The Chicken Shack!

If you ever come to visit us in Japan, we will for sure go here for dinner. This is a definite tourist location in Iwakuni and we had such a great time. Our sponsor family asked us to come along last weekend. What a beautiful and expansive place. They have many outdoor and indoor places to sit and eat and there is one restaurant that has several kitchens on the site depending on where you plan to sit. Because it was nice out, we decided to sit outside. There is plenty for the kids to do and see from feeding Koi fish to banging on large drums. This was our first experience removing our shoes and sitting at a low table. The food we got was delicious. They're known for their teriyaki chicken on a stake so we got a few of those as well as gyoza (fried potstickers) and some glorified chicken nuggets for the kids. Rylan asked for these vegetable sushi rolls that our friend got but we didn't order them this time. The food took forever to come out and from what I understand, that's very typical in Japanese restaurants. Fortunately there was plenty for the kids to do in the meantime but next time, I'll make sure we eat something beforehand so we're not too ravenous. We also need to stock up on bug spray because the mosquitos were aplenty! We ended our evening there with some vending machine ice cream.

School Events

Quinn is officially done with school. What ever am I to do?! She came home with a Citizen of the Month award the week before school ended and the last week they handed out class awards. She got the "Happy Helper" award for her class. We are so proud of her for all of her good character awards between her two schools for Kindergarten. She may not be the best in a particular subject, but we are so pleased with her for being such a great young lady.

They have a Summer camp on base that we will be signing her up for during July while Chris is away doing an exercise. Hopefully that way, I'll get a little break and not completely lose my mind! Rylan only has August off, so I will have to find things to do for that month as well.

Rylan is loving school and learning so many words; mostly in song form. We just had Parent's Day last weekend so they could show us what they're learning and see their classroom. Unfortunately, Rylan is still shy and uncooperative when all of the parents are there so as you can see in the pictures, he did not willingly participate in anything. Quinn and Finley got antsy, so they played outside with Chris while I sat in and watched Rylan. His teacher spoke her best to us as we were leaving to explain that he's not like that in class everyday and he has a good time. I do love seeing him interact with the Japanese kids in his class more.

Lanai Cafe at YouMe Town Hatsukaichi

YouMe Town is a chain of malls, much like Westfield. They have many of them but the newest and largest one near us is in Hatsukaichi. They have tons of stores and restaurants. This time instead of dining at the golden M, we decided to try a Hawaiian pancake cafe called Lanai Cafe. They had pancakes galore as well as hamburgers. We chose to sit outside, which was nice to be able to let the kids run around while we waited for our food. Restaurants are not the most fun when trying to keep three little kids in line. The kids shared a large pancake plate with fruit and a tower of whipped cream (so heavy it fell over before I could get a picture) and Chris got a bacon cheeseburger and french fries. As pictured below, he got enough ketchup for one fry for his entire plate and when he asked for more after one fry was consumed, he got the same amount again! Ketchup is definitely not a staple condiment in Japan. I'll have to start carrying ketchup with us when we go out just in case. The pancakes were delicious and it was a nice change from our safe bet, McDonalds.

Kuga Park with Rylan

I went with Rylan on his school field trip to Kuga Park and we had a great time! His class did some songs for the parents and we got to introduce ourselves to each other circle-style. We had no clue what the Japanese moms were saying but smiled all the same! We went on the big roller slide, had a picnic, he zip-lined, sledded down the hill, and hula-hooped. After the field trip we met up with Chris and Finley for some ice cream to conclude a nice warm day.

Hamada Beach for Memorial Day

Last Monday, we drove about 2 hours West to Hamada Beach with some friends for Memorial Day. Because it's an American holiday, we basically had the beach to ourselves and were graced with beautiful weather after days of rain.