Sorry, I haven’t posted pictures in a while. We are getting ready to leave to get on the plane for 21 hours or so in order to come back to the United States. No more heavy bags, crazy subways, or insane amounts of walking. However, I don’t need to list the number of things we’ll miss. This blog would explode.

Anyway, here are the pictures I have to put up. From Osaka & Kyoto. See you soon!

Our room at Yougendo, in Nara. That place was pretty awesome.

The view of Osaka from the Umeda Sky Building. It was the 45th floor or something. Quite nice.

It’s been overcast almost the entire time.

That was the day we stayed in the capsule hotel. Corlee bought an excellent Ghost Buster’s t-shirt there. It says “Shut the fuck up you bitch” or something on it. Whenever she wore it she would just keep going, “Shut up, bitch, I’m a Ghost Buster!”

Comfy coffin bed.

We were reading some magazines there. I mean, looking at pictures? I found my favorite guy, Matsumoto Jun.

A row of capsules.

See, there’s plenty of room in there. Plus TV!

Back to Kyoto to see the Golden Pavilion. Here’s your relax picture, Tetia.

One of the most peaceful ones we saw.

Yeah, I keep taking pictures of the scenery.

Shut up, it was cool.

Okay, you may not realize just how much money that was. If you didn’t know, Japanese bills start at 1000 yen, or $10. So, they have 500 yen and 100 yen coins. Serious offerings, man! Makes a fountain full of quarters in America seem like a joke.

The only two Natives in Japan. It was Corlee’s brother’s birthday, so we were taking random pictures like this.

We normally had to wait about 30 min for the shinkansen to arrive.

My shoes were also there.

Hi there. We are getting ready to leave Nara, where we have been for the past three days. It’s great here at Yougendo, where we have been staying. Seriously awesomesauce.

On our second day, we spontaneously decided to visit Hiroshima, which is only about three hours away by bullet train. Hopefully that section of photos is depressing, since I was thoroughly effected by the peace monument and museum there. I couldn’t really even bring myself to take that many photos, and only one in the museum. Definitely not a good time to be American, not that anyone was mean or anything, just that Corlee and I felt a bit of sideways guilt for our country.

But, we are very glad we went, and are, in all cases, still having a great time. And we haven’t killed each other yet.

This laptop is burning me.

At Horyuji temple, in Nara. It was rainy so we didn’t stay long.

Had a cool trough.

Another pic of Corlee’s back.

I think I’m obsessed with these lanterns.

The ultimate statement at Hiroshima.

In the weirdest way, I really think the a-bomb dome is beautiful.

It says:
“Mourning the lives lost in the atomic bombing, we pledge to convey the truth of
this tragedy throughout Japan and the world, pass it on to the future, learn
the lessons of history, and build a peaceful world free from nuclear weapons.

Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims”

The worst of it all.

MOVING ON

Yum. Japanese(?) junk food.

Just so you know, I’m actually in Japan. In this hotel room.

Nara park had some scary ass deer. Like, a lot of scary ass deer. Which were quite friendly.

A shrine.

This deer wanted some ice cream.

A pagoda.

These deer were hangin’ with this cool lady.

Some warning signs. I think the dog is farting. Or something.

Todaiji, the horned temple where they keep the daibutsu (giant buddha).

I admit, it was huge, but it was also impossible to get a picture of. Go figure.

Cool statues everywhere. Corlee got pissed because I kept stopping to take pictures of things like this.

There were a ton of shrine guardian statues.

There was this big… building. With a bunch of school kids on it. There were so many school kids that day…

Everything’s bigger in… Japan?

I guess it’s about 8am here, and we have learned to stay in our hotel until just before we check out, or else we will get stuck waiting (with our luggage) until we can check in to our next hotel. So I figured I could come on here and post more pictures, since we were out quite late last night, partying in Kyoto, which rocks.

Enjoy these.

We have some kind of mystic connection with Mister Donut. No joke. Great place. (Corlee took this)

Kyoto station is HUGE and awesome. Look how many stairs! (Corlee)

Plus, they have an underground mall. With a huge grocery store on their second basement floor. (Corlee)

It was high enough as to be dangerous. (Corlee)

But you could pretty much see all of Kyoto from the sky garden.

