For those of you that didn't know, Mark and I took a trip to Japan to visit my brother Tyson and his family. We were so blessed to have my mother and Mark's parents watch our kids so that we could take this amazing trip. After an 11 hour flight we landed in Tokyo and took another 2 hour bus ride to the Airforce base where Tyson lives. Thankfully we had no kids with us and the flight there was actually quite peaceful. I was already enjoying the time away :) Tyson and Valerie had the whole week planned for when we got there and we were able to just sit back and enjoy the ride. Literally...the next morning we packed up and headed on the road for a little tour of Japan... A 7 hour road trip to see some historical Japan.
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!!
Love this tree! It really is beautiful with the white blanket of snow covering everything!
Madelyn wasn't quite sure what to think of the snow at first, then she decided she liked it until she got it on her hands...she was done after that.
There was A LOT of snow! I was shocked at how the kids just went tearing through it and didn't even care!
The truck got stuck coming up the driveway...so the men had to do a little shoveling. :)
Building the snowman that I forgot to take a picture of once it was done.
It really was a beautiful sight to see! It's been a long time since we've seen that much snow! FuN times!!
