Just smile and nod...: Arigatou gozaimasu Japan!

Arigatou gozaimasu Japan!

I passed 12 amazing days in Japan and this was the phrase that sums up the trip for me. In case you are too lazy to translate and have never heard the Domo Arigatou Mr Roboto song... Arigatou gozaimasu is the polite way of saying thank you in Japanese. I must have heard this phrase a thousand or more times during my trip. When we entered or exited a restaurant - they thanked us. On more than one occasion we were bowed from a store or restaurant amid a flurry of bows and Arigatous.When we ordered or paid for anything - they thanked us. When we asked someone for help - they thanked us. The subways speaker thanks you over and over repeatedly for riding it Hell, we even witnessed a police officer with a loudspeaker thanking each car individually for not turning as she diverted traffic away from an accident.

It probably stuck out so much because it was the only Japanese we knew - thank god for google translate. On more than one occasion I translated something on my phone and showed it to the person to say something. But I also think this phrase epitimizes the extreme politeness and hospitality we experienced where ever we went.

Japan is easily my favorite place that I have traveled so far. It was just amazing. Right from stepping off the plane I knew it was going to be a very different travel experience.

Osaka at night

Sweeping the floor in the pouring rain

Everything is so clean - no litter, no graffiti, you honestly feel like you could eat off the floor or the street at all times. the five second rule is more like a five minute rule there.

Even the people who are living on the street are neat and tidy. Not exactly the same as the downtown east side by any means.

They take keeping things clean to very extreme measures. David and I messed up the shoes on /shoes off, slippers on/ slippers off routine on several occasions. We also gaped as the paramedics took the time to put slippers on before entering the restaurant to tend to someone. Heaven forbid the person was dying or anything.

Everyone is so respectful and polite. People actually wait until you get off the metro before they push on to it? A foreign concept I just could not seem to wrap my head around having never experienced it.

Everything is hyper organized. Despite the fact that we couldnt read Japanese we rarely ever had a problem navigating ourselves around. English translation were abundant. And more importantly everything is just so well organized. Right down to walking lanes on the sidewalk and markers on the sidewalk to separate up and down sides

circular traffic lights to keep things moving in tokyo

Everything felt incredibly safe. In other countries when I am on a subway/metro etc. I am holding onto my bags and dare not take out my cell phone or electronics. Likewise I am cautious about travelling alone after certain hours. In Japan it seemed utterly ridiculous to worry about those things (I still did of course) but the locals traveled on the metros with phones out, bags open, and most of the time sleeping.

Actually though... always sleeping, immediately upon sitting down. I can't really blame them because all of the metros and trains had wonderful heated seats that made it really tempting just to ride the line back and forth. Plus it was eerily silent at all times thanks to signs like this.

My japanese translating skills: Talking loudly on phone = being a cow

What I don't really understand is how nobody misses their stop while they are comatose on the train. There seems to be some sort of innate sixth sense everyone possesses there.

Everything about the toilets made me laugh. You never knew whether you were going to walk into a fancy automatic toilet with more buttons than my computer and a how to guide, or a "squat toilet" like this. I boycotted the squat toilets but apparently some people prefer them because even at large and modern restaurants or game centers they usually had half and half. Personally I preferred the butt warmers on the fancy electronic ones. Too much sharing? There were also a whole host of other amusing things I found in Japanese toilets. I really could write a whole blog on it but you can thank me later for restricting it to just one paragraph.

What kind of emergencies are we expecting?!?

For those who can't figure out proper form

For the bashful

All the food.... surprisingly sushi was not all that common and fairly expensive but there were countless other heavenly combinations of rice, noodles, pork, beef, chicken, egg, etc. all so good and so inexpensive. You could get a very filling meal for less than $5 CAD. We did splurge and try Kobe beef one night. So so so worth it. I don't know how any beef will ever live up to that.

Beef/Rice bowl

Udon

We had some entertaining food experiances too with the language barrier. Like this restaurant in Tokyo where the cook grilled it right in front of you. But with no english menu our method of ordering was to point to other peoples food when they ordered yummy looking things. Worked out well.

Hello sake :)

That is the menu on the wall. Eeeny meeny minney mo?

