Berry's SEAJ trip Day 72: Back home we go (8/16/15)

I woke up to go feed the hawks, which consisted of throwing some pieces of ham into the air and the hawks swoop down and catch it. As we start feeding them, there gets to be a group of hawks in the air all circling (if you have seen birds, this would creep you out especially since hawks are birds of prey.

Look back at our hotel. Cool building.

Dinner bell. Gotta condition those birds to know when we will be throwing food at them.

Berry is scared he will be taken. Dont worry lil dude, I will protect you. 

Get a glimpse of these birds in action.

Bird of prey soaring in the sky. 

We are the prettiest oyster girls ever :)

Dave, Berry and I posing as some women oyster divers.

Little private island for the oyster collection group where we will go learn about pearl cultivation.

Sand ripples.

Berry enjoying the beautiful day waiting for the oyster collection presentation to start.

Oyster collection demonstration panorama.

Diving down without oxygen tanks. Apparently these ladies have been free diving since before it was cool.

She got herself an oyster.

Berry watching the pearl ladies go get some oysters.

Berry likes the pearl temple mock up. Exquisite. 

That is one fancy looking bell.

Liberty bell made out of pearls.

Berry met a dive bear in the pearl shop. Love at first sight.

Japanese waterways.

Some of the small islands seen from the ferry.

Berry posing in his panoramic pic off the back of the boat.

After they eat, it is my turn, so I meet up the group at the breakfast spot where we eat and then go for one last dip in the onsen before heading out. We then head to Morimoto island where they started the pearl cultivation practice to see the pearl museum and a demonstration of the diver ladies diving in the traditional outfits as they dive for oysters. After lunch, we catch a ferry to bypass the road detour around the sea. After some traffic, we get back into Tokyo where we grab some Indian food from New Delhi. It took forever to get our food but when we did it was absolutely amazing (started with a tandoori chicken pizza on cheese naan before I had paneer and some butter chicken). After dinner we drop Ashley off and then we head home as everyone is exhausted.

What is that in the distance? That my friends is a proper mountain. Mt. Fuji. Was absolutely amazing driving down the highway and seeing the shape of a huge mountain in the distance.

Berry's SEAJ trip Day 71: On to Ise (8/15/15)

After breakfast, we head out to Ise where we check out the grand shrine's grounds for an hour or 2 (cant get to the grand shrine as only the emperor's family is allowed in there) which has some really big trees and small replicas of the shrine so you can get a sense of what it looks like (it is behind fences).

Entry gate for the shrine. Lets explore!

Berry walking around the grounds finding buildings left and right.

Such a beautiful temple building.

Part of the shrine grounds.

Made it to the beach. So pristine and gorgeous. Berry wants to swim but we have some rocks to go see.

Found the marriage rocks and a frog friend for Berry to look at the rocks during this perfect day.

So the usual dragon water helper are a group of frogs here. Berry feels betrayed but is happy to meet new friends.

Berry checking out the marriage rocks from afar before we get closer.

Marriage rocks with a boat sailing in the background. Pretty sweet!

Berry looking out taking in the amazing view.

View out of the water from our place. Beautiful!

View down on the seaside village.

After that we check out the married rocks which are small rocks in the ocean with a rope tied between them. After that we check into our hotel which is a Ryokan, traditional Japanese hotel. It is pricey but nice. We spend some time in the onsen before having dinner (included in the price and good food). After we finish up dinner, we go back to the room and play some card games while having some drinks and hanging out. While we were at dinner, the hotel staff came in and set up our “beds” which were the futons on the floor. After the card games, we get some sleep.

Yeah that guy got it going on. Especially the tiger feet. This is my onsen attire for walking around this place. Pretty legit!

Berry's SEAJ trip Day 70: Road-tripping to Nara (8/14/15)

Get in the van to go get Ashley before heading out towards Nara. Go through some mountains which provided some amazing views of the Japanese countryside and some of the fields of rice had grains growing so I was starting to see the golden color people were talking about earlier in the trip when I was exploring the rice patties of Vietnam.

Some of the rice fields. Shows the difference in color within just this pic. Really is stunning the color the rice turns into as it matures.

So we stop at one of the rest stop and there is a roller coaster. Berry wants to ride but we got places to be.

Some pretty serious lanterns. Intricate and awesome if I say so.

Still daylight. Berry wants to wait here for the sun to go down. He will see there are plenty to see as the sun goes down.

Large lanterns at the entrance of the park area.

Berry glad to have finally got here and be among the lanterns.

Cool being able to walk among the lantern paths and see how it changes as the sun goes down.

We are in line to explore the lantern temple. Great timing as sunset is almost done.

Sun setting. Cool contrast.

Seems every lantern is different. Wonder who makes these.

Nice that they light the path for you. 

More LANTERNS!!!!! YES!

There was a group holding a concert of classical music in the lantern building. Was nice to stroll around and be able to listen to some good music while taking in the amazing lanterns.

Top of the building in the lantern hall.

Some different lantern designs.

Beautiful lanterns!

Long exposure as we get through the hall of lanterns with the masses.

Palm tree?

Berry posing as we chill with the lantern bags where people would move them to make different shapes. Not sure if they were supposed to be doing that

Little panoramic pic of lanterns. Doesnt do the area justice.

So there are even more lanterns. Where do they all come from?

Walking through the lights to take a shortcut across the grass.

Berry likes the look of this entry gate.

Berry staring down fearful warrior dude cause he is trapped in his cage. 

Lights lights everywhere.

I wonder if lanterns outnumbered the number of people on these grounds.

They do different colored lanterns too. 

Long exposure. Thought it was a good look for this building.

The wall lit up with the lake outline also lit up.

The building that contains the big Buddha surrounded by hordes of people.

Buddha gets his own lil viewing window. 

Stopped and took a picture of this cool lantern before going in to see the giant Buddha.

Buddha looks so at peace in his statues.

Berry with one of his buddies, Buddhas. 

Berry was looking at how steep those steps were then he realized the creepy warrior staring him down. 

Model of the temple grounds.

Lights lighting the path as we head out of there. Stunning.

Berry posing next to one of the lil lights.

Got to Nara and got on the bus to check out the lantern festival after checking into our hotel (???). Get there and there are thousands of lanterns of varying sizes throughout the grounds lit up (I wonder how many people it took and how long it took them to light all of them) which is incredibly beautiful both with the historical lanterns and the small paper bag ones arranged in varying patterns in the yard. See the temples in the park which are all lit up before heading over to a different temple complex which has an extremely large Buddha peaking out of an opening in the main building. As we walk around I also notice that deer are very present in this park as well and people are feeding them. After the festival we walk to an Italian restaurant that Dave and Tammy have been to before for dinner and it is pretty good Italian food. On the walk back to the hotel, we stop in and do an hour of karaoke with bottomless drinks in the nearby arcade. Once we are done singing our hearts out, we head back to the hotel to chill in the onsen for a bit before bed.

Berry having a sip at dinner.

Berry wondering how this private karaoke is going to work and what the hell is on the tv right now.

Tammy and Dave picking a song for Berry. I bet he nails it!

Berry getting down with some private karaoke.

Now this is some graffiti Berry and I can get behind.