(no subject)
Whoa, it's been a couple weeks since I got back from my trip, and I should probably write something about it!
The first week and a half I spent in Japan. The first few days we crashed at Eric's place, and I got to see his daughter for the first time. It's pretty crazy, she was almost 2 and was already walking around and talking. Holy moses! During the day we took a few trips. Our first day we went to Himeji city and saw the castle there. The next day we headed down to Namba in Osaka. We hung out with Eric, had some mexican food and saw some crazy stores. Our first stop after Erics place was Nara city. We checked out the park, which is full of deer and saw some shrines and whatnot. I'd been there once before, but that was in the summer. On the plus side, it was a lot less crowded and we never had to wait in line. The following day we headed off to Kyoto. We checked out Yasaka shrine, and grabbed some sukiyaki for dinner. The next morning it had started snowing pretty heavily, so we figured it would be best to head to Hiroshima and come back to Kyoto later. Sure enough the weather was balmy (bomby?)... hoho, I might be going to hell for that one. I think the thing that impressed me most were the dioramas they had, as well as some of the personal items of the victims. The diorama really drove home how bad the devastation was, and that you were standing in the middle of an area that had been absolutely flattened by an atomic bomb. The victims stuff was hard to look at... Seeing photos of the buildings was one thing, but seeing the scorched clothes that people had been wearing was tougher to handle.
We spent that night in Kyoto, but it was so snowy we decided to head up to Tokyo. We wound up spending two days there, but finding a hotel was difficult. We went to Shibuya, Harajuku and Yoyogi park on the first day. It was getting dark by the time we made it to yoyogi park, but luckily the greasers were still around and the night performers were just coming out. The next day we went to Ueno park, and wandered around for a while. We stumbled upon a massive kids art festival, and saw some wacky juggling / accordion playing. We went to the science museum, but it wasn't that great so we took off. We met my friend John-Mark for dinner,
In the morning we hopped on a train for Utsunomiya. There's a pretty awesome ramen plaza in the basement of the Lala plaza, with a 3 or 4 ramen restaurants competing for business. After lunch we continued on to Nikko. I hadn't really been there before, despite living less than an hour away at one point. It was amazing to see in all of the snow. It really blew anything in Kyoto away. That being said, we made our way back to Kyoto that night. We went to Kinkakuji during the day... I had been there before either. That gardens were quite nice, especially with the snow. In the evening we boogalooed back to Osaka for dinner with my friend Yuuko and her boyfriend Tetsuya. We watched platoon on the tv, and went to bed. We got up early, hopped on the monorail and were off to the airport.
I guess that's enough writing for now, I'll post about Thailand some time soon.
Link to photos:
http://photo.patrosfour.com/2008/feb08.html
The first week and a half I spent in Japan. The first few days we crashed at Eric's place, and I got to see his daughter for the first time. It's pretty crazy, she was almost 2 and was already walking around and talking. Holy moses! During the day we took a few trips. Our first day we went to Himeji city and saw the castle there. The next day we headed down to Namba in Osaka. We hung out with Eric, had some mexican food and saw some crazy stores. Our first stop after Erics place was Nara city. We checked out the park, which is full of deer and saw some shrines and whatnot. I'd been there once before, but that was in the summer. On the plus side, it was a lot less crowded and we never had to wait in line. The following day we headed off to Kyoto. We checked out Yasaka shrine, and grabbed some sukiyaki for dinner. The next morning it had started snowing pretty heavily, so we figured it would be best to head to Hiroshima and come back to Kyoto later. Sure enough the weather was balmy (bomby?)... hoho, I might be going to hell for that one. I think the thing that impressed me most were the dioramas they had, as well as some of the personal items of the victims. The diorama really drove home how bad the devastation was, and that you were standing in the middle of an area that had been absolutely flattened by an atomic bomb. The victims stuff was hard to look at... Seeing photos of the buildings was one thing, but seeing the scorched clothes that people had been wearing was tougher to handle.
We spent that night in Kyoto, but it was so snowy we decided to head up to Tokyo. We wound up spending two days there, but finding a hotel was difficult. We went to Shibuya, Harajuku and Yoyogi park on the first day. It was getting dark by the time we made it to yoyogi park, but luckily the greasers were still around and the night performers were just coming out. The next day we went to Ueno park, and wandered around for a while. We stumbled upon a massive kids art festival, and saw some wacky juggling / accordion playing. We went to the science museum, but it wasn't that great so we took off. We met my friend John-Mark for dinner,
In the morning we hopped on a train for Utsunomiya. There's a pretty awesome ramen plaza in the basement of the Lala plaza, with a 3 or 4 ramen restaurants competing for business. After lunch we continued on to Nikko. I hadn't really been there before, despite living less than an hour away at one point. It was amazing to see in all of the snow. It really blew anything in Kyoto away. That being said, we made our way back to Kyoto that night. We went to Kinkakuji during the day... I had been there before either. That gardens were quite nice, especially with the snow. In the evening we boogalooed back to Osaka for dinner with my friend Yuuko and her boyfriend Tetsuya. We watched platoon on the tv, and went to bed. We got up early, hopped on the monorail and were off to the airport.
I guess that's enough writing for now, I'll post about Thailand some time soon.
Link to photos:
http://photo.patrosfour.com/2008/feb08.html