JAPAN!!! Part III

Our last few days in Japan!  I liked these little beef bites...about $0.07 each!

We went to the Osaka Aquarium that day.  We had some time before we could go inside so we poked around the nextdoor mall and ate lunch. 

I ate eel!

This fake food store was hilarious.  At first I thought it was a joke...you know, they didn't get the English wording correct.  But no, it really was a store with fake food!

I loved seeing so many ladies all dressed up. It was just normal.  

Clark took us to a fun little car museum. 

Very common for people to airdry their clothes.  Clark did this all the time on his mission.  I don't think he ever had a dryer.  Though one time I think one of his showers acted as a dryer. I think you could hang up your clothes and turn on some heat somehow...

Subway life!

City life!  Had fun at this shopping center.  We went here a couple times. 

We ate okonomiyaki at Chibo for dinner.  Very fun. And we were wiped out.  A few times we didn't eat together because the table would only accommodate 3 people. Though we could sit by each other. 

This is a moistened cloth to wipe your hands with before you eat. 

That night we went to Harukas for an awesome night view.  And the second tallest building in Japan!

Some things they just get right in Japan.  Though this suitcase is about $600.....I'll pass, but still...Perfect for kids!

I love nighttime views.  Wow. 

The restroom was pretty spectacular.

Like I said, we were wiped out.  Plus it was literally 100 degrees everyday.  So hot. 

Breakfast! 

We went to a mall for a little bit one morning.  And Haley got this cute shirt in Tokyo. 

We stopped at a yummy bakery late morning and headed to an apartment Clark lived in.  We left some food for the Elders--we were hoping to say hi to them. 

Park fun.

Ahh, the signs are the best!

Next stop, Fushimi Inari! Loved seeing the red gates!

The trail goes up quite a ways.  We came to one point and Clark said it was a good turn-around point.  On a cooler day it would have been fun to go higher.  We drank so much water this day. We bought water along the hike and stopped at a little shop and bought more water.  It was a walking day and yes, 100 degrees out. 

Remember how I said it was 100 degrees?!  This traffic guy had an air conditioned jacket on.  We saw quite a few of them in Japan. 

Time for the Golden Temple!  So amazing!

Wow, it was just so beautiful there!

We ate at the funnest place!  I guess funnest isn't a word.  Kura!

See the screen? You order your food on it and then it comes right to your table on a conveyor belt.  So cool.  It's a sushi place as well.  We ordered whatever we wanted and it was only about $45 for all 6 of us.  Food is so cheap in Japan.  Can you see that there is a rectangle hole in the table?  You put your dirty plates in there.  Where you put in 3 plates, the tablet plays a little game for you. If you win the game a little prize comes out of the box that's above the tablet. 

Elden won a Pokemon ball. 

We stopped at a McDonald's for a treat. McDonald's is pretty sweet in Japan. 

Love the delivery cart thingys. 

They love Hawaii stuff in Japan. 

The English didn't dissapoint!

Clark took us around this cool train station.  Some neat architecture there! 

Clark did have a bird take food of his while he was eating at a bench with his companion one day.  The bee sign is kind of freaky!

The rooftop terrace.

The Shinkansen was so cool!

You know....green bears spitting water is a must!

We stopped at a mall to find a daiso (dollar) store.  We got sidetracked with clothes and electronics.  In this clothing store you put these disposable clothes around your neck or on your face while putting on new clothes so you don't get them dirty.

We ate a fun dinner at Osho in the mall, a Chinese restaurant. 

AND I forgot my phone there.  We were almost to the train too.  We raced back. Thankfully they were still cleaning up (though closed!) and I got my phone. 

I also had a weird rash on my leg.  Thankfully Lee had some rash ointment.  The rash was gone the next day. 

Slowbar for energy!

More parks!  New day!

This day we went to Kobe and to the mission home. Check out the tree comin out of the wall!  Clark also showed us the area where Japanese mafia live. 

The church building next to the mission home. 

