Last day in Tokyo

Our last day in Tokyo started at 4 am in the fish market. We could not believe how much fish went through this place, and it was so busy with workers you really had to watch out or you'd get run over. They take the fish from being still alive all the way to packed and rolled as sushi, ready to be bought at the store. There were a lot who ate some of the sushi right from there, but after watching all of this, and smelling all of it, I just couldn't stomach it. O-well. One thing I won't have done! We had a bunch more pictures, but thought we'd spare all of you the details!
Later in the day we headed over to Asakusa. This is where much of the shopping is done for the china. It was packed with people, but was fun to experience. We bought some cookies they made at one of the booths, which weren't that bad. The cream center was made of beans... who would have thought...
There's also a view in here from the top of the building next to our hotel. This is the never-ending view of Tokyo we looked at every day. Pretty amazing.

Nikko

So are you sick of all these photos yet? Hope not because I've got a bundle for you today!

This was our Friday, and we went on quite the adventure. We took some subways (The wrong ones unknown to us, but still got us there all the same.... somehow) to a rural city up in the mountain tops. Once to the city we took a bus to the top of the mountains, looking for some waterfalls. What do you know, they were all still frozen. If we spoke the language we would have known it was not yet the season, so instead we got to walk 2 miles down these mountain roads trying to get to a bus stop that was running. I actually enjoyed it. Not being anywhere around any city was great.

In Nikko they have some of the oldest Buddha temples (finally huh?). So here's a bunch of photos from the day.






This are fortuns you can recieve at the temple after making an offering. If you don't like your fortune you tie it to these ropes and they burn them to keep them from being granted. It seemed most people hung theirs back up. I wish I knew what they said.






















Just so you know we were really there!
























The rice fields. They can harvest them here throught the year. We took this through the subway window.




This was Friday night at "time square". There were lights and people everywhere. We kept commenting how it felt like a big football game just got out or something because the amount of people out walking around. It was insane!

Day Three, A stroll through the gardens

This day came at a perfect time in the trip.
I was tired of walking around the cities with these "shoppers" and just wanted to enjoy what there was to see in Japan.
So me and a new good friend (who's music you really need to check out here) just took off with the two of us, our subway passes and our cameras. And of course I can't forget the good conversation! The gardens were so gorgeous. We ran into a darling group of school girls who had a blast trying to talk to us. We found many old ladies painting in the gardens. Discovered how they keep the trees up once the branches get too long, which is what gives them their unique shape. And found the biggest flower I've ever seen. It was bigger than the palms of both hands places side by side.
If you look at some of the skylines, you'll still see the buildings in the background... which was strange to be someplace quite the opposite of everything surrounding it, but being able to see both at the same time.

Day two in Nippori

On day two I headed up with this time only a group of 5 to the old town of Nippori. This being one of the older cities having made it through all the bombings. This was very unlike the downtown Tokyo where we stayed. Nippori was a smaller city full of homes and local shopping. I loved this stop and wanted so badly to take Matt back to this charming village.







The first thing I saw when stepping out from the subway, which was a great way to travel once we figured it out, is this view of the distant Tokyo. A reminder of where we really are.








But a short walk up about ten steps and rounding the corner you see this. You instantly forget the view just seen and find nothing but houses lining little roads, in a very old town. It's beautiful, serene and very quiet.







The houses are so close together there is only room for one narrow car to squeeze into a garage. You can see part of one starting to pull out here, which I thought helped show the spacing between these homes. It was interesting to walk by one of the homes and little american flag hanging in a window.







First stop was to one of the oldest Shinto shrines in Tokyo. Of course, as was everything thing else, it was just beautiful and peaceful. This Buddha is one of the oldest, and I love how time takes its hold on things, giving everything more character.







Before entering the temples, those there to worship the Gods clean themselves to gain worthiness to enter. They wash each hand, and then touch the water to their lips.







I loved the detail put into everything, even their rain spouts.







Walking out of the shrine we find a historical cemetary. This was the front of the cemetary. I loved the blue bike, with all the surrouding green. I loved the stillness here, and looking at this helps to remind me that stillness can be good.







This is a "headstone" as we we call it. When someone dies, they are cremated and placed with the rest of the family. So what you see here would have an entire family under there. On the front of the tall stone the prayer is written and along the side of the stone will have the name of all the family members placed there. There are 4 holders in front, two for flowers and two for candles. Certain years (first, 5th, 10th, ect) after someone has passed, they do another memorial service for them. Each time a service is done, they place a stick with a prayer on it behind the stone. Some of those stones had so many sticks you couldn't count. It was amazing.







