Branson and Natural Bridge

This weekend we embarked on a quick one night trip to Branson, MO to see Moses at the Sight and Sound Theatre!  We deferred to TripAdvisor to help choose our dinner destination and ended up at Baba's Burgers & Gyros. 

Yummy!  

After dinner, we went on to the theatre and settled in for a fantastic show!  

Our seats were great!  Row 4!!

And we were even able to get someone to take a photo of the two of us.

We arrived at our hotel late late that night and were so exhausted I only managed the one photo ... 

On the trip home, we made a slight detour to check out the Natural Bridge of Arkansas.  We've driven past this attraction many times but never stopped before.  

For $5 a person, you gain access to the Bridge and a small historical museum.  

Inside the museum is a cross-section of a tree with marked rings showing its age and presence at various points in Arkansas history.  

Past the museum, we saw the natural bridge! 

Overall the natural bridge is a good side stop if you're traveling through north central Arkansas.  

I'm Behind!

Life ... Is ... Crazy!!!

Updates to follow soon!

Hotel #3 - Room #1

Today we moved to a new hotel in Iwakuni!  I know, I know, I haven't even blogged about the last one in Hiroshima .... but still ... this is worth going out of order for!

The view when you walk into our entryway!  Yep.  

To the right you have the western beds!

And to the left, our dining room.  Japanese style. 

TV in the dining room:

What an experience! 

ETA:  Turns out we are not changing rooms daily as expected.  I'll update y'all if that changes with a tour of our new pace.

October in Japan! Breakfast

The view of the morning fog across the river from our living/dining room:

Tea-lights (ish) are used to heat up a Japanese stew at breakfast

Our initial spread

All kinds of yummyness!

Yeah, please ignore my hair .... open windows, constant rain, and humidity is doing a number on it these days

Cracking up at breakfast!

Aweee ... how cute are we!

We finished up our meal with some yummy coffee ... with cream and sugar of course!

Cell Phone Pics Round Up

Selfie on the plane leaving for Japan .... this feels like an eternity ago!

We're about to land!  Woo Hooo .... 12 hours on a flight is a LONG time!

Someone got some sleep on the ride over .... teee heeee

Our chariot to Japan:

Selfie at the Monster Cafe, Tokyo!

Wifey's iced coffee our first day in Iwakuni

Wifey's selfie at a shrine of some sort.

Another shrine selfie:

Wifey visiting the hotels onsen while hubby was away!  

Japan Friday Night Dinner

Friday night we had dinner at our new hotel.  It was Japanese style, and included about 10 courses.  They may all look small, but we did not leave hungry.  Sadly, we have no idea what anything was so my narration will be brief .... check out our dinner!

Our Menu (we think).  As best we understand, each column is a different dish/course.  Here is a rough google-translate transcription:

"Menu

Persimmon of Shiraae

Ohira (Iwakuni local cuisine)

Between sashimi three types sea bream eight squid

Netherlands boiled Sagoshi

Sicilian -style pork belly

Sujime of mackerel

savory egg custard  

Iwakuni Sushi

coconut wind your sweet red-bean soup

Since I cook seasonal ingredients, there is the case that the contents are subject to change.  so thank you in advance for your understanding!  2016 years September thirty days Iwakuni international tourist hotel chef Hishibayashi SaiwaiSusumu"

Japan Day 6 - Hiroshima

The more travel we accomplish in such a short time period, the more tired we are!  

Hubby started Day 6 with the following experiment:

DSLR selfie as we catch the elevator to Breakfast on the 25th floor~

When you arrive, you receive a little card to leave on your table while you visit the buffet.

Our Table & View for Day 2!!!

COFFEE!!!!

A sampling of the breakfast buffet!

Some of the more Japanese style breakfast options:

Juice!

Another DLSR Selfie:

Hubby eating some octopus dumplings.  They were probably one of the best options for breakfast.  

After breakfast we walked a mile or so down and visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.

Apparently some Japanese school children had the same idea.

This clock counts up from the time the first atomic bomb was dropped in Hiroshima as well as since the last atomic test was performed.  25988 days and 21 days respectively.

This is the atomic bomb dome.  It was very near the epi-center of the blast, and was thus not COMPLETELY destroyed.  As the memorial park and museum were built, citizens of Hiroshima debated whether to preserve or remove this.  Preservation won and it now stands to remind the world why NOT to engage in war and specifically atomic war.

A sign describing the bridge which was likely the intended target of the bomb.

The location and replacement for that bridge.