Or this restaurant where they gave us our own grill (big mistake) and a bowl of ingredients and we fried them all up like so. The server came back with a horrified expression and declared... you, mistake!

turns out it was supposed to look like this - in pancake form. We had people cook it for us properly in Hiroshima lol. We were close right?

The professional photographer in his
photo taking stance

And finally everything was gorgeous. The scenery... whether it was natural sights, awe inspiring temples or seizure inducing cities of lights. I took over 1500 pictures in 12 days. Plus I stole a bunch from David with his fancy camera and proper photo taking skills. So while I have managed to whittle them down I still struggled to pick my favorites. So without further ado less talk and a whole lot more pictures.

First up... TOKYO (note: it is not pronounced Tok -y-o but rather Tok - yo. who knew?)

Ginza area

Tokyo Imperial Palace

The greenery was so different. Weird little trees

Asakusa Area and Sensoji temple - our only rainy day :(

Buddha apparently gets cold

Japanese Movember?

Tsukiji Fish Market - largest in the world

Hacky Hacky - you have to go at 4:30 in the morning to see them
really at work. We were not that dedicated.

Ewwwwww

Every type of fish/whale/sea creature you could imagine.
Including big king crabs that I swear were bigger than me

Ueno Area

Take picture please

Ueno Zoo and PANDA PANDAS!!!!!

Hello there Mr. Polar Bear

Stand back... and watch both ends

OMG- its alive this time

Randoms who asked to take pictures of us. They then
proceeded to direct a full on photo shoot. Look this way... sit
closer... point that way.... #modellife #sowhite

They were nice enough to take one with our camera too...

Celebrities

SHINJUKU area

- aka big big big buildings

Tokyo Government Buildings

View from the 45th floor

At night

Tokyo Subway

Meiji Shrine and park

BIG Sake Barrels

Wedding

Harajuku Street - land of teenyboppers with interesting fashion sense

Childhood obsession

Sensory overload

SHIBUYA - so. many. people.

the famous intersection

crossing the intersection

AKIHABARA area- Anime, manga, cosplay, gaming, you name it they have it.

Bullet train - Tokyo --> Kyoto

Mount Fuji

KYOTO - Temples Temples and more Temples, oh and few Geishas

Kimono Selfies

Harder to ring a gong than you would
think

Beautiful Kyoto at sunset from Kiyomizu mountain temple

From the tranquility of a temple looking out onto the bustling city and lights

Birthday boy picking a restaurant

Birthday Cake - aka a large sweet pancake with maple
syrup and ice cream.... YUM

Rental bikes for the day

Tofuku-Ji Temple

Test: Can you find the gardener in this picture?

Who has this much patience?!?!?!

Fushiimiinari-Taisha Shrine (completely smashed all expectations) it just kept going and going and going and going. Prepare for an overload of orange...

Hidden treasures on a hike nearby the shrine

Bamboooooo

Arashiyama Bamboo Forest - pretty self explanatory

One with the Bamboo....

Photography fun with the David's fancy camera...

We took the philosophers path and did some philosophizing... mostly about what we should eat for dinner that night. The path unsurprisingly led to.... more temples!

Ginkakuji Temple

After Kyoto we bulleted down to Hiroshima

Atomic Bomb Dome (undergoing repairs)

Epicentre of the blast zone. all rebuilt

Memorial to the children/young people

Origami Cranes

Walking the peace promenade

Remains of a communication bunker. People inside it at the time
survived the blast and it was from here that the world heard about the devastation

Hiroshima Castle (rebuilt)

Tree that survived the bombing but needs a little help
staying upright

We spent a very entertaining night at a Japanese games center, aka 12 floors of every possible form of amusement you could think of. Arcade games of all shapes and sizes. 2 whole floors of just "UFO" games\

Also floors of slot machines, dart boards and pool tables, bowling alleys, and batting cages. David schooled me at pool and table tennis but I got a little redemption in the batting cages.

From Hiroshima we took a short train ride and a Ferry to the beautiful, nature filled island of Miyajima.

The big attraction here is the Itsukushima Shrine in the water.

And the Pagoda

But we mostly enjoyed just wondering around the beautiful island and through the parks

I am not really sure what I was trying to take a picture of here
when I took and accidental selfie.

I don't think there is any better way to finish off a trip to Japan and in this case a blog post than with a day trip to Nara.

Nara, a city just outside osaka and Kyoto had beautiful temples