Japan! へようこそ

After two weeks and vast amounts of money we have returned from Japan.  Not only did we go lots of places and eat lots of delicious food, we saw cool places and bought lots of stuff.  We had our Japan Rail passes which allowed us to take the shinkansen anywhere, which we did (Tokyo, Hiroshima, Kyoto, and Nagoya).

We made trips to the Nagoya aquarium, (hence the penguin topiaries), Miyajima (one of the most scenic places in Japan), and Kinosaki-cho (home of seven famous hot spring baths).  

This is the Nagoya Bento which Katrina had for dinner one evening.  Inside was unagi, black miso cutlets, onigiri with shrimp inside, and several other tidbits of Nagoya specialties.

This is Gosho-no-yu, one of the bathhouses we went to.  It had an outdoor section where you can view the surrounding nature and waterfalls.

This is the entrance to Fushimi Inari Taisha (the place with all the red gates lined up in a row).

Katrina next to a ginormous wooden paddle found on Miyajima.