Golden Week

During the Golden Week national holidays, our friends, the Haginos, took us to see a kite festival. The kites were in the shape of Koi carp. There were also real Koi carp swimming in small ponds alongside the towns footpath. The kite festival was on Childrens Day.  We also visited a park with squirrels, ponds & some tasty noodles stalls.  After a big day we visited an Onsen (natural hot spring) complex and had a soak.

 Meeting the fire brigade

Pirate ship playground

Wave pool: Closed

Squirrel park

Kite festival

Onsen: White wisteria

Local park

Sakata Wetlands centre

Kids park near Sakata

First day preschool

Bullet train festival

Azaleas are now out in Japan. They’re everywhere and wisteria too. 

We’ve been to the local heated pool here, heated by the waste burning facility next door.  The pools have lots of massage jets and there’s a water slide for toddlers and a round pool with a flowing current. Eddie & Charlie enjoy swimming there.  They serve traditional food there too, which was great quality.

This weekend we enjoyed the Shinkansen (Bullet train) festival.  We had a day full of public transport to give Eddie a big day out.  We caught the bus into the main Niigata station then caught another train to see the bullet trains.

We’ve been to see the local wetlands centre at Sakata. It attracts thousands of swans in November so hopefully we’ll see them before we leave. We enjoyed a walk along the boardwalk and saw some huge tadpoles.

Eddie has started preschool two days a week at an international English speaking school. It was opened only in September by a man from Mudgee and his Japanese wife who’ve worked with children for many years in Tokyo.  www.cubbyhouseenglish.com