Japan

This past weekend our school had two days off on Thursday and Friday, so Jon and I decided to make the most of the four days, and we planned a trip to Japan. God really blessed us because we got connected with some family friends and were able to spend the weekend with them. That alone was so refreshing for us! The Roe's were so much fun! They live on a naval base a little south of Tokyo, which worked out perfectly because Tokyo was one of the places we really wanted to see. Anyway, if you are reading this, prepare yourself. We packed a lot into basically a three day trip. 

Because I couldn't not take the picture. Instructions for the toilet. Read it. You can hit the button that will make noise to cover up your noise. And you can even control the volume!

Dinner on Thursday was so cool. You order your meal on a vending machine and then hand in your ticket and they bring it out to you. 

It comes out raw, but the plate is super hot and you cook your meal on your plate. It was delicious!

 Game night was a blast!!! We so miss this kind of thing. Laughing and playing games and eating chocolate and cheese at a real table. We were playing until 2am, thanks to Chad's "just one more game" (which he said probably 5 times)

Friday morning Pam and her friend Sheryl were our tour guides. They took us to a bamboo garden. 

It was so calm, peaceful, and beautiful.

In the middle there is a little tea hut. 

We had the green tea.... really green tea. It was so very bitter. But they give you little sugar cubes shaped like a flower or something to represent the season, and you put the cube in your mouth while you drink the tea and it helps the flavor. Without the cubes I couldn't have drank it. They were shaped like little Japanese princesses or something like that. 

A man pulling a rickshaw. It's amazing to me that they still get around like that. We saw them several times. I kinda wish we would have ridden in one. 

Eating a baby orange, skin and all. We think the woman in the shop who gave them to us wanted us to eat the seeds too, but we all spit them out. :) 

We went to a city called Kamakura (Obama went there last year I think,,, or in 2010) and we saw a wedding in progress. It was a bummer for them cause it was a rainy day. But they seemed happy. In one of my other pictures the groom is flashing the peace sign. I especially love the little umbrella hat on the man who is pulling their rickshaw. 

Here they are doing some kind of processional. The bride is even smiling. It was so cool to see their wedding attire. Look at her head covering!

So we've seen lots of Buddha's since being in Korea, and we don't really care to see them, but there was one here and we got a little creative with the photos. It was actually Sheryl's hilarious idea. I didn't put in on facebook because I know this could be really offensive to some people. But since I am pretty certain only close friends and family view this blog, I thought I'd let you see Jon picking Buddha's nose.

We have the rainbow umbrella :)

This vending machine gives you the option of a hot drink or a cold drink. The ones with a blue label come out cold and a red label come out hot. 

Friday night we went to a sushi-go-round. It is what it sounds like. There is a giant conveyor belt that loops in and out of the booths all through the restaurant. It is just bringing fresh sushi past your table and when you see one you want you just pull the plate off. Then there is a slot in your table and when you are finished you drop your plate down the slot and there is a little computer that counts how many plates you've eaten. Each one was 100 yen. ($1.25) And if you want something specific on the menu that hasn't come by in a while you can order it on the computer touch screen and it will come out on a red plate so you know it was an order. We ate 31 plates at our table! Those girls were sushi maniacs. Jon was the sushi king. 

I stuck with safe stuff... like corn salad sushi, egg sushi, onion rings, and chicken - all of which you could order.  But I did try one salmon. I just can't get past it mentally that it's raw.

Jon went to town! He ate practically every kind of sushi there was. It just looked nasty, but he was loving it. One of the best restaurant experiences of his life he says. 

He topped the night off with one of these.... fish eggs. Him and Riley did it together. I have a video.

Saturday morning we headed into Tokyo with the Roe's. We all stayed in the military resort in the city. It was awesome! Jon and I headed off on our own after lunch to see as much of Tokyo as we could fit into one day. We did a pretty good job of navigating our way through one of the busiest and most populated cities per square mile in the world. 

We walked through a park/garden that was beautiful... but I couldn't get over how there is this great nature area, but it is surrounding by skyscrapers. 

Then we took a boat ride along the coast of the city, up to a more traditional area called Asakusa, or Asakuska... one or the other. 

This place was busy, and had some really cool things to see.

 We happend upon this guy, who I really did think was a statue when I first saw him. But it's not.. it's a person, who was standing absolutely still. I looked a little close at his hand just because I thought he was wax. Nope...real. 

If you've ever seen the movie "Hachi: A Dog's Tale" with Richard Gere, this statue will mean something to you. This is where the true story took place, at a train station in Tokyo. This is the actual statue of Hachi, where he used to come every day. 

This is the biggest/busiest pedestrian crossing in the world.. outside the Shibuya subway station. Every time the light turned green hundreds of people crossed the street. When it turned red the crowd would just start building up again. IN this picture I am actually in the front of the pack crossing the street toward the camera. I have on jeans and a purple jacket if you can spot me. 

Here I am standing right in the middle of the crossing with my purple jacket and blond hair, and holding up the peace signs. See me?

Down on the street. 

It's like a mini times square. SO much fun.

There were more things we saw, but just too many pictures to post. We took almost 1,000 in three days! Anyway, by the time we got back to the hotel, we were pooped! A day in Tokyo can do that to you.

BUT not too tired to order room service from our American hotel. I can't say no to real cheese cake, A&W, and......

YES, GREEN OLIVE PIZZA, my favorite! Thank you "New Sanno" for being an awesome hotel! And Thank you Chad and Pam for getting us in there!

Our adopted family! We only met them on Thursday, but felt like we were saying goodbye to family when we left on Sunday morning. It is amazing how good God is to us. We had so many laughs! These are some seriously fun people!They gave us an incredible gift by inviting us into their home and their lives for the weekend. Thank you!!!