Photo fun! Japan endnotes

a deer literally eating a girl's homework in Nara

At the Imperial Palace, Tokyo

our favorite fish shaped filled pancake treat!

Japan endnotes: many in haiku.

No English menu
Mike tries out his Japanese
He orders "children"

Morning fish market
Fish still alive. Oops! No more.
Sushi for breakfast

Japanese breakfast
That guy has the Western one
I covet his eggs

Japanese toilets
some have warm seats, others are squat
either way, crap shoot

Miso grill with beef
Should it be smoking like that?
Great, no fire alarm

What is that street treat?
Fish shaped pancake with red bean?
I will have two more

Japanese school kids
Blue uniforms at all sights
Peace signs in pictures

Deer in Nara Park
"Ack, the deer ate my homework!"
It did. We saw it.

Cherry blossom tree
one bloom, three cellphone cameras
old ladies, push hard

Rain in Kyoto
Tokyo and Nara too
And Takayama

Rain rain go away
Come again another day
Really? Tomorrow?

Seriously though, despite some rainy days (like today), we had a marvelous time in Japan. The temples were awesome, the shrines were fun, the street snacks were incredible and the people were super nice.

Japan is an interesting combination of very traditional and very modern, without a whole lot in between. That doesn't mean that people can't pick and choose (the most trendy women still politely laugh behind their hands, and the most traditionally dressed woman still has a cell phone with 9 charms hanging off of it). I was serious about the toilet thing too... many public restrooms here have traditional toilets which are essentially pretty holes in the ground, and then a few 'western' toilets... that have flushing sounds (for politeness), bidets, ahem... rear-end dryers and HEATED SEATS. It's an interesting juxtiposition.

Culture here is also really interesting. There are things here called 'maid cafes' where girls in costumey maid outfits serve you and put on little performances, you can pay to play table games with them (like crocodile dentist) or have your picture taken, and at the end we got souvenier cards that looked like amex that said 'license of your majesty'....

We also did literally see a deer eat a girl's homework (there is a herd of small wild deer in Nara's main tourist area), it was hilarious. We also saw them spot a group of school kids together, and all of them went running like they knew that they could get food out of them. We also saw great temples and stuff in Nara (including the Giant Buddha), lovely things in Kyoto (including the famed 'Golden Pavillion', rebuit in 1954 after a crazy monk consummated his obession with it by burning it to the ground...), and crazy things in Tokyo (oh also, two Japanese tourists approached me at the Imperial Palace and I thought they wanted me to take a picture for them... but no, they wanted to take pictures with me? I'm still unclear why). Also, the other day in Takayama, we got home ready to call it a day (we walk a lot...) and then we heard about a crazy festival in the town next door (Mike didn't want to go, but then the like 75 year old monk was like, why are you guys here, everyone is at the festival... and when you get called out by a 75 year old Buddhist monk...) So we went, it was absurd! We aren't actually sure what it was but it involved men in loinclothes getting drunk, climbing poles and banging on giant taiko drums..we definitely had a bit of a close call when where we were standing turned in to part of the route... but it was all good. Not bad for an accidental festival attendance.

Overall, it has been a really interesting, tasty and fun 12ish days, and we are excited to head on to China (where we think we are going to spend a night camping by the Great Wall and hopefully go to the world expo!)

Here's a few pics! Sorry....

The largest wooden building in the world! Home of the Giant Buddha

Mike eating a traditional Japanese Breakfast

Me rocking a 'traditional' Japanese picture pose at the Golden Pavillion

Konichiwa, part deux (I don't know that many Japanese words..)

Ok, where did we leave off? Perhaps the temple… We went to our first temple in Japan, it was awesome. The Buddhist temples are fascinating for a billion reasons including: they have huge complexes with a ton of different little buildings, there are often Shinto shrines near or attached because most Japanese people practice both (Shinto is more concerned with this life, Buddhism with that to come), they seem to usually be SUPER crowded (but no one minds, in a country where they fit 125 million people in a space the size of … maybe New York state?, people are just cool with crowds). And there are tons of fun ways to get luck, good wishes, fortunes, etc.

