June 29, 2005
Pictures from Japan
Alrighty... Here's a selection of pictures from my trip to Japan. I might post more later, since many are on a film camera as well and those would need scanning. Open them in a new window to see them larger.
Here's the first picture I took after getting off the airplane. I'm sitting in the lounge of Hotel Nikko at the Osaka Kansai International Airport.
While walking around the airport, here's a picture of a small car called the Subaru R1. Notice how big the traffic cone looks compared to the car. Most cars in the countryside are about this kind of size.
Something else interesting about the cars there is that many of them have a little antenna on the bumper to help people park in tight spaces. Most are just simple sticks, but here's one that has the Mercedes logo.
Oh, and here's the logo to the Toyota Harrier / Lexus RX330.
At the parking lot for the Expo, there's giant plushies of the mascots. Shortly after, I saw a group of little kids gather on the benches for a picture.
I didn't take many pictures while at the Expo because frankly it was more interesting to look at the stuff that was there. The few other pictures turned out a little dark, but this one at least has a picture of a ferris wheel..... which I didn't actually get a chance to ride since it was in a different area of the Expo.
Pictures from the gondola ride:
My mom wanted me to take a picture with one of the paintings at the Sagawa Art Museum. So here I am.
At the Ohanami Kyubei, the hotel room looked like this. It's kinda nice actually; there's a lot more color to it than the average room with white painted walls. Using futons is definetely a space saver. They move the table and chairs out of the way in the evenings.
Some of the hostesses gathering outside before we leave.
Me at the Yunokuni no Mori making Japanese Paper:
I forgot which place this is, I think it's the old samurai's house.
And here's some of the scenery from the park.
I tried to make a 360 degree panorama but it didn't blend as well as I wanted it to.
Here's the place we tried some of the tea. They give it to you with small sweets that you're supposed to take a bite of and then drink the tea. The sweetness and the bitterness are all supposed to blend together to keep either from being too painful :P
Nearby in the samurai house, I saw this modern rendition of the paintings. Try reading the english, it's kinda funny.
The Kagaya front lounge.
The view from one of the elevators.
.....
When we sat down for dinner, this is what it started with. For everything that brought to your desk, I took another picture... It's like a 8 course meal. At the top is a abalone? (oyster?) that's still alive. There's a lobster in the center. The left has some cold snacks. The glass had a shot of something that tastes kinda lemony.
Really good sashimi.
If I recall correctly, eggplant with potato and seafood.
Soba in a wasabi soup.
Pickled veggies.
Is it abalone or oyster? Somebody said oyster, but it looks like abalone to me. Well, whatever it is, I kinda feel sorry for it being cooked alive. But it did taste pretty good.
Poached egg soup.
Miso shiro and pickled cabbage.
Apples and persimmons.
So that was dinner. It was good.
But so is the breakfast :)
.....*skip a day or two cuz my camera battery died Friday and Saturday was shopping*.....
Picture of the gate at Asakusa:
