First Day

I took so many pictures today of so many interesting things that I can't post them all here. So here are just a scant few.

First, check out the controls on the toilet in our room. Nice, huh?


But, this is what a normal toilet looks like in Japan. Not nice...
This was my breakfast. Sorry to put it next to the picture of the toilet. In any case, doesn't it look so healthy? That green drink is green tea milk. Yum!
This is a little crepe stand in a typical grocery store. The kids love trying the colorful juice drinks here even though they don't taste good to them.
One highlight of our day was going to the beautiful Gold Temple. It is called, "Kinkakuji" and is built in an absolutely beautiful, quiet area surrounded by gorgeous nature. There were hundreds of tourists there who will remember at least part of their visit to this peaceful place as punctuated by the gleeful screams of two insane American children.

I finally had my first "keitaidenwa" research session last night. This one is older, not expensive and definitely not loaded up with the works. You can't watch TV on it for example. But, like all mobile phones in Japan, you can scan things with it . See the little square on that business card? You scan that with your phone and it opens a web page. This phone also comes standard with video calling - very smooth, clear, perfect picture - straight out of a science fiction movie. You can also pay for things -even from a vending machine - with this phone!We also went on a cruise of the biggest lake in Japan - lake Biwa - but I'll save those pictures for another day.

Enjoy this video of a talking bird we found who can say, "wow" in Japanese. You'll hear it as, "sugoi, ne!" The kids went nuts over this and apparently when we get home we are going straight to the pet store to buy four parrots. The kids each want one that speaks English and one that speaks Japanese.