Sarah Bear is ready? Mama's ready. Mama Bear is ready.

[Life in Japan Theme Song]

Something special just came in.

A FEW DAYS EARLIER

Here it is!

Not what you were expecting. Some popcorn. That is important for us.

Boy, oh boy, oh boy!

I've been flying drones for years, putting footage in Life in Japan videos.

So I'm super excited about this new, small and easy to fly package from DJI Air 2S.

It comes in a nice little pouch.

Here it is. Getting it together. It needs a battery. Boy, this is a light little guy.

Lets go? Yay!

This weekend I'm headed to the beautiful mountain town of Okutama for men's retreat sponsored by our church.

There's something so refreshing about getting out into nature for a weekend like this.

So I'm out in Okutama. And I got up early. Its a beautiful morning to try the drone for the very first time.

The footage is just gorgeous. Oh my goodness.

That's a cool view of where we are staying.

This is fantastic. I think I'm going to bring it in for a landing. Here we go.

First flight done.

I'm heading down this trail in my camo so I can't be seen.

So that I can get to the bridge down here that goes across the Tama River

That's right. This is the same Tama River that goes right by our house.

Way up in the mountains. Its just beautiful up here. Its rapid so actually this is a very popular place to go white water rafting and canoeing.

What a cool view out here in the middle. Oh my goodness.

Look at that.

I think I can celebrate the first flight by going to get a coffee.

That sure sounds good. I haven't had one yet.

Look at this view here, just gorgeous.

Its the 7 Eleven

I have my coffee. I got a good drone flight in. Now its time to head back to the camp.

The men's retreat. There's this beautiful chapel here and I get to play this beautiful piano.

Oh yes.

Camps and retreats certainly belong to the summer, but in Japan the actual summer break for the schools doesn't start when summer does, but only in August.

Whatcha working on Anna? My journal.

Your journal? How do you do your journal?

I'm drawing a manga and doing my journal.

You're drawing a manga. So each day you draw a manga, a cartoon, and that is like your journal?

Yep. Ok, can you show me some of the other ones you've done?

Um, my favorite one is this.

When our ball got stuck in the tree.

I wonder if my friends will come to the park today?

Yes! They came!

[While playing soccer...]

Rebecca and Anna's ball

It's stuck in the tree! What do we do?!

I can't see it! They'll be mad at us!

What did the teacher say?

Did you get it?

Did you take it? Well, did you?

Lets, see.

[While heading to school...]

Where is it? Ahh!!

[After school] I found it!

My cousin's dad found it.

YES!!!!

Becca & Anna's ball

Thank you!

That's so cool. What an awesome way to do your journal.

What are you gonna write today?

Uhh, right now, what your doing to me in your video. Oh, alright. I want to see it when you're done.

So Becca, what was your homework today?

We needed to make a 5-7-5-7-7.

It's 5 letters. 5 like ta-no-shi-mi-wa.

Na-na-na-na-na-na-na.

Na-na-na-na-na.

Na-na-na-na-na-na-na So 5 letters of one, 7 letters of another.

5 letters, then 7, 7.

7, 7 but we need to start with tanoshimiwa.

So that means its 5 and we need to end with toki, so blah, blah, blah toki.

What were some of your favorites that you did?

Ok, lets see.

Fun is when we go to cram school

And with my little sister we split a Coca Cola

and drink it.

Ha! Yeah.

Who did number 6? Daddy, almost all.

Ok, read it.

Fun is a day that's not raining

and we play soccer with friends,

Oh yeah.

Oh, that's good too. Cool. Yay.

What is happening in here?

Are we watching some videos here? Oh my.

Ok Anna, you finished it?

OK, it's done.

[door creaks open]

Who is it?!

Daddy!

Good job!

Nothing says “summer” like a family vacation, so we're taking a couple of days to spend at one of our favorite getaways close to the base of Mt Fuji.

What's going on dude? We're going to Yamanakako. We're going to Yamanakako!

So Joshua and I are just waiting for the girls to get back from school, right?

So we can take off in the car and head to Yamanakako. We're gonna meet up with some of our friends and have a good ol' time.

When packing for a trip like this, with the family, let me tell you, things fill up fast.

Clothes, we got our coffee maker, got our popcorn maker in there.

I got my camera gear. All kinds of stuff.

We got Joshua in here

Hey, who's ready for Yamanakako?

Sarah Bear is ready? Mama's ready. Mama Bear is ready.

A real quick pit stop to drop off school things, get everything they need, then we're leaving.

Everybody's getting buckled in and ready to go.

Ahh! Mario's got his Bible with him? Oh very good.

Here we are.

We made it and its raining. Raining!

Unload time.

Well, it may be slightly raining but... We got it! We still got the grill going. That's right! That's good.

Here's the true sign of vacation.

Mommy has a puzzle started, and over here, Uno.

Awww, everybody's getting ready for bed.

Mommy fixed it.

You have your little light there. That's so cool, huh?

It literally rained all night long. Hard rain, all night long.

Hey girls, how'd you sleep last night? Good. Good.

Did you hear the rain? No. No? There was a sound machine on.

Sound machine.

Look who's up.

Big J. Hey Big J. Can I get a Big J good morning hug.

Good thing you have a puzzle for this rainy day.

It's a rainy day.

Hey Big J, are you mommy's helper? Yeah.

You find some pieces for her? Yeah.

What kind of pieces have you found so far? A little bit.

There, use that piece Mommy.

I need pink bricks, huh?

Awe, here come some visitors! Braving through the water there. Oh my goodness.

It stopped raining right? It stopped raining. Let's take advantage of it and go outside.

Well, it finally stopped raining long enough to even just get outside and see what everything looks like.

The kids wanted to go swimming, so...

Let's go swimming! Look how low those clouds are. My goodness.

You can almost touch them. Look at you dude! Oh my goodness.

It has been cold and rainy out but check this out.

Look who's in the water.

How's the weather Joshua?

Cold? Yeah, I bet! We've got a towel ready for you when you're done.

The kids have built a fort. This is crazy! Wow.

All the rain has produced a puzzle that is almost done.

Life in Japan is about to start. We're in a different place tonight huh dude?

Eisenmann boys just came over to watch the premiere with us.

Oh yea.

KK is here watching with me. Hi KK!

It rained the whole time we were in Yamanakako. From beginning to the end. There was probably 15 min when it didn't rain.

Well, are you ready for summer? I'll tell you what, we sure are.

In fact we have a bunch of great new designs for T-shirts at our online shop.

Not only that, we have some great hats, bags and some other things so if you haven't checked it out, go check it out.

This summer we have some big plans coming up so make sure that not only you subscribe here to our channel,

but also check us out on instagram because there you'll see the stories, the little snippets of things that are happening each day

And you'll have an idea of what's coming up.

Rebecca, how do you say there are 2 chickens in the garden in Japanese.

And now before we go, we want to leave you with a little taste of what's gonna happen next week.

What's going on Sarah? Joshua's Tanabata.

Joshua's Tanabata! Are you going to get all dressed up for it? Nice!