Sunday, 3 November 2013

We don't have a clue....November 2

We don't have a clue how to work our video cameras, etc on our iphones.  When the kids are not around to help us, this is what we get...Enjoy.
I want a film of me feeding the monkey but Bill is freaking out that the world's largest rodent is about touching him so he filmed me sideways and didn't even really get it...



Bill is trying to do the teenager pose that we see Jared and Caroline doing all the time. We have no idea the camera is running...

Us all the time…(Don't look at my hair, that was the baseball hat, humid day from Botanical Gardens)



Kirishi Dam - November 2 (part 2)

On the way home from the Botanical Gradens, we spotted a sign for Kirishi Dam.  The dams here are beautiful.  They always have nice sidewalks and running paths.  So we decided to go for another walk. We had just been on a 2 hour walk but the sun was setting and we knew it would be beautiful.












Japanese signs are always happy.  They love cute things.  And the people never look Japanese...


On the other side of the dam there is a a nice running/walking path.  We skipped it that day as we were focused on the sunset. But we will be back for a run.




Great day! 
We went to dinner after this.  We walked about 4 hours on Saturday.  
Today is Sunday.  We walked another 1.5 hours uphill to a great buffet (another one).  All uphill.  
My legs are a little stiff as I write this.

Southeast Botanical Garden or "Ann feeds the world's largest rodent"- November 2

We had terrible rainy weather for Halloween and the day after.  We saw a bit of sunshine on Saturday so Bill and I grabbed the chance to go walking...boy did we go walking.
Bill has been wanting to go to the buffet lunch at Southeast Botanical Gardens.  The gradens have been closed for 2 years (right after we got here) for upgrades.  
So the bit of sunshine was a great motivator.  We thought we would grab lunch and go for a walk around the gardens.
It was hot, about 85 and super steamy.  The water from the previous rain was just steaming.
Well, take a look at my hair throughout.  Between the the steam and my baseball hat hair, I was not a very good hair model.  But I had a great day!
I got to feed the largest rodent on the earth...




Here is my first (of 3..maybe 4) plates.


We were lucky to get a seat by the window.  The view was beautiful.



At this station, you cook pork strips and vegetables in broth. 







I chose, green tea ice cream, melon sorbet, and vanilla.  I never had melon sorbet before.  It was so refreshing and light.  The vanilla ice cream goes right into my coffee.  I am not much of an ice cream eater. But when I do, it is coffee ice cream.  At buffets, I just get a bowl of ice cream and pour a little coffee on it.  So good!


OK, then I had another tray of desserts for fun.  I am not much of a dessert eater.  I am a salt eater, we are different.  I would much rather have a bag of BBQ potato chips and sour cream than any cake, any day.  But buffets are fun to take a bite of everything.  Bill and I shared this tray.
Sesame ball in the upper right slot, bean paste and sesame paste in the bottom slots.  They love "jelly" here, that is the orange looking thing above the bean paste.  It is great in the summer because it is cool.
I liked the pastes, neat flavors.


The winner for us was the sesame balls.  They were filled with bean pastes.  The balls were rice paste. Great texture.  As you can see, we went back for seconds.


 We went for long walk around the park for about 2 hours after lunch.  Just kept circling.

Butterfly trees









Kids love to climb on the cow sculptures.  No idea why they are being led by a cow on a surfboard wearing glasses.  Who wears glasses when they surf?








Bill likes to take pictures of flowers for his mother...





Then we saw the goats, and you can feed them.
You may remember from earlier posts, Bill is not an animal lover.  So he just takes pictures.  They were so cute.






After I ran out of food and started out the pen, one of the goats got mad at me and rammed me in the butt.  With his horn.







More flowers for Bill's mom...





We had to wait an hour before the spider monkey and capybara cages open for feeding and playing.  So we kept walking and watching the clock.  The spider monkeys were co cute.  I couldn't wait to feed them.
The capybaras were hideously cute.  They are the largest rodent in the earth.


See how they have webbed feet.  And their "fur" was like a porcupine.  Really stiff.

They kind of remind me of the "Rus" "rodents of unusual size" animal from the movie, "The Princess Bride"….
























We left the park after walking for over 2 hours.  On the way home we saw Kirishi Dam and stopped by for pictures and a walk...That is part 2.  Good time, we will come back