Camping at Lake Motosu

Going back almost two years now, when we first found out that there was a good chance that we'd be moving to Japan after Peter finished his residency in Texas, I began researching the areas around Yokota Air Base.  I wanted to know where it was in relation to Tokyo, Mt. Fuji, Kyoto, etc.  I discovered that Yokota was only about an hour from Mt. Fuji, and this got me REALLY excited.  Fast forward a few months (still in Texas, pretty sure that we'd be moving to Japan by this point) and I came across an article about stand-up paddle boarding in the Fuji 5 Lakes, which are the 5 lakes that are all very close to the base of Mt. Fuji.  It was at this point that I became determined to visit the lakes, camp, and go paddle boarding once we moved to Yokota.  Fast forward again to a year ago when we moved here.  Last summer/fall, Bennett was still very young, we were traveling quite a bit, and we hadn't yet figured out exactly where the best camping was near Fuji 5 Lakes, so we never made it out.  

But this summer I was determined to make it happen!

And we did!  We figured out that the Koan Campground at Lake Motosu was the place to go!  They have campsites lakeside, as well as a "tent village" down the road across from the lake.  And, at the Koan Motosu Inn,  (where you pay for your campsite, can eat, and even stay) you are able to rent kayaks, paddle boards, canoes, scuba equipment, etc.  

We camped at the "tent village" camp-jo (campground) down the road from the Inn, rather than lakeside (the campsite lakeside is much smaller with the tents quite close to one another).  The camp-jo we went to is nestled in the forest at the foot of the mountains across the street from the lake.  We literally had the entire camp-jo to ourselves!  The campground itself was amazing--plenty of space to run around and explore, nice flat ground for our tents, a bunch of sinks, and (clean!!!) bathrooms with showers.   

Just across the street from the camp-jo is Lake Motosu.  From Lake Motosu, as long as it's not too cloudy, Mt. Fuji is visible and the entire setting is absolutely breathtaking--I never cease to be amazed by how incredibly beautiful this country is!  

After setting up camp on Friday when we arrived, we went over to check out the lake and play around.  The side where we were doesn't have groomed beaches, but there was plenty of space to hang out, splash around, and throw rocks in the water.  All of the kids had a blast, but especially Bennett!  He did not hesitate getting into the water at all!  Plus, I swear all boys are this way, but he could literally throw rocks into the lake ALL DAY.  He would've been content to do it all weekend, in fact!  But, I'm not complaining--it's easy entertainment, and we had an incredible backdrop!

After playing at the lake, we went back to our campsite and finished getting everything out that we would need for the night.  Then we built our fire and began preparing dinner.  We roasted hot dogs and finished off with s'mores, of course.  

We ate dinner pretty early, so we had plenty of time to relax, swing in the hammock, play, and explore.  Then, once it got dark we played Marco Polo, which was Peter's ingenious idea.  It was pretty pitch black, so Peter would wander out and hide, and then the kids and I (armed with lanterns and flash lights) would yell "Marco" as Peter answered with "Polo" until we'd eventually find him.  It was so much fun and I couldn't believe how daring our kids were to go wandering around a strange forest in the darkness of night--they even played several rounds without me because I was cleaning up from dinner and getting Bennett changed.

The kids were exhausted by 7:00pm (their normal bedtime), so we put them down and all of them, even Bennett, went straight to sleep.  This gave Peter and I chance to sit and talk by the campfire for a couple of hours which was really nice--it was like we were on our own camping date!  Then, we went and joined our three little rascals in the tent for what turned out to be not such a great night's sleep . . . Will and Clara slept great in the double sleeping with Peter :)  However, Clara likes to cuddle a lot, so I don't think Peter had a whole lot of space!  But, the real challenge was Bennett.  He had his pack 'n play in the tent, and went down without a problem, but then a couple of hours after we came to bed he woke up!  And was wide awake!  And he wanted to party!  So, for about 2 hours Peter and I traded off trying desperately to get him back to sleep.  It was kind of rough. Then, a couple of hours after that, Will woke up!  At 5:00am, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and ready for the day!  Needless to say, Peter and I were tired :)  But, it could have been worse.  And the older the kids get, the better it'll get, so we're not going to let a few sleepless hours stop us from doing it all again!

Since our kids are such early risers, we had our hot chocolate, oatmeal, and cereal and were ready for the day by 7:00!  We decided to take advantage of our incredible surroundings and head out on one of the trails that lead out from our campsite.  We chose one that said it was about an hour hike, according to the little sign, and just hoped that it would take us to the summit so that we could get a great view of the lake and Mt. Fuji.  The hike started out mellow enough, but got pretty steep pretty quickly!  William did great, but about a half an hour into it, he burned out.  Peter ran ahead a ways to check things out, but once he realized that the hike we chose wouldn't get us to the view we wanted, we decided to head back down.  It was all so beautiful though and a great way to start out our morning.

