The ladies. Enjoying the roomy backseat of the luxury van that Tyson and Val rented for us to travel in. It was actually quite comfy. Much more than the airplane we flew on for 11 hours.
The men. Notice Tyson driving on the right side. It took some getting used to for me to just watch him drive that way. :)
Our first stop was Osaka where we visited Spa World and stayed in the very "luxurious' hotel. Notice the tatami mats on the floor where we slept. We were getting the FULL Japanese experience. Yes, this was our room that we slept in all together.
Here we are in our scrubs ready to go to the "Onsen" or spa. We experienced true Japanese culture as we separated women on one level of the hotel and men on another to enjoy the hot spas minus bathing suits! haha! It was quite the experience and totally worth it!
Adorable Natalia! She was such a little trooper and has the sweetest little temperament.
Tyson, Valerie and their cute kids, Nikolai, Kyndra, and Natalia. They were so much fun!
Day 2: Historical Kyoto, Japan. This is in front of the Nijo Castle which was really cool to tour through but we couldn't take pictures inside. It is from the 1600's. Reminds me of the movie Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon or something with the old warriors and ninja fighting. Really cool!
Beautiful Gardens everywhere!
Love the fall colors!!
Nice Mark.
LOVE this yellow tree!!
More amazing autumn colors I just had to take picures!!
The Golden Pavilion. Another cool historical spot. It is actually gold plated on the upper levels!
Some Japanese high school girls that interviewed us in English.
We are in front of a tea house where occasionally you can spot a Geisha girl going in or out. We did spot one later but I was too slow to get a picture.
In front of another shrine that was up on a mountain side that overlooked the city of Kyoto.
Look at those crowds behind us waiting in line to see the shrine. It was like this everywhere we went!That night we drove 3 hours to Hakone where we stayed in a hotel on a lake in the mountains.
Day 3: Hakone, we had a view of Mount Fuji.
Mount Fuji. Need I say more. It was absolutely breathtaking on such a clear morning!
Okay, so this is a Japanese little riding toy. Kinda like ours in the U.S. where you put the quarters in and it rocks in place. Well in Japan it actually moves!! VEEERRRRY sssslllllooooowwwllllllyyyyyy! We were cracking up laughing at how slow this thing moved, but Nikolai could actually steer it too!
Some random house or building on the top of a hill.
Yunnesun!! This was an indoor/outdoor hot springs water park! It was tons of fun and seriously so refreshing with the hot water. Every picture with water is warm/hot water!
Awesome!
This was totally fun and tickled like crazy! The little fish were niblbing on our feet...eating the dead skin. Kinda gross but a fun experience!
Mark, enjoying the hot trickle of water down his back.
The "wine" spa. Yes they put real wine in the water and no we did not drink it!
The Green Tea spa. Kinda strange swimming in green tea. There was also a coffee one and a charcoal one. It was odd but pretty cool. And NO we did not drink any of it!! haha!
Me and my little shadow, Kyndra otherwise known as "Kako". I love this girl! She is the cutest thing ever and she loves her Auntie Kari!!This pic was taken at an Italian restaraunt that we ate at right next to the Yunnesun (water park) and it was SOOO good! Maybe we were just starving and wanted something other than rice. :0)
Well, there you have it! The first three days of our Japan adventures. That night we drove back home to Tyson's and enjoyed the next few days touring parts of Tokyo that Tyson and Val thought were worth seeing in the amount of time that we had. More pictures to come!! Stay tuned for Japan- Part 2!!
9 comments:
I am so happy that you and Mark could go to Japan and have such a great experience. I love all the photos! and I especially love your little shadow :) She is so sweet and loves her aunt Kari! so happy that you got to hug and kiss baby Natalia for me...plus Nikolai and Kyndra. love, MOM
Kari, how awesome!! I'm so glad you got a chance to go without the kids and to really see things. When my parents were living there, I stayed with them for the summer with our girls while Eric was studying in Austria. We didn't do a lot of sight seeing since it was me and three girls, but we ate at the sushi-go-round three times? And Autumn danced in the Bon Odori Festival (and rehearsed) and had a blast. We also loved shopping at the 100 yen stores. So fun. What base is your brother at? My parents were at Camp Zama (Army) but the only base really close to that one is a naval base, I think. But it's really close to Tokyo too.
I have been waiting to see these pictures. We need to have you guys over and let you guys tell us all about it. Steve is dying to go, but I need some convincing!
Oh, and Cathi took our pictures this year.
Wow the whole spa experience looks amazing. Suuurrrreee you didn't just take a quick sip of the wine spa! Haha. I like how in when you let the fish eat your toes, there were like 1 or 2 on your feet and like 20 on mark's! Hahaha. I'm so jealous that you took this trip. Looks like a blast.
No WAY KaRI!!! I cannot believe you got to go to Japan! What a wonderful memory and it looks like you and Mark were just having so much fun. I am so jealous, but happy for you too. Awwww, someday. :) I can't wait to see more pictures. I loved the wine and tea spas and I think you are brave to put your feet in a tub of fish. That would freak me out I think. :)
NICE job posting pics Kari...I LOVE all the cute ones of you guys...SO FUN!!
I am very excited to see post #2 on the last half of your vacation. I enjoyed very much looking at all of your pictures-this is my favorite way to travel-through others pictures.I feel like i have been to Japan!! Hey what is up with the peace signs?? Is that something cool you do in a picture in Japan?? Just wondering....looks like Tyson and Valerie treated you very well-and took you to some awesome sites! And Kyndra took a quick liking to you because-who wouldn't??
WOW! It has been so long since I've checked blogs! I love all your photos!! Japan looked awesome! Those are some awesome pictures! I laughed so hard at the silly ones of Mark and you. Love it! I loved seeing the snow photos and Christmas! So fun!! Cute background too.
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