Japan

To the country that I dearly love.......

There are no words. My heart aches when I see what has happened to you. What is still happening to you.

Thinking of you and praying for our loved ones on your shores.

Heart Day

When Chad and I were in Japan a couple of years ago we noticed that generally couples are not very affectionate in public. (we also noticed that you hardly ever see pregnant woman......we saw about 7 total....but that's another story........)

One morning we were on a train during rush hour and were standing up hoping that eventually we would get a couple of seats cause we had a LONG way to go. While I was complaining we were talking about our hope to get a seat, the person sitting next to us stood up getting reading to leave.  ONE AVAILABLE SEAT. 

We knew if we didn't move quickly the seat would be taken.

So Chad sat down and I sat on his lap. 

We noticed people looking at us, and laughed thinking we were perhaps breaking some kind of 'public code of conduct'. But like I said, one seat. two people. traveling. tired. peak hour. We weren't planning on standing for the whole train ride so decided we were OK with the 'looks' and the possibility of breaking conduct codes.

On the floor next to us was a group of teenage girls sitting in a circle talking excitedly, putting on make-up and being typical young excited girls. (actually they were more excited than typical young girls :)

When I sat down on Chad's lap, after watching us for about 30 seconds this group of girls all started giggling and laughing and making love heart shapes with their hands to each other. One of them looked at me and said in her cute Japanese-English accent "you lub him" and held her hands up to us in a love heart shape. We laughed and they all continued to ooooooooooohhhhhhh and aaaaaaaahhhhhhh and giggle and say "you lub him" while holding up heart shapes to us.

Everytime I think about those cute Japanese girls it makes me laugh and I think to myself, they were right.

I do "lub" him.

Whether you celebrate or not. Happy heart day!!

Shirakawago.

Shirakawago was definitely one of the HIGHLIGHTS of our trip. It was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.

The people live and work in this beautiful small 'world heritage' listed town Just as the photos depict. Surrounded by the remote Japanese mountains it was breathtaking. It really was like stepping back in "Japanese time" about 500 years and soaking up all that is the culture there. As dusk approached we saw most the tourists board their buses leaving the streets fairly 'abandoned' for us to walk around and take in the awe that surrounds this place. WE LOVED IT!





Yes......that giant is my husband....luckily Chad was about a foot taller than almost everybody. This probably saved us from loosing each other a number of times considering I stopped to take so many photos and there were so many people!




















We stayed in one of the traditional thatched-roof gassho-zukuri farm houses. The roofs are said to resemble hands praying and are built without a single nail. Ours was approximately 500 years old - like I said A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.



We LOVED the whole experience of traditonal eating and surprisingly we LOVED the food. I know I know that's a lot of love. The people we stayed with were from Kyoto and Hiroshima - and YES we loved them too!



After dinner our new friends invited us to the bath house (as you do with strangers) which was SO relaxingly uncomfortable if ya get what I mean! You can see how red my face is from the hot water!



our continued quest for self taken photos......



and some more exploring in the morning!






Right before we left we found these BEAUTIFUL FLOWERS! They honestly didn't look real they were so perfect and vibrant! aaaahhhhh Shirakawa-go we miss you!!!!

Japan Chronicles.......Tokyo

It's late and I am procrastinating putting these photos up WAY too much. So here are a few with little explanation.

tokyo tower.......







No end to the buildings that make up tokyo. seriously. there was no break in the buildings to determine where the city ended and 'somewhere' else began! it was huge!!



Asakusa markets. There were so so many people here it was hard to walk let alone really look in all the little shops. and we only had about 5 minutes to get to our bus at the other end of that crowded strip. We may have pushed our way through the crowd a little :)



Electronic district



Us still on our quest to get photos of ourselves without asking anyone to take it for us......







Random Japanese mans hat (he was possibly a little crazy. friendly. But a little crazy) insisting that we all try his hat on and take photos. We obliged cause we're nice like that ;)



Anne and John (my friend from my boarding school days in New Zealand)



Ahhh sigh! The temple. Sadly we didn't have time to go inside but we did have a quick stop to see it.....



Sushi for breakfast anyone??



Salmon eggs. Not recommended. Unless you like little multiple bursts of salty water first thing in the morning.

Macaque Monkeys.....

Kyoto - Arashiyama District

Favourite thing we did - visit the Iwatayama Monkey Park located on Mt Arashiyama. After a 'brisk' walk up the 'mini mountain' as I like to call it (I am way less fit than I should be) we were able to feed and photograph these beautiful 'human like' creatures in the wild. I kept half expecting one of the monkeys to go crazy and attack us but we made it up and down without any 'incidents' (although one did scratch chad :)



This little baby was our favourite - he was ridiculously cute



munching on the nut from Chad........



savouring every little piece (before a bigger one would come and 'snatch' it off him)



YES - this is a real monkey......and after we watched it 'maul' the binocculars we decided against looking through them and enjoyed the view from a higher vantage point......

Japan Cronicles

I can't believe how long and how short the 10 days we had in Japan were! Long because we missed our babies (yes I was obsessed with all the little Japanese babies with fountain ponys) and short because we left wanting to see so much more.

But.....the trip was completely amazing!! It feels so surreal that we've now 'been and gone'. The dream of 'going' has already morphed itself into a memory that is still somehow dream like. It was amazing. WE LOVED LOVED LOVED IT!!!




stay tuned......