Around the World in 80 Minutes

This is our last konichiwa from Japan for a while (at least this is our last Sunday in Japan). We can't believe a year has already passed by. However, I am proud to announce that we are leaving with a bang! This last Saturday we spent all day (we left the house at 6:30AM and got home about 9:30PM) traveling around to different touristy places thanks to our friends, the Saito's. We had an amazing time and it will go down in our books as one of the most fun days here in Japan.

This was a picture that I took on my last day at Monden Elementary school. Usually one student will come get me from the preparation room and one student will take me back. Well, apparently there was more than  one student that wanted to make sure I got back to the prep room OK. :D I'm really going to miss those kids!

Emily is not trying to do an impression... she was just so excited to be eating cheese katsu. It was probably our last time eating it... Makes me sad.

Emily has turned Japanese. She received a yukata (like a kimono) from the teachers at her main school. Beautiful, huh? I know. :)

We had a party this last Friday at our house with a few of the teachers Emily got close with. We had take out pizza for the first time in Japan and it was pretty good. I still miss Domino's though.

This was the first place we went on Saturday. It's called Ouchijuku. It is an old village that people who made the trek to Tokyo from the north would stay at. The buildings are something like 200 or 300 years old.

I don't remember the name of this place, but it was pretty cool. We got to walk across a nice little suspension bridge.

The whole place had been naturally carved by the water thousands of years ago to leave some pretty cool looking stuff.

One area had a ton of rocks that had been set in several small stacks.

By the entrance, among the things that were being sold, there were snakes in huge bottles of alcohol. They tried explaining what they were for, but I didn't catch a lot of it.

They also had a few samples. That's a cricket in my hand. Wasn't my favorite, but it tasted alright.

This is where the title of this blog comes in. We went to this miniature theme park that made models of all kinds of different places around the world. One of their recently made displays, Skytree Tower from Tokyo. It is currently the tallest building in Japan, but I don't remember how tall.

This is Narita Airport with Korean Air right there. I will be flying Korean Air on Thursday.

Some places from New York like the Empire State Building and the Twin Towers.

Emily got to ride a camel in front of the pyramids of Egypt (gotta love the mountains in the background).

Although we aren't posting all of the places they had, this was one of the cool ones. Some of the pictures actually look real.

This was our attempt at being cool. Didn't work out so well.

Angkor Wat. We really want to go there some day.

That's me and the Saito's in front of the Great Wall of China.

Emily flirting with the beefeater... I beat him up afterwards.

Neuschwanstein Castle. One of my favorite places... Mostly because Sleeping Beauty's castle was designed after it.

The Vatican. Is that cool or what?

Arc de Triomphe. What else is there to say?

This is Emily in front of the famous "Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil" monkeys.  This was at a shrine in Niko called Toshogu.

Same place. The detail was ridiculous.

This shrine was way bigger than any that we had been to yet, so it was really cool to see some more of the Japanese culture in this way. One of the famous Japanese Emperors was buried at this shrine. 

This was also in Niko, the waterfalls of Kegon. I think the height was like 93 meters. Not the tallest or anything, but it sure was quite a view.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures. Again, we are really sad to be leaving, but so excited for the new adventures that lie ahead! We love you and hope to see you soon!