Hey Hey! A final post before we head to the subway, that will take us to the train, to get to the plane!

The outside gate of the Imperial Palace in Tokyo.

Very cool art in the entrance to the Subway line.

Holy fish batman!!! We went to the largest fish market in the world this morning, and wow, some of the things we`ve seen! Crazy cool place!

Walked through the park to get to the zoo, and pass a few shrines and temples on the way, here is the entrance to one.

We are heading out now, flight leaves at 7pm ish our time, about 6am ish Ontario time, stop over in Vancouver, then touch down in TO at about 9pm...caio!

Alright, so here are the pics as promised!

Dejan and I dolled up in period costumes at one of the castles we visited.

The memorial in the Peace Park in Hiroshima. You can`t really tell, but there is an eternal flame there, and it will not be extinguished until all nuclear weapons have been abolished.


The childrens memorial surrounded by countless paper cranes.

Yep, peace, that`s what we`re lookin for here folks!

The Peace Bell, here for everyone to ring, unfortunately it`s locked up :(

Dejan on the T bridge, the target for the bomb. Behind him is the a-bomb dome, one of the only structures that survived.

Up closer...

Pretty incredible place Hiroshima was, very moving!

Next we headed to the castle there that was also destroyed in the bombing, however they completely rebuilt it, and inside is a museum.

Dejan dressed up as a Samurai in the museum!

The Floating Torii that Japan is famous for.

Now to Nagasaki, where the second atomic bomb was dropped. This one was larger then the one in Hiroshima. This is a memorial at the hypocentre.

A statue that was built in memory, long story goes along with this, each part of his body is in the position for a reason.

Me at a small pond in a garden in Hakata, just north of Nagasaki. Lotsa koi in this one!

NOW... FUJI SAN, otherwise known as Mt. Fuji! Yep, we climbed it, and on Dejan`s birthday no less! Here is a view from near the top looking at the summit. It was a rainy day, so the pictures really don`t justify! We hiked for 7 hours this day, and missed our bus at the bottom, took us forever to get home, and we are still hurting today from it, but wow, was it worth it!

Looking down on top of the clouds at 3420m.

Another rockin old jeep - love it!!!! It`s actually a Jeep /Mitsubishi!

Today in Tokyo at the first shrine we visited. Pretty crummy and rainy, but we`re still having fun!

Pretty cool buildings as seen from a park in Tokyo.

Would love to post pics tonight, however the computer we are on is circa 1973...no usb ports! But had to post to let everyone know that WE CLIMBED MT. FUJI !!!! Woooowhwowowowhjwowooo!!!!

and there was a bunch of cool stuff before that too, a castle, lotsa shopping, and some more temples and shrines! Will post pics tomorrow when we are at our new Ryokan in Toyko! Only 3 sleeps left....

Sooo, it`s been a while.... what have we been up too????

Castles!

This is Matsumoto Castle.

A quick pic for Jon and Laurie...thought it might be a great business idea! Gooo VW!

A clock in Matsumoto, now that`s something different!

Riding the train once again - in a tunnel at this point!

Wow, beautiful rice fields that we got to ride bikes through on the outskirts of Kyoto - 9 hours of biking this day - yikes - that was a bit crazy! note the amazing mountains in the back, Kyoto is surrounded by them!

Entrance to the Imperial Palace.

In the gardens surrounding the Imperial Palace.

Wow, that`s a heavy Pagoda! We`ve moved on to Nara, and are visiting with the deer!

They`re hungry, and will follow you if they know you have cookies! Even nip at you but if you don`t share! They really are very gentle, and used to humans! They roam everywhere in this huge park with streets going right through. They hang in the restaurants, in the shopping street, in the bathrooms, where ever they want!

This is Todai-ji temple with three enormous bronze buddha images inside. Wow! HUGE!!!!!

This is probably the largest temple we have seen so far. Incredible!

Everything we come across is about world peace, it should be like that everywhere!

This tree was incredible, all twisted and knarled - very coo!!!

The 5 storey Pagoda in Nara at night...there is a 3 storey one aswell.

Dejan squishing the castle in Himeji!

It was very beautiful - and BIG! One of the oldest original castles in Japan - still original for the most part. All work that takes place on the castle is done using original methods. Lots of weapons and tools on display.

Hope all is well in the homeland, check back soon for another update! Very excited about going to see the Peace Park tomorrow in Hiroshima! XOXO

Nagano

Good Morning from Nagano! The sight of the 1998 Winter Olympics!

This is the beautiful mountain view from our hotel room!

The beautiful Zenko-ji temple at night! This temple welcomes believers from all Buddhist sects, including women. Its chief officiants are both a priest and a priestest. Before reaching the temple, you go through two additional gates that are very impressive - Nio-mon and Sanmon.

Nagano is famous for it`s noodles - below they are being rolled out.

This is a statue of Jizo and represents the protector of children. It`s my favourite so far! There were many offerings of toys and crackers and juice close to this statue.

At the enterance to Diakanjin, the residence and temple of chief priest, there is a mote fulllllll of turtles! and they get very excited to greet you, they all come swimming over, almost half out of the water they are trying to go so fast!

The street leading up to Sanmon gate - very busy with many tourists from all over the world!

Looking up at a very cool tree - many of these are hundreds of years old!

A dragon in the centre square!