Japan Trip 2009

  I had great time with everyone this year and I hope that all the years to come will be as fun as this one was!  A big thanks to all the parents that put up with me not knowing exactly what to expect on my first trip and to the kids who did there best to stay out of trouble and experience as much of Japan as they could.  I really appreciate it!

Kyoto!

So I have not had much chance to get on the internet. We went to gardens, shrines, and shopped around Kyoto last night then after dinner went to Hanamachi and searched for Geisha! We found a few, they took pictures, they will be on here soon. My time is almost up!

Sooo/....

We are all in Kyoto now and our computer has no way of uploading photos. Maybe tomorrow?

I can tell you that we have had a great time. Two night ago we swam at the beach and did fireworks with the locals followed by an all night diner while I washed our beach clothes so we have something to wear the next day.
Yesterday we went on a cruise (better than the first one, in Hakone) and rode a cable car adventure but it was too cloudy to see Mt. Fuji. After that we made our way to Kyoto by bullet train (avg. speed 200mph)　　Today we have a free day and will be spending it at a museum, more temples and shrines, and a little bit of more temples and shrines, and a little bit of shopping.　　

Kamakura and Hatami!

Well we took a bus to Kamakura this morning and spent the day at a Buddhist temple with the second largest statue of Buddha (which you can climb inside of still even though it was built over 750 years ago!) Then we took a longer bus along the coast (beautiful!!) to Hatami were we are staying in a traditional hotel (well, kind of). Pretty soon we will be off to eat a very traditional meal then off to the beach! (Kaitlin is especially excited!)
If we are not too busy or tired I will post more pictures tonight. If you have time google search or youtube searh the movie PONYO (it is Anime) and you will get a good idea of the scenery here.

Meiji Jingu

At the bottom we have our tour guide for the day. Behind her are hundreds of kegs of sake dedicated to this Shinto shrine, the first of our trip. It is an oasis of nature in the right next to one of the busiest shopping streets in the world

Room keys

Look a little different....

Toilets!

Choose wisely or you just might find yourself..........