Family Outing

This past Sunday, I decided it was a good time to go on a bit of an outing. We hadn't done anything like that in awhile and since the weather was gorgeous, I suggested it. Japan is really amazing with all sorts of day trip guides and things, but we didn't actually own one. We remedied that and then decided on what route we would take.

Shimon chose one that would take us near Mt. Fuji and would be relatively easy to navigate. If we went in the opposite direction (toward Chiba prefecture), we would definitely get stuck in traffic, which was another factor in the choice.

The drive was gorgeous. We didn't hit much traffic and we made it to near Mt. Fuji in decent time. We were very lucky to be able to get a glimpse of the mountain as we drove in. Sadly, as we got closer to our actual destination the mountain disappeared.

We were headed to a lake called Yamanaka-ko (Yamanaka Lake). There are 5 (I think!) lakes that surround Mt. Fuji and this one just happened to be one of them. We drove part way around the lake until we found a parking lot. You can tell you have left the metropolitan area when all the parking is free!!

There are nice bike paths around the lake and a lot of little shops offering bike rental. Shimon went to check the place out. Turns out that there was a tandem bike with a small baby seat attached. There was no helmet, and normally I would be a stickler, but as we wouldn't be crossing any roads I decided we'd take it just the once. (We really need to get on the bike situation for me anyway....)

So we rented the tandem bike.

And we're ready to go!

I actually didn't ride up front. I let Shimon steer as I was a little nervous to do it. I have to say that riding in the back is weird because the handles are just for show. But your instinct (or at least mine) was to try and steer. It's a very weird feeling!

We road a ways to park area where we got off and walked around.

Run to dad....

Run to mom!

This was a fun game we played while Shimon took lots of pictures. Back and forth, back and forth. Eventually we had to stop and return to where we parked the bike because we only had it for an hour. Walking back Touma got a ride!

This was the first time Touma has really been stable enough to do this.

After returning the bike we ended up having some noodles for a late lunch. However, the most entertaining thing about lunch was Touma demonstrating his new "skill."

Whatcha diggin' for son?