I'll take you in my backpack

7/3/10 Well, here it is, the long awaited Kit Kat collection...pretty impressive if I don't say so myself! Yes I am back in the states, Yes I have jet lag, if you ask me how bad it is, I'm likely to bite your head off as I haven't slept much in the past 3 days (probably about 8 hours collectively)...I suggest keeping your distance for a good week. Until then I will continue to think happy thoughts that this miserable jet lag will pass...puppies, kittens, my extensive Kit Kat collection

6/30/10 I apologize in advance for the lack of decent pictures, the weather was absolutely terrible today! It only cleared up briefly while we were at the lake (a stopping point between Nikko and the Kegon Waterfall). Nikko Shrine was absolutely amazing...had the weather been nice, I probably would have enjoyed it. But since it was down pouring and my raincoat was doing absolutely NOTHING, in fact I think it was exacerbating the problem...it was difficult to really fully enjoy the "beautiful" scenery that the shrine had to offer. There was this really cool part where we went inside one of the buildings and a guy was hitting these two sticks together on one side of the room and it sounded like ordinary sticks being hit together, but when he did it underneath the huge dragon that was painted on the sealing it made a much better sound and reverberated (very different from the other sound). They called it the crying of the dragon. It was amazing! The lake was beautiful,...

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...

6/27/10 Again, not a wonderful day here in Japan, it has been raining off and on, seems like it's more "on" when we have to walk outside, but hey, I'm not going to let a little rain get me down right?! After checking in (to our upgraded room) we ventured out to the Peace Memorial here in Hiroshima. It's absolutely fantastic and my pictures I'm sure won't do it justice. There is a flame burning in the middle of the park to memorialize the lives lost, and when you stand in front of it and look through the archway you can see the Genbaku Domu (which was right around ground zero in WWII). Throughout the park there are shrines and memorials covered in paper cranes as a sign of peace. There is also a monument to Sasaki Sadako who was 2 years old when the Atomic bomb was dropped, she had leukemia and then died when she was 12. She believed that if she folded 1000 paper cranes that she would be cured. She completed the first batch and wasn't cured so s...

6/27/10 We arrived in Hiroshima, and upon getting to the hotel were notified that our room was not ready (it was still being cleaned) I guess we looked irritated enough that a few minutes later one of the girls came over and offered us a mega upgrade (from the cheapest room in the Crowne Plaza to the most expensive) to the Junior Suite. This thing is massive and probably bigger than the first floor of my house...definitely way more technologically advanced! I hope the toilet comes with directions in English...a flush could turn into a surprising blast of cold water if I'm not careful! I can't capture the full amazingness of this hotel room or my excitement that is a result of this upgrade...ahh I'm fully ready to go explore Hiroshima, but better yet, we're spending two nights in this palace!

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...