Japan '09

The Fushimi Inari Shrine and the waterfall

2009-11-10T16:05:00.000-08:00

Fushimi Inari Shrine
The gates are all donated by businesses to give them good luck and wealth with they're company
We walked uphill to the top of the mountain going through these gates...
The top of the mountain or at least as far up as we could get...
David decided on our way back down that we should take the other path that lead us about 6 miles off course...It says 'this way to waterfall' which David thought would be cool :-p
After going down the steepest stone steps known to me for about 10 mins we came to a patch of trees and then...
The waterfall ladies and gentlemen the waterfall...
Thanks David for taking us so far off our path that we got to see a bamboo farm, which otherwise we would have missed :-)
The conveyor belt which the sushi comes down, and you grab what you want by opening the little glass door in front of you... I started with cucumbers and worked my way to...
Salmon sushi which was ok but didn't have as much flavor as the tuna
Tuna with wasabi and some kind of spicy mustard
My plates after all the sushi had gone...

Miss you guys, I have taken tons more pictures and were I not so in love with my environment right now you would be seeing much more. As is I need to go make breakfast and throw myself head first into this glorious adventure, not the internet ;-)...

Later,
Hannah.

Videos of Ginkakuji

2009-11-09T02:49:00.000-08:00

Because Pictures just can't capture it!

Tokyo: Shebuya, Harajuku and the park...

2009-11-08T17:45:00.000-08:00

We got bento boxes for the 2hr train ride to Tokyo. Mine was fried pork with rice delicious!
Largest intersection I've ever been in.
Our train to Shebuya
Harajuku
Some fall colors in Tokyo
Satoru and Eli striking a pose at the park
The park/dog park
All of us with Satoru taking the picture
All of us with Tomoko taking the picture
At the park with everyone :-)
Sarah with part of her outfit she bought at the cosplay shop on, the whole thing is super cute!
We went to a park in harajuku after checking out the cosplay. This dog decided he was done walking for a while...
The train to Kyoto was very crowded so for about 30 mins we used the hallway as our seats
Walking home from Kyoto station, we got a good view of Kyoto tower, every city has a tower...

We were hungry after getting back to Kyoto after the 2hr train ride and stumbled across this gem while walking home...

Obviously very good, fantastic even and very crowded.

The food before it was thoroughly devoured ;-)

We then walked the rest of the way home and I quickly jumped in the shower, tried on something I got at the cosplay shop and at around 12AM slipped away to bed. It was a full, but wonderful day and these pictures and descriptions don't cover a fraction of the beauty and magnitude of this place. Sadly though I can only give you echos, I hope though that they will inspire something in you to explore your own surroundings, because no matter where you are there is alway beauty to be seen and adventure waiting just around the next bend...

I decided to go for a walk this morning, after a busy day in Tokyo the day before I needed some reflection time...

Alright guys as much as I love sharing my adventure I find myself needing the time in the morning I post on the blog to do more reflection not on the computer. So for a while at least I'll just post pictures with brief descriptions...I'm sure we'll have plenty of time to go into detail when I get home :-)...

-Hannah

Kyoto

2009-11-07T01:17:00.000-08:00

We've been in Kyoto for two days now, the first night was pretty much just sleeping and being slightly cold (forgot to turn the heater on). We are staying in a traditional Japanese house, so no shoes inside, and ladder like stairs ;-). It's actually very nice and located right in between two centers of town, I think we've only been to one so far, but lots of cool stuff around us. I think our first lunch was a at an all natural curry place, absolutely amazing food! I loved it, and the atmosphere was just fantastic. In fact we never would have gone to the place, except we stopped in a small organic food shop and Eli struck up a conversation with the shop owner. After about 20 minutes I think he told us his family owned most of that street and it was all natural food, that's when he showed us to his mother's restaurant.
After that we went shopping for food to cook at home. We got some eggs and toast for breakfast and spaghetti fixins for supper at the F mart next to the Family Mart, personally I think they both wanted the name Family Mart and one just compromised....
I ended up making supper which was really nice, kind of like returning home for a bit. Ooo and I made garlic bread with like no utensils, it was awesome!
The Kitchen.
Supper!
Conner cleaning up after supper, sooo helpful!

The next morning after eating toast, eggs and for me cheese and peperoni we went to Osaka to meet Eli's mother and walk around town for a while...
Eli spotted a tiny kitten, super cute!

A park on the way to the train station...

Tako Yaki (fried octopus dumplings)...In Osaka

Okay, I totally tried it and while I love octopus, surprisingly takoyaki did not sit well with me :-(

Strip mall in Osaka...

Tomomi and Yuni (Eli's little sister)

After being in Osaka for a bit and meeting part of Eli's family for a brief time, we went back to Kyoto on the bullet train which takes about 15 mins maybe less...We went to the most amazing Japanese restaurant, I can't remember what it's called, but you basically pick what ingredients you want and then it's made to a pancake right on the table in front of you. Very cool way to eat, I was unadventurous and got sobayaki which is fried noodles, I got mine with vegetables. It was fantastic I'm so glad I got it and lots of pictures :-)

For those who got the pancake, you mix up your own bowl of ingredients...

