Mom and Jason's visit pt.3

MOM AND JAYSON VISIT

PT.3

JOURNEY TO THE CASTLE

Hello everyone. Sorry for the delay. It's hot here...we spend most of the day complaining about the weather, so there is little time to update, or move in any way for that matter. Here though, are pictures from Himeji Castle, and the garden's next to it that we visited when Mom and Jay were here. Enjoy!

In our search for food, which was Subway incidentally, we had to make a bathroom break. And check this place out; even the toilets are welcoming to the tourists in Himeji! What a town!

Ah, sorry these are out of order. This is the view from the very top of the castle. You have to climb up a ton of narrow stairs but it's worth it.

Haha, this is Aaron doing his best impression of the creepy girl from "The Ring." Why? you may ask. Well, see the well behind him...it's called "Okiku's well." The legend goes, there was a maid in the castle named Okiku. She was in charge of guarding these 10 sacred plates. One day, she overheard a plot to destroy the Lord of the castle. She told him and saved his life. In retaliation, the man who she over heard stole one of the sacred plates. Once the Lord of the castle found out that one of the plates was missing, he killed poor Okiku and tossed her in the well...or something like that. Story goes that you can hear her sad voice counting the plates up to 9, then starting over. The Japanese novel "Ringu," of which the Japanese movies and the American movies are based, draws some inspiration from this well.

Here we are at the gardens. Cool bridge. There are hundreds of Japanese carp, koi, in the ponds here. Some are HUGE! bigger than my arm for sure.

Mom and I resting on a rock.

This is in the tea garden. Jayson is a very bad gaijin who can not read signs. (it says "keep of the grass") They clip the grass in this garden with scissors...I've seen it.

Wowie! That's pretty. The pretty hanging purply flowers are Japanese wisteria. So pretty.

This is in the garden that is famous for having these awesome black lava rocks.

Now, we are back to the castle grounds. There is the castle keep in the background. Behind that fence I am leaning on is the inner moat.

There was way too many bees hovering around us here...I ran away as soon as the picture was done. (look up info on the Japanese hornet and you'll know why)

Aaron by some cool old samurai armor.

Back at the gardens now. Jay and I lounging on a rock in the middle of the pond.

Nice little resting spot,ne?

I should have cropped this one. Jay and I are making some weird faces and pointing, but Aaron's face is the best. I'll have to post it later.

Jayson is trying to be all crouching tiger, hidden dragon or something.

Okay after we got back that night, we drank a lot of screw drivers. Jayson is brandishing a banana at me!

Looks like Aaron is putting in the Best of Christopher Walkin DVD. Nice choice. Oh and on the grill are some rice balls! yummy.

Someone is showing us some grilled chicken on a stick.It kind of looks like it is stabbing Jay in the head...Is this before or after Jay wrote that email to Andrea confessing his undying love for her?

Oh nope, he's okay! and eating cabbage...with his mouse hood on. Oh boy.

Well, that's all for now. I'll post our trip to Osaka next.
Hope all is well at home. Drop us a line on here. Anyone still reading this thing?

Mom and Jason's visit pt.2

Oh hello there. Welcome to...

MOM AND JAYSON VISIT:
THE EPIC JOURNEY
PART 2

This part of our tale finds us in Kyoto. After short rest back home in Kobe, we rode the train over to Kyoto, about an hour and a half journey. Andrea picked us up from Kyoto Station and we went back to her place before setting out. These pictures are out of order again, sorry. So, I will write under each one to tell where they are from.

This is from the dinner the first night we were in Kyoto. We went to a great modonyaki place called Fuji's. We've been there before and damn, some of the best modonyaki ever. Also really great nama-beer. We had a great time.

This is the Golden Pavilion, see because it is gold, right?
This was one of the last places we visited. If you look close on the patch of land near the bottom left corner you can see the crane! or is it a heron? some kind of Japanese bird!

This is Kiyomizu-Dera. A really famous, and beautiful, temple in the hills of Kyoto. We visited on the first day of our trip. This place is famous for having the water that is supposed to make you have eternal life.

This is the skyline view from Kiyomizu-Dera. That big tall thing is Kyoto Tower. Lots of people in Kyoto don't like it. They think it is too tall, ruins the skyline.

