Where we've been

It’s been so long since I’ve written here that I’m not sure how to go about starting. I guess that’s why I’ve been hesitant to even begin. I’ve seen a lot of Japan since I last wrote – and have taken many pictures. I guess this will be mostly a brief catch-up before I go to bed.

Janice is still in Iwaki with me and her dad is also here visiting. When he first arrived on the third, we came back to Iwaki for a day before leaving on a train for Hiroshima. We spent a couple of days there where we went to Miya Jima, the Peace Memorial park, and ate okonomiyaki at okono-mura (a big building that houses about 20 different restaurants all serving only okonomiyaki).

From Hiroshima, we went to Kyoto, where we saw many shrines and temples – too many for me to even remember the names, or even the faces of. Some of the highlights were the hall of 3000 arms, the Golden Temple – or Kinkokuji, and the gardens of the Silver Temple, or Ginkokuji.

After Kyoto, we went to Nara, which has the largest wooden structure in the world, which also houses a very large – if not the largest, statue of Buddha in the world. Nara was an incredible place with deer that roam the streets freely.

Finally, we ended up in Osaka for our last bit of traveling. Here, we went to Osaka castle and roamed the streets all day. There was also a festival happening, so Janice and her dad got a taste for the Japanese festival experience and the good food that goes along with it.

We arrived back in Iwaki a few days ago and it’s been back to work for me. Janice’s dad has a few more days until he leaves for Hawaii on Sunday.

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I was going to keep the Tokyo photos happening in the order that I took them, but so far I’ve only managed to get through our first evening and the next day. So much for that idea.

Here I’ve included a photo of the Golden Pavilion in Kyoto. I can’t remember when the temple was built, but it was burned down by one of the monks in the 1950’s. It was rebuilt a few years later. I think it’s one of the biggest tourist sites in Kyoto, which is understandable given the immaculate scenery around it. We arrived early enough in the morning so the light was good and there weren’t too many people around.