Japan 2009 - Start from the bottom

They have small parks everywhere. They are very well manicured and usually have some water flowing through them. This park was across the street from our hotel.

Japan is very clean, no trash anywhere that I saw and no grafitti.
People respect each other and the land. We had a great time and a lot of luck. The weather was gorgeous, the cherry blossoms were in full bloom, our guides and the people we toured with were friendly and fun to be with and there was even a full moon!

I am guessing this is where they hook up their fire hoses. They like cartoons.

Their teeter totters and really cool!

We had a lot of time before we left for the airport so the 2 Ellens and the 2 Diannes went for a walk. We walked into a park where the kids were playing baseball. Note that they don't have baseball bats or gloves. You can see the ball in mid air just before he hits it with his hand. He hit it good and the four of us were jumping up and down and screaming, "Run, run, run!" The parents who were there heard us and starting laughing, then we started laughing.

Part of the Observation Lounge in the Tokyo Tower has a glass floor. This is me standing on it. You can see the bottom of the tower lit up underneath my feet. This was feaky!

This picture was taken from the top of the Tokyo Tower.
It just happened that there was a full moon that night.
This is one of my favorite pictures.

You cannot imagine how happy I was to see this. We went in and I got my regular white mocha (which, by the way, tasted just like the ones at home,) where we stayed for a half an hour or so until it was time to get back on the bus.

Our last day of the tour and we went to the Ginza District in downtown Tokyo.

Never heard of a lot of the stores there. It was a lot like Rodeo Drive but much bigger (taller, anyway.)

Like this store. They come from all over the world. Very busy and very expensive.

Ellen and I were so tired.
We walked a bit before we found a familiar site - Starbucks.

I took this picture under a cherry tree.

This is the Imperial Garden. Notice the smog in the background. It was like this everyday and it was everywhere we went, except when we were on Mt. Fuji. It's near the end of our stay and the cherry blossoms are falling from the trees. Here they are floating on the water. We got to see them 100% in bloom and we got to see them fall off the trees like snow.

We were on the boat going to the gardens when I saw this child behind us. Couldn't resist taking his picture.

I took this picture from the boat. We saw a lot of this in the country (clothes hanging to dry on the patio) but I was surprised to see that they even do it in Tokyo.

The boat we took to the Hama Rikyu Imperial Gift Garden.

Yes, they do have McDonald's. They did add some Japanese-style food, however.

I took this picture from the porch, through chicken wire. Ellen and I saw someone we knew inside so we went inside. We took our shoes off, of course, and we had done the smoke cleansing. When we came out there was a policeman waving at us. Then he went behind us where there were other people (that weren't supposed to be there) coming out. We quickly put on our shoes and left. We evidently were not supposed to be in there.

eimayi
Before you can enter the temple you have to fan this incense smoke all over you, which we did.

Another temple. You can hardly see it for all the people.

And this is a very famous bridge at the Imperial Palace.

This was a store on the property outside the Imperial Palace gates. The cherry trees were starting to lose their blossoms. It looked like it was snowing.

Samuri statue in front of the Imperial Palace. The palace is behind a wall so we couldn't actually see it, but they do have a museum so you can see pictures of it.

This is the Tokyo Tower with our hotel in the front of it.
I took night pictures from the almost top of it. The round part.

This is a picture of the Toyko Tower taken from our bedroom window at the Tokyo Prince Hotel.

Tokyo in early evening.

The only thing good about this dinner was that they brought in some soba noodles to put in the pot. I gorged myself.

Some of the art on display in the government building.

This is a picture from the government building in tokyo.
As far as you can see there are tall buildings.

I had the other Ellen stand next to this baby toilet. On the other side of her there is a small urinal for the boys.

Some stalls have these little baby seats so you child isn't running around loose.

I guess the Western toilets are still pretty new. they had to have directions.

Here is Ellen with lavender, peach and grape ice cream. It was very good.

Everyone said these fish were wonderful. Some of them were even eating the heads. Sooo, I thought I would try one. I held it like a piece of corn and just as I was biting into it I realized it hadn't been cleaned. When I pulled it away I could see what was inside. I almost got sick. The strange thing was it tasted quite good.

More boiled vegies, although there are not a lot of vegies in here. There is something that looks like bacon, but boiled bacon did not apeal to me.

I ate the rice. It's a good thing I knew how to use chopsticks. I don't think they know what a fork is.

This was an interesting ship on this lake we went over.

On the ropeway over Hakone National Park.

Good Grief, more stairs! Don't they believe in elevators in this country?
This is the building where we catch the ropeway.

Mt. Fuji (did you know she was a lady?) with steam from the sulfur crater.

The black eggs.

Here is Ellen peeling a black egg. The insides are white and taste just like a boiled egg. They put them in a basket and dunk them in the sulfur pits for a few minutes where they turn black. There were a bunch of Japanese men taking pictures of Ellen peeling her egg.

Mt. Fuji is an active volcano and these sulfur craters were about half way up the mountain.

These were in our room at the Hotel Resorpia Hakone. We wore these (without the jackets) to the baths. We liked the Japanese hot springs bath so much we did it twice this night and got up early to do again before we left.

This was our bullet train. What a ride!

Waiting for daddy. (She is not picking her nose.)

The train station.

The Japanese people love their ice cream. This is vanilla and Macha.

The "honeymooners" drinking the tea.

Tea ceremony and the World Tea Museum. They make macha, a green tea that is kind of thick. I didn't think I would like, but it's not bad.

Tea farms.

This is our bus. It was very comfortable. Ellen and I sat in the very back with a young couple we called the "honeymooners." I don't know why we called them that since they weren't even married.

This is some of what they sell.