After that, we went to Higashi-Hongan-ji, a cool temple with way too many pigeons.

A really sweet Japanese woman stuffed a bag of birdseed into Corlee’s pocket and ran. Here they are swarming the birdseed, which Corlee then threw on the ground before they could attack her.

It was a very cool temple. Sorry, we couldn’t take any pictures inside.

It had this cool dragon trough, though.

Then on to Nishi-Hongan-ji.

Since it’s the old capital, these cool lanterns are everywhere.

Finally, we decided to pay admission somewhere and went to Nijo Castle.

They spared no expense to detail in everything there.

It was very cool.

It was also huge. Here’s one of the gardens.

Much more beautiful in real life.

Corlee looking out over the second moat.

The koi were monstrous.

Of course another garden had its own lanterns.

Why are there so many stairs everywhere???

A nice view from the top, in any case.

You could even see the rest of Kyoto in the distance.

Oh, they also had a little rock garden…

… and a huge, western-style garden, just to even things out.

After 400 years, we finally escaped back to our hotel.

Which, of course, has its own lantern.

But it wasn’t over. That night we went back to Kyoto station, and climbed the incredibly dangerous stairs in the rain only to discover that our cameras hate the rain/darkness combination. Plus Corlee broke her brand new umbrella.

Here’s one more dig for you. Yes, these are gas prices.

See you in a week!

Well, I hope you all are doin’ well. We’re pretty cool over here on the other side of the world.

Both Corlee and I are very sore from all the walking and subway-riding, and luggage-carrying-while-walking-and-riding-the-subway that we have done so far. And, it took us three days, but we finally realized just how much it costs to ride the fun, confusing, infuriating subway. And, by cost, I don’t mean in stress, I mean subway fare is 160 – 310 yen per each one way trip, per person.

But, otherwise, yes. We are having a good time. Of course we are: we’re in Japan!

Anyway, here are some photos of the trip so far. Sorry about the sudden overload.

You know, these are a lot heavier than they looked on my bed that night…

Hanging out at ATL before our flight. We only got to the gate three hours early…

Our huge plane.

Us kids, pre-20-hour flight.

Waiting for our connecting flight in Seoul Incheon International.

We are ridiculously entertained by little things like this radio speaker in the ceiling of our room at Holiday Inn Tobu Narita.

Corlee looking at me funny on the Narita Express.

Waiting for several hours until we can check into our hotel. Yes, we had all of our luggage with us.

It’s all about two wheels.

Our hilariously tiny, empty room at the rickety Taito Ryokan.

Corlee taking a picture of Rainbow Bridge.

Yeah, they ripped us off on a lot of things…

But Odaiba was cool, anyway.

And, no one does Toys R Us like the Japanese.

Another great view from Odaiba.

Everybody loves McDonaldo!

No? How about Denny’s?

The entrance to Senso-ji, or Asakusa Kannon-ji, which was really close to our hotel.

Yes, a very cool temple. Plus they had this five-storied pagoda.

I don’t have any pictures of Akihabara…? Wtf is wrong with me? Oh well, here’s a nice one of Tokyo Big Sight, as we were back at Odaiba that night.

Rainbow Bridge was even cooler at night.

But, actually, it was the boats that I liked.

A nice, scenic ride on the bullet train to Kyoto this morning.

Seriously, it only took us 2.5 hours! But it was so smooth!

Have I mentioned how awesome the signs are? I loved this one, which was everywhere on the sidewalks in Tokyo. (Corlee took this)

Another cute one, here in Kyoto. I have no idea what it’s for, but a turtle! With cones on its back! wtf?! (Corlee also took this)

And, just now, at our new hotel in Kyoto. Which is fabulous. (She took this too. Obviously.)

Here I am at work. With some visitors.

Seriously, we are going to Japan in three days, and will be together for two straight weeks.

She just can’t get enough of me.

Or of Baby Looney Tunes. Which is what she and Shelby are watching right now.

Dude, it’s hot.

Mood: Hot