After our hike, we cleaned up and packed up camp, ate an early lunch and went over to the Koan Motosu Inn to rent some canoes and get in the lake!  Ideally, we would have rented stand-up paddle boards, but Peter and I decided that we didn't want to have to wait and take turns going out and watching the kids on the shore, and that they'd have more fun anyway if we went canoeing instead.  So that's what we did!  We got two canoes and paddled around and had little races in the lake (I'm not going to tell you who won every single race, but I will tell you that Peter may have bragged about having gotten his canoeing merit badge as a boy scout . . . ).  It was a lot of fun!  William loved having his own paddle and Clara was happy as long as she didn't get splashed and had her own seat :)  And Bennett is crazy.  As long as he is outside and with his family he is a happy guy.

Camping at Lake Motosu was so so so much fun!  We can't wait to go back, next time hopefully with friends!  Plus, it's close to a whole bunch of fun places to check out--like all of the caves!  After canoeing we went to a lava ice cave--blog post coming soon!

GPS Coordinates for Koan Motosu Inn (where the campsites are reserved/paid for, and where you can rent recreational equipment): 35.473811, 138.573248

GPS Coordinates for the "tent village" camp-jo at which we stayed (paid for at the Koan Motosu Inn): 35.451829, 138.571253

Shopping on Kappabashi Street

Peter had the Monday after the 4th of July off, so we decided to drag ourselves out into the rain and check out Kappabashi, the kitchen district of Tokyo!  I was a little apprehensive about taking our kids shopping for dishes (breakable!) on a super rainy day (wet and miserable!), but in the end, I was really glad we went!  Most of the sidewalks on Kappabashi Street are actually covered with awnings, so we stayed dry and we didn't even break anything!!!  

We went right after the US Women's soccer team won the World Cup (they played Japan!), which is why we're all decked out in our USA (and Japan; Will was rooting for both teams) gear.

Kappabashi Street is awesome.  I'm sure all big cities have a kitchen district, or a restaurant supply area, but never have I heard of them being a tourist attraction, or even relevant for everyday people.  I think that's why Tokyo's kitchen district is so unique and fun.  While they sell everything from wholesale plastic take-out containers to shop flags and signs, to industrial sized snow cone machines, they also have aprons and dishes and chopsticks and more knives than you can imagine!  They have things that can be used in your kitchen at home, as well as all kinds of items that can be sent home as souvenirs. 

Our favorite shops by far, though, were the fake display food shops!!!  Everywhere you go here in Japan, restaurants advertise what they serve by displaying dishes of fake food in their windows.  At first I found it really strange and unappetizing, but now I love it!  It makes choosing a restaurant so much easier!  Anyway, it was really fun to peruse the stores that sell all of this fake food.  We went in thinking we'd buy a bunch of fake food that the kids could play with, but once we got in the stores and saw that a bowl of katsu curry was about $50 we quickly changed our minds!  So, we settled on a few magnets and keychains instead: Will chose a squid, I picked a sushi handroll for my car, and then we got shrimp sushi, onigiri, and gyoza magnets as well.

The stores had some other really fun things as well; I finally got a big lucky cat that I'd been wanting since we moved here and Peter found a really cool half apron that a lot of the restaurant owners in small mom and pop shops wear.  And then of course, mostly because Peter can't resist Japanese dishes, we came home with 5 big soup bowls and matching dipping dishes.  So, even though it ended up being an expensive day, it was definitely fun!

GPS Coordinates for Kappabashi Street: 35.710596, 139.788272

Two New Green Smoothie Recipes

It's been a while since I've posted any green smoothie recipes here on the blog.  For a while, during all of our traveling before we got to Japan, I wasn't drinking them as regularly and I was really missing them.  But, I knew it would be a while (after we got here) until all of our household goods would arrive (they finally got here on Monday--2.5 months after everything was moved out of our house inTexas!), so we made sure to mail ourselves our Vitamix ahead of time so that it would be ready and waiting for us when we arrived.  And I'm so glad we did!  I am back in my daily green smoothie mode!

I love the way my body feels when I regularly drink my smoothies.  They give me noticeably more energy during the day (in the mornings especially), I feel so much lighter and healthier when I drink them, as opposed to eating something else for breakfast, and they really aid in digestion.  Plus, if I'm ever having an unhealthy eating day, I can blend myself up a smoothie for the next meal and feel like I'm sort of making up for it :)  Even if I can't undo what I've eaten, I can at least boost my nutrient and fiber intake!

