POOL TABLE. I learned that there are parents among us who are in direct line for Sainthood. I learned that there is a reason we marry who we marry....it's called balance. I learned that the fathers that came to the beach are all serious, hands on, knee deep in the muck "Dads". I realized how much I love my "ladies". I'm not talking about the 6 and under set ( though they are indispensible) I'm refering the the grocery shopping, suntan lotion slathering, lunch packing, dinner cooking, wild child wrangling, late sleeping, sand shoveling, seashell searching, shoe finding, pool floating, fun loving women without whom, this would have never happened, never been so successful and who make this extended Pittsburgh Family, just that.

From the left we are, Laura and Allen, Scott and Margie, Brandon and Tassi, Steve and Erin, Christian and Melinda and Travis and Angie( and a large group of kids ranging from age 8 to 6 months).

Escape '08

Next post............The outdoor pictures.......