Joetsu in Bloom

On our quest to show my dear mother why we have moved to the other side of the globe, we visited many beautiful places. But despite the beauty of the flowers, and the different interesting things we saw, my favorite part was seeing my mother fall in love with my son all over again. The two of them played for hours on end. But each time she played itsy-bitsy spider with him, he never failed to giggle and squeel with delight. It was a special time for all of us.One place we visited was Joetsu, Niigata Prefecture. It is a small port city, and has the closest beach to Nagano City. While here, besides visiting their fantastic aquarium, we had a picnic in a beautiful area of town where there are a lot of temples and shrines. We could not help posing for a few pictures.