Tokyo and Nikko

So we headed to Shinjuku, got on the subway and went to the Hiro-o station where we promptly got off, got lost, and had no idea where we were going. Ah yes, it's like a metaphor, because where were we trying to get to? The temple of course.

So we felt fairly lost, because we didn't really get stellar directions. And we started walking and there! There beside us was the Church HQ in Japan... but alas it was 5:15 and all was locked up. Still at square one. Eventually we figured out where the park was that was supposed to be near, and lo and behold, there was Moroni. Yes. It's true.

So we went to the temple that evening. We met a couple who was actually from Ogden serving there. Weird. The Ito family. They actually knew my math teacher from high school... the wife was actually her cousin... and my PE teacher. Yeah it was all really too weird.

But it was really cool to do baptisms in Japan and hear it all done in Japanese.

We met up with the Kuwaharas there, Doraina's mission comp Tomoko and her family. We stayed with them for the next few days. They were AWESOME! Love them so much!

So we ended up staying in Saitma which is a suburb of Tokyo.

The next day Doraina and I went into Tokyo and went to the Tokyo National Museum.

Oh look...one of the buildings at the Tokyo National Museum. Imagine that. It was really cool with a bunch of neat artifacts.


After that we had an adventure in Kabuki. So we waited at the theater for about two hours to get $10 tickets...


But it was worth it. It was SO awesome. Especially the end murder scene... grisly I know, but awesome nonetheless.


The big gate in Tokyo. We went there late, so everything was closed in Asakusa.


The entrance into Edo Wonderland... the theme park of ancient Tokyo in the city of Nikko.


More Edo...


This was the water show... this is mild... water was coming out of everything by the end.


This is the ninja show. Bad picture. Cool show.


Geisha show. It was a comedy, but had a lot of dialogue, so it was a little hard to follow.


Streets of an ancient village... just kidding. It's still the theme park. But it looks real, eh?


More streets. This is where The Last Samurai was filmed. Tom Cruise walked here. Wash your feet haha.


Me killing this dude. He asked for it. Really and literally.


Cool trees!

So the last couple days we spent with the Kuwahara family. We went to the ward there and it was great! They were so kind and the RS President was actually from Utah, so she translated the entire three hours. It was so nice of her!

We drove to Narita the next day and ate Japanese style Ramen (so good) and flew home. Woot!

The end. Finally. It was long. I know.

Hakone

So on our way from Hiroshima to Tokyo we stopped at a little resort/spa town called Hakone. This is where we stayed at a Japanese Ryokan (traditional inn) and ate a beautiful spread of amazing food... most of which I didn't like because I'm not the biggest fan of seafood. But Doraina liked it enough for both of us, so it was great.


Being Japanese in our yukatas. Quite comfortable!


Our shoes. Cute eh?


Me in the full garb in our room.


To preface this: we went to the Hakone Open Air Art Museum the next day as we headed to Tokyo. So the next group of pictures are some of the things we saw there. This was really cool, as you can see from the picture. But the thing you can't see is the stream of water that trickles from her lower eye into the pool. Really neat.


This was on a hill, and looked really cool.


Some statues.


The koi in the pond that thought we were going to feed them or something. Just like my fish flick...huh...it must be a goldfish thing.


This is the outside of the building. Kind of ugly, no?


This is the inside of that ugly building! So beautiful!


Japanese Maple tree.


Haha. So we ran across this statue in the grass kind of by mistake. I walked past it, and then I stopped, took a glance back and started laughing my head off. Yeah. It's that funny.


This was an homage to dance. It was pretty cool. The black are males, the red females.


There was this Chinese family in the ropeway car with us. The kid has on a Monsters Inc. hard hat. I thought it was the funniest, but cutest, thing ever!


The hot pots/sulfur springs we flew over on the ropeway.


The European-style Man of War ships that we rode across Lake Ashi. Yeah. All the pirate statues were European. It was funny. But the boats were really cool!


Me with the "Japanese" pirate captain.


This dude always looked like he was shooting people. We spent most of the time up here with him on the top deck.


