Japan

Japan!

 

We've kicked off our travels in Asia with a 10-day trip to Japan. Because of its proximity to Korea, we were able to take a two-hour train from Seoul to Korea's east coast, where we caught a ferry over to Japan. We made our way around the country via bullet train, stopping for several days each in: Fukuoka (coastal city); Skihoku (mountain town) and the Kansai area (the big, bustling cities of Kyoto and Osaka). Seeing so many diverse parts of one country was definitely the best part of this trip. That, and all the attention the Japanese people lavished on us. Geoff, meanwhile, was able to practice Japanese, which is his first, second language. Based on what I know of the language, (domo arigato, Mr. Roboto) he seemed to be doing quite well.

 

 

Japan is primarily made up of four large islands, and
lots of little ones, with a population of 126 million people,
many of whom asked to have their picture taken with us.

 

Nearly three years traveling around South America apparently
did not teach us how to pack light. We had a tough time
 fitting into the teeny-tiny Japanese taxis, hotel rooms and elevators.

 

Stowaway on the train.

 

Love Boat.

Geoff is, of course, still in touch with his high school Japanese teacher back in Idaho.
She arranged for two of her friends to meet us in Fukuoka. These sweet ladies spent the day
touring us around and helping us with the language barrier, .....

 

.... which was particularly helpful when, moments after
 this picture was taken, Leo pressed the SOS button above our heads. Sirens
went off, the subway immediately stopped and security guards came running.

Lesson learned and behaving well.

 

Food: A big part of our trip was the food. We ate so much traditional food -- lots of sushi, udon noodles, soups, and, our favorite, okonomiyaki, plus drank a little sake and Asashi.

 

I can't remember if this was dinner or breakfast because both meals are
often served with cold fish. As it turns out, I'm more of an oatmeal
person in the mornings.

We ate okonomiyaki three times and talked
about how much we miss Molly and Scott each time.

This is green tea ice cream and red bean ice cream
(otherwise called "chocolate" if you're a picky eater
and still learning to read). Both are topped with a soft-serve tofu ice cream.

 

Ditto. But no complaints.

This little can had exactly two sips in it, but it's so cute.

The noodle bowls with shrimp tempura were a second favorite.

 

 

Popularity: We couldn't believe how incredibly friendly and welcoming Japanese people were, especially to Eri, 5, and Leo, 22 months. People often wanted to know where we were from and when we told them the United States, they responed with "woooow," "ooooh," and "thank you very much."

Countless times, student groups would approach us,
reading from a script, to ask: "Can I speak to you in English"
with lots of giggling. It ended with us autographing
the script along with "USA" and a group picture.

This picture doesn't do this incident justice.
Groups of Japanese people formed a semi-circle to snap pictures of
 Leo playing in the gravel. This seriously went on for several minutes, and
then a line formed for more people to take turns posing behind him.

Poor Leo. The spotlight can be tough after awhile.

  

Our hotel gave me a shout-out on Mother's Day.

 

 

The same hotel also sent two staff members
out in the rain to wave goodbye to us (with American flags)
 after we checked out.

 

Fun: Trips highlights include touring the temples and shrines, rafting, shopping, biking, Universal Studios, feeding monkeys and using our new selfie stick whenever possible.

 

Universal Studios in Osaka!

Eri and I dressed up in kimonos one day,
which lots of women do when they're headed out and about.

 

Eri-chan. Just one of the girls.

We totally blend in.

                                   

 

 

Biking around Kyoto.

 

 

Love him!

Buddies.

Eri wrote her name in English and had her dad write it in Japanese on a
candle in one of the Buddhist temples.

Celebrating my 36th birthday. So lucky.

Japan is really expensive. This cantalope, which
we did not buy even though it
has a bow, is thirty-some dollars.

Just seein' the sights.

Very zen.

A kiss for Godzilla.

 

Our Japanese friends were very patient with our energetic children, whose
favorite part of touring the temples was playing in the
hand-washing pagoda fountains meant
for people to clean up a little before going inside a temple.

Uh-oh. We've got another hard-core river lover on our hands.

Eri and I rafted one afternoon. Our Japanese guides all spoke
English with a New Zealand accent, which was really charming.

Feeding the monkeys in the Kansai region.

Taking it all in.

Eri and Geoff on the Harry Potter
rollercoaster at Universal Studios.

So sweet.

We love seeing Asia! Indonesia here we come ...