So fun being in the mission home and seeing the transfer board!  Elder Jepsen, in the top middle, was one of Clark's trainees!

Here is Clark with Elder Marks for a baptism they had for Sister Ueda.  Still up in the mission home when we arrived.  

We got to meet the new mission president and his wife, President and Sister Sano.  Clark was with them for only about 3 weeks.  They are so fun and sweet.  We were even treated to lunch at the Tendan Cafe. It was up the mountain side with an amazing view of Osaka and Kobe.  Wow! President Sano is a pharmacist and owns some pharmacies in southern Japan....Deseret Pharmacies.  Something like that.  

We even got a ride in the mission van!

The mission home!  So awesome!

Gas station with pull down pumps...hmmm.....

Fun sodas in Japan!

This was the train station Clark arrived at right before he went to the mission home the first time.  

7-11's are EVERYWHERE in Japan.  They are little convenience stores.  This one was in a mall.  The sign was hilarious: Please have a good time with the shopping in this pleasant space. 

We went around Namba a little bit and ate at a ramen place. 

Oh and we got some things from the mission home that Clark didn't take home.  Also, they had this yummy candy there--Black Thunder.  Like an oreo candy.  It was so yummy and we bought a lot after that!

Potstickers on the side.  So yummy!

I love how they dress up for a night out quite often. 

We had a hard time finding packets of Pokemon cards like this.  We went to a couple of card stores.  One place they had cards but you could only get 5 packs and you had to be 8th grade or under.  Since Elden was buying them and had just finished 8th grade we went with it. He bought a couple out of a vending machine as well.  You can buy huge decks of Pokemon cards, but they are in foil packs. 

Nice family ride!

Sunday we went to church in the Abeno Ward in Osaka. It was so fun meeting many members Clark worked with! There was a baptism beforehand so we joined in for the service. 

One of Clark's baptisms--Sister Ueda! She was so sweet.  I think now her husband has since joined the church!

A park under the highway bridge.  Can't really tell...

It was fast Sunday which made it easy for food plans...only needed dinner!  We had a lazy afternoon.  Clark made us okonomiyaki. The night before we stopped at a grocery store to buy dinner ingredients and also a lot of treats! Black Thunder! 

We tried to go to a lake for the sunset, but we were too late and it started raining.  We had a fun little adventure with a train ride and walking around a small town. 

The cool kitchen features. 

We had quite a nice apartment. 

I knew chocolate went with everything..

Our last full day in Japan-Monday! Shanna was sick with a fever and we didn't know what to do.  Lee and Clark ended up taking her to a hospital.  After 2-3 hours and about $300 we found out she had COVID and they sent her away. Ugh. We left her at the apartment and did our tourist stuff for the day.

First up we met with Elder Jepsen, Elder Esplin and their other companion.  It was fun treating them to lunch. We ate at Manshu's Gyoza in Ibaraki.

Haley ordered a tofu dish that she couldn't eat.  I hid the leftovers in some stacked dishes. A big thing in Japan is finishing all your food.  I realized while in Japan that we snack way too much, and we definitely don't make our kids eat all their food when we go out to eat.  It's not really an issue at home--finishing up food.  

Clark trained Elder Jepsen.  We loved meeting him! He's a college graduate and was the high school national champion for the pummel horse!

At a bakery for more treats! Haha, like I said, too much snacking!

We then went to Nara to see the HUGE wooden castle and all the deer.  

Takoyaki.  They were in ball shape, but got smashed on the train ride.  Filling consisted of onions, octopus and other stuff...  I gagged a couple bites down but just couldn't eat a whole one!

Tōdai-ji Temple!

This is something you have to see in person.  It's HUGE! And we ran into a cute family from Texas that we met at church on Sunday.  They like to travel all over with their two little kids, which was impressive and fun.  Love that they have a mobile lifestyle. 

This buddha was also HUGE.  It was first built in 728 AD, and then was reconstructed in 1709.  So crazy old. 

I mean, this guy is bigger that our house.  The pictures don't show its enormity. 