So, anyway, recently I've come up with two new favorite recipes!  And my kids have LOVED both of them.  Here they are:

Berry Mango

1/2 Cup Red Grapes
2 Cups Spinach
1 Cup Mango
1/2 Cup Blackberries
1/2 Cup Blueberries
1 Cup Pineapple
1 1/2 Cups Water

Place in blender and blend until smooth!

*I used all frozen fruit, except for the grapes and spinach*

Berry Berry

1 Cup Red Grapes
2 Cups Spinach
1/2 Apple
1/2 Cup Blackberries
1/2 Cup Blueberries
1 Cup Strawberries
1 1/2 Cups Water

Place in blender and blend until smooth!

*In this recipe, I used fresh grapes and apples, but the rest (including the spinach!) was frozen*

Tanabata Festival

We've only been in Japan for about three and a half weeks, yet we feel like we've been able to experience so much already!  It makes me excited for how much we will be able to do and see in the next three years.  Last week was the annual Tanabata Festival here in Fussa.  The festival is always centered right around the Fussa train station, and just blocks from base, giving us no other excuse than to go and participate in the festivities!

The streets were decorated with streamers and all sorts of festive paper creations.  Many people dress in traditional clothing for the festivals here, so it was fun to see so many different brightly colored kimonos up close.  AND THE FOOD!  So good.  Think of street food in New York or maybe carnival food and then bump the quality and taste up about 500 notches and you'll get street food at a Japanese festival!  Yakitori (meat on a stick), okonimiyaki (vegetable pancakes), karage (Japanese style fried chicken nuggets), pancake balls (no idea what the correct name is!), yakisoba (fried noodles), and all sorts of fish on a stick, just to name a few things.  And it's all so delicious.  

There were also a bunch of little carnival games for the kids and small toys for sale.  This was, of course, Will's favorite part of the festival.  

We love going to our local festival, but next time we go to a festival, you can count on Clara being dressed up!  Kawaii!!!

Kickin' it in SA: Strawberry Picking at Marburger Orchard

As I mentioned in my last post, last week while my brother was in town visiting, we went strawberry picking!  We went to Marburger Orchard which is near Fredericksburg.  It's about an hour from where we live in San Antonio, but it's a beautiful drive so we didn't mind at all!  

There are several "pick-your-own" farms around the San Antonio area (like Love Creek Orchards where we picked apples last year), but we had heard great things about strawberry picking at Marburger Orchard so we decided to give them a try!  And they didn't disappoint!  The owner was nice, but he was strictly business :)  He had lots of rules to follow (many of which pertaining to keeping children from yanking the plants out of the ground), but we didn't mind--I'm sure there have been plenty of situations to warrant the creation of all his rules!  We kept an eye on Will and Clara, but they did great.  They had more fun just putting the berries into the basket than picking them, so my brother and I ended up doing almost all the picking ourselves!  It turned out to be a pretty good system :)

The nice thing about strawberry season is that it's not sweltering hot!  It was a pleasant day in the beautiful orchard and we had a lot of fun.  Peach picking in a couple of months, however, might be a different story!  But I'm sure they'd be worth it.  (FYI blackberry season starts around next week and peach season starts the last week of May and goes through July.)

We filled our basket and ended up with a little over 7 pounds of strawberries!  That's more than enough for our little family to eat, so at that point we called it good and went and sat at a picnic table on the property and pulled out the lunch we had packed, which was complemented very nicely with fresh strawberries.

Going to Marburger Orchard was a lot of fun.  It's a special outing that's out of the ordinary, it provides a great opportunity to teach kids about where our food comes from, and of course there's the fact that fresh berries are just about the best thing ever!  After this little adventure, we ate strawberries with every meal for several days, I made our family's version of strawberries 'n cream (simple recipe below), and we made a batch of homemade fruit leather!  We definitely have had our fill of strawberries this season and we've loved it!

Strawberries 'n Cream

- Slice as many strawberries as you need and place them in a bowl
- Cover the strawberries with milk (to make it extra creamy, substitute half the milk with half and half)
- Add a tablespoon of sugar at a time until it's sweet enough for your liking
- Add approximately 1 tsp of vanilla extract (more/less depending on your quantity)
- Enjoy!!!

For me, eating strawberries 'n cream like this brings back wonderful memories from growing up.  Plus, I think this is the perfect sweet treat in the springtime or for brunch!  And feel free to experiment and use this recipe with other fruits as well; it works well with all other types of berries, but I particularly like to make peaches 'n cream this way!  And if you try peaches 'n cream, don't forget to add a dash of nutmeg as well!  YUM!

Homemade Fruit Leather

Last week we went strawberry picking (more on that later!).  We came home with a little over 7 pounds of strawberries!  And they are so delicious!  However, since we're not really jam or strawberry pie people, we've just been eating them straight for pretty much every meal.  But, as madly as we've been trying to eat them, we still had more than we could handle and I really didn't want them to go bad!

