LUGNET News : ~330/japantrip


Cary Clark / japantrip

Christmas In Japan (Part I)

Megan and I took Aaron and Hope to meet Kerry and Danny in Japan for Christmas of 2000.
Danny will be there for a year at Kansaigaidai U., Kerry for a year or more teaching English with the Jet program.
It was Aaron’s second trip to Japan, and the first for Megan, Hope and me.

		Our first stop was in Nara. Nara is a big temple town, but was uncrowded and quaint. The tame deer in the park are an unusual attraction.

Here’s a familiar sight.

These stone lanterns line the walkway to the temple. There are thousands of them.

From Nara we took the train to Kyoto, then Tokyo, then an overnight to Sapporo.
These ladies gave Hopu several gifts and were perfect for practicing very-polite Japanese.

From Sapporo we caught a train to Kutchan, where we went skiing.
We stayed at the BAB Resort House. Here’s the honorable Mr. Bab.

The BAB House had communal areas for lounging about; the rooms
were large but only had beds. Here’s the neater of the two rooms we had.

One day the winds were so fierce that we couldn’t ski,
so we went indoor-rock-climbing instead.

Danny’s girlfriend Yuko met us in Kutchan.
She was by far the best skier of our group. Aren’t they cute?

We celebrated Christmas at the BAB House.
Hope made a heroic effort to make the Christmas nice
for the wayward boys, and made a special effort
to make her Uncle look very foolish.

Look at those pearly whites!

Here’s our menu selection in Kutchan.
You can see our reflections in the window.
Danny encouraged us to try as many different dishes as possible.

Hope wanted very much to be seen in front of
these Japanese-cartoon landmarks. We don’t understand why,
but it made her very happy.

These are the Tokyo Tower mascots. What else can I say?

Here Hope is inside Tokyo tower,
looking for manga and anime characters.

Our room in Tokyo were traditional futons on the floor.
The big quilts made it very comfy.

From Tokyo, we went to Kyoto where we saw many temples and shrines.
One ritual is to wash one’s hands before
going to the temple. Note who is wearing gloves.

One temple had a special pillar with a hole.
Crawling through the hole was good luck, but
the hole is very small. We all went through anyway.

There wasn’t enough room to use one’s arms, so the strategy
was to wiggle through. Nephew Aaron gave me
an assist by bracing my feet. Thanks, Aaron!

		There are pugdogs in Japan, too.

		If you knew these two brothers, you’d be surprised to see them this close. It must be the miraculous restorative powers of karioke.

More pictures coming soon.

Primary content in this document is © Cary Clark. All other text, images, or trademarks in this document are the intellectual property of their respective owners.