Back to Real Life...

After a summer in Japan, it was time to go back to real life. AJ and I were so excited to come back to Provo and get started with work and school... Seriously, we love BYU.

Here are some of my personal highlights from Japan: 

Attending the Tokyo Temple. Love that place. 

Mmmmmmmm... Communist gyoza. Most delicious gyoza ever!

Our anniversary... Love my man! 

Our first shrine experience. It was an eye opener!

Going out on the town as siblings and NOT getting a ticket! How were we supposed to know it wasn't okay to park there? 

The Cafe du Jardin. Yum yum yum yum yum

Experiencing the Japanese hospital. 

Seeing the Daibutsu for the first time. 

Nara in general! 

Hiking Mt. Fuji. It was perfect. 

I loved Japan!

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Our 7 Day Trip: Day 7

On Sunday we went to church with the Wadas! As much as I was grateful that the LDS church is the same worldwide, I still had a hard time concentrating due to the fact that I didn't understand a word. I got the general gist, said "amen" when I heard everyone else say it, and partook of the sacrament because the prayers are the same. It was a good experience!

Afterwards AJ and I decided to go to Nara before we made our way back to Yokota Air Force Base. Nara was my day's favorite place that he served and he made it clear that we would love it. 

And boy did we love it! 

Nara is a small town that has some amazing tourist attractions. It is kind of out of the way, though, so it isn't as crowded as other tourist spots. To compare it to an American town, think of some place like Jackson Hole, WY.

We didn't have too much time to spend in Nara, but we picked our #1 and #2 sights-to-see and we made sure we saw them! 

#1: The Sacred Deer of Nara. 

The deer of Nara are sacred and roam the streets down by the temples. I love them. They are so cute and LITERALLY BOW to you when you give them a cracker. There are street vendors that sell hay-crackers for the tourists to feed the deer. Did we do this? Yes!

Look at his smile! Best ¥150 we ever spent

The deer bowed to us and it was a fun experience. Then one female deer decided she was still hungry and kept pestering me! Her plan of attack was to literally attack me in order to get more food. She bit my stomach and my butt! AJ had to (lightly) kick her to try to keep her away from me and finally I had to run away frustrated. 

Did I mention she bit a hole in my bag?

Not all the deer were that bad. Here are some of our happy pictures: 

My new FAVORITE picture of AJ. Love that smile.

Our #2 sight-to-see was the largest wooden building in the world. It definitely did not disappoint! 

Seriously this building was so massive. Look at how big it is compared to the teeny tiny people going in the front gate. When we turned the corner and saw this, AJ and I thought it looked like CGI in a movie. It was absolutely breathtaking! No wonder this was my dad's favorite place! Surprisingly the current building is 1/3 the size of the original wooden structure. Actually maybe it isn't so surprising since the Japanese people celebrate FIRE festivals in their wooden temples. Even at 1/3 the original size, it is still the largest wooden building in the world. Amazing. 

That is not a painting... It is a huge statue.

Daibutsu (aka Big Buddha)

Funny mask-faces. 

AJ and I agreed that Nara was one of our most favorite places in Japan. We had a blast and saw some amazing things. Way to go, dad!

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Our 7 Day Trip: Day 6

On Saturday I was feeling much better and decided I would attempt an afternoon out on the town. The Wadas took us to the Floating Garden Observatory in Osaka, Japan. It was AWESOME!

View from the bottom...

View from the top! 

It was so cool to go and see the whole city from above. There was some construction blocking the easiest way to walk there from the train station, so by the time we got there I was exhausted from walking. 

After sitting for a while we went up to the top! There is this adorable section called, "lovers corner." We took advantage of the photo-op!

Sad AJ all alone!

Happy AJ!

Yeah,  we are cute.

Love the Wadas!

You can buy a lock and put it on the tower. It is similar to the lock bridge in Europe... So cute!

After we toured the building I was entirely exhausted. I needed some food and to go to bed. First we went to the Japanese food court in the basement of the Floating Garden Observatory. 

It was built like an old Japanese town... 

The smell of Japanese food was overwhelming and honestly made me nauseated. So we quickly left that food court and went searching the town for a salad. One taxi ride and one hour later... We finally found a place that sold salads as an entree. I was so happy to not have to eat Japanese food. 

All in all it was a great day! The salad really calmed my stomach and we made it back to the Wada's safe and sound. After a long nights rest I was ready for Day 7! 

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We found a Finnish store at the mall. AJ was so excited. 

Our 7 Day Trip: Days 3, 4, and 5

After our adventures in Hiroshima... We made our way to the Wada's house. The Wadas lived down the street from my family in Fishers, IN when I was younger. I loved going over to their house and playing with their daughter, Jumi, and her Japanese toys. I have always loved Japanese culture so it was so fun having them close when I was a kid.

The Wadas took us to a traditional Japanese Onsen (or bath house). It was so fun to sit in the hot pools of mineral water and relax. I definitely fell in love with onsen, similar to how AJ loves sauna because of his time in Finland. 

On Wednesday we woke up and decided to go to Kyoto. My dad served part of his mission in Kyoto and so I was really excited to see what he saw and enjoy the city. When we got there we decided to walk because the tour guides told us it is a "walking city." Boy did they lie! The map didn't have a distance gauge and so we were guessing based on blocks. Unfortunately we didn't know that the blocks in Kyoto are unnaturally large due to the number of old shrines and temples. It took us 1 hour to walk somewhere we thought was 20 minutes away! Dehydrated and exhausted we finally made it to the 1,000 Year Old Temple. 

AJ and I took a picture with the Japanese god of good couples... Perfect fit!

