Photos from Japan, Part 10. Flowers and trees.

Cheryl, as I said earlier, loves to putter in gardens. She absolutely loved all the flowers and trees and took many, many pictures. Here are some of them.


Yards like this one with flowers and trees cut into these shapes are everywhere.

Water lilies in one of the gardens in Kyoto.

Close-up.

Some sort of succulent. It may be upside-down, now that I'm looking at it.

I thought this was a very unsual flower. Very pretty. Any idea what it is?

These were in our neighbor's yard.

I've never seen a hydrangea this color. These were in our yard and were just gorgeous.

I think these are pansies.

More pansies?

This iris was in one of the gardens we toured in Kyoto.

Someone sent me an e-mail last year, showing a bouquet like this, because she knew how much I liked Hello Kitty. But I saw it with my own eyes in a shop in the Ginza. And it was just as cute in real life.

These pretty flowers were in our neighbor's yard.

Believe it or not, azaleas were still blooming in early June in Japan. These were some kind of giant azaleas.

What are these? Anybody?

I think these are related to the above.

We saw some unusual flowers. We have no idea what they are. If you know, please tell me. I think these are some kind of hydrangea.

Ah, the bonsai. These gorgeous little trees are trimmed and carefully watched for years and years. These were in front of a restaurant.

Photos from Japan, Part 9. Cars.

Even though we saw a couple of Hummers in Japan, most were small cars. Very small cars. And while there were plenty of Toyotas, Hondas, Mazdas, Nissans, the names of the cars were unrecognizable. So there is actually a car called the Vitz. And a Netz. And a Fit. Oh, that's sold over here, too.

A true mini-van. I didn't realize there was someone in it at the time. Cheryl made me act like Vanna.

A tiny red car.

Another tiny red car.

This is Tsune-chan's 14-year-old Mini Cooper. It's on a turntable at the parking garage. Once you drive the car onto it, you get out. The attendant pushes a button and it's whisked off into the garage. When you're ready to get it. The attendant pushes another button and it's magically back, pointed toward the street. All you have to do is get and drive away. After paying the attendant, of course.

Photos from Japan, Part 8. Gardens.

Cheryl loves to putter in her garden at home, so she was fascinated by how the Japanese cultivated their gardens in such tiny spaces. And some of these homes are gorgeous. She took photo after photo, so much so that Fred asked her what she was doing. Check out the second photo. You can see the car parked in one of the tightest parking spaces imaginable. But then all of the parking spaces at private homes are like this.

Photos from Japan, Part 7. Cheryl and her rocks.

I don't know when it started, but Cheryl is obsessed with rocks. Everywhere she goes, she picks up rocks. A few years ago when we spent a week in Tennessee, she picked up some pretty big rocks. Then when we went to Las Vegas, she picked up so many rocks that her luggage was overweight. Last summer, when they went to England to see Scott, she brought back rocks. In Japan, every morning, she was outside the house we had rented and was digging around. We told her that she cannot take rocks from the shrines and temples because spirits would haunt her. She believed us and left those rocks alone. But she didn't think twice about bringing a rock back from the Araya family cemetery!


Patty, Mommy, me and Jessica. We're all offering rocks to Cheryl. You can see what Jessica thinks of her mother's obsession.

This rock was too big for Cheryl to bring back to Georgia.

Rocks. Since they're wet, I'm guessing it's Nikko.

Photos from Japan, Part 6. Cute kids.

There were cute children everywhere we went. And Cheryl took pictures of every single one of them. Here are some of these cute kids.


This cutie-pie was on his way to Tokyo Disneyland when we passed by him.

Aren't they adorable? I can't remember what train station this was, but these two siblings were bickering while their mother was buying something. The little girl was wearing matching rain boots and raincoat.

At the cemetery in Tokyo where the Araya family plot is, we saw these children in formal clothing going to a funeral. But before they went to their plot, they were having fun looking at the koi swimming around in that man-made stream. Our family wore T-shirts and jeans.

If you're in school, you're in a uniform. These girls are in elementary school. And it seems like we saw kids on trains and buses by themselves all the time. I'm guessing it's a different place than here in the States.

Photos from Japan, Part 5. Crowds.

Everywhere we went, there were crowds. I saw more people in Tokyo Disneyland in one afternoon than I see all year in Columbus. OK. Maybe I'm exaggerating a little, but I don't think so.


There were 60,000 people at Tokyo Disneyland the day we went. This was during the 25th anniversary parade.

The Ginza is a high-rent shopping district, much like Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles. It's full of high-end boutiques and department stores. No 100-yen stores here. The street is closed to traffic, that's why people are in the street. And this is Sunday.

I took this picture at the entrance of the Kiyomizu temple, just to show my mother the huge mass of people coming up the street. I didn't realize until later that someone (probably Patty or John) was taking a picture of Jessica, Fred and Cheryl (in the foreground with the backs to the camera).

We're walking from Harajuku to Shibuya, being jostled around in the crowd.

I was afraid I was going to get run over by people crossing the street in Shibuya when Jessica told me to stop so she could take my picture. That's Izumi walking next to me.


In Shibuya, this is probably one of the most crowded places in the whole country. Kotoe is in the middle, in the brown and tan striped shirt. Izumi is in the right foreground in the baseball cap. Jessica took this photo.

Photos from Japan, Part 4. Cool structures

Here are some really cool structures in Japan.


In downtown Tokyo, this building may be one of the most photographed by visitors. It's the Ebisu building right on the banks of the Sumida River. Ebisu makes beer, so the gold represents the beer and the white on top of the building represents the foam. The sperm-like gold thingie? I have no idea.

Karaoke! Can you image seven floors of karaoke? But in Japan, it's different. Here, you sing in front of a whole club. In Japan, you rent a room and sing with your friends. There's also a restaurant in this place.

As the arts writer of the Ledger-Enquirer, you'd think I'd have gone to see a play or two or gone to a museum. Nope. But I did take this picture of a theater in Kyoto. My cousin says there is Kabuki theater there, as well as some shows featuring geishas.

This is the Kyoto Tower, not to be confused with the Tokyo Tower. This one isn't as tall. And there's a hotel attached to it. Cheryl took this from Kiyomizu, one of the temples that we visited.

In many people's minds, a torii means Japan. This one is in Nikko.

It was raining in Nikko, but Cheryl took this beautiful picture of this pagoda.

Another one of Cheryl's photos. This one is the pagoda in Asakusa, a district in Tokyo. This one just may be the most photographed pagoda in Japan.

In Japan, this bridge is famous. It's been in paintings, movies and every visitor to Nikko has photographed it, including Cheryl. I was on the wrong side of the van.

This pretty bridge is Edo Mura in Nikko, which is kind of like a Japanese Westville. It depicts the Edo era of the 1800s. The English translation of Edo Mura is Edo Wonderland.

This is a police station in Chiba. Whenever you see the word, "Koban," you can go there for help. But finding someone who speaks English might be a problem.