Since Melina was still exited to be a ninja, we took a day trip down to Odawara castle to see the Fuma Ninja Show. The Fuma were the ninja clan active in the area during the age of war in Japan, and there is a lot of information about them in the castle as well as a separate kids ninja museum. The show was pretty entertaining and we got to take a picture with the group afterwards.

Due to extremely low Covid cases in Japan at this time, we decided to have a full Thanksgiving party again this year. I made all the usual dishes and had a full table of food. I invited my friends and their family, as well as Melina’s school friends. A lot of people from the house also came to take part in the feast.

Our yearly trip to Chiba for tangerine picking and final camping trip of the year.

This years Halloween party was a bit different. This year we invited all the neighborhood kids and friends over and had a kids Halloween party. There was kids foods, kids games, and plenty of candy. For Halloween night, we went trick or treating on the base again after missing out last year.

This year for Halloween, Melina decided she wanted to be a ninja. So to prepare, we took a trip up to Kinugawa to go visit Edomura Wonderland to get some real ninja training. Our first afternoon was spent taking the ropeway up the mountain to feed some monkeys and take a hike to a shrine, followed by a nice ride down the Kinu river on a wooden boat, and a nice stay at a hotel with a hot bath. The following day was spent at Edomura having lots of fun seeing the ninja show and going through the ninja stamp rally courses to learn to be a real ninja.

We went camping with Melina’s school friends again. This time the site was right on the river bank. There was also a nice waterfall that took a some hiking to get to.