Japan

As many of you know, Matt and I just got back from Japan.  We spent 10 days there.  It was amazing!  We have such a blessed life.  2 beautiful healthy children, life with each other for eternity, a great home, we've already been on a couple amazing trips in the first 6 years of our marriage.  The list could go on and on.  This is one of our major trips.  We've been wanting to go to Japan together since we got married.  Matt served his mission there and has always wanted to go back.  Now we have!  And it was perfect!!!  So here is only a small portion of our pictures:

 

Samari house at the imperial palace in Tokyo

Matt's brother Jake got to go with us.  This is in front of Tokyo Tower.

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These are everywhere and people really drink out of them from the little wooden ladle.

Beautiful Cherry Blossoms bordering the huge rice field.

Cute bridge at one of the zen gardens we went to

The Golden Pavilion.  The entire thing is gold plated.  These pictures don't do it justice.  It shined so much and it was even overcast that day.  I can't imagine on a sunny day.

Exhausted and waiting for the train

Our hotel in Kyoto was amazing!  It was connected to the major train station.  If you notice escalators against the walls go all the way up 11 flights of stairs.

There are thousands of these arches.  We walked forever through them all.  It's suppose to bring fortune to your business by buying one and having it put there.  They were hundreds of thousands to have your business put one there.  But super cool to walk through.  There were also monkeys there but we didn't get to see any.  Apparently they attack people to there were signs to throw rocks if you see one.  Kinda funny!

We saw this bamboo forest on a super windy day.  It was beautiful hearing the wind bang them against each other.

Hiroshima.  The bomb exploded like 400m above this building.  This was the hardest part of the trip.  You learn so much about the war but we don't learn much about what exactly the US did to Japan.  By far more terrible then they ever did to Pearl Harbor.  It was hard to stomach going through the very vivid and gruesome museum.

The Floating Tori Gate.  When the water is higher is goes all the way past the building you see behind this gate.  We hit it at the off season obviously.  But it would be amazing to see it "floating"

The this island the gate is on deer are friendly and very protected.  You can pet all of them and they are nice.  They can also wonder through the stores and the employees are not allowed to kick them out.  Even if they ruin things.  Very protected animal on the island apparently.

Osaka Castle.  One of the 3 biggest in the country

We saw these people taking their wedding pictures and I just had to ask for one myself.  She was so beautiful!

The blossoms were my favorite part of the trip and they were everywhere!

This was my favorite garden and the Imperial Palace in Kyoto.

Eating and some restaurant I can't say the name to.  They bring you all this raw meet and you grill it right there on your table.  This is where we all ate cow tongue without realizing it.  It was good though!

This was our favorite spot!  Is Tacayama.  Matt actually lived in this city on his mission.  It's up in the mountains and beautiful.  We loved the bench because it was on the river right under a beautiful cherry blossom tree.

These houses in the back ground are in Tacayama.  The roofs are made from straw.  People lived in this tiny village until the 60's when Japan got TV and it became a trend to move to the big city.  Eventually the big city came to them and these home are no longer lived in.  They were so cool to walk through though.

Out of all the Temples we saw this one was my favorite! ;)

Me eating octopus.  Bad picture but I had to put it in!

I got to ring the big bell.  You are suppose to bow, ring the dong, and make a wish while it goes.

Last but not least, what we called the squatters.  Yes these are in all the public bathrooms (men and women).  They would offer these stalls and regular ones.  Even at the airport.  More then once there would be travelers lined up for the regular stalls and Japanese women going in these.  Not a chance I was going to try that!