Here we are on the steps up to Kiyomizu-Dera.

This is at the first temple we visited called Sanjusangen-do. It is famous for several reasons: it is the longest wooden building in Japan, it hosts the very famous archery contest every year for the coming of age ceremony, and it has the mysteriously beautiful 1,000 Kannon statues. Each statue is about life size and each one is slightly different from the others. Very magnificent. In this picture I have apparently spotted something very interesting in the water...I think it was a crab or something.

Pretty Kyoto style garden.

Here is that photo from up there, only I am looking at the camera instead of the mystery water creature.

On the subways in Kyoto...I got sleepy and took a nap on Jay. I don't think he liked it.

So he responded by attacking me!! The fiend!

After resting, the next day we went to the Falafel garden for lunch. Mom had never eaten falafels before. Tasty as always.

Here we are the Golden Pavilion.

So Kyoto was great. Good weather and Andrea was a great host/tour guide. Though mom and jay had some difficulties sleeping on the floor, they got over it...after a day or two.

Up next will be our trip to the castle at Himeji!
See you then!

Mom and Jason's visit pt.1

MOM AND JAYSON VISIT:

THE EPIC JOURNEY
PT.1

So, these pictures are out of order, sorry. I was pulling pictures from my camera, mom's camera, and Jason's camera so it got hard to keep everything in the right order. Oh well!

Mom and Jay got here on May 1st. We picked them up from the airport and went back to Kobe via the high speed ferry, which was a neat way to travel, plus it was practically empty. Of course, Mom and Jay were their wonderful selves so they were loud and crazy...so it was a good thing it was pretty empty on the ferry!
It was so great to see family after so long apart. But, let's get to the pictures! The first part will be from our 3 day trip to Tokyo. These are out of order so I will just put a note under them.




Here is Mom and Jay demonstrating the proper way to walk down the street in Tokyo (see the glowing sign above them). Great job guys. This was our first night in Tokyo. We were on our way to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building to see the night view.

This was from our second day in Tokyo. We were in the Harajuku area and we stopped for lunch at a place called Fuji-mama's. Well, we couldn't find the place, so we just went to an open air street restaurant. It was Chinese/Thai/Japanese mix. It was cheap and very tasty. I had to get this ramen just because of the description...and the painful spice on china did indeed enter it was spicy as hell!

Here is the full spread. Mom and Jay got cashew chicken and Aaron got a kind of Nasai Goreng rice and we also got some awesome side dishes. It was top notch.

Here we are at the 3 story Daiso dollar store in Harajuku. Mom and Aaron are samuari and I think Jay is a balding Salaryman. Attractive.

This is the view from the Ryokan, Japanese Inn, that we stayed at the second night in Tokyo. It is famous for its night view of the pagoda at Sensoji temple.

Here we are on our way to Tokyo via the Shinkansen bullet train. As mom and Jay are demonstrating it is popular to drink on the train... and drink we did.

Here is the entrance to Harajuku that we visited on the second day. It was SOOO busy! It was a holiday so everyone was out shopping. We did have the fortune to see not 1, but 3 men dressed up as Lolita girls...like dressed in skirts with petticoats and lace and ribbons and blonde wigs and everything. Bizzare!

This is a shot of the Japanese style bath at the ryokan. It was lovely. Jason may or may not have accidentally broken something here...

OKay, this is out of order. This was when Mom and Jay first got here.

Here we are the first night in Japan. Katherine came over and we went to a little restaurant down the road.

Here we are looking lovely waiting for the Shinkansen to arrive. Check out Aaron's lack of moustache!

This is such a cute picture! The shinkansen is behind us, cool!

Here are some of the left-overs from Mom and Jay's drinking binge on the train.

Our first night we stayed at a youth hostel. Here we are settling in. Jay is practicing for Miss Saigon perhaps?

Here we are in front of one of the Buddha statues at Sensoji temple.

Frolicking in the rain at the park on the way to the Tokyo National Museum.

"Hey look. A fountain."

This is in Harajuku again. We are trying on some slick shades at a 300 yen store.

Haha. This is when we traveled back to Kobe and had a few drinks. We're weird.

So, part 2 will include our trip to Kyoto.
See you then!