Sayonara

I took over 350 pictures of my trip to Japan, but I think that I'll end my blogging and pictures from Japan with this entry. Above is a shot of my wonderful travel companions. L to R Claire, me, Ruth (my sister who got the curly hair in the family), Mickey, and Liz. We all got along so well and had such a good time together and many, many laughs. I always travel with my sister. Claire and Liz joined us on our trip to Croatia last year and the year before Mickey went to China with us. We're talking about taking another trip, but haven't picked a destination yet.

Oh, yes, we are wearing the yukatas that were in our hotel rooms in addition to the thick terry robes. A yukata is a lightweight, cotton robe, sort of an informal kimono. They were meant to be worn to the onsen, or public bath. You would see people wearing them in the halls of the hotels coming or going to the baths. Three of the hotels had them in the rooms, each one a different pattern and color. In two of the hotels we wore them to the formal Japanese dinner with a little jacket on top. We weren't very fond of the jackets, being quite warm and the tendency to make you look fat. But the yukatas were quite nice and I was tempted to buy one, but resisted for a change.


On a very cloudy, overcast day we were so lucky to get a glimpse of Mt. Fugi. I was surprised that it was not snow capped. Global warming or just too early in the season? When I visit my son in Portland, I'm used to seeing Mt. Hood with snow on top all summer long.



We saw several of these topiary mum plants outside doors to shops or homes. They all seemed to be exactly the same size. I've never seen them here in