This temple was beautiful and very large. It was really busy with tons of people touring and worshipping. It made me a little sad that the people trying to worship were consistently interrupted by groups of teenagers shouting what must have been the English equivalent of, "dude check this out!" It made me so grateful for how sacred LDS temples are and how reverently we worship there. 

Here are some pics of other cool things we saw:: 

Traditional Geisha! 

Take a look in the upper right corner... My face isn't funny without reason c:

I just love this man!

Pagodas are so beautiful. 

When we were done walking around the temple grounds, we decided to head home. It was incredibly hot in Kyoto and we figured we would come back the next day and tour some more popular places. We stopped for food (I got the nastiest curry I had ever tasted) and started on our way home. 

When we made it to the Osaka station (30 minutes away from the Wada's house) I started to feel really sick. I tried to drink water and relax but it didn't help. I got sooooo sick. Once I felt a little better we decided to try to tough out the train ride. Ps, nausea and trains do not mix well. We had to stop every station so I could throw up. Gross! Finally, on our last stretch of train ride, I threw up in the bag AJ had given me. Some people on the train moved away as quickly as possible, but one grandma came over to me and patted my back to help me feel better. She was such a nice lady and she made me feel like everything would be alright. Even though I was in another country, sick and exhausted... Everything would be fine. I love her for that.

Once a grandma, always a grandma! 

Thursday and Friday consisted of me laying in my temporary bedroom at the Wada's house and only coming out once for dinner. Otherwise AJ catered to me... Water, brothy soup, and Aquarius (the equivalent to Gatorade). Finally I started to feel better! 

While I was sick, AJ got okonomiyaki.... Sooo good. I wish I could have eaten it! 

He also went to the Japanese Costo! 

Sushi spam? Yuck yuck yuck! 

Once I got better Yuko Wada made a delicious meal, I could barely eat any of it but I sure was grateful! 

Even though I was sick, it was a good experience. AJ had time to relax and get geared up for more travel... And I got to sleep a lot! 

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Our 7 Day Trip: Days 1 and 2

AJ and I were able to buy traveler's JR Train Passes before we left the states. The pass is a week-long voucher that gets us on any JR train... Including Shinkansen! The Shinkansen, or bullet trains, usually cost a lot of money. However, the pass allows us to use them as much as we want to wherever we want! It was pretty expensive to buy the pass up front, but it is DEFINITELY worth it. It's only been two days and we have already made up for the cost. c:

So, at the end of our summer in Japan, AJ and I decided to do a western- Honshu tour. Our plans are fluid, so I will post as we go! 

Day 1: Lots and Lots of Travel

We decided to go to our furthest destination on day 1 and then work our way back to Tokyo the rest of the week. Where did we go first? 

Hiroshima! 

The Shinkansen ride took about 6 hours from Yokota Air Base, but it was definitely a smooth ride! Shinkansen trains are set-up similar to planes, but there is more leg room. I didn't get a picture inside the Shinkansen, but I will try to another day. 

When we arrived in Hiroshima it was around 5pm. We went to our hotel to check in and decided (after looking at a map) that it was too late to walk all the way to the other side of the city for the tourist-y stuff. Instead we took a walk along the river and found dinner at a delicious hole-in-the-wall! 

The menu was all in Japanese... We didn't know what we ordered until it came out! 

Tuesday morning we got all packed up and left our stuff in the hotel's lobby (it was watched by the office, of course). Then we went on a big adventure to the Hiroshima Castle and the Peace Memorial Park! 

The castle is gorgeous! Old wood and white paint.... Loved it. 

AJ took this picture... Isn't it perfect? 

The castle was amazing to see... We have seen quite a few castles this summer but this one really took the cake! After we left, we walked through some underground tunnel and came out in the middle of a fair. Apparently the anniversary of the A-bomb is next week and they do a huge peace promotional fair each year. We happened to come right in the middle of it. Activities ranged from making picture frames to an awe-inspiring exhibit on the needs of Africa to bicycling to generate electricity! It was a lot of fun!

AJ generated the most electricity of the day! And in second place...yours truly!  C:

We wanted as much time as possible to spend in the Peace Memorial Park. The first thing we saw was the A-bomb dome. It was definitely sad to see such a gorgeous building torn apart. The city of Hiroshima kept most of the rubble inside the dome and left it pretty much as-is. 

What a way to start the park tour. The A-bomb dome set the tone for the day.

We walked over to the Cildren's Peace Memorial. I absolutely love this exhibit. The symbol for children's peace is the origami crane (as seen at the top of the statue). People from all over the world make huge strands of cranes, or artwork made entirely of cranes, and donate them to the park. Each of the booths pictured below are chalk-full of cranes. 

This was my favorite piece of art work made of cranes. 

Then we walked over to the museum and saw some really beautiful and inspiring exhibits. It was definitely heartbreaking to see the devastation from the bomb. I was amazed at how the Japanese people handled it though. There was not one negative thing written about the American people. The whole museum was a historical account, completely free of blame. They stated the facts, and even some of the reasons why we (the Americans) did what we did. But there was no animosity or hatred. The whole museum was dedicated to peace... And I love that. 

Sometimes bad things happen in our lives and it is so easy to blame others and hold a grudge. But I know that it is important to forgive and to lay down our grudges at the Lord's feet and let Him fill our hearts with love. 

As we were leaving the museum we saw this picture:: 

"That autumn: in Hiroshima where it was said, 'for 75 years nothing will grow' new buds sprouted. In the green that came back to life among the charred ruins, people recovered their living hopes and courage."

I love that the last message leaving the museum was about hope. Hope in the future. It was really a beautiful experience. 

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