Japan Part 4 (Tokyo)

Wow, We have been home less than 24 hours and it seems like we were just here. We really miss Japan, but we were ready to come back to our home in Korea.

Tokyo is HUGE and I'm sure there was a lot of things to do, but we just hung out around our awesome hostel, Khaosan Tokyo Samurai, even the name is awesome. Our room had two sets of bunk beds and a communal shower and bathroom with others also staying there. Our location was great because it was a popular area in Tokyo. We were close to the oldest temple, a bunch of Onsens, and some AMAZING FOOD! 

This is a part of the oldest temple in Japan. When we saw it we looked at each other and thought..... Wow this places doesn't look old (LOL) Oh well it was beautiful. 

Now moving on to the food!!! We had some amazing food. My goal was to eat some traditional Japanese food and we did. Nick even tried some with me (he actually liked it and had his share of it).

 

 











Please don't ask me what my favorite food was.. Because I will tell you the truth, I liked all of it. Just to name some of the picture above. We had sea urchin, caviar/crab salad, lobster, Kobe Steak, Sushi, potato pizza, and mexican food. One of my favorites that I forgot to take a picture of was okonomiyaki. If you are an adventurous eater you would have been in love. There was so many things to try.. I was in love!

While walking around Tokyo we saw some cool things. These two pictures are of Shibuya, a huge shopping area in Tokyo. The crosswalk is famous, all the traffic stops for the people to cross the road in every direction. It was cool to watch and be apart of!

Korea is even popular in Japan!

 We found this Tesla while walking home from church on Sunday. It was a beautiful car!

These were everywhere, Nick really wants one.. Maybe I'll give in one day. (don't hold your breath sweetie)

We visited the Toyota factory and that was really cool. It isn't in Tokyo though, we had to travel by train for a few hours just to get there, but it was worth it. We got to watch the final assembly line. My Brothers would have loved it! We were allowed to take pictures in the Museum area but not the factory.

The Robot played "Over the Rainbow"   It actually played the trumpet, not just a recording.  I could hardly believe my ears!

After our awesome week we took the train all the way back to Fukuoka on Thursday and stayed at the Japanese Ryokan Kashima Honkan. Then Early Friday morning we took the ferry back to Busan, ate some food, caught a bus then taxi back home to CEV! We unpacked and put away everything right when we got home. Nick went out to get groceries and I washed clothes and cleaned the apartments.

Our whole trip was super fantastic. We want to go back and spend more time in Kyoto and some other places. We are grateful that we got home safely and that we have a couple days rest before work on Monday. We are also grateful for those of you who read our blog and hope we can entertain you with more of our adventures in the future.

Japan Part 2 (Awa Odri Tokushima, Himeji, and Osaka)

Oh my gosh, the last three days have been so amazing! I'm so glad that we have splurged a little here and there and I am really grateful for the research that has made this vacation EPIC! Our trip has really just started and I can't believe how fast time is flying.

On Monday we slept in, then made our way to Tokushima, where a famous dance festival is held. We met a lot of people. Some who planned the trip a year in advance just to get a hotel room. When we originally started our planning we wanted to stay near the festival because our JR-Rail passes took us the long way around, and we didn't want to leave the night life at 7 or 8 just to get back. The hotels were filled up so we decided to figure it out when we got here... Well we tried and everything was full. There ferry couldn't take us nor could any of the buses. We were stuck with the train. We decided to stay as long as we wanted and take the last train back. Well..... haha little did we know that it was just the last time for that train not the other two we needed to transfer to. We had to run and catch a train at the second station and when we got to the third, our last transfer, we found this.

(If you can't tell, that is a very blank train Departures/Arrivals board)

The trains stopped running! Lucky we kinda knew something was going to happen and decided not to care. We had to look for a place to stay the night; and after some deliberations we decided we would spring for a full up hotel.  The next morning we decided to make the best of our predicament and visit Himeji Castle on our way back to Osaka.

Now about the dance festival Awa Odori, I would recommend planning a trip during the time it is going because it is amazing. We bought tickets for reserved bleacher seats and watched people dressed in costume come through parade style doing the same dance for two hours. It was repetitive, monotonous, beautiful, busy, entrancing, and enchanting; We LOVED it and could have watched them dance all night!  As they danced, they would also sing words which translate loosely into, The dancers are fools, the watchers are fools, since we all are fools we might as well dance. You can watch a really cool video about it here.  By the time we had to leave if we were to catch a train out of the town, we were both trying to do the dance moves ourselves.

Here are some of our pictures from the festival:

Before the dances began

During the Dances... Nick called her the match maker! (she looks like the match maker from Mulan)

Nick had to have an outfit!

I wish I got a close up of their shoes!

After we spent the night in Okayama (our stranded stay) we decided to make our way to Himeji Castle. It was a quick, awesome, visit. It started by picking up free bikes. I guess many people didn't know about this or there wouldn't have been bikes left for us. I have to give Brian and Stephanie credit here because they found out about the bike thing. We rode them to the castle and then walked around for a bit before we ate lunch at a small cafe.  The castle is undergoing some major renovations (which are slated to last till 2015) which have encased the main keep in a huge shroud as they replaster walls and retile the roof but it was still worth the visit.  

