Food in Japan (July 2007) Yum! Yum!

This was dinner in Kobe one evening. Adalei spilled her miso soup on the table and the floor. What a mess! We had udon and soba noodles. I tried both and preferred the soba noodles. This was the place we had yakisoba.










This was dinner in Kyoto - soup. We had a hard time finding a restaurant open this day. The festival began in the evening so we assumed they were preparing for the festival instead of preparing lunch. (The festival is like our fairs with a parade.)










I loved the bakeries in Japan! They were the best pastries I've had in the world. The bread was unbelievably soft. There was a lot of green tea in the food - green tea candy, green tea ice cream, green tea pastries (upper left), etc. Many pastries contained sweet red bean, cheese and meat, scrambled egg and cheese, etc. in addition to the regular sweet pastries. My favorites were the ones with coconut, cranberries, and chocolate.




When you go to the bakery, you get a tray and tongs. We had breakfast every morning but three at the bakery. The more we went the more we purchased! We started out spending almost $10 for the four of us for breakfast; on the last day breakfast was over $15. See one of the pastries that looks like a hot dog in a bun with some ketchup. It was good. When you purchase your pastries, they use the same tongs to put the pastries each in a separate bag.






Misty ordered some shrimp at this restaurant in Kobe. It was the best meal she had in Japan. We all liked it a lot. I had shrimp tempura on a little shredded cabbage for dinner.










This is a picture of the most expensive peaches I have ever bought. These peaches were purchased in Tokyo but the prices were the same everywhere. These peaches were 350 yen each or three for 800 yen. (This is the equivalent of $3.50 and $8.00, respectively.) I was really hesitant to buy such expensive peaches. Misty pointed out that we had no problem buying an ice cream cone for the same amount of money but hesitated on the healthy fruit since we are used to rather inexpensive produce in comparison. These peaches were very juicing and very delicious with no bruises.



This was the only fast food restaurant we ate at. It is a Japanese fast food place. We had hamburgers that were actually very good. Nate ordered a blackberry shake but it was more like blackberry flavored ice water so that was disappointing.









Most of the restaurants had their meals on display. We would stop and look in the windows to decide where we wanted to eat and what we wanted to order.

















Another restaurant with many selections.....













This is one of the restaurants that Nate ate at while he was in Japan on his mission. He ordered the same tofu dish that was very delicious. The longer we were in Japan, the more He remembered about where he had been, etc. This trip was great to jog his memory.










These pies are so creative, original, beautiful, and mouth-watering! I was so impressed. This was a bakery on display in the train station in Kyoto. I took individual pictures of each pie.











This is a picture of a beautiful cake with fruit from one of the bakeries.

Den-Den, Japan (Homeless / Electronics area) July 2007

This man was pulling a cart that he was using to collect cardboard. Nate said that the homeless collect cardboard there like homeless collect cans in the U.S.












This is the housing where the homeless live. It was plywood with the blue tarp for a roof. There was a dog at one unit.












This homeless housing was in Kyoto but I am including it here to show the similarity with the homeless in the Den-Den area of Osaka. In the bottom middle of the picture you will notice old car batteries being used to keep the tarps down. This housing is underneath a bridge so it is protected from the rain somewhat.








Entering the Den-Den area, this Buddha gets your attention. People rub the Buddha where they need healing and then they rub themselves in the same area believing that they will be healed.
















This is the view looking down the street at all the electronics shops.


















This was the store that sold Nikon so we tried to get something for Jason from his wish list. Unfortunately we weren't successful. The electronic models in Japan are different than in the U.S. I hope Jason will be able to go with Nate sometime and be able to shop - I'm sure he'd have a great time.













The loving family in Den-Den.... Misty, Adalei and Nate.















Leaving Den-Den with Adalei leading the way.

Tokyo LDS Temple and Kobe, Japan (Mission Home) July 2007

Kyoto, Japan (July 2007)

Kyoto was a lot of fun. We visited this city at least three days to see all the sights. This is a city where there were a lot of tourists. It was wonderful that they accepted my credit card at some places in this city. (I had a hard time in Japan because 90% of the places would accept cash - yen - only. I was rather surprised as I expected to use my credit card and very little cash in Japan.)
This picture was taken at the Golden Temple. Nate threw a 10 yen coin (approximately 10 cents U.S.) into the middle pool of water. According to the legend, Nate will have ten years of good luck as a result!!!


This cute picture was taken with some Japanese tourists. After we took a picture with them, other tourists asked for a picture too. They were cute girls and very friendly. Maybe it was Adalei that got their interest in taking the picture as they had me take a picture with their camera after I took a picture of them with my camera.







This is the inside view of a temple.



















Dusk was at approximately 6 p.m. This shot was taken as we walked down the hill with the temples on our way to the train station. It was raining again and we were tired but thrilled to be in Japan and seeing these awesome sights.
















This picture was taken just outside the train station in Kyoto. The largest festival in Japan started the day before we left so there were lots of Japanese men and women dressed up in kimonos. It was so fun to see them so I took a few pictures. (This is another situation where I took pictures with two cameras - my camera and then theirs!)








This is a picture of the Golden Temple. It was my favorite temple and sight that I saw in Japan. There is actually gold on this building and it just glistens in the sun. I loved the view with the pond all around it. The grounds were immaculate with every pebble in place. It was very peaceful and spiritual to visit this site.














This is a picture Misty took of me near the Golden Temple with a little falls in the background. Misty wanted to make sure you knew I was really in Japan since there aren't many pictures of me there to prove it!
















Here's Adalei not wanting to miss a thing! :)



















Nate and Adalei had fun with the deer. There were approximately 1,000 deer in the park with several temples. The deer were very tame. People purchased food for the deer but they came up to you even without food.











Nate fooled this deer into thinking that he had food in his hand but he didn't. (We saved 150 yen by not feeding the deer!)












A typical sight at the Japanese park......





















Isn't this a beautiful view? It was just getting dark when this picture was taken.












This is a view of Kyoto from up on top of a mountain peak that we climbed.












See the deer with big horns? Well, I became acquainted with one of them. I was eating an ice cream cone and had my back turned to the deer. All of a sudden, I felt a bite on my bum! A deer bit me! I screamed and everyone looked. I quickly realized that the deer wanted my ice cream cone but I wasn't sharing! I finished my cone as quick as I could after running away from the deer. Fortunately the bite was a friendly bite and didn't do any damage to my clothing or my body! It was the biggest surprise I had in Japan!




This was an interesting Buddha. The Buddhas in this temple had their hands in this same pose.




















This is a picture of the temple with all the Buddhas.












This was a creepy Buddha. It was sitting just outside the temple door. I don't know the significance of the cap or the cloth draped around the statute. But notice that the arms and hands are in the same position as the other Buddha above.














A beautiful river in Kyoto......














Another beautiful river view......















I just loved seeing these beautiful Japanese women. It almost felt like we were going back in time.















Typical Japanese buildings along the river - taking advantage of every piece of land.








I just loved this picture. The mist on the river and the fishing boats waiting for the next trip. This is exactly what I pictured Japan to do like. The rivers in Kyoto are so wonderful.