Japan

At the end of May, Ryan and I took a trip to Asia for 2 1/2 weeks with BYU. With a total of 11 flights we packed in 5 countries in 16 days and were going just about every minute. We started our journey with a 13 hour flight to Seoul, Korea from L.A. then jumped on a plane to Osaka, Japan and then took 1 1/2 hour bus ride to Kyoto, Japan.


This was the first of many Buddhist Temples we visited on our trip to Asia. We are standing next to a water well where people cleansed themselves.

All of the school kids were wearing masks to avoid any contamination or spread of the swine flu. It was interesting because almost everyone in Japan were wearing masks and were very concerned about being near any Americans.

This is a picture of a traditional wedding party. Very little smiling.

This is from our hotel room in Kyoto looking toward the bullet train station.

We rode the bullet train to Nagoya, Japan and then took a bus to Toyota City to a Toyota plant.

Ryan is sitting in a smart car at the Toyota showroom.

This is a Japanese boxed lunch. An egg/ham sandwich, cold breaded fried chicken, and some other weird stuff. Probably my least favorite meal.

On the 45th floor of a government building in Tokyo overlooking the city. The city went on forever.

This is in the subway station in Tokyo. Tons of people going home from work. We were trying to find the Technology district after a few minutes an older gentleman helped us find the correct line.

There were 6 other spouses that came on the trip. Here is Stephanie, Beth and Sameena.

We finally found the Technology district. Some compare it to Times Square in New York City. As we walked down the street, every shop had someone on a microphone screaming out deals they were offering inside the store. We looked in some of the stores but the prices were about the same as they are in the States if not more.

I was impressed with how organized the city was. I guess it would have to be with 32 million people living in the Tokyo metropolitan area. Tokyo was also very clean. In fact, we couldn't find a garbage can anywhere. You would think that if there were no trash cans then there would be garbage everywhere but there was nothing on the ground.

One night we ate at a fast food restaurant called Yoshinoya. They serve beef or pork with rice, among other things. It was very tasty. But outside of the restaurant was a bank. This bank had two Japanese girls outside who were advertising something. We found ourselves watching them because they both had a voice that was very high pitched and squealy. It was hilarious. I would love to know is if it was their real voice or a character voice. I wish I would have taped them.

Everyone was so friendly and willing to help us find our way around Tokyo. We had a great time and would love to go back.