Ninja Village

We drove through the best canyon on our way up the ninja village. It reminded me so much of Utah. The ninja village is located in the mountains above Nagano which was where the winter olympics where held. The ninja village was fun, they had a lot of activities that allowed us to do as the ninjas did.







We got to throw ninja stars at some targets, if you hit your target 5 out of 7 times you would get a special prize. Jeff and Elder Soleburg were the winners.

Nara

Nara is a city just out of Kyoto we took a trip down there. It's crazy there are deer everywhere. Jeff got deer food and they all flocked to him as he was feeding them they would nibble his fingers and they kept ramming him with their antlers.


This is the Todaiji temple which houses a gigantic budda statue weighing in at 550 tons and is 49.1 feet high. This picture doesn't do it justice at all, it was so big!


This is one of the most famous pagodas in Japan it's called the Kofukuji pagoda.

WE ARE HOME!!!!

After 3 weeks in Japan we are finally home we loved loved loved it. We didn't want to come home but it's time to get back to reality. Addy did great on the flights. We hauled her so many places and she was such a good little girl. I have so many pictures so it will take me a while to post them all but they are coming.

Kyoto

We were very lucky. My parents got special permission to leave their mission boundaries and take us to Kyoto. It was so full of Japanese culture. We went to the golden temple and it was pouring rain but it was still so pretty.


This was one of my favorite shrines we went to. You walk up this street lined with shops and at the top is a budda shrine with the most amazing view. The shrine is called the Kiyamizdera shrine.




This is the outside of Nijo Jo castle and as you walk through it the floor squeak. It isn't an annoying sqeak it sounds like little birds chirping it was so they could hear if Ninjas were coming.


Addy takes on Kyoto. We stayed the night in Kyoto and the next morning we woke up and this was our view. It was funny because Addys crib was right by the window it looked cool to have the city in the background.

Nagoya

The first few days in Japan my parents took us around their hometown of Nagoya. A few of the things we went to were: the Nagoya castle, Yabaton restaurant and the Sky Promenade.



Addy warmed up to my parents really quickly. She started doing big cheesy grins for the camera.

This restaurant was so YUMMY. They took us into our own room. It was Japanese style where you sit on the floor but they had it so we could put our feet down.


This is the Sky Promenade. It's the building that houses Toyota's business headquarters. It's a very tall building with an amazing view of Nagoya City.

I THINK WE'RE TURNING JAPANESE

Japan was very over cautious about the swine flu so going through quarantine was harder than going through customs. Almost every one on our flight had a mask on and they were looking about us like we were diseased because we came from the United States.

Finally......here we are in Japan!!! We looked trashed and we were very stinky and ready for a shower. Our first day we just relaxed and later that night we went to a Japanese restaurant called Oshos. The wait to get in was really long because it's golden week here in Japan so everyone is out of school and work. Addy has done very well at adjusting and we are having fun!!!

No more flights...

Here we are waiting in the SLC airport just before boarding the plane. Addyson has no idea how far she is about to travel but we were very anxious and nervous to see how she would do.

Addysons first flight from SLC to LA


Here we are after the looong flight to Korea it was 13 hours. We had never heard of our airline Asiana and had no idea how they would be but it was an amazing airline. We kept Addy up all night in hopes that she would sleep on the long flight she stayed awake until 1:00 am Utah time. Addy got really tired in the LA airport and started to get whinny and so we were worried about how she'd do but as soon as we sat down on the flight Addy fell asleep in my lap which never happens so that relieved us alot. Then out of nowhere the stewardess pulls out this bassenett that hooked to the wall in front of us. IT WAS SO AWESOME!!!! We laid Addy down in that and she slept almost the entire flight so Jeff and I got to sleep. They also gave us hot towels to freshen up and two really good meals. A++ for Asiana airlines, they were very kind to us.


When we arrived to the Korean airport we were so tired and ready to be done but we still had one more flight to go. It was depressing to know we were flying right over Japan knowing we'd have to turn right back around and fly another 2 hours. You can tell we were extremely worn out and ready to be done. The flight from Korea to Japan was the worst one for us Addy was really done with flying.