Photos from Japan, Part 17. A little bit of America in Japan.

There are a lot of familiar American companies in Japan. Everywhere we went, there was a McDonald's or Wendy's or Shakey's Pizza or Domino's Pizza or KFC. There are even Aflac offices in a lot of places we visited.


There are Aflac offices wherever you look, too. This one is right across from the Minami Kashiwa train station.

Fred found Col. Sanders in Kashiwa!

If you look very carefully, there's a McDonald's. It's the second storefront just to the left of the big Chinese restaurant on the corner. There are McDonald's restaurants everywhere. And many of them are open 24 hours. This was taken from the Minami Kashiwa train station.

Where's the beef? It's in Japan.

Yup. A 7-11.

I had to take this picture of a huge billboard in Shinjuku of the Japanese version of "Gossip Girl."

Photos from Japan, Part 16. My goofy family.

Cheryl took most of these pictures of our family doing goofy — and not-so-goofy — things. Every time I see these, it brings back more memories.

When we got to Edo Mura (Edo Wonderland), it wasn't raining. But by the time we sat down to have lunch, it began pouring. Tsune-chan borrowed the paper parasol from the restaurant, walked to the van and brought back all the umbrellas.

It seemed Tsune-chan didn't trust us to tell waitresses what we wanted to eat. So everywhere we went, he would take our orders and then tell the waitress. Maybe you can tell that Fred needed help with his order, while John was pondering what he wanted. We thought it was sweet. The waitress (top right), thought it was funny.

Something made my mother laugh. Probably watching the antics of her children and her nieces and nephews at dinner the last Sunday we were in Japan.

Fred and Mommy trying to decide how many dollars to exchange to yen.

This big boy is Hiroshi, our cousin Noriko's youngest child. He's trying to be a hip hop music producer and is working in a studio right now. Of course, that's Fred and Cheryl. We were at the airport the day we left. It was the first time we saw Hiroshi in the three weeks we were in Japan.

In Kyoto, Fred and Cheryl persuaded these two girls to pose for this picture. When I told my mother it was unusual for girls this age to be dressed in kimonos, she said they might be maiko. She might be right. The maiko are geisha in training and are 20 or younger.

At many of the shrines, visitors can pay 100-200 yen and get a printed fortune. Fred is trying to decide which fortune is the best. This is in Asakusa, which is a huge tourist destination, so the fortunes are written in Japanese and English.

I don't know why, but the Japanese pose for pictures flashing the "V" sign. I mean, everywhere we went. My usually dignified Uncle Hide in a multi-colored clown wig!

Even these doofuses — John, Fred and Jessica.

Jessica, Cheryl and Eri. See what I mean about the "V" sign?

Cheryl and Fred goofing around at the spa in Nasu.

These three guys are historical figures and my mother tried to explain it to me the other night, but it went in one ear and out the other. The middle guy (not my brother Fred) is someone very important to the shogun Ieyasu Tokugawa. The other two guys are his sidekicks. Well, they're more important than that. This was at a rest area near Mita, and apparently, there are statues of these guys everywhere. But most of the guy in the middle (again, not my brother).

Photos from Japan, Part 15. Food.

Cheryl took all these photos of food. At one point, Fred said all we did was eat. But we truly did a lot of eating. "We've been eating ever since we got here," he said. And this is a guy who loves to eat. He did complain a lot about the lack of meat in the Japanese diet.

These are types of eki-ben that is available at this train station. Eki-ben is literally "station bento" or lunch boxes sold at train stations.

We had Chinese food once in a neighborhood just next to Asakusa. It was very, very good.

Jessica's lunch, somewhere in Japan. How can I tell? No sign of meat. Of course, she gave the egg to someone because she's a vegan.

In Asakusa, you can buy fresh, hand-made rice crackers. They are soooo good.

Here's my mother eating a stick of a Japanese delicacy that I cannot describe. The little ball that she's eating is something I cannot stomach. In fact, I ate the first one before I realized what it was and I had to spit it out. Yuck. But she loves it.

This is my pork shoga-yaki lunch. It's ginger pork and it was delicious.

Outside almost every restaurant in Japan, there is a display of the food that is served. This one is obviously sushi. Oh, and the display is plastic.

Various kinds of sake. I bought a bottle and we drank it that night at dinner when we got home.

Tai-yaki. The "tai" comes from the fish-shaped outer layer. The "yaki" means fried. This one is filled with veggies.

The best meal I had in Japan, hands-down. This was the all-tofu lunch. And it was absolutely yummy.


I think this is Fred's udon lunch at the Dragon Bridge.

Photos from Japan, Part 14. Outdoor vendors.

Outdoor vendors at a rest area somewhere between Tokyo and Nikko.


Ice cream stand.

Potatoes on a stick.

Pigs in blankets, corn dogs and meat-and-potato croquettes.

Photos from Japan, Part 13. Rice paddies.

If there was a small plot of land, there were rice paddies planted. I can't remember where these first three were. Cheryl took a lot of pictures of them, and here are four of them.





Rice paddy on the way to our uncle's cemetery in Kobe.

Photos from Japan, Part 12. More random scenes.

Some random scenes from Japan through Cheryl's eyes.


You've seen these in our grocery stores. These little prizes are in Jusco, our favorite grocery store in Japan.



This is the tatami maker right around the corner from where we were staying. Apparently, hand-made tatami mats are rare these days. He was always very pleasant when we walked by.

On our way to Hiromi and Tsune-chan's house, we passed this scarecrow. Tsune-chan said it was world-famous. Somehow, it hasn't become famous in America.

I can't remember what train station this was, but it was decorated with these mosaic murals for each month. They were very pretty.

Photos from Japan, Part 11. Random scenes.

Cheryl took most of these pictures of random things in Japan.


This is what you see from the platform at the Shin Kashiwa train station.

Every city has its own design for manhole covers. Some of them are very pretty, like this one.

Another manhole cover.

This pretty little scene is in the Gion or geisha district in Kyoto.

This is a fire hydrant. Don't ask me how it works. Cheryl thought it was very unusual, so she took this picture.

Patty, John, Cheryl and Jessica went to do our laundry one day at this coin laundry. Cheryl saw schoolkids and had to take their picture.

These are the big refrigerators. Really. It's still much smaller than the standard fridges we have here. And the one in our rented house was the size of one of the dorm fridges.

We have dollar stores, they have 100-yen stores. This one is in Kobe.

The trash gods in Chiba are very strict. The pink bag on the left is for table scraps and paper or things that can be burned. The yellow bag is for recycled items like aluminum cans, plastic bottles, glass and cans.

Unlike here in the States, where you put your trash out in front of your yard, there's a certain spot to put your trash. This was our neighborhood spot. And this is just for things that can be recycled.