Travelog for: Eloy

Sakura cherry blossoms in full bloom

Dear Eustachia,
Sakura is falling.
Look! Petals on the ground look like a beautiful carpet
Japanese really love this flower.

love, Eloy

Japan is a mountainous country. The cemetery is built on a hillside.
Their traditional gravestones have a thin and narrow cubic shape.
The flat-roof mountain over there is Mt. Yashima, the symbol of the city.

annular solar eclipse
Unfortunately it is cloudy here. The sun went behind the thick clouds. So let's see it on TV!

Hexagon Origami Box
How have you been, Eustachia?
I'm soon leaving here for the next place.
Look, I'm making a pretty box. This is a small gift for my new host.
Finally I finished two boxes.
One is for you, Eustachia.
It will make you feel "Japan" closer.

See you soon,
Eloy

Hello!
I'm now in Minnesota, USA. Whew! What a trip~!

The first thing we did was take a walk around while I introduced myself to my host.  It's so nice to be out of that small package and out in the fresh air.







Bye for now!
~Eloy

We are taking a loooong car trip to Duluth, MN. It's about 3 hours! 







Host mom lets me sit right up front. I guess pets don't need seatbelts. 





We've arrived! Hello, Duluth! 



There's where we are headed: right to that bridge in the background. It's called the Aerial Lift Bridge. It's in Canal Park-- where we will spend the day with friends. 









Group Picture Time~!





Host mom rented this funny looking bicycle contraption for us to ride around in. Hee hee hee!





We rode all the way down the pier and up a platform to see more of Lake Superior.



There's the lift bridge again. These are my new friends-- Noodles and Okuma! Okuma is a lion TV just like me!!!! We had so much in common to talk about. 



Look at this cute shop we found! I bought you a little souvenir......





What a fun day! We are now heading to Camp in Wisconsin to spend the week on the beach. Maybe I'll get a tan? 

We are having a GREAT time at the beach! This is what Summer is all about over here.



I found this nice little spot. 









I even helped create this HUGE sandcastle! It's big enough for me to live in! 





Time to go back home to Host mom's house. We passed through Duluth again on our way back.

Yesterday, we took about 6 youngsters out to Valleyfair-- a large amusement park in Bloomington, Minnesota.

There's no pictures of us Toy Voyagers on the rides because those little imps were too much maintenance. *sigh*

BUT we did win something rather cool:

It's furry.......


and white.......


and it's a giant......



GORILLA!





Really, I don't know how we managed to get this thing home. :/

Quite a size difference between us! We introduced ourselves, and the gorilla's name is Turk!

Hi mom!
Can you guess where we are visiting today?
It's the Mall of America~!



First we stopped at the Build-A-Bear workshop...... it was pretty neat, but there were no clothes in my size. :/





Going down!



We even got to go inside the Minnesota store! We found a bunch of postcards.



Whoa! Is that who I think it is???
President Obama?!?!?
Hahaha-- not quite. 



We shared lunch at Panda Express...... not as good as sushi, but I'll take it. 



MoA even has it's own indoor amusement park! :O



We found the Disney store! Host mom loves this place.





I found a my-size castle.



It was a full day trip and I'm quite exhausted. Bye for now!
~Eloy

Hi Mom!

We are visiting a tea room today!



We picked out Ginger Peach tea. Yummy~!

We're getting a breakfast treat! Just me and my host mom.



CUPCAKES~!

Don't these look spectacular?!?



I think this is the owner on the cover of a magazine....?



We bought a triple chocolate cupcake and some tea to share.



Close up--- * drool *



Five minutes later......
* oooh * can't eat another bite!

Hello!
We took a road trip "Up North" today.





We stopped in Moose Lake, MN to get gas.... and look what we found:

A GIANT MOOSE! 







We kept driving, and we found this cool sign:



ahgfsish. Hold on-- Host mom can't get the focus right....



That's a little better.... Let's see.... here we go:



Finally! We made it to the cabin on the lake!

Here's the sauna:




We are making bead bracelets with the girls.



The lake is so calm and peaceful.

Woo hoo!
We are heading into the city of Minneapolis tonight to see a rock concert! 









We're here at First Avenue to see Shonen Knife! They are a rock group from Osaka, Japan (my last visited country!).



Waiting in line.....



What an awesome concert~! We didn't take any pictures during the performance (that wouldn't be nice), but here's the stage afterwards:



We even bought a poster and they signed it for us!!!! So cool! 



Too bad host mom's camera doesn't work too well in the dark.....
We could've gotten some better shots of the city. Oh well, host mom says we can come to the city again.

We had Pad Thai for dinner! Not as delicious as sushi..... but it was yummy.