The faces of Japan

This is Taizo - he is a family friend who lives in Japan and was kind enough to take us around Kyoto.

Stopping to smell the Japanese Flowers

So here's a similar blog to what I posted for Thailand. In Japan the cherry blossoms come out but once a year. This is a beautiful time in Japan and many people here take time out for Hanami, which loosely means "cherry blossom party." So the first batch of pictures below are of cherry blossoms that I have seen around Japan:

One more turn on the slopes and a side trip to Tokyo's anagram

About a month ago my friends Mike and Katie came to visit. We spent a couple days in Tokyo seeing the sights, a few days skiing in Echigo Yuzawa, and a few days in Kyoto. It was my first trip to Kyoto, which was great. It was also my first trip without someone that spoke Japanese. We didn't have too much language trouble. Here's some pictures of our trip:

We got in a few days of riding and playing on the jumps at Kandatsu (the sign is proof)

Left to right: Hickory, Mike, and Katie


Hickory and Mike at the top of Kandatsu

These two pictures are of the local ski town in Echigo Yuzawa. This trip was my third to this area during my time in Japan. As you can see, if you've checked out earlier blog posts, much less snow was around this time.


Our Ryokan (Japanese hotel) served up some interesting food. Left to right: mochi, fish cake, and baby squid.

After some skiing, we set out for Tokyo's Anagram: Kyoto. This is a Picture of Kyoto Tower.

Thisis the tallest Pagoda in Japan - of course the picture doesn't make it look too large: it's not.

This is Kyoto Castle, well a corner guard tower of the castle grounds anyway. The castle is lit up at night, which makes for a great place to visit after a long day of touring.

The Golden Palace

This is inside a bamboo forrest taken during an afternoon stroll in Kyoto.

A statue at a local temple

Zen rock garden, Japan's most famous

Purifying water to be used before entering the temple

It's really nice how the Japanese prop up trees to prevent them from dying.

Kiyomizudera Buddhist temple

A trip to Kyoto would be incomplete without spotting some Geisha.

Geisha love (well are really willing) to pose for pictures with tourists and locals. The guy on the right is not a local.

We took the Hikari shinkansen - it's basically named after me, but not really

This is the Hikari shinkansen

After getting back to Tokyo we took a trip to the fish market. Here's some photos:

That's some big tuna

All that fish made us hungry so we had to get some sushi.

Look at that toro (fatty tuna); man that was tasty!

This is the Imperial Palace's East Garden

This is Shibuya Crossing - looks like some people tend to use this cross walk.