I'll take you in my backpack

6/28/10 Today we started early...mainly because we had a surprise visit from the sunshine and figured that we had better make the most of that time, as the forecast for the next days (including today) stands consistent at rain/thunderstorms...EVERY day! Today was no exception to that but at least it held off until after lunch time so we could get some pictures of our morning adventures! We went to the Hiroshima Castle, part of which we could walk through (of course by removing our shoes...customary here in many places in Japan). There was a shrine within the castle grounds, and somewhere there is a tree that survived the atomic bomb, we couldn't find that tree per se, but we did see a lot of trees (I tried to convince mom to take a picture of one of the many trees to pass it off as the "survivor tree"...she would not) After the Hiroshima Castle (properly called Hiroshima-jo, but since when do I do anything properly?!) we ventured out to the Shukkei-en (Shukkei Gard...

6/26/10 We had a packed day of touristy-shriney-templey-loveliness today! We started in Kyoto and visited the Kinkakuji Temple (Golden Pavilion) and then the Nijo Castle (both World Heritage Sites). We then had lunch and shopping at the Kyoto Handicraft Center. The shopping was fun but shopping on a budget (a time budget that is) sucks! We each got a pearl necklace (perverted blog readers keep your dirty "pearl necklace" comments to yourself thank you very much!)...pearls are very popular here in Japan! We boarded the bus and then headed to Nara (once the capital city in Japan, in approximately 700). In Nara we visited the Todaiji Temple and Kasuga Shrine, both conveniently locate in Nara Park. Both of these sites are registered as World Heritage Sites as well. Todaiji Temple holds one of Japan's most well known temples enshrining a gigantic bronze Buddha. According to my entrance ticket, The Vairocana Buddha (Buddha of the Sun) is 159.89 ft high, 165.61 ft deep, and ...

6/25/10 Today we headed to Kyoto via the Shinkansen train. It took 2 hours and 45 minutes and who knows how many miles! When we arrived in Kyoto it was nice and sunny, but of course that didn't last long. Actually I'm pretty sure it started raining approximately 1 minute after we got off of the bus at one of the shrine/temples that was about as far away from the hotel as we could get. I have to refer to them as shrine/temples because I don't know which is which. I know that one is Shinto and the other Buddhist but decipher them if I had to. I can however tell you the differences when looking at a map because one of them is represented with a swastika and the other with a sign that looks closer to the pi sign (no joke!) We visited approximately 349823094 temples and shrines today, making this a very holy adventure. I tried on a pair of the split toe shoes (they call them Samurai shoes here, basically your big toe has a separate section than the rest of your toes, and t...

6/24/10 We took the Shinkansen to Atami (first time riding this "bullet train"). It flies! I captured a video but wasn't quick enough to get the front of the train as it zipped by us! Enjoy! From Atami 6-24-10 *click on the picture and it will bring you to the Picassa album where you can see the video. I was having a hard time uploading it to the blog!* Once again on our way back, we had to get off at the Shinjuku train station...once again we did not take the right exit (there are approximately 230840320984 to choose from). We have yet to take the same way out, and we have yet to take the correct way out. Perhaps before we leave here! I hate this train station!