So . . . I decided to pull out our good ol' food dehydrator!  I really don't use that thing enough.  Anyway, my kids LOVE fruit leather, so instead of just drying strawberry slices that I know my kids wouldn't eat, I decided to puree those ripe little berries right up and make some strawberry fruit leather!  If you have a dehydrator, it's super simple.  I just dumped my berries in the blender, blended them until smooth, then poured the puree right onto the sheet and set it for 135º F and turned it on!  (It can take anywhere from 4-8 hours, you just have to check it regularly.)  I didn't add any additional sugar because our strawberries were so ripe, but you can add honey or corn syrup or other sweetener if you'd like to make your fruit leather sweeter.  And, guess what???  You can make fruit leather even if you don't have a dehydrator!  Just stick it in the oven!  I found this great recipe from pinterest, and there were about a million more to choose from!  Next up: dried pineapple.  I'm on a dehydrating kick now!

Mango Lemon Twist Green Smoothie

I have another awesome green smoothie recipe for you today!  I like this smoothie because it's so simple, but still healthy and delicious.  Here's the recipe:

Mango Lemon Twist

1/2 of a Large Pear

1 Cup (heaping) Frozen Mango

2 Cups Spinach
2 Drops Lemon Oil (or 1/4 Lemon)
1 1/2 Cups Water

Place all ingredients in blender and blend until smooth.  (If using fresh mango, you made want to add 6-8 ice cubes.)

*For an extra boost, add coconut oil, flax, or chia seeds.

I linked up to Make It and Love It!

Tropical Green Smoothie

My next smoothie recipe is one for beginners!  Anyone and everyone will like this combination of tropical flavors--it's a great way to introduce green smoothies to your family!

Tropical Green Smoothie

1 Banana

1 Cup Pineapple

1 Cup Mangos

1 Cup Strawberries

2 Cups Spinach

1 Tbsp Coconut Oil

1.5 Cups Water/Coconut Water/Coconut Milk

Place all ingredients in blender, blend until smooth, and enjoy!  

*I use frozen fruit, making my smoothie cold and thick.  If you are using fresh fruit, you may want to add 6-8 ice cubes to thicken your smoothie.

Kickin' it in SA: Bakery Lorraine and The Twig Book Shop Storytime

I love an outing that's partly for the kids, and partly for the mama.  Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to chill all morning at the zoo or Kiddie Park or at a children's museum, but it's extra nice when there's a little something for mamas to enjoy as well.  And that's why today's outing was so great--I mean, can you say pain au chocolate, macaron, or morning buns without your mouth watering and jumping into your minivan to get those beauties in your belly?!  

This morning, that's exactly what we did.  We met up with friends to get some tasty pastries at Bakery Lorraine and then we went on to the fabulous Wild and Wacky Storytime with Miss Anastasia at The Twig Book Shop. 

 

Clara sitting on the porch of Bakery Lorraine

Bakery Lorraine is the cutest little bakery, located near the Pearl Brewery in San Antonio, that sells the most delicious macarons, among other delicacies.  From the outside, the bakery looks like a quaint gray home with a white picket fence and a garden in the backyard, but get a little closer and you'll begin to get wafts of delicious sugary pastries!  This is definitely a spot to take your friends and family that appreciate the finer things in life :)  But that being said, my 2 year old can pound those macarons like nobody's business!  Today's flavors were: pistachio, black current/dark chocolate, and lemon or lime and olive oil.  The pistachio was PERFECT.  I want to eat 20 more!

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So, after we indulged in almond tarts, morning buns, and macarons, we went around the corner to the Pearl Brewery for storytime with Miss Anastasia at The Twig Book Shop.  Miss Anastasia is hands down the best storyteller ever.  Ever.  Check out the many faces of Miss Anastasia that The Twig posted on their website:

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How could she not get you excited about reading???  Will ate up every word that she read, and to be honest, so did I!  (Now, if only I could get Clara to sit still for more than 90 seconds at a time, then I really could have enjoyed it!)  And not only does Miss Anastasia always read more than 1 book (today she read 4!), there are always crafts and treats that follow!  It's pretty much what Will would describe as the perfect way to spend an hour.  He loved it.  Below are pictures of Will enjoying storytime and getting involved with the hand actions (I think he was the only kid to participate :)), and then showing off his gold medal craft that he made at the end.

 Sorry about the blurry iPhone photo!

 So . . . in short, GO TO BOTH OF THESE PLACES!  Seriously.  You won't be disappointed!  Storytime at The Twig is every Friday at 10:30am, which is the perfect time if you want to stop at Bakery Lorraine beforehand for a delectable breakfast :)