Independent Kids

All over Tokyo you see kids who look like the are maybe 6 walking around, crossing major roads, taking subways -- with absolutely no adult supervision. It is so unusual to see, and yet so normal for Japan.

Champion Squatters

As with most Asians, Japanese grow up with squatting as a resting position. What would kill us in about 2 minutes is a nice break for this gal, even in platform shoes.

Meat Festival, Yes Really

Thousand and thousands of people out on a fine spring day to stand in long lines and eat meat and drink beer. They are excellent line standers, these people. This festival runs a week and takes place in Odaiba, a man made island in Tokyo Bay.

The Japanese like their meat highly marbled and barely cooked. For people who eat almost exclusively fish, rice and noodles, the outpouring of love for meat was surprising.

There is a festival for almost everything at this time of year in Japan and we are making it our business to hit them all!

Tokyo Pride

Another crazy beautiful spring day.

Sunny Saturday Afternoon

Just another day in Harajuku. Sunny and 80 at the end of Golden Week. Everyone wants to be out. And believe it or not the second picture is just about a hundred feet away. We found an island of calm at a small Shinto shrine outside the main crowded areas of Omotesando.

Rabbit Cafe

Believe it or not you can pay to sit in a small room and have some quality time with a few rabbits while enjoying a soft drink. What can I say. I love my wife.

Yokohama Mid-Year Octoberfest

That's right, they like it so much they have two every year. Fruhlingsfest celebrates the arrival of Spring. 400,000 people over the course of a week! There's nothing quite like a couple thousand Japanese singing German beer songs. They know all the words and their enthusiasm is amazing.

Yokohama Japan

On yet another glorious spring day. Had lunch with Mitch DeBerdt-Maeda and his wife Maki. MItch ran Japan for Group 1 and PB. Yokohama is about 35 km from Tokyo and a city of 3.7 million, compared to Tokyo at 13.7 million. Mitch asked if there was anything we wanted to do, and we said maybe have lunch at a place we normally couldn't because we don't speak Japanese. So we did! After a nice walk through Chinatown (the largest in Japan and cleanest in the world) we arrived at the Japanese restaurant. When one order of sushi arrived, the omakase (which means whatever the chef thinks we should have), it was a plate full of different fish. The server spent a long time explaining each of them to Mitch and his wife. Then Mitch turned to us and said .... "it's fish". Lost in translation! A fun lunch! And a huge festival day in Yokohama for Golden Week.

Harajuku

Moss "Lawns"

Betty loves these. Check the weeding. The green tea ice cream is still delicious.

Kenroku-en Garden

Considered one of the top three gardens in Japan, Kenroku-en Garden in Kanazawa is something. If you've ever seen a perfectly manicured Japanese garden you have some idea. This one however is 25 acres. Huge! It's been a work in progress since 1620. Swarmed on this beautiful day in part since this is the beginning of Golden Week.

Butoh-kan Performance in Kyoto

8 person capacity in the theater. 10x13 room including the sound guy and a set of stairs. You sit on the tatami with the dancer. Unforgettable.

Shibu Onsen

About an hour outside Nagano in the mountains is Shibu Onsen.  There are 9 or 10 baths there, and you walk to them in your yukata (bathrobe) and slippers (wooden flip flops).  It was really fun. And the place we stayed (despite somewhat rustic shared bath facilities on one floor) had a fantastic dinner and breakfast service.  John is almost starting to enjoy the yoga poses required to have a relaxing dinner or breakfast!

Beniya Mukayu, Refined Dining

Sweet hand drawn menus describing the offerings in a "Lost in Translation" style, i.e. there are a thousand words but you get on, like "clams" to describe it. 

Hammock on our deck overlooking the garden.

One star of the show was a salt crusted huge bamboo shoot.  It was delicious!

Shabu Shabu - clams were cooked for just a few minutes at our table.  

Wow - you don't have to love every course but you have to love that there are about 12 of them! We had the traditional dinner and breakfast and loved the whole experience.

Beniya Mukayu, Kaga Onsen

This place was about 30 minutes outside of Kanazawa by high speed train.

We have stayed at a variety of hot spring hotels and this one takes the cake. From the awesome room, to the gardens, to the baths (including our own private bath) to the ridiculously complex and delicious kaiseki meals (multi course traditional meals) to tea ceremony and yoga in the morning--we packed a LOT in our one night stay. We know why this is the only Ryokan in Japan that is part of Relais & Chateaux. Well deserved!

Kanazawa Castle

We have been following spring for 5 months and this was an especially beautiful day in Kanazawa, Japan. Temperatures in the mid 70s and a gorgeous, sunny day. We've been tracking the cherry blossoms since we arrived in Korea the first week in April and the spring flowers have never ended.

Snow Monkeys - Nagano / Shibu Onsen Area

Snow Monkey Yoga :)

Maybe you've seen this on a documentary or nature show but today we went up into the mountains above Nagano, Japan to get a look at the Japanese macaque monkeys that live here and bathe in the natural hot springs. Pretty fun to see on a very cold morning - went down to 32F the night before - with snow still on the ground. Winter is hanging on here but the monkeys don't seem to mind.