Chiba

Isaac requested that we go on one last vacation together as a family.  We can't go during Spring Break because we have visitors for most of March, including part of Spring Break.  This seemed like our last chance to go somewhere together so at the last minute we booked a place in Chiba.  We had originally planned to go Nagoya and even thought maybe we'd keep driving to Hiroshima (an 11 hour drive from here).  Isaac and Eli said they didn't need a long vacation and would like to go for just a few days and we had dentist appointments and I had a mammogram scheduled that would all have to be rescheduled so we decided to go somewhere closer and settled on Chiba, just an hour and a half away to the East.  Chiba is known for their beaches.  I've been there with friends to a flower farm but never to the beach.  The place we stayed at was pretty basic and very small but we didn't need anything fancy.  This was the week we were all sick so we didn't actually do much besides read books, play games, take turns in the hot tub, and walk on the beach.  It was quite cold, especially with the wind that is ever present in Japan but we just bundled up and enjoyed being outside.  The beach was walking distance from the place we stayed at and we enjoyed watching the surfers--there were a lot of surfers.  

My least favorite part of the trip was going to bed with a fever and sleeping on floor mats, which felt like sleeping directly on the floor.  I was happy to come back to my comfortable bed.