Starting from the beginning again :o) JAPAN

A very belated update! Let's see what all I remember, this will be a test :o)


This first pic is Me, Lex and Scott posing as a pagoda at the Golden Temple in Kyoto. After we had someone take this pictures we made tons of friends who wanted to have their pictures taken with us. I'm sure they were thinking that they wanted to get a pic with the crazy US tourists...regardless it's a fun picture for us to show our kids what NOT to do when you visit Japan :o) but really to show all the FUN things you can do when you visit Japan.

This next pic is a typical Japanese menu (this script is a bit nicer than the norm, but you get the idea). Solution: PLASTIC FOOD! At most restaurants there was a display of fake food in the front window and all of the dishes looked ridiculously realistic. The drill was to pick a dish and then drag the waitress out to the front and point at what we wanted. Did I mention yet that the Japanese are ingenious?! Well they are and SO people/visitor friendly!

Visiting Hiroshima, as I said before, was an incredibly powerful experience. I truly believe that the world is a better place for each person who visits the city and takes the time to walk through the museum, sit in the park and soak up and grasp the commitment to and message of aspiring towards world peace. The A-bomb dome is on a plot of land that has remained a tribute to the tragedy and is essentially left untouched except for measures done to secure and maintain the integrity of the structure. The area stands on one edge of the Peace Park. There are also displays and displays and more displays of peace cranes that people have sent to Hiroshima from all over the world.

While I was in Hiroshima I walked the Promenade of Peace, one of three different walking trails through the city.

This is me in Miajima and that orange thing in the background is their signature torrey that sits in the water a little way off the land. It's a beautiful orange color that puts my house to shame :o) I enjoyed the contrast. The sky was grey, the mountains were dark and then BAM there was this bright orange structure. It was certainly an eye-catcher. Miajima was one of the places on my trip that felt different than other places. When I took the ferry over I remember that it looked like the water was dancing beneath the boat. It was different than normal light reflection and obviously memorably so.