We did a lot more our second week in Japan since we were no longer battling jet lag. Plus, Daniel and I are good at cramming at lot of things into a few days! Beware: LONG post here guys!
We ate lunch at a sushi place where everything was served on a conveyor belt! It was so cool! You ordered on the screen and they would send your order down the conveyor belt. Red plates meant someone's food, white place were free for the taking. And when your order came around a jingle would play so you knew it was coming.
YUM!
We ate a lot of food! At the end, the waitress counted all the plates so she would know how much to charge. Sushi was 100 yen a plate, soup and special stuff on red plates was 200 yen.
Our second day trip to Tokyo! We went to a huge garden in the city of Shinjuku. It was nearly 150 acres of beautifully kept up gardens. They even a French garden area and an English garden area.
For our ride to Ikebukuro, we watched the conductor a bit. Pretty neat!
Another part of Tokyo
On Friday night we went with mom and dad to an older village that is slightly turned tourist trap. It was lovely! The people were so nice and you could learn to make traditional things the way they used to (and sometimes still do!).
Daniel and I learned to make Washi paper. We had to wait for it to be mailed to us though.
After the village, we went up to the Bible Home. They have lots of camps in the summers, but we were able to have the place mostly to ourselves for the one night. Daniel took me to try out the onsen (hot springs) they have there and let me tell you, it was hot! Amazingly relaxing, but you couldn't stay in for more than 15 minutes or so. Even after that, I still came out lobster red.
The entrance to the outdoor onsen and the onsen itself. Isn't it such a pretty spot?
The indoor onsen. This is the one we went to.
Some sights on the way to the Bible Home and back to Moroyama. The mountains in Japan really are breathtaking. I thought it was very strange that more Japanese people don't live in the mountains as Americans would be all over this prime property! Daniel said that the people there really prefer to be with other people. There aren't a lot of adventurous Japanese, so they haven't settled in the mountainous area yet, and since no one really has, no one seems to have great ambitions to go try it out.
The next Monday and Tuesday we did a lot of hiking around Moroyama. I will say that Japanese people are very eco-friendly. They take excellent care of their hiking trails, however short they may be, and believe me, they were short. 30 minute hikes were the average, and 1 hour trails were considered to be long hikes.
It was such an amazing two weeks! I felt as though my eyes were opened so wide to the world God created. The cultural differences between Americans and Japanese was amazing to see firsthand. I loved getting to know and understand a different culture, and I hope it isn't too long before I get the chance to do it again.
We ate lunch at a sushi place where everything was served on a conveyor belt! It was so cool! You ordered on the screen and they would send your order down the conveyor belt. Red plates meant someone's food, white place were free for the taking. And when your order came around a jingle would play so you knew it was coming.
YUM!
We ate a lot of food! At the end, the waitress counted all the plates so she would know how much to charge. Sushi was 100 yen a plate, soup and special stuff on red plates was 200 yen.
Our second day trip to Tokyo! We went to a huge garden in the city of Shinjuku. It was nearly 150 acres of beautifully kept up gardens. They even a French garden area and an English garden area.
I was so sad when I found out I accidentally got my finger in this picture. Still a favorite. And, no, I have no idea what building that is.
For our ride to Ikebukuro, we watched the conductor a bit. Pretty neat!
Another part of Tokyo
On Friday night we went with mom and dad to an older village that is slightly turned tourist trap. It was lovely! The people were so nice and you could learn to make traditional things the way they used to (and sometimes still do!).
After the village, we went up to the Bible Home. They have lots of camps in the summers, but we were able to have the place mostly to ourselves for the one night. Daniel took me to try out the onsen (hot springs) they have there and let me tell you, it was hot! Amazingly relaxing, but you couldn't stay in for more than 15 minutes or so. Even after that, I still came out lobster red.
The entrance to the outdoor onsen and the onsen itself. Isn't it such a pretty spot?
The indoor onsen. This is the one we went to.
Some sights on the way to the Bible Home and back to Moroyama. The mountains in Japan really are breathtaking. I thought it was very strange that more Japanese people don't live in the mountains as Americans would be all over this prime property! Daniel said that the people there really prefer to be with other people. There aren't a lot of adventurous Japanese, so they haven't settled in the mountainous area yet, and since no one really has, no one seems to have great ambitions to go try it out.
The next Monday and Tuesday we did a lot of hiking around Moroyama. I will say that Japanese people are very eco-friendly. They take excellent care of their hiking trails, however short they may be, and believe me, they were short. 30 minute hikes were the average, and 1 hour trails were considered to be long hikes.
Oh, and yes, we did hike up that ridge line there! Talk about sweating a lot....the view was totally worth it though!
It was such an amazing two weeks! I felt as though my eyes were opened so wide to the world God created. The cultural differences between Americans and Japanese was amazing to see firsthand. I loved getting to know and understand a different culture, and I hope it isn't too long before I get the chance to do it again.
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