For the New Year we decided to do something very Japanese and go and visit a shrine. We went to the Big Budda it's about 75 minutes drive from where we live close to Aomori. It was a good day to go as there where lots of people around and the Monks where out saying their prayers to welcome in the new year. There was also a lot of snow on the ground making it a little hard to get around but a little more picturesque.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
The Big Budda
The New Year
After having a relaxing weekend we where able to hit the New Year a little more relaxed and at ease. We spent New Years Eve at Okanakiyama Ski Resort where able helped teach Paul how to snowboard. She was a regular drill Sergeant, kept him in line and I think scared him a little bit. On the way home we stopped at Shimoda Mall for some dinner and then continued on home where we stayed up playing guitar heroes until midnight (or in my case fell asleep on the coach)when we switched to the TV to watch the Japanese Boy Bands welcome in the New Year at The Tokyo Dome.
Opening Presents
The whole opening presents thing got pushed till really late but we had a great time being together and arriving back at Misawa where we where able to appreciate all that we where give, by the way I received a zune which I am totally loving.
What did they do to my house?
Upon arriving home from Tokyo we where met at the front door by a roll of toilet paper, it wound it's way across the hall and then up the stair and continued on to Ben's room where the whole place had been covered. The Draper boys and Tiffany had a little bit of fun while we where away.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Sunday, January 6, 2008
Life just slowed down
Wow, Tokyo was a world wind it was so much fun but so good to get back to Misawa and start to live a little more slowly. Thankfully there had been no snow while we where away so we had no shovelling to do as we arrived home just doctors appointments, shopping, laundry and cleaning to get through. Jonah's doctors appointment wasn't to eventful except for the fat that the boy cannot put on any weight and has managed to lose 5lb in the last six months so if anyone has any ideas how to put some weight on a teenager that isn't teaching him bad nutritional habits please let me know.
Saturday, January 5, 2008
The Drive Home
We decide to take the drive home from Tokyo a little easier than the drive to with a few stop offs on the way. We where able to stop in a City about 2 hours drive outside of Tokyo called Nikko, it's a very old Buddist town founded over 7000 years ago that contains 100's of shrines. It is very beautful but close to the mountains so there where lots of steps to climb and it was also very cold. We spent about 3 hours wandering around and then drove on to Sendai the half way point, we stopped off here, had dinner and did a little shopping. Sendai has an amazing shopping district that I hope to see again soon. We arrived back to Misawa at about 2230 hrs and all managed to make our way back to bed. I would like to thank my family, my brother Paul and Albert and Mary Lou for making thos such an enjoyable vacation
Last Day in Tokyo
We took our last day in Tokyo pretty easy and didn't get out of the hotel until way into the evening. We went by the temple and the kids got some swim time at the hotel pool then in the evening we went to Pallet Town, it's by the dock area of Tokyo and has one of three giant Ferris wheels you see shining in the Tokyo night sky. We where able to all climb inside one of the carts for the Ferris wheel and get a good view of the city from there. I have to say the best part of the trip though was the train ride through Tokyo, where before we had always travelled on the subway and not seen much of the city as we travelled from spot to spot the whole of this trip was at city level so we zipped our way through the city and around the skyscraper, we where able to see inside office buildings and living rooms and well as see has great the city looked it was a truly enjoyable ride. There are so many other cool things to do in the pallet district during the day time with children, it has a maritime museum, hands on science museum and a Toyota show room, we where able to spent some time in that testing out cars and playing in some formula one racing simulators.
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Day Four Christmas at Disneyland
We where able to spend Christmas Day enjoying the wonder that is Disney. We arrived at Disneyland at about 0830 along with about 20,000 Japanese people they place was crazy busy but full of the same magic that makes Disney so great. We where not able to go on a whole lot of rides as most of the lines took over 90 minutes of wait time. But we did do the pirates of the Caribbean, haunted mansion, small world, pretty much the standard Disney rides that are there at all locations. We had another great day and where able to watch most of the parades which although they were in Japanese where great. Our favorite part of the day was going to the Tiki Room and seeing the birds rap in Japanese.
Kyoto cont...
I was watching Memoirs of a Geisha last night with my brother and noticed the scene in the movie where the young girl was running through the line of Tori gate and realized that we had gone to that Shrine so I included the photo above along with a photo of the Golden Temple a beautiful building that needed to be show in colour so you could fully appreciate it.
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Day Three Kyoto
Today we got up before the crack of dawn (about 0330) and started on our journey to Kyoto. Kyoto is a very old Japanese City, the original capital of Japan. Because of it's historical significants it was left untouched in the bombing raids of the second world war. It's about a 6 hour drive from Tokyo and packed full of things to see. We went from shrine to shrine and Temple to Temple. We where even able to find a Geisha(Kyoto is one of the only places left in Japan where they live). I will post the video of that another time.
Second Day in Tokyo
As you can see from the pictures below we spent out second day in Tokyo visiting the Imperial Gardens, we turned up on a really great day as it is one of only two days in the year when the Emperor addresses the Japanese people. He does three addresses from his home where he is sealed behind a glass enclosure.It was an incredible experience and we where able to be there for the first viewing. We arrived at the gardens at about 0900 where we went through security with Mary Lou getting her candy taken away. We then waited in the rain outside with about a 1000 other people till the gates to the inner garden where opened at about 0945 we then waited till 1020 for the Emperor to come on to the balcony and address us. It was crazy in a very orderly Japanese style, as we exited the subway that morning we where given flags to wave which we did as the Emperor showed up shouting a chorus of "Bonzi" with the other visitors.
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