Japan Trip - Osaka pictures (July 2007)

Posing on a bridge in Osaka near our hotel.



















We stayed in a hotel in Osaka and traveled by train or bullet train every day to sites within Osaka or to other cities. We visited Tokyo, Kyoto, Kobe, and several cities within the Osaka area. Tokyo and Osaka are both on the list for the top 10 largest cities in the world. We were grateful that Nate knew how to get around so well as it saved us considerable time on our traveling within Japan.

This is a picture of Osaka near the Osaka Castle. The building architecture is unique in Japan and I loved looking at the buildings.









Daily, I was amazed at the number of men in suits with white shirts and just white shirts. During rush hour, the streets and trains were full of white shirts. I have never seen such a sight. Even coming home on the train at night at 9 pm, the men were still coming home from work in their suits and white shirts. Most men work 12 hour days. They leave their homes around 7 am and return around 9 pm. There were not many women that appeared to be working. We stayed in the business district of Osaka so we mainly saw the business people coming and going each day. The men leaving work around 5 to 6 pm were dressed more casual in dress shirts with colors other than white. The men did not look happy. They appeared to be tired and exhausted. No one had a smile.





A view of the city streets on a rainy day around 6 pm.














The streets are very narrow. You will also notice that all the cars are relatively new. Apparently the air pollution requirements are so strict that cars need new engines after 50,000 miles so it is cheaper to buy a new car than to bring the old cars up to meet the requirements. Every car has a GPS system in Japan. The cars generally cost approximately $25,000 but have more features than a similarly priced car in the U.S.








I was amazed that the people could ride a bike and hold an umbrella at the same time. The women even held umbrellas and rode their bikes on sunny days to protect themselves from the sun.











This is a pictures of the river that we crossed in Osaka every day near our hotel. The rivers are beautiful and the water clean. Actually, Japan is clean everywhere - the streets, the trains, etc.














Another view of the rivers in Osaka.
















Here it is - Osaka City. Osaka is also a county.


















You can see the small street and also the bike path on the right side of the street. We often felt like we were going down alley ways when we were on a regular street.















Busy streets - people traveled by foot, bicycle, motorcycle, car, train, subway.











I loved the beautiful clouds. The electrical lines were hard to avoid in pictures as they seemed to be everywhere.












Entering the park with the Osaka Castle, this man stood with a cup for donations and he appeared to be worshipping or saying a prayer. His head was down and he did not make eye contact with anyone. I saw individuals dressed like this with cups at the temples and shrines also.


















Nate, Adalei, and Misty posing for this picture in front of Osaka Castle.


















This is Osaka Castle! This is a picture of me with Misty. It was so hot and humid every day that I had my hair up except when I was sleeping. (Just in case you wonder if I cut my hair or not.)















The Osaka Castle has an inner and an outer mote. This is a picture of the outer mote.
















A view of the big city.
















A downtown street.




















Small backyards......














City sights with multiple lane streets....

Japan - July 7 to 17, 2007 - Differences from U.S.

This is the shopping center in the Osaka train station.













I was so amazed at this parking in the condo parking garage. We arrived in the blue car to find the silver car on top where the blue car is in the picture. The man went to the lock box and the silver car was raised up so he could drive his car on the ramp below. You can see in this picture that he went to the lock box after parking his car and his car was lowered underneath the floor so you couldn't even tell it was there. (This reminded me of raising cars to put on new tires.)






This was another interesting outdoor parking lot with parking similar to the above. The cars on the top would need to be lowered to get out of the parking spot.











This is a Japanese mailman. They all ride these bikes. Mail is delivered seven days per week.












The mailman posed with Nate and Adalei for a picture.

This is the Tokyo Station with the bullet train. The bullet train goes approximately 180 mph.

The bullet train is so long you can't begin to get much of it in a picture. There were at least 15 cars. Cars 6 to 15 were reserved seats. Cars 1 to 5 were non-reserved seats. Car 3 was for smoking. Car 11 had a family room for a baby to sleep. There were 3 restrooms on every other car and the sinks were in separate. Food was sold in the train just like on the airplane. The bullet train goes so fast that you can't take a picture out the window that is anything more than a blur.

This is a picture of the "squatter" toilet. There are some toilets marked "western style" where toilets are like they are here in America. This is a toilet in the women's restroom. The seat in the corner is for the baby to sit.

We found this type of toilet in some homes and in some restaurants. When the toilet is flushed, the faucet on top of the toilet tank begins to run so you can wash your hands. Then a towel in on the wall for drying your hands. This toilet really conserves space since you only need room for the toilet. I didn't know toilets like this existed. (This is considered a western style toilet.)

