October Family Fun!

October was really busy for us.  Let's see... where do I begin.  Started off with me attending the Bad Girl Ball - which is what the spouses do while the husbands are away...our squadron's theme was Austin Powers so this is my rendition of psychedelic... don't laugh too hard!

Moving on, we find Nick playing jv football for Zama High School...#59!

Ally is having fun on the Atusgi Blue Dolphins Swim Team!



Ally on the block for her relay team!



Ally is bottom row third from right.

Next we find Michael playing soccer...before the elbow incident...he fell off of his rip stick and dislocated his elbow and chipped the bone.  We spent the night in a Japanese hospital which was interesting.  Everyone tried their best to communicate with us but we did a lot of charades stuff.  He was in a soft cast for five weeks.



Go Michael #2!




His scream could be heard throughout the neighborhood!

 Halloween came which found us trick or treating without Dad still.  Mom had the brilliant idea of blasting Michael Jackson's Thriller song which caused us to not hear colors (music played over the loud speakers on the base while they lower the flags) everyone was stopped and showing proper attention and Nick and I were jamming away to Thriller (how embarrassing)!  We also ran out of candy fast... never seen so many kids!



Michael was a disabled scary man and
Ally a crayola crayon!




Nick taking over the role of "candy hander-outer".

 Finally....Dad came home!  His stay on the boat was extended a few days due to the typhoon that was passing through the area but he made it!  We missed you and are so proud of you Dad!

Tokyo Sightseeing



This is a model of the Tokyo Tower we were in!



Our next tour was in October of the great city of Tokyo!  We started out at the Tokyo Tower which has an observatory 150 meters above the city.  It was a cloudy morning so we didn't get that great of a view.

     

Tony was still not back from sea to go with us on this one!



This is a view of the city behind the kids from
the tower.



One more view looking down!



  

 




 



Ally in front of the guarded entrance to the
Imperial Palace.

 Our next stop was to view the Imperial Palace.  Unfortunately, the Emperor only comes out to greet the public two times a year - on his birthday and the Japanese New Year.
   

A view of the mote surrounding the palace.





  
Next we went to the oldest temple in Tokyo called Sensoji.  There we inhaled the burning incense to cure what ails us.  We said some prayers and we each received our fortunes.  Nick and I got good fortunes but Ally and Michael's were not so good.  The tradition is you tie your bad fortune on a string there basically asking that they take the bad fortune back.  I'm not sure that worked for Michael seeing how a week later he dislocated his elbow!



















Our last part of the day was taking a cruise down the Sumida River that runs through Tokyo.  It was very relaxing cruise after our long day of walking.  We ended at the Hamarikyu garden park which was very pretty as well.