Hello again from Japan!!!

Hello again from Japan – we’re on the bullet train back from Tokyo so thought it would be a great time to update everyone!

Well, we have had a great time here with Cam and Karleen and are sad to have our visit end. Some of the highlights of the last week are:

Shaun, Randy and I went to the aquarium in Osaka. It was amazing - note to the Poxon family – do not miss seeing this on your visit.

Later that night, We met some of their friends – Thao – who is from Australia, Josh and Chris from the U.S. and Stephen Clarkson from Sherwood Park. We went 10 pin bowling – the Jones boys suck at bowling (their father had to redeem our good name by beating everyone on the second game). We went for a quick bite to eat after and the boys headed out to party for the night or until Stephen could catch the 5:00 a.m. train back to his part of town. Shaun was happy that he finally had a party happening! They did drink all night, and stumbled in to their apartment just before 6am! They had a great time, and Shaun and Stephen were chatting up the bar girls!

The next day, Shaun wanted to rest so Randy and I went to the Golden Pavilion (Kinkaku-ji) in Kyoto. Although you cannot get really close to it as it is all roped off, it is absolutely beautiful - the entire building is painted in gold leaf. The grounds are beautiful and would be even more picturesque in the spring, fall or summer.

The next day all of us ventured out to the Arashiyama Monkey Park Iwatayama. We had to climb a mountain for about 20 minutes but it was well worth it. There are about 150 Japanese monkeys at the park and they run wild and were within touching distance of us. They would walk right past us on the path. We were informed not to look into their eyes – Karleen couldn’t help it – we escaped without any mishaps but were almost sure that they were waiting to gang up on us on the walk back.

Which one is the monkey again?

On the walk back to the train station, we saw 2 taxi cabs with approximately 6 geisha drive past us. I started running towards them as I saw that the cabs were dropping them off approximately one block away. When we got there they were standing on the sidewalk and I asked if we could take a picture – and they said okay. Karleen found out later from the local ladies she works with, that this is a very rare sight. These geisha were obviously going to a function – their functions usually consist of men who will pay up to 3000 dollars a day for entertainment. Anyway, we were pumped and very excited that we actually were able to see them, and to also get a picture as we understand, they don’t always agree to people taking pictures of them. Definitely a highlight!!

Off to Tokyo on Saturday! After a 2.5 hour bullet train ride from Osaka, we started out at Akihabara (Electronic district). What a crazy place – people everywhere! Shaun purchased a Nintendo DS so he accomplished his goal for the day. We wondered around for awhile and decided to attempt to find our hotel. Three trains later, Karleen got us there! We went out for supper to the Asakusa area, which is an area that is well known for lots of restaurants.

Can you hear me now?

The next day we went to Tokyo Disney Sea. Highlights of course are the rides – Tower of Terror, Indiana Jones, Journey to the Centre of the earth. Karleen actually got all of us to go to the Mermaid show – the boys weren’t excited about it, but had to admit that it was pretty good. Shaun said that it made him feel like an eight year old girl!

At night we went to the Hard Rock Café in Roppongi. This area is well known for entertainment and that lots of gaijin (foreigners) hang out in this area. The place was rocking! We had a great meal and they were playing great music. We also saw the Tokyo tower which lights up every night and looks very much like the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Another very successful day.

In our previous post, I mentioned the signs and how entertaining they were, but we couldn’t download our pictures from our camera which had some of the best signs. The following is a re-creation of our pictures, so everyone can see what we mean by the word order being out of whack!

“In case of monkeys are in the forest, you cannot find them”

The following is an explanation of using the internet in our hotel.

“A modem is rented for free of charge in a front, but the guantity of the modem is limited. When helping for use, please even offer a front staff rather early. Sometime, the computer you have can’t connect with a modem well”.

(yes, that is guantity not quantity)!

Anyway, it has been fun trying to figure out what they really mean.

It has been a great holiday – we will miss Cam & Karleen and are glad that we made the trip. We know they are in a safe place and are doing well and are enjoying their new home. Only 5 to 6 more months and they will be returning home after having a wonderful life experience.

We’ll see everyone back in Edmonton tomorrow!