Matsushima

Today we enjoyed a get away with the Huddlestons.  It's rare for them to get a day away, so we were glad to provide them with an excuse to take a break from their 24/7 ministry schedule (although they did get a few calls and texts throughout the day!).  We had such a fun and memorable day.  I took over 100 pictures, but tried to narrow it down a bit.  Ha!

A picture from the "guest house" we are staying in at Chad and Jennifer's.  It's been redone since the tsunami, but you can still see the water line 3/4 of the way up on the door and white wall.

We drove to Matsushima, one of the "three most beautiful places in Japan".  It's an area that has 260 islands....very beautiful indeed.  Because of how the lay of the land is, it wasn't as totally devastated as many of the other northern coastal areas of Japan.  It was about 45 minutes away from Ishinomaki, but on the way we drove the coast and saw many other evidences of the mass destruction.  Below is just one of many "new" dumps that is full of scraps.

The cousins in age order, from five to sixteen:

And then in height order....

We took a 50-minute ferry tour around and through some of the islands.  While we tried to enjoy the beauty around us, the main highlight was feeding the seagulls that flew behind us the whole way.  It was so funny and entertaining.  Chris even fed some of them by holding a chip in his mouth and they grabbed it right out!

 

As if we hadn't had fun enough on the ferry ride with the sea gulls, we then crossed this 200 meter bridge to one of the islands.  We were simply looking for a place for a picnic, but we discovered so much more!

We did find a great place to sit for our picnic lunch, but then started hiking around a path on the island.  We went off the path and down to a hidden beach.  When we arrived it looked like this:

But then someone got the bright idea to raise the bamboo poles that had drifted to shore...

Someone else got the idea to fashion some musical instruments and do a "natives" dance...

Oh, so much fun.  You just had to be there to understand.  We ended up spending well over an hour on this tiny beach, just playing, creating, laughing, dancing, and making some great memories.  What a treat!  I told Chris that it was worth coming halfway around the world just for that special hour together.   One of these days I'll get some video posted.

So after so much physical and emotional energy being expended, we hiked around the island a bit more and then crashed on a huge grassy area that we discovered.  

Thank you, Father, for this very special time spent with family.  We love you, Chad, Jennifer, Anika, Josiah, Caleb, Katia, and Gideon!!