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.

Adalei - a star in Japan! (July 2007)

Everywhere we went in Japan, the people took notice of Adalei. They would stop and talk to her. Often, they wanted to hold her or touch her. This woman kissed Adalei and Adalei kissed her back. The people were so friendly and just loved Adalei. It was often hard to keep going based on the number of people that would stop us to see Adalei.







The Tokyo Temple had a room for children to play while waiting for their parents to do temple work. These little girls just loved Adalei. They took her to eat snacks with their family and totally entertained her while we were there. We didn't have to be concerned about Adalei wondering off as someone was constantly holding on to her.















Adalei found this cute bear in a department store in Osaka. She was so cute. She loved the bear and wanted to take him with her. I told her I'd take some pictures so she posed for me. I think all the photo shoots she had while we were in Japan got her to posing for pictures!








Here's a cute pose of her hugging the bear.













I sure had a hard time finding a Japanese doll for Adalei to take home. Most of the dolls were collector dolls. We found this doll the last day before we left in a department store by the train station. It cost 4708 yen or approximately $47. Another doll was approximately $209 so this one seemed cheap! We only saw one little girl with a doll while we were in Japan. This doll has a kimono and looks like a Japanese girl. Adalei loves her doll and named her Iya. Nate said this is an actual Japanese word so we wonder if she picked it up at the nursery when we went to church. I'm happy she loves this doll.








This is a picture taken at the Osaka Castle. There were several groups of girls taking pictures of Adalei and you can see that Adalei loved the attention very much. When one person would stop to take a picture of her, it wasn't long before a small group would be assembled with more people taking pictures of her.








This is a picture of Adalei on the train. You can see the girls just wanting to touch her hair. There were rarely other Americans in the part of Japan that we were in. It seemed like they hadn't seen blonde curly hair before and they all thought she was so cute. They thought Adalei was the child movie star Michelle on Full House.









These girls had fun with Adalei on the train. She was entertaining everyone.














Adalei became fast friends with this cute little Japanese girl. It was raining and the little girl was sharing her umbrella with Adalei.











Look at all the people taking pictures of Adalei. I was waiting to take a picture of Nate, Misty and Adalei with the temple in the background. I had to be patient for awhile until this photo shot with Adalei the star was finished.










We had dinner in Kobe and these two waitresses just fell in love with Adalei. It was a good thing as they didn't seem to mind the mess Adalei left behind at the table.











This picture was taken in Nagoya. We were trying to find a kimono shop. Nate shopped to ask directions and the people were touching Adalei even though she was asleep. This young man was excited that she was sleeping and holding his finger in her hand. Others at this location were touching her hair and her arm while she slept. It took awhile to get directions since the people were so distracted by Adalei.






These girls in the train station were so excited by Adalei and took lots of pictures.













We were waiting to cross the street in Osaka. This gentleman was part of the construction crew. He came over and gave Adalei a few pieces of candy and talked to her for a couple of minutes.
















This photo shoot was at the Osaka Castle. It took awhile to see the sights as every where we went, Adalei was also in the spotlight.