Japan Post!
Shamelessly copy-pasted from the emails I sent my mom as we went along.


We got into Japan just fine, and were totally exhausted by the time we got into our hotel, so we just crashed. Yesterday, we woke up and went just north of Tokyo to a little town called Nikko, written as sun and light, where the first shogun's funerary shrine is. It was amazingly beautiful; we took a lot of pictures and found a neat little present for sam--it's a little tiny goard thing that, when you hold it up to your eye and look into it you can see a full picture of the carved golden gates. I was so startled when Michael showed it to me in the gift store, I ended up poking myself in the eye and everyone laughed at me.

Then we took a bus up the mountain to the traditional style hotsprings; no one spoke English, so I was a little nervous whether we'd be ok, but we got checked in just fine, and ordered dinner, and even had a conversation with a man at breakfast about different airlines. He seemed to think that united was usually cheaper. Our room had tatami and futons--which were pretty much the most comfortable thing I'd ever slept on in my life--and a japanese-style furo-tub. We chickened out of going to the big public outdoor baths though. Maybe at the next place.



Yesterday we went to this "educational" Edo Period Themepark called Edo Wonderland. It was...kind of hokey, but really fun, actually. There were a lot of actual historical information, which you know the geek in me loved, like "what does a medieval japanese jail look like?" But also a lot of activities, like period-esque plays (They dragged Michael up on stage, dressed him up like a feudal lord, and had him act in their skit. He TOTALLY WON the Good Sport of the Year award; neither of us had enough japanese to follow what was happening AT ALL. LOLOLOL.) A group of...forth graders? Probably? decided that M was totally the coolest person ever too; they made him take a picture with them. We went through this 'Ninja Maze' where you had to figure out, like, trick doors and things to solve it? And they thought that was amazing, when mike figured them out. Was srsly cute. <3

Today we were between tours, so we kind of took it easy. We putzed around the whole morning, and then this afternoon we went out into the city. We went into a couple of little stores and then walked down to the Keio department store in Shinjuku. We did some shopping--I bought a really cute ruffly white shirt, and a shinkansen (bullet train) watch because neither of our phones will work to show us the time like we're used to using. We've been getting around pretty well with the japanese, sounding like idiots most of the time I'm pretty sure, but at least making ourselves understood by and large. One thing, though, I accidentally ordered raw shrimp at the lunch place (I couldn't read the difference between 'botanebi' and 'ebi' in kanji) and it came out with the head still on. I was trying SO HARD to be cool, but michael says he knew as soon as it came out that I would want him to get rid of it. I laughed, because sure enough as soon as the lady went away the first thing out of my mouth was 'OH MY GOD take it away D:" LOLOLOLOL Michael laughed at me so bad.

Tomorrow we're going to the Imperial Palace and to Ginza district in Tokyo with the tour group



Today we went to sensouji temple, which was gorgeous though we spent very little time there, and the shopping districts in Asakusa and Ginza. We found sam the most awesome present ever, and some neat things for Mom and Annette and Tia too. We got a picture in front of the Imperial Palace, right in front of the famous 'Double Bridge' entrance, though we couldn't go in because it's only open to the public twice a year. :( I saw Nino and Tia's favorite Aiba from that band I like in gigantic posters in the subway though, advertising phones, which was kind of a thrill. <3

Tomorrow we're going to Atami and then to the hotsprings at Hakone, which is good because as amazing as Tokyo is I think I've had about as much as I can take of it. It's an absolutely dizzying city.



Yesterday we went west from Osaka to the little town of Nara. There's this temple in Nara that has the world's oldest wooden structure, and inside there's these three immense Buddha statues. They told us that 20 people could stand in one of his hands. One of the pillars in the back of the temple had this little hole in it that, they say, if you can pass through it you can go to heaven. It was really small! I managed to wiggle through, but michael's shoulders wouldn't fit. I told him, 'if you're not going, I'm not going,' and he laughed. Outside the temple, there's this big park called 'shikakoen' where---well, ok, in Shintoism, they believe that deer are messengers from the gods, yeah? So in this park area, for about a thousand years, it's been absolutely forbidden to harm a deer, right? So they're totally tame, and actually kind of really pushy. Lol. You can buy little crackers to feed them, and the babies come up to you and make little wobbly eyes and beg, and the big bucks come up and shove you with their antlers. It was really cool. We took lots of pictures.<3 Then we went on further to Kyoto. We went to the Gion district, where the geisha girls are--though it was early still so they weren't really out, and Michael got to have his favorite--tonkatsu--for dinner. He was super happy.