This was an entrance to another cemetary. There are more of those lens flares (or spirits, depending on what you believe). I wish I knew what all of those said.







A typical road here in the little villa of Nippori.







A roof top in Nippori.

For the rest of the day I took Matt to the Manji shrine back closer to where we were staying, since he hadn't seen it yet. It was a good day, and so far the food was pretty good!

Finally, journaling parts of my journey

The flight over to Japan was over 24 hours. It was long, long and longer. I LOVED Japan, but I almost don't know if the flight is worth going again. :( We left Georgia at 4:30am on Sunday and arrived in Japan around 10pm Monday night. We were tired, but everyone kept saying to stay up as late as we could to help with the time change. So we managed to stay up until around midnight, at which point I thought I was going to fall over. Like it or not, I was going to bed.





So first thing in the morning I headed out with a group of 10 others. All of which were girls but one poor gentleman who had no other guys, so stayed with us. None of us wanted to go out on our own, so we stuck together whether we liked it or not. The first day for me would be the "or not". They girls really wanted to shop, but by shop it was speed walking through towns and finding all the high-end stores. This here is the Prada building. Notice how small the people are at the bottom of the pict. This building was just Prada and was made entirely of glass. It was pretty...





I also ran across this. The houses are just shoved in anywhere they'll fit. Plus I thought the stone walls with moss were just cool. Japan doesn't leave anything unattended. Everything looked good and was so kept up. It was amazing. Never once (until we went way out to the suburbs)did we see a single peice of litter. They don't even have public garbage cans. They all take their garbage home with them to throw away?!?! Can you imagine if we tried that here. We really are lazy.





After our "shopping" excursion we headed over to the Manji shrine. It was this oasis in the middle of "city". It was so bizarre to find it there, but also a wonderful way to get away. I loved these lanterns they have for their street lights. I found this on the way into the shrine, which I found kind of funny because if you look at the picture there is a lense flare. Some say those are the deceased, lingering around, that for a brief moment were caught in a visible form here. I'm not saying I beleive that, but I did capture it on temple grounds.....





I just loved this fence. Like I said, they check every detail and don't do anything half way. This too was on the walk to the shrine. It was about a 15 minute walk on a gravel road through nothing but trees. It was a beautiful way to find a shrine hidden back away from all the business of the world around.






This was the entrance to the actual shrine. The Manji shrine is a Shinto shrine. Japan has Shinto and Buddist. The Shinto is my favorite. They are very "zen". It's the only word I can think of for it. Simple. Clean. Quiet.





Through this door is where they go to give their prayer. It was very neat to watch. Before entering for prayer, they clean themselves, which I will show pictures of later. They then walk up the stairs and into the actual shrine. You go in and stand at this altar made of wood. They walk up in front of it and bow. They then clap their hands twice, to get the attention of the gods. They then bow again. Next they bow in prayer and remain in the bow until done it the prayer. When finished, they then clap two more times. I love getting to watch different cultures and how they do things.





This was found out in front of the shrine. These are prayers written on pieces of wood. You can buy a specific prayer, and although I couldn't read them, there were over 200 different prayers hanging there. Once you pick your prayer you take it home and hang it on your wall for an entire year. At the year mark they then burn the prayer in faith that it will then be granted to them.





More buildings on the grounds of the shrine.

The beginning of the end of the beginning

Okay, so people are complaining about not getting the story on our trip to Asia, but now that I've recovered I have to mention the most important thing...

Matt GRADUATED!!!

WooHoo!!!

Saturday we went to the awards ceremony, and then all day Monday we were at the graduation program. It was really nicely done, and not a corny program that some schools put on. Either way though, I think I would have loved it because it meant that we were done. No more school! My baby did it!




Now for the other big news... we don't have to move! Matt took a new job with Abbott as an Area Buisness Advisor. It's kind of like a director position, but at the same time is different. I can't tell you yet, since I really don't know. But either way, it's a new job! He turned in his two weeks to Kimberly-Clark last Thursday and his official "last day" is the 19th. This new job is here in the same city we currently live, and is even one exit closer! So now we just get to figure out what this means to be a family with two parents IN the house! I couln't be happier right now.

*sigh*
(and thats the relieved kind!)

There's no place like home!

I'm home again. Yea! It was an amazing two weeks, with some crazy stories (which if course I'll share with you), but for now I just want to sleep. It was 13 hours different in Japan, and 12 in China. For some reason the jet lag wasn't bad at all going, but it's brutal coming home. They say you get back an hour a day....so I've got a couple of weeks! Tomorrow I'll see if I can post a few pictures and start my journey. Right now though, the best journey I can think of is to the bed! Until tomorrow....sweat dreams!