I brake for dragons!

Whew! What a long day! It is 12:45 am in the morning and everyone is either asleep or headed to bed. The Midnight oil is burned and gone... it's onto the "why are you still awake" oil. Pastor Will is going to be speaking tomorrow at 2PM for the Grace Bible Chapel bible conference, so he's still up studying. And... for whatever reason Jey has decided that 12:49AM is the perfect time to clip his toenails. Of course, O-San is still up working on his laptop just like me. Us geeks just can't seem to ever get away from the computer. It's just as well we love what we do. :)

Apparently there is quite a few people who're checking up on this blog... so it is for you readers who're wanting to know the goings ons of our little group here in Japan that I am still up and writing this. However, it's been a very long day.... so if there are any inadequacies or typos in the following post... you'll have to wait until morning (Japan time) for me to possibly maybe perhaps but probably not fix them.

Today started off quite early. In fact, I think it was our earliest day yet. I think the only other early day we're going to really have to worry about is this coming Saturday - the day of our departure. I woke up at 5:00 AM and attempted to sleep for the next hour... or so I thought. When I finally gave up trying to sleep it was 5:30AM. You could say I was bright eyed and bushy tailed... but it'd be a lie. I groggily dragged myself off of my mattress and trudged up the stairs for some breakfast. By 7:10 AM everyone was fed, read, showered, and ready to go.

We rolled out in 2 Vans:

Van 1: Mr. Huggins, Steve, Melinda, Geneva, Will, Sam Green, Breana, Kaitlyn, Melinda


Van 2: O-San, Megumi, Stephanie, Sam H, Kimberly, Jey, Ellen, Katie

We drove for about an hour before stopping at a "Rest Stop." Unlike rest stops in the states, these are more like the truck stops in the states. Gas (maybe?), food, trinkets, food, trinkets, etc.

Our next stop was Monkey Mountain. We had a chance to see the feeding at 12:00. It was really impressive. However, we did not stick around for the changing of the monkey-tribes at 2PM. Perhaps next time when we're here we can do that.

Monkeying around before Monkey Mountain

Here you can see two monkeys.. the one being groomed is the elder monkey and the one doing the grooming is showing respect by grooming the elder monkey.

If you look closely you'll also notice a couple of primates to the right of them performing the same ritual of respect.

"Hey Tim, Pull my tail!"

PPpppth!

Every day, several times a day, the monkeys show up during feeding time. The primates get a meal and a chance to watch goofy monkeys every day. These two primates were fascinated with all the monkey business going on during their meal.

This primate is sticking it's tongue out.

These two monkeys were pruning themselves when a three primates decided to show them just how limber they are.

I Heart You

Kate and Kate Custis

Kate and Kate playing while Kate's mom wasn't looking

The largest troupe/tribe of monkey's in the world.
775 total monkeys



Here you can see the feeding of the monkeys.

After the Monkey Mountain we got some lunch at the local mini-mart (think 7-11, Circle K, Plaid Pantry, etc). We scarfed down our lunch as we drove onto out next destination which was the volcano of Mount Aso.

On our way to Mount Aso there were many different styles of home. Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of the homes with a thatched roof. However, sometimes the homes have the family crest on the house.

In the above picture you'll notice the house with the red roof... behind that house is another one in which you can see the peak of the house. At the top you can barely make out the triangle which is the family crest. If you look real closely you might be able to make out Sam in the left hand part of the picture. If you're having a hard time spotting Sam G, just find the red roof and look directly to the left of it.

We were all getting pretty steamed with all the monkey business that was going on. So before anyone blew their top we finally arrived at Mount Aso.

Hi-Lo

These two girls are Steaming Hot!

Stunning Steaming Sisters

After a short 20 minutes in the cool windy weather at the top of the mountain everyone but me was shivering.

Hi Mom!

The view of the Mount Aso Caldera

Mount Aso in the center of Kyushu is an active volcano and the largest caldera in the world. This huge, ancient, volcanic crater measures approximately 120km in circumference and approximately 24km north to south and 18 km across east to west. The caldera contains five peaks Mount Eboshi (1337m), Mount Kishima (1321m), Mount Naka (1323m), Mount Neko (1408m) and Mount Taka (1592m).

Our next stop was a HottoMotto about an hour or so away. HottoMotto is a Japanese "fast food" which serves a variety of bento meals. I went with the pork and rice, and Melinda did too. However, ours were slightly different.

The next 3 hours in Van 1 was filled with silly, corny, and punny jokes. For example:
Quesiton: "What is brown and sticky?"
Answer (backwards): kcits A

Joke: "Two guys walk into a bar..... The third one ducks."

Joke: "Two muffins are in the oven. One muffin says to the other 'Man! It's getting hot in here!'.... the other muffin says 'AHHHHH! A talking muffin!!'"



Van 2 on the other hand had a great discussion about Grace. I wasn't privvy to that so I can't fill you in on the details too much. But, according to O-San it was a fairly unique and refreshing experience for this group.

When we got home Katie & Will decided on a night swim. We all piled into the k-truck and O-San drove everyone down to the beach.


That was the whole day! I hope you enjoyed it... we sure did!