Spring Break in Japan! March 23-30, 2016

We had a wonderful spring break in Japan. Here is a bit of our experience.

 View from the Umeda Sky Tower in Osaka. We arrived on Wed. March 23rd and after getting settled in our little apartment (airbnb) started exploring.

There was a beautiful view of the city from the top--G and G

 Shayla and Kalia--too cool for the "locks of love." Couples get a lock engraved with their anniversary or special message and lock them at the top of the building.

Cheesy boys making fun of the girls :)

Kalia and Miya

Finally our turn

 This girl has more personality than I know what to do with. Too cute!

 The "Little Mermaid" rock that everyone had to try out. 

 Day 2 we went to Arashiyama, a beautiful town just west of Kyoto.

 Hiking up to the monkey park.

 Kalia knows how to do a hike.

 Wild monkeys were wandering around freely when we finally reached the top. It was amazing! 

We were told not to stare at the monkeys, and found out why when Miya, Kalia and I were staring at one, and it hissed, bared it's teeth and took a threatening step towards us. As I quickly tried to avert my eyes and shuffle the girls in a different direction, Kalia said, "That monkey smile at us." 

 Ty and an uncooperative monkey. Maybe that's his good side.

 We could feed the monkeys from inside a little house. They would take the apples and peanuts right out of our hands.

 These monkeys were actually very spoiled. One of them scratched Grant because he handed him a piece of apple that had a bit of the core on it. Sheesh! Even monkeys feel entitled these days!

 Cute little baby monkey

 Grant with the monkeys

 The view from the top

 Kalia and Ty

 This was my National Geographic moment--the monkey turned and looked straight at the camera!

 Near the top of the mountain was this awesome slide and playground. The kids had fun catching air off the bump. Kalia is the only one I missed a picture of, because she flew so fast down the slide she wiped out in the dirt. 

 It was the start of cherry blossom season--such beautiful sights!

 This tree must have been 1,000 years old

 Delicious Japanese food. Grant's favorite was the pork cutlet.

 Bamboo forest. It was kind of a reverent, erie feeling walking through it with the sun just trickling through in a few spots.

 Google-translate these days :)

 Since "Miya" means temple (or increasingly beautiful), we saw her name all over Japan.

 Water dippers to sample the fresh mountain spring water

 A small shrine in Arashiyama

 I think people would write prayers on these

 k and m at the shrine

 A Japanese cemetery

 Garrett enjoying a japanese treat

 Crossing the bridge to catch the train back to Osaka.

Day 3 was Sumo Wrestling Grand Tournament in Osaka!!!! Ty and I got in line at 5am to buy tickets. It was so worth it!!! Such an amazing experience! (sorry about the side-ways photos)

The tournament went from 10am-6pm, with the beginners going first, and the big guys in the afternoon. My favorite was watching in the morning because we could go right up to the box seats and experience everything up close and personal.

Sitting front and center--Kalia wanted to know where their pants were. (I can see their bum!!!)

Kalia with a squatty potty. These are the worst, but sometimes the only option. Luckily there is usually one "western-style" toilet stall worth waiting for.

For lunch we walked around Dotonbori, a fun outdoor shopping/eating area. Notice Garrett lovingly tapping his sister in this photo.

Notice my hand gently holding Garrett in place in this one. Brother/sisterly love.

This place sold "takoyaki" (octopus balls) They were delicious!

Takoyaki

The big guys.

It is hard to get a feel for how big they are in person. 

Day 4 we went to Kobe and took a cable car up Mt. Rokko. 

Dabbing kids

Beautiful view of the harbor/city below

Miya and Kalia thought this was the Rapunzel castle.

Another view from Mt Rokko

This restaurant was called "268" because everything on the menu cost 268 yen. It was one of the kids' favorites because we just kept ordering food :)

Day 5 was Easter Sunday. We took the subway to church, and although we didn't understand the language, we felt the spirit and the members were so welcoming. We decided to stay for all 3 hours, and it was definitely a highlight of the trip. Everyone tried to help us by translating as much as they could, and the primary kids had an Easter egg hunt. I loved attending Sunday school class because everyone was taking notes in their scriptures and marking things the whole time. They were so eager to learn, it was a great lesson to me.

Sunday evening we visited the Osaka Castle. It was amazing!

This was the view from the top tower.

By the time we finished the tour, it was dark outside. We each had headsets that we could listen to as we walked around. When we finished, Miya said she had listened to every single number in the whole museum. Tyler asked her what she learned, to which she replied, "Nothing, it was all boring stuff."

Family by the Osaka Castle. It was so pretty with the cherry blossoms in bloom.

Day 6 was supposed to be Universal Studios day. We stood in line for 45 minutes just to get tickets to enter the park, and it all went downhill from there. We found out it was the 1st day of Japan's spring holiday, so EVERYONE was at the park that day. We ended up getting our money back and leaving the park, with half of the kids high-fiving Tyler for talking them into giving us our money back, and half of the kids crying. 

So, we took a ferry boat across the harbor to visit the aquarium.

Sweet Miya

Kalia loved the fish

Shayla and stingray that was bigger than her.

Ty and a whale shark

Eating okonomiyaki, Japanese pancakes.

View from the giant ferris wheel we rode. Not quite as exciting as Universal, but the views were amazing.

Miya, Grant, Ty and Garrett on the glass-bottom ferris wheel.

Lani, Tyler, Shayla and Kalia

Family selfie with Shayla's selfie stick--we are true asians now.

Day 7: The kids in front of Fushimi Inari temple/shrine. 

There were hundreds of arches all along the hike.

We gave the kids each 1000 yen for lunch and they bought their choice of street food. They had great meat on a stick, and everything else on a stick too.

I'm not sure what the symbolism was here, but it was an interesting sight.

Sushi in our little kitchen hallway--it was delicious.

We had a sauna/spa night in our apartment--one of Kalia's favorites.

Fixing hair with the girls

Even the manhole covers were beautiful in Japan.

Ty made a new friend on the train

Garrett jumped over every single white pole on this road. It made me tired just watching him.

Our last day was spent shopping and then we boarded the plane for home. Such a fun trip with adventure and family togetherness. We loved our time in Japan.