Then you pour all your pancake mix onto the table top stove in front of you...

Aren't they pretty?

My food being added...

The end product YUM!

Have I mentioned my favorite meal yet? ;-)

The end product...

Outside the best food ever...

Because the level of maturity on this trip fluctuates from philosophic debates to well this...

A steam run machine, making a cake type dessert filled with sweet bean paste...

Anyhow I practically skipped our first day in Kyoto, but I'm tired and really didn't want to upload everything. Don't worry I'm sure it'll make it into the scrapbook ;-).

Later,
Hannah.

2009-11-06T14:08:00.000-08:00

It’s the 5th of November in Kyoto, Japan...We had another amazing breakfast at Japanese Denny’s I had french toast again with liquefied kiwi that was awesome! Okay it was weird, but it tasted just like kiwi without the mess of having to chew ;-)...We decided to go to electric town again to return Eli’s camera.
After going back to electric town (Akihbara) we went to Asakusa a bit of a tourist trap, but very beautiful. There were lots of shrines and artful buildings. We got off the train with some students in uniform and they all stopped at this small statue to drop money in and rub his head, we think it’s good luck for exams. Anyhow that’s why there are tons of pictures with us rubbing a very smooth head :-p.
There was also a water fountain that we performed sort of a ritual at. It’s a very large fountain with water shooting out of dragons mouths, along the sides are cups attached to long sticks, you take on of the sticks and fill the cup with water from the dragons mouth, then place a little water in one hand and then the other and another dollop in your right hand that you drink. I think it’s a suppose to be cleansing, but who knows...After that we took some very nice pictures at a shrine garden all the beautiful foliage mixed as always with a lot of technology, that you could see just over the tree tops. Also saw some very large coi fish (may not be spelled right, feel free to correct). We left there around 2:30 or so to grab our luggage from the hostel and catch our train to Kyoto...
We left Tokyo station at 4:15 on a two hour bullet train which I slept through so no pictures :-( sorry guys.
After finding two taxis to take all seven of us to our house in Kyoto, we found our drivers didn’t know where we were suppose to be. So fun adventure, learning experience, slightly annoying and not to bad if we just breath and let go :-). Here we are in our Japanese style guest finally got to take my shoes off lol and am walking around in my socks, we have slippers, but I don’t know, too much work I guess :-p. We’re all very tired here and my computer won’t get internet access, so I don’t think I’ll be able to update very much, at least not with pictures :-(...I miss you all so much, I think sleep sounds wonderful right now, but mostly I need some alone time. I’m starting to understand why the Japanese grab every moment of privacy on the buses, trains, going from point A. to point B.
Goodnight yall,
Hannah.

French toast! at Japanese Denny's

KIWI! That you drink...
Money, Yen, whatever is pays for food (and other things I'm told)

Leaving the Sakura Hotel

Yoshinoya Japanese fast food

Electric town (Akihabara)

Sarah rubbing the statue for good luck

Eli doing the same

There is a picture of me doing this, but as it is my blog I have the right not to post terrible pictures of myself :-p

Asakusa
Giant shoe on building and Rachel the photographer

Really cool!

Fountain cleansing ritual (we think)

Me doing said ritual (hopefully the correct way)

Me in front of Buddha
The gardens, a major reason I went on this trip

Coy pond

And then my Camera died :-( I'll upload more pictures later of Kyoto! :-)

The 4th Tues

2009-11-04T14:19:00.000-08:00

Here is a picture of the side menu, now who can figure out which ones are the dumplings? ;-)
Obviously very good, couldn't even take the time to take a picture :-( It was soo good! Dumplings with soy sauce and pork AMAZING!
Hey mom can we fix the red eye? oh yeah and the creepy sleep deprived face?
They all though they heard an icecream truck and were deciding whether they should jump out the window and chose 'em down :-)
Connor giving me double barrel, it's tradition he says :-P we're all watching a movie here...
Our hotel!

Alright so this was the least picture taking day for me, I had to charge...
I woke up at 5AM per usual, showered (in the super cool shower) and played on my laptop for a while. Ms. Becki (misspelled her name the first time :-() came down around 6 or 7 which was nice, a little company while the others slept (even Eli), after a time of playing on the laptop we decided to take a quick walk down the the 7/11 and get some breakfast...You saw the green doughnuts ;-) plus orange juice lovin' the orange juice!
We all just kind of hung out today, relaxed, though we did get our most expensive lunch so far 1000 yen each which is like $11 so really not bad...And get this it was Chinese food, our most expensive meal in Japan was Chinese food :-p...So afterwards we played with the idea of going back to electric to return Eli's camera, but decided to go back to the Sakura hotel where we've been staying (sorry didn't post a picture sooner x-)
Eli decided to we should watch a movie, okay it was really just seven very short films in Japanese (subtitled we're not that good). We watched them on Eli's computer in the guys room, turned out all the lights, because that was more hardcore? anyhow my lack of sleep caught up with me because I remember a fox wedding and then I was being woken up on the top bunk in the boys room, and everyone was not only no longer watching movies but they had gone on to other places lol...