Us!


The other ship. I thought this was a pretty neat shot.


A group of cute school kids. We saw a TON of these groups while we were there!


Beautiful Mt. Fuji! Too bad that dumb cloud wouldn't move EVER!

After that we headed back to Hakone and got on a train to Shinjuku station, Tokyo!

Miyajima

So Miyajima was a day trip from our little hostel in Hiroshima. It was really neat! It's an island about 30 min (by train) south of the heart of Hiroshima. The island itself was regarded as sacred and is home to a huge shrine that is built so that during high tide it looks like the whole thing is floating on the water! It's really neat. And during low tide, you can walk out to it on the beach.


This lovely man in gold is what greeted us as we went to the dock to ride the ferry to Miyajima.


I though these old-timey boat men in contrast with the huge hotel behind them was pretty neat.


The O-Torii or Grand Gate. It looks like it's floating on the water, but there's actually a wooden path just below the surface and you can walk out to it during the low tide.


Me and the O-Torii.


Another amazing five-story pagoda. This one in stunning red.


The view from the middle of the mountain tops. We rode a cable car (ropeway) up to this point, but don't worry, we hiked a good way to get to the summit of Mt. Misen. Yeah. It was a hike.


More of the beautiful mountains.


Monkeys! They were everywhere at the top of the mountains. This baby was just so cute!


This monkey was not as nice. He gave me a stern talking to after I took the picture. But he's still cute.


Some of the bazillion stairs we climbed to get to the summit of Mt. Misen.


A great view from ALMOST the top.


This is me at the top of Mt. Misen. Yes. It was far!


Waterfalls on the way down...


Almost to the bottom!

Miyajima was a great escape to the great outdoors. We climbed to the top of the mountain! Definitely not something I was planning on, as was evidenced by my lack of good shoes... but alas. It was a great hike! And we saw monkeys!

Hiroshima

Hiroshima was one of my favorite places in Japan. In addition to the history, and the fact that my family is from there, and the ocean, I just really loved Hiroshima as a city!

So here are some pics from our day there:


This is the A-Bomb Dome. It's the only building left from the atomic bomb. (There were a few others, but they were torn down to make way for new buildings.) There was this huge debate as to whether or not to tear this building down as well, but historical significance and remembrance won the day, and it's a great reminder to everyone.


This is one of the many cool memorials at the Peace Park in Hiroshima. This is the Children's Peace Memorial. It's made specifically in remembrance of one little girl who was in the city when the bomb dropped and had no symptoms of it until she contracted lukemia twelve years later. She thought that if she could make 1,000 paper cranes, she would somehow be save, hence the symbolism of the crane in association with the Children's memorial.

The boxes you can see in the background are filled with cranes (mostly paper). The three pictures below are some of the cranes that are in the boxes.






Our tour guide at the museum said that Hiroshima receives 10 billion paper cranes each year. That's a lot of cranes!


This is the peace bell. Anyone can go and ring it. It had a beautiful inscription next to it, and it's great to hear it ringing consistently while you walk through the park.


This picture is sideways, but you get the idea. Some lily pads near the peace bell.


This is a mound made of cremated remains of the victims of the atomic bomb. Weird, but moving. It's quite the large mound.


The eternal flame of peace. They say it won't be extinguished until every nuclear weapon is gone from the face of the earth. I think they may be waiting a while...


This is Hirosima castle. It's not in the Peace Park. It's really cool to see the difference in style from the European castles...and yet there is still a moat...


The actual castle itself.


This is Hiroshima's version of Central Park. It's so beautiful! I saw flying fish and a crane here!






This is an ugly picture, but here is one of the five bazillion crabs that were everywhere in this park! One was the size of my hand and was sitting right in the middle of the path when I turned a corner. Scared me. For real.


A mini-rice paddy.






This last picture is obviously not in the park. We thought it was hilarious. It's a day care bus, and nothing like a naked baby with a mohawk stuck to the front of a huge orange van to tell people that this is a day care bus...

We headed home relatively early and ate the Hiroshima style okonomiyaki. SO good!