Every half block there was at least one vending machine. Seeing 5 vending machines in a row was not uncommon. The 2 vending machines to the right are for cigarettes. The other 3 vending machines are for drinks - coffee, water, soda, tea, beer, chocolate milk, etc. The price in the vending machine is just a few cents higher than purchasing the same drink in a store.

I was surprised at the public telephone shown above. There weren't a lot of phones or phone booths since most people have cell phones. These public telephones cost approximately 10 cents for each 3 minutes for a local call. Most people only use their cell phones for texting. There is no charge for texting but the call is more than $1/minute for calls in the home area. Telephone booths are marked whether they are for domestic or international calls or both.

The picture above shows the police with a car pulled over. Note the bicycles in the picture. These bicycles are for the police. They are similar to bikes in the US that are women's bikes with baskets. The picture below shows the typical police station. Japan seemed like the safest country in the world based on the places I have traveled.

This picture above is a weight loss machine. It cost me approximately $3 for 10 minutes of shaking. This was at a place for massaging. They told me that if I came and used the machine every day it would help me lose weight. Theoretically the shaking of the machine exercises all your muscles without any efforts. The shaking is quite strong even though it's not apparent in this picture. After my 10 minutes, my calves and feet were very tired. I was aching by the time I returned to the hotel that night. I'm not sure the rest of my body received much of a work-out. I gained 2 pounds on my trip so I'm not sure this one time experience helped any!
The picture above was taken at a typical grocery store. I have never seen so much sushi! Below is a picture of food ready to be eaten that was also in the grocery store.
The picture below shows how small the grocery carts are. Notice that the cart basket is the same as the basket we grab in a grocery store for a few things when we don't need the cart. The aisles in the stores are narrow and this was the only size cart we saw in any store.
For Charity, I had to take the picture below of the Toyota brand!
Nate did a great job being our tour guide. He managed to get city maps, directions, and necessary information at the train station information centers.

The picture above was taken at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Takatsuki (a suburb of Osaka). Notice that all the hymn books have homemade fabric book covers on them. This was a small ward chapel. Two wards meet in this building. Since the people come from long distances for church, they do not have activities during the week. Therefore, the members bring lunches and eat in the cultural hall after church is over to socialize. Notice that they are sitting on the floor. There were no tables nor chairs in the cultural hall. Even in the foyers, there were no chairs, sofas, tables, etc. Adalei really had fun playing with the cute little Japanese children.
The picture below is the church from the front of the building. This building is small but does have classrooms upstairs. Also, notice that there is no grass around this building. There was red brick where there might have been grass. To the right of the church the bicycles were parked. To the left there were a few covered parking spaces and in the rear maybe a dozen parking spaces. This building was in walking distance of the train station.
The first day in Japan..... Nate is looking at the map to determine the route to the church. We assumed church started at 9 am and we were late by arriving at 9:15 am. But church didn't start until 10:30 am and we were quite early.

Hawaii - 12 hours on Oahu (7/17/07)

Returning from our vacation in Japan, we had a 12 hour layover in Honolulu, Hawaii. It was a perfect way to see some of Hawaii without any additional cost. (Northwest Airlines has this awesome flight schedule.)

Sarah and Spencer (Misty's sister and brother-in-law) met us at the airport. Then we drove to the other side of the island to Laie. This picture of the ocean was taken along the way.

The Hawaii Temple is in the background below. From left to right, Spencer, Sarah, Adalei, Nate, Misty. Spencer and Sarah live at Kona on the big island. We were so excited that they flew over to spend the day with us.
At the church visitor's center, the females were given beautiful flowers to wear over the ear. Adalei loved hers and wanted more.
The picture below was taken at the Polynesian Cultural Center. This guy shredded coconuts and then made coconut milk by just using his hands. It was amazing and now I'm craving something made with coconut!
Here we are in the picture below at the church's visitor's center. The background is different than at the other visitor centers for the Christus statutes.
Here's a picture of BYU - Hawaii below. Flags from many, many countries are flown in front of this building. Nate was driving a little too fast for me to get a picture with all the flags. (Nate's driving was superb; no stress. I just didn't have time to get ready for another picture including the flags. Nate would have stopped if I had given him some notice though.)
See below for more beautiful pictures from the Polynesian Cultural Center.

As the sun was setting, the sky clouded up and it rained for awhile. I loved the beautiful storm clouds and these pictures below:
This is my favorite picture from Waimea Park on the north shore.
Two final pictures from the Polynesian Cultural Center.....

It was a fun 12 hours. Spencer and Sarah did a great job of planning the day and getting us from one location to the other while hitting all the high points for each location! On the way home, Nate said it was just a teaser and made him want to go back to see even more!