Steam Locomotive

This morning we got up and went to a place called Michi No Eki in Motegi. There are a bunch of Michi No Ekis around Japan because they are really just glorified road side rest areas. But this one is special because it has a train track that runs through it and there is a steam locomotive that passes through twice per day. Recently Nathan has been all about trains. So we thought this would be a great surprise. We didn’t tell them what we were doing.

We arrived around 10am and the steam train doesn’t roll through until noon so we had some time to kill. There’s actually a lot to do around that area so it was pretty easy to kill 2 hours. We first went to this little restaurant and had some various Japanese food dishes.

Next we took a walk to the playground. It was actually cold and rainy. But the kids were champs. It really didn’t bother them at all.

Next we took a walk by the river and checked out a waterfall

Then we checked out this yellow roofed house. It is open for free tours, but we decided not to go in. Apparently its over 100 years old and it was built by a guy that was really interested in American style houses. So he imported all the parts of this house from America over 100 years ago. It was kinda cool.

As some people may know, our state, Tochigi, is known for its strawberries. So at this Michi No Eki they have hand mixed fresh strawberries into some milk flavored ice cream. So we went to that place next. I am a big fan of strawberry ice cream in general, and this was, hands down, the best I have ever had. For some reason Heather decided to get chocolate.

Nathan was running around and slipped and got his pants all wet. He didn’t cry or anything. He just kept playing and walking around in 40 degree weather.

Then finally, after waiting for two hours, the steam engine finally came around the mountain. The kids didn’t know what to think.