Flashback Friday

It's a little weird, but I've been thinking about Japan a lot lately. It's been over a year since I went, but I am still sort of in awe of everything I saw and experienced there. My friend Cassie called it "the closest thing to being on another planet while you're still here on Earth" and I have to agree. Everything was just so... foreign... and awesome. It was definitely another round of culture shock when Steph and I came back to the US.

Anyway, I was going through some of the old pictures and picked out a few I liked:

This is the cemetery that my grandfather is buried in. It was actually a really interesting experience to come visit here and see all the monuments and to spend some time with my mom and grandma at the grave site. I loved that the graves were so well-taken care of with incense, water, flower, and favorite foods left at the shrines.

I'm not sure what this statue is called, but Steph and I were able to hike up a little mountain/hill to go see it up close.

Here I am cozying up to its foot.

This was a signpost up there by the statue. It says "May Peace Prevail on Earth."

So there's a big long pilgrimage you can do on Shikoku, where you dress all in white and go from temple to temple until you've visited all 88. It's a long walk - I think it usually takes a couple of months - so this particular temple site had a long tunnel through a mountain with little statues and murals of the other temples like a mini-pilgrimage for those who are not able to make the full trek. I'm standing at the end of the tunnel in this picture, right before we hiked up the mountain to see the big statue. When we got back to the tunnel all the gates were closed and locked which had us a bit worried, but we found our way back another way.

I can't remember where or why this picture was taken, but it's nice, right?

Steph and I hiding amongst the statues.

The view from our hotel room in Tokyo. I can't remember what floor we were on, but it was pretty amazing.

This is the candy bento box I brought back for the kids. Everything is so cute in Japan!

This was a seafarers' temple for protection out at sea. Steph always looks so much more grown up and serene than I do.

See? A perfect little Japanese lady. Actually, she guzzled a lot of tea while we were in Japan and made it look like I was the tea-guzzler. Since I don't drink it she would always chug hers as soon as the waitress turned around and then switch cups with me. Anyone walking by would have thought I had some sort of tea problem, with my empty cup sitting there next to Steph and Mum's full ones. Admittedly, this did come in handy in some instances where it was expected of you to drink the tea, like in the Spirited Away bath house.

The kids are forever bringing me these tiny wildflowers and are so disappointed when they just drown in a big cup of water. So, when Steph and I spotted these teeny frogs with wide open mouths, we knew they were perfect. For scale, that blue thing with spots of milk in the background is one of those plastic Ikea kid cups.

This was a super skinny alley in Tokyo that had tons of noodle shops just packed in there. We did stop in and eat there one night and it was super yummy and sort of hectic in a busy, bustle-y sort of way. Still, a great Tokyo experience.

All of the temples had these fountains with little dippers to wash your hands with. I love how peaceful and calm everything things are in Japan.

So, there you have it. A sort of random flashback to my time in Japan. I would really love to go back one day, but I don't think I would dare without a Japanese speaker to guide me along the way!

And, here's a picture of those kiddos outside the Denver temple.