Bikes

(part of) The Castle

Nick surfing up the bike escalator

When we got back to Osaka we went back to our hotel, took showers, and rested before we went out on the town. When we did go out we knew right where we wanted to go.

Sorry the picture is blurry (Nick sucks at taking photo's) Anyways it is a really cool building that is intended to be a modern rehash of the Arc de Triomphe (in building form) kinda weird but Japan isn't what you would call the most normal place. Underneath it is an Edo-era marketplace recreation and at the top a beautiful wide open view of the city.
  

We got hungry so we also ate dinner at the top! Good, fancy food!

When we got home we walked to a nearby grocery store and picked up some things we have never eaten before. ALL OF THEM WERE FANTASTIC!

Left to right in the picture above we have Schweppes Blood Orange Soda,  The Japanese Marble sealed soda (no idea what the name is), Pino chocolate covered ice cream bites, Lady Borden's Chocolate Ice Cream, Vanilla Ice Cream Wafer Sandwich, Some other Ice cream sandwich thing, Spiral Grape soda (it says it's new here), Milk, and Mochi encased chocolate bites.

The next day (Wednesday) We slept in and then went to find the Pokemon store and on our way we discovered this awesome shrine.

 It is a giant Japanese lion's head whose mouth is a stage.  We aren't sure what the stage is used for but it looks cool nonetheless.

The Pokemon Store
(fellow video game nerds, I have been to the promised land and it is good!)

 Also while walking around Osaka we found this can. A postcard will be sent to the person who can correctly guess what is in this can.

Today ended with this, a huge Kirby, given to my by this boy (the one that is not Nick). We were all in line to spin this free wheel after enjoying one of Japan's many massive arcades, and if a pink ball came out you would win a giant Kirby! Well the boy in front of me got that pink ball. When he did, he grabbed Kirby, spun around, and gave it to me while saying "present!" I was so excited! I'm glad I got a picture with him. If you are wondering how we are going to get it home, well he is actually a beach ball covered with Kirby skin; you just unzip him, deflate the ball, and he is easy packing!

Well that is it until part three comes along!

Japan Part 1 (Travel and Hiroshima)

This all started because the four of us wanted to travel through Japan. From left to right you have Nick, Lauren, Stephanie, and Brian. This picture was taken at 6:30 am while waiting for our taxi to start our adventure.

We grabbed the bus to Busan.  This time, thank heavens, there wasn't SNOMIT!!! (Praise the Frog) The ride took us 1 hour and 5 minutes. We stopped by Mcdonalds before we headed to the subways. We then took the subway to the station nearest our ferry. For those of you who want to visit Japan, we loved our ride, you can find out more here.

  

As we pulled away from the docks the stewardesses that helped us board the boat waved goodbye

We hit land again in Fukuoka and grabbed a bus to the train station. Once we figured out the JR trains, things got easier.We are super glad we got our JR-Rail passes ( find the website here) The passes allow us to travel anywhere in Japan on specific JR-Rail lines. You can only purchase a reservation outside of the country and you redeem it when you get here.

We caught our first train from Hakata Station to Shin-Osaka. We have made Osaka our homebase for 6 nights while we take train trips to surrounding cities. Today we went to Hiroshima, and to be honest I didn't know what to expect. There was a huge Memorial Park and Museum. The museum that cost money wasn't all that great. The exhibit that I would recommend was close to the main one but mainly underground called the Hall of Remembrance. There wasn't nearly as many people and I felt like I learned more and connected more with what happened there. I don't want to overwhelm you with pictures however, I will post the ones that touched us the most.

 The A-Bomb Dome
For those of you who don't know, the Atomic bomb exploded above this building and the people of Hiroshima had split opinions about it. Some wanted to knock it down, forget the tragedy, and move on, while others wanted to keep it as a memory of what war brings.

 The Child's Memorial
This one really touched me. The elementary school was quickly turned into a foster home. It started with a woman who was asked by a government official to watch over the lost children. Her journal entries were translated into English and played in the Hall of Remembrance. She told stories of happiness where the children were reunited with their parents and ones of sadness where they weren't. Schools all over the world donated money to build this memorial for the children who died. Behind it are strings of origami cranes that are folded by visitors as a prayer for peace in memory of the lost children.  These cranes are kept in display cases and cycled out as their colors fade.

 The Rock
This rock was given by Scotland as a token of peace. The rock came from the tallest mountain in Scotland!

 The Phoenix tree's were exposed to the A-bomb, died and regrew in their place.

 The bell of peace.

Hiroshima was an eye opening experience. I'm glad we were able to visit and better understand the history behind our world today.

When we finished the park we walked down the Hondori Shopping Arcade and then headed back to Osaka.  What a great day!  Stay tuned for more adventures from the Far East!