Is that...Mr. T?
Good ol' Tennoji. Behind the bus you can see Gyouza no Oushou, the best restaurant ever.
More Tennoji
So Bryn wanted to make a phone call, and we asked the bartender if we could use the cool old-style phone, and he was like "No," and then he added "Because it's broken," so then some random guy came out of the back and played with it for awhile, and then the bartender goes "You can use it now." That's Japanese customer service.
After the first day of training! Chris, Bob, and Hannah
This is my street! It's garbage day!
Guess what they sell. Yeah, it really is that simple.
It's a hippo!
Karaoke with IGC--here's Fukayan
Sayo, Sayumi, and Yuka
Maro and Marippe
Hiroe and Mon
This is a religious building for some religion that I still haven't Wikipedia'd yet for some reason.
This is our streetcar! Ding ding!
Gravestone shop
Karaoke! Bob, James, Ciaran, Hannah, and Melanie
I believe in a thing called love! Just listen to the rhythm of my heart!
Drugstore!
More streetcar action. Behind is my grocery store.
The poor isolated park with the poor traumatized panda.
There's a bar next to the park that's just a booth that people stand around, and they use this park as their bathroom. I believe that explains the look on the panda's face.
Video games in front of an arcade near my house
Tennoji
More Tennoji (ha ha, Nova)
Flower-covered zebras with googly eyes in Tennoji Park
Flower-lions
It's a pigeon! I love pigeons!
This building looks like Osaka Castle but it is not. I think it might be a love hotel.
More pigeons!
I so priddyyyy!!!
Here's some...stuff...in Tennoji Park...yeah.
This is a teahouse for tea ceremonies.
Nice gate, right?
This is why I love Tennoji Park: really pretty artificial nature, with a backdrop of skyscrapers.
Yes, those are real turtles.
These are some carp eating bread.
That's a crane.
Nature ends here! Please return to your car!
Wouldn't it be awesome if fountains like that formed naturally in lakes?
Another bird and some more turtles. I don't know what the orange things are, but the turtles love them.
Pigeons!!
There's a cemetery back there, see it?
Of all the words for a Japanese person to misspell...
Here's the walkway going to Tennoji Zoo, the most depressing zoo I've ever seen.
I dunno, I was just trying to be artsy.
So Japan has a low unemployment rate because it makes random jobs for people, especially retired people who need to supplement their pension. These are old people who are scraping the mold out from between the stones paving the park.
This is a really cool fountain. It's mostly off in this pictuere. Oh, and that's Tsuutenkaku in the background.
The entrance to Tennoji park, surrounded by city and the station.
Bald guys playing taiko! (L to R: James, Ciaran)
Bryn drew this on the board during training. I'm not sure what point he was trying to make.
Ewww an octopus! (at the Kaiyuukan, or Osaka Aquarium)
Eww eww eww its head is all movey
Big ferris wheel in front of the Kaiyuukan
The outside of the Kaiyuukan
Bryn (I think), Pete, Brian, and Renata. Also, Bob's arm.
Bob and Chris. Bob found a piece of sponge in his food in this restaurant and received a discount.
Hannah's a photographer! Also Melanie, Brian.
This Korean stew was really really good if you ate around the chunks of pork intestinal lining.
Hannah at karaoke!
Pete, Bryn, and Bob choosing a song.
Among many other interesting things at the Tennoji Zoo, the tigers are seriously only like 15 feet from the viewers, and there's no fence, just a pit. DON'T PISS THEM OFF.
It's a blimp! Fly with me!
This is the shinkansen (bullet train).
The Nozomi, heading for Hiroshima!
A bouncy train in Hiroshima station.
This is the radio in my hotel room in Hiroshima. What decade is this from?
My key with the gigantic keychain
This is a good idea!
Free things!
So I left my room with my stuff strewn all over my desk the way I like it, and when the maid came in, she lined my stuff all up!
She even folded my pajamas! What the hell?
And lined up my bathroom stuff...
Please pay special attention to your babies!
"Stupid tourists..."
Wow, he looks mad.
This is a ryokan, a traditional Japanese inn, with statues of Yoda (?) and the Alien (?) in front of it.
A tanuki enjoying a cigarette in addition to his traditional bottle of sake. He also has a flower on his chest, so he may be going to the prom.
This is me trying to get a picture of the deer eating Miyajima's famous momiji manjuu (maple-leaf shaped cream-filled cakes) out of my hand.
This is the result. He was a little too happy to oblige.
Now he wants more.
Guardian lion in front of the shrine on Miyajima.
Aww, they're so cute together!
This is Miyajima's famous torii (shrine gates) in the water.
These guys are fighting over who gets to eat the paper.
I tried to take it off of them and they fought back. They must really like their paper.
A holy horse
Yes, deer can climb stairs.
At high tide, this is all underwater and it looks really cool
A giant pagoda
Since it was low tide, you could walk right up to the torii.
This is a Noh stage, I think
My shoes squishing in the mud
Look at all the ocean-things clinging to that!
It's huge!
Lots and lots of tourists
Goodbye, Miyajima: the view from the ferry
The famous atomic bomb dome
Explanation of the atomic bomb dome
The bomb detonated over this building, leaving it a skeleton. It's preserved as a memorial.
There's even rubble inside.
This is a memorial to students who died in the bomb. On either side are chains of paper cranes people send to Hiroshima to wish for peace.
Paper cranes
This is, I believe, the children's memorial? The figure at the top is the famous Sadako, who attempted to make 1000 origami cranes before she died of bomb-related leukemia.