Later in the afternoon we went to the Sony Building (where we saw tv in 3D, woah), then down to a lovely Japanese garden that had these hysterical duck hunting areas (where they just lured them with tame ducks then trapped them in a net… not very sporting if you ask me), and cruised up the river back to our neighborhood (Asakusa). Before heading home we went to the Asahi building (which is shaped like a beer!!) and had a beer, then we went to a Sushi Boat restaurant (which can be a little intimidating, but we got the hang of it, and they charge by the color of your plates, but they have like micro chips or something so when you are done a dude comes over and scans them, amazing).

Yesterday morning we packed up and headed for Kyoto (I know, weird, it has to do with when we were able to easily find hotels, we’ll be back in Tokyo before we go). Last night we used some Hyatt points to stay at the Hyatt Regency in Kyoto, let me tell you, this hotel ruuuuules. It is gorgeous, the people are lovely (we told them it was our honeymoon, technically true, and they gave us a free bottle of wine and champagne with dinner). There was turn down service with cute Japanese robes to hang out in… Awesome.

We spent the afternoon mostly up at a temple, Kiyomizu-dera an awesome temple complex, there is a place where you drink spring water to purify you (Mike did it), also this super cool place where you decend ‘into the womb of a bodhisatva’ which means into pitch black (guided by a rail of giant wooden prayer beads) through a series of twists and turns until you reach a lighted stone which you turn to make a wish. It was awesome. Attached to the temple is also a very famous Shinto love shrine. There are two stones about 25 ft apart and it is said if you can walk from one to the other with your eyes closed you will be lucky in love. We watched a bunch of school girls do it, super cute…oddly, no boys… We also bought ourselves a charm there for luck, we chose ‘safety travel’ it seemed appropo.

Our afternoon was filled with cute lanes and many fun shops, and of course about 40 fun Japanese snacks (not 40, but a lot). The winner of the day was definitely a steamed bun with boiled beef and burdock root. So tasty. Today we are heading to Nara for a day and a half or so. Then back here for a few more days. So far, Japan is a)delicious, b)fascinating, and c)super fun.

Konichiwa from Tokyo!

First of all, we made it!  For anyone who was worried, we have reached a new continent safe and sound. Also our flight had amazing movies (I watched the Blind Side, Whip It and Its Complicated and Mike watched Its Complicated and Avatar!), also it takes approximately two years to get from Narita Airport to the city... not really, but it is quite a process (plus immigration took ages) so by the time we got to our hostel it was 3 hours later. In any event, the hostel is adorable (and despite the fact that we arrived in pouring rain and 6 degree weather) we were in great spirits. We decided it was a good night for some soup, and went in to the first place that looked appropriately soupy (with pictures and stuff).  We each got a bowl of miso ramen (it was huge and cost around 7 dollars...I can:t even begin to describe how much better prices are here than Australia). The best part? (vegetarians and koshers close your ears... ) they ask you what level of pork fat you would like in your soup! Your choices go from 0-3... we both went with a standard 1.

This morning we headed out to explore our neighborhood, Asakusa which has an outdoor market and ａ Buddist temple. Let me tell you my first problem, I want to buy EVERYTHING in Japan. The kitchy things (because japan RULES kitch), the kimonos, the pottery, the chopsticks with adorable things on them.... I cant remember ever wanting so much before.  That said, we are under control (so far...) but I:m sure will end up with a number of things from here.  Second, we keep buying amazing street snacks, they are sooooo good and each cost between 1-2 dollars... so its really hard to resist. First I had some rice dough balls (ｌｉｋｅ mochi outsides...) with a salty caramel sauce( delicious) on a stick which makes it fun.  Then we had cute little filled pancakes with red bean paste inside (mine was a bird, mikes a pagoda).  Later on our way home we got a giant filled pancake fish with green tea/red bean paste... amazing.  The funny thing is that it is rude to eat on the street, but there is a lot of street food ( a catch 22 you say?) so all the street vendors have little areas you can hover while you eat... don:t quite get it, but i will hover for delicious filled pancake treats under $2. Its just a fact.

Ok， we did a ton of other things, I will try to post later， but right now its dinner time and I am on a keyboard with a tiny space bar and if i hit the key next to it, it translates my last sentence into japanese...