Other fun things around the temple. 

Time for the deer!  We bought they wafer type deer crackers to feed them.  The crackers looked like circular wheat thins.  If you bow to the deer, they "bow" back.  Pretty cool. Aggressive little fellers when they know you have food. We got nipped at a couple times!

And docile. 

We were able to meet Elder Walker and his companion right after.  It was fun to meet him in person!  He and Clark will be at BYU together this fall. 

I think this was a memorial type thing for the Ukranians. 

We ate at Se-ro's for dinner.  We first stopped at this restaurant, but people were smoking inside so we left. It took us awhile to finally decide where to eat.  We wanted to go back to the Indian restaurant, but Clark wanted to do a Japanese place our last night. 

Now at Se-ro's.  Fun food....the server was kind of interesting.  The guy charged us wrong too I think.  Overall though eating out in Japan is pretty cheap so didn't really matter. 

These were the best ice cream bars!  The chocolate was really soft and yummy.

For our last half day we caught the Shinkansen from Osaka straight to Tokyo. We got off near the temple and walked about a 1/3 mile to get there.  Another hot day!  We talked to Elder Robertson a little bit that day on our walk over. The temple had been closed for a 2 week maintenance and Tuesday was their first day opening back up. The baptistry wasn't going to open till about 2 or 3pm.  I emailed the temple telling them about our visit, our son serving his mission there, and asked if we could do baptisms at an earlier time.  They said yes!  We had our own little private session at about 11:30.  The area church offices and a visitor center are right next to the temple.  President Halvorson is an area seventy and was at the offices that day, so we got to see him again. 

Shanna was feeling much better today!

In the visitor center basement they have a big closet where people can leave luggage.  Which was great because we had all of ours!

We loved being at the temple.  And wow, nicest bathroom ever!  I open the door and the automatic lights turned on and the toilet lid automatically opened! The temple grounds were very small, but beautiful and very Japanese. 

We headed to McDonald's for our last meal! Two stories and very crowded.  A worked told some people to move so we could sit down.  It seemed like a lot of people were there working and not necessarily eating.  Oh, random, but I was just thinking of people using free wifi at McDonalds.  One town we went to, I think Kobe, they had free wifi all over the city.  Pretty cool. 

The airport was crazy busy!  There was a reported hurricane/storm to hit so we wonder if that's why it was extra crazy. I waited with Clark as he had to do a special check in for the Mt. Fuji hiking sticks and his plastic trombone. Lee went ahead and got in the security line. 

This line was the longest line I've ever been in for security.  We thought maybe Lee had gotten through security before us, but no.  The line was that long! We found him.  Thankfully he called out to us because Clark and I were running past, trying to get to the end so we could enter the line. 

Random snack at 7-11. 

We got through security fine and made it to our gate. One last trip to the vending machines!

Airplane food!

Made it to Charlottesville!  Clarks special package that he checked didn't come through so we did a luggage claim and they said they would deliver it to our house. 

Here are some of some Japanese items we got. Some small utensils that I bought at the aquarium. 

I got this at the dollar store--the daiso store. Little dipping sauce containers and a tray.  Though the tray doesn't hold 7...

The walking sticks and plastic trombone arrived at our house! So nice they delivered it do our door. 

I love the stamps. 

While we were gone we had someone remove the outside door in each exam room. 

This will get bricked in soon.  We were going to put in new stairs, but with the egress windows it messed up where the stairs would be placed. 

The contact lens room was drywalled too!  So exciting.  We'll finish up this space sometime. 

An even more exciting highlight, Haley can now drive!  Woo hoo!  This was her first night driving.  She drove over to the office to work and Food Lion.  (We think.)

Haley made fried pickles!  It's been fun having her make yummy food for us. 

Japan was amazing!  We were thinking of having more people come with us, but Clark said that just our family should come.  After being to Japan I see why!  It was pretty crazy with just 6 people.  Two families would have been too much, and a bit overwhelming for Clark as well.  We loved going there and I would love to go back and see more sites sometime.