Kyoto

Jul 04, 2009 08:47 | Permalink

July 2, 2009:

I made another slideshow. Although it is nearly impossible to capture all the beauty we saw that day, I hope this gives you an idea of just how amazing and beautiful Kyoto is. Check it out:

Kyoto is only a 28 minute train ride from our home in Osaka. We only saw about a quarter of the shrines and temples that exist in Kyoto. There is just too much to see in one day. We can't wait for our next trip to Kyoto to see some more.

I know that some of you like to save our pictures to your computer. So, help yourself to some of my favorites from the slideshow...

This building houses about 25 ancient relics, some of them from China. It was illegal to take pictures inside, but we accidentally took two (oops!)

I swear, this dragonfly was posing for us. He let us take like 20 pictures of him.

We sat on that bench and had a snack so we could absorb all the beauty that surrounded us.

This is the famous Toji Temple. I remember taking a picture of a replica when I was at the Epcot center in Orlando.

Oh, this bird was posing for us too. amazing.

We sat in on this ceremony. There was lots of incense and chanting. It was very interesting to watch.

Later that night, we went to dinner with our landlord and the other office workers.

Steve, on the left, lived in Hawaii for 20 years so he spoke English fluently. Isaac speaks good English, and Rika (on the far right) speaks very little English but she knew how to give lots of compliments. Its funny, Rika thought I had long eyelashes and she asked me if they were real. Also, throughout dinner, we enjoyed free english/japanese exchange! It was very fun and helpful.

Of course, once again, they did NOT let us pay for our meal. It was another "Welcome to Japan" event. The Japanese are so generous!

Have you ever had cantaloupe wrapped with prosciutto? It was a first for me too and it was pretty good!

This is our new favorite bartender! His mother gave us all bananas as a parting gift. The Japanese always give us gifts. They are so thoughtful.

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Out 'n About in Japan

Jul 03, 2009 10:05 | Permalink

June 23, 2009:

On June 23rd we went out to dinner with some of Bug's close Japanese friends. They were awesome! Despite the language barrier, we all seemed to bond over good food and lots of drinks. We had a great time with them!! We had so much fun exchanging languages throughout the night. Needless to say, we all learned a lot from each other! We learned some Japanese and in turn they learned some English (and Spanish). We truly had a fabulous night! We spent about 4-5 hours at dinner and when the bill came, they refused to let us pay our fair share. They said it was our "Welcome to Japan" dinner. As hard as we tried to give them cash, they flat out refused. How nice is that? I think I'm really gonna like it here!

The girls were very curious about Cameron's arm hair. They wanted to know if he was hairy like that everywhere. Hahahahaa

Ryoko and I plan to go shopping together someday. First, I need to learn more Japanese!

It is rare that you see Japanese people with tattoos. We talked him into taking his shirt off so we could see all his tats. This picture proves just how awesome our new friends are!

Check out our new bike crew! After dinner they were nice enough to show us how to get home from the restaurant. We rode half way home together and it was a blast. I can't wait for round two with them!

June 25, 2009:

Here is a glimpse into the underground world of Japan. Literally, it is a city under a city. It is basically a mall that connects to the train and subway stations.