Inside the memorial, a bell with an origami crane knocker
People pray for peace at this arch. The dome is visible through it.
I think this is one of those century plants like we saw in Savannah.
I thought the dome was really pretty, so I kept taking pictures of it.
Quadruple amputees aren't allowed to eat!
This picture didn't work 'cause it was too windy, but this is a Japanese flag flying in Peace Park. It's actually pretty rare to see a Japanese flag flying.
....lol
Sakura!
This is Yasaka Jinja/Maruyama Park in Kyoto, one of the most famous cherry-blossom-viewing spots.
A view of Kyoto through the West Gate at Kiyomizu Temple
An e-ma, or prayer board, where people write their wishes. "I wish to have an dog."
This small statues of Jizo (a Buddhist figure) represent aborted fetuses/babies who died.
The famous, famous view of the main stage at Kiyomizu Temple.
Soooo many people want to take a picture of this view.
Random street in Kyoto
Fushimi Inara Taisha at night.
Melanie in front of Fushimi Inari's gate.
Fushimi Inari has the famous rows and rows and rows of torii gates, but it was really dark and creepy when I took this picture.
Me trying to take a picture of Tsuutenkaku with my evil night mode
Arrghh!
Regular mode...not so good. Oh well.
These guys started playing at the bar we were at (Tin's Hall). They did songs like "Knocking on Heaven's Door" and some Credence Clearwater Revival song that I don't quite remember.
Allie and Ross, looking thrilled
Melanie
Me, Ciaran, Ross, Allie, Melanie
Ciaran
This night is one of the reasons why I mostly stopped drinking.
Lovely, Ciaran
Bob on his cellphone in Shinsaibashi, frantically trying to figure something out.
Messing around drunk in Shinsaibashi
Oh no! It's Bob!
One day, we were in Tennoji Park for some cherry-blossom viewing, when suddenly, some samurai appeared!
What the heck?
The nice guy in the suit explained that they were doing a re-enactment in order to commemorate the new signage that explained the history of the ancient burial mound
Hannah fake-swordfighting! I tried it too. They had a sound-effect machine, ha ha.
Cherry blossoms in Tennoji Park.
Sleeping lion at Tennoji Zoo.
Tsuutenkaku! Which is pretty much a big advertisement for Hitachi, so I'm not really sure why it's so famous!
Don't worry, it's just Ciaran.
A guy who worked at this bar who spoke English really well brought us here, but he didn't tell us that there was a 500-yen/person cover charge. Screw you, Keyman.
A monk playing the clarinet on Shijo Bridge
Emily and Ciaran at Kiyomizu
Oooh
Miyabi and Yumiko
Me and Miyabi
Yumiko and me
All 3 of us
Bob and Emily
Ross
This is how he looked before I took that last picture and he smiled when he saw my camera, so I told him not to smile.
Allie
It's Inari!
It's Fushimi-Inari!
Looking sexy there, Emily
Melanie, looking metropolitan
Ciaran, looking like a pilot
The torii have the names of the companies who donated them.
Fushimi-Inari Taisha: where you climb a mountain by using STAIRS
Lovely view of Kyoto
After all that struggle, there's nothing much at the top
Great thigh workout!
Now we have to go back down...
A truck blaring Christian propaganda in Tennoji
The nationalists use the same technique
The Tokyo subway system
Oh, Tokyo
The pink condom is saying "George!" and the yellow one is saying "Emily!"
Whoa! They exist in Japan!
Anipara Extreme Live! Yayyyy!
Endoh and Kageyama getting out of their car!
Holy crap!
Yay!
This was Masami Okui but I wasn't fast enough
Best band name ever
Tenjinbashi
This is the parade before Hoshiai Matsuri
He's a guide dog or something
When this girl actually performed, she messed up all over the place
Hoshiai Matsuri
Hana musume. I'm not sure what their job is. Maybe like altar boys?
The festival's organizers dancing
Yeah, do it!
The shrine
Couples were walking through this giant ring of grass, but this guy brought his daughter through. Aw.
Sooo crowded...
Nothing says "Japan" like "hot dog on a stick"
If I were this kid, I'd be screaming
On Tanabata, people hang their wishes on bamboo branches. This wish is "world peace." Thanks for making the rest of us look bad.
The bamboo branches appeared to be sponsored by different companies. This one is Coca-Cola.
The shrine's handwashing fountain
More grass circles. This one is for the safety of your family.
Nothing says "traditional" like "smoke machine."
The one guy played the shakuhachi (Japanese flute) while the other guy painted. I don't know.
A clown playing with fire.
Professional wrestlers.
Wishes
The priest shaking the stick with paper and blessing the crowd. P.S. See all the cameras? Shinto rituals are as much of a spectacle to Japanese people as they are to us.
Thing underneath the shrine's gate
The wrestlers hanging out
This one's for love!
Simon, Tom, and Emily
Joe and Melanie
The whales at Hep Five
Look, blood.
Boats at Tenjin Matsuri.
Kingyo-sukui: you try to catch goldfish with a paper spoon and see how many you can get before it breaks.
They put everything on sticks in Japan.
An omelette on a stick
The haunted house
Win a Wii! Lucy & Linus & Sally & Charlie Brown
They always sell these masks at festivals but I never see anyone wear them, I don't get it
Food etc. vendors
Giant takoyaki with a whole baby octopus inside
Someone impaled a fish head and then threw it in a bush
Like kingyo-sukui but with turtles
Fran enjoying her kakigoori (like a sno-cone)
Guys on boats
A flaming boat!
I love that flaming boat
Fireworks
Fireworks mode on my camera
The floating shrine in the water