So while I could have continued sleeping and at the time would have liked too, that empty plate of food at the top of the page was totally worth the cold wind, the grogginess and the slight vertigo :-)

I think everyone had a good relaxing time, the 4th was about lazing around, the 5th we go to Kyoto!

Later,
Hannah.

more pictures

2009-11-03T15:51:00.000-08:00

Becky :-)
GREEN DOUGHNUTS! and orange juice, this was Becky and my breakfast :-)

The view from a very large, at the top of a government building...
Udon noodles, basically I had ramen for supper it was good :-)

This is a good dude ;-) (insert inside joke here) he protects against bad luck...
Those are elevators with a view to the outside, very cool...
First group shot in electric town in Tokyo!
We were going to go to the imperial palace, but they were closed, we got a good pic of the outside though :-)
Japan guide books from the hostel...
Japanese denny's I ate french toast which I never do, but it was actually very good :-)

Here I am on the second day, I'm blurring but hey can't focus 'em all...Also really early in the morning lol

\

Pictures yall ;-)

2009-11-03T12:52:00.001-08:00

From LA

Part of our group...after arriving in LA

Because my mother threatened me to not come home without pictures of myself :-p

The gals...

The guys

Me too hungry to take a picture before I ate it ;-)

5AM up again before most, but what a beautiful morning in LA...

Waiting for the van to take us to LAX...

Waiting to board the plane to JAPAN! okay it wasn't that exciting at the time, but hey I can embellish :-p

Another self portrait for mom and another terribly optimistic picture before the 11hr flight :-(

These are the sights that made the 11hr trip worth every painful, ear popping second...

Again to hungry to take a picture before eating ;-) that did have some kind of pork or perhaps beef on top, Japanese fast food is amazing!

Alright that's it for now, I need to upload again we had a very eventful day yesterday which would be the 3rd now I believe it's the 4th here in the early AM...

2009-11-02T12:42:00.000-08:00

Mom fixed the credit card! I'm so happy, mom you are the best of the best of the best! I like an idiot didn't tell the bank "hey I'm going to Japan let me withdrawal cash" But my wonderful intelligent mother was able to figure it out and I'm so very, very happy!

Love you guys, will update more later...Now I'm going to get cash and food! at 6am god this time change is weird :-p

The Flight, the Arrival, The Trains oh my!

2009-11-02T12:08:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone, I'm here finally after a 5hr flight to LA, a one night stay at a motel and then an 11hr grueling flight! I'll tell you somewhere between the first 4hrs feelings like 11 and that last 3hrs I didn't think it was worth it I mean I hurt all over, and needed some serious space, but when I got here, wow. I'll admit the airport wasn't awesome though I did get a cool picture of a welcome to Japan sign

Which was cool! I think the moment it hit me we were really here was on the 1hr train ride to the subway station. Out the window I saw some rice fields which were laid across the land, and then these houses that looked like something out of a history book along with giant billboards and fancy small cars. It was like somehow tradition and modern life had melded together so well it just seemed right looking at it...So I didn't get so many pictures of that (sorry mom) but I was so tired and so involved in watching this new land pass me by I couldn't bring myself too look away long enough to take a picture. Now I did eventually fall asleep before we hit our stop, but to be fair I was very tired and knew I would have three whole weeks to delve deeper into the mystery that is Japan....

There is so much more, and I will update later, but for now I'll leave you with some shots of the food we ate in the plane (just for you Alice ;-)

There are more, but I'll leave you with the optimistic picture of me before the 11hr flight ;-)

Rehearsal packing

2009-10-25T19:07:00.000-07:00

So six days before my flight to LA I packed my bags together to make sure everything would fit...I had to take out a few things and rearrange a bit, also I'm using more space then I'd like in the big bag, but I think it's worth it so I can take the laptop. Internet access is important that far from home, plus I can back up all my photos and the like so yay!
I have a to-do list a mile long and only one day and two evenings to do it all in. Crazy, yes, but I'll get it done and be able to eat in Japan. Which is a huge plus :-).
Oh where did the time go? I swear it was months away yesterday. Now it's only six days and I'll be stepping on a plane to LA and then off to Japan! Unfortunatly I've already used my one freakout so I have to be calm, collected and well organized here on out. Which shouldn't be too hard, I mean what else can I do, right?
Blogging is weird, but hopefully by the time I'm in Japan or out of Japan I'll have the hang of it :-).

Later,
Hannah