Sayonara Japan!

With a final stop to visit the Osaka Castle and have our very own “samurai” moment, we ended our incredible trip to the great country of Japan. We loved the hospitality, respect, honesty and kindness of the Japanese people. We enjoyed the cleanliness and order of the streets, metro stops and places we visited. The “peach water” and any ice cream was a hot item for our family. Leila and Geoff enjoyed the Japanese food the most with ramen, steamed meat buns and udon being favorites. Our children were fantastic travelers and learned a lot about traveling through major cities, honoring other cultures and their way of doing things and managed to keep up quite well on some of our very long days. I can’t think of one time they complained about hurting feet or being tired of walking and most days in Tokyo and Osaka we averaged 5-10 miles of walking, which included a lot of stairs. 

We cannot thank Drew, Jana, Carter, Kallie, Ethan and Emelyn enough for being incredible hosts. Our families got along so well, and we really enjoyed getting to know them and their current home better. We love y’all and are so grateful.

Benaiah - we’re coming home baby boy!! Thank you Nonnie, Grandad, Grandma and Grandpa for taking care of him so well. We are blessed!

The walls surrounding the Osaka Castle.

The beautiful Gingko trees.

This piece of stone and all the others around it were chiseled and moved in the early 1600s. Geoff couldn’t get over this given that they had no machinery!

Frazier inside the entrance.

Mary-Michael “holding up” Osaka Castle.

Watch out!

Hi-ya!