Golden Week Baby!

Golden Week is a series of holidays spanning roughly over a week that celebrate the Emperor, children, the earth... etc. To me... it meant travel time!!! So here are pictures of my tour of Japan.

It went like this...

1. Take a bullet train to Tokyo.
2. Chill out for a day or two.
3. Fly to Nagasaki... see the city, museums, etc.
4. Take a bullet train to Hiroshima...
5. Then to Osaka -- Universal Studios
6. Train to Kyoto -- dress up like a geisha...
7. Make it back to Aichi in time to get myself sorted for school the next day!

--- Loads of fun stories... but those will have to wait until I'm home. Enjoy these snippits!

Nicole and I reflected in the window of the shinkansen (bullet train) on our way to Tokyo! 

Eco furniture... 

The Japanese can make ANYTHING cute. 

Nicole and I before leaving Tokyo 

The Buddhist god Kannon riding a giant turtle. Inside this shrine was Foucault"s Pendulum. Nicole and I got a personal tour from a very nice old lady.  

Read if you can... saves me from trying to explain. 

Cool eh? 

Me at the monument errected for these men and women behind me who were executed for their Catholic faith. Nagasaki is one of the most Christian areas of Japan, which back in the day was seen as a threat to the countries main religions - Buddhism and Shinto. Note that there were two children amongst the others. Pope John Paul made a point to visit here during one of his visits to Japan. 

Beautiful colours in the spring eh? 

Nicole and the Lonely Planet in our little room in Nagasaki 

A memorial at the exact epicentre of the bomb dropped in Nagasaki. - It was a very eerie feeling to be standing there. 

Rocks with people's names and messages for the dead. They lay at the based of what is left of a church that was standing meters away from the epicentre. 

The river and bridge close to the bomb epicentre that was horribly full of bodies that day. 

Nicole's pretty flower ice cream!!! 

A view of Nagasaki. 

Madame Butterfly. 

Me chillin on the couch. 

The first asphalt road in Japan made by a Scotsmen who immigrated to Nagasaki port and began a shipping business. 

The beautiful Glover Gardens in Nagasaki. 

The Neko Bus!!! (neko means cat). This is from the very famous Japanese anime Totoro! If you haven't seen it... you're missin out. SEE IT! 

The Hiroshima bomb memorial dedicated to those who died the day the atomic bomb was dropped. 

Aren't these 3 SO cute?! The Japanese LOVE to dress up their animals. They guys were out for the big festival going on that day in Hiroshima. 

These are cranes made by children as a signe of peace. They are located at a shrine that was errected in the name of a little girl who was ill - and children from her class made her hundreds of cranes to make her well... and it worked. The memorial is dedicated to children everywhere. 

This is the remains of a building (the dome being the very memorable image) which was extremely close to the epicentre of the bomb  

Nicole and on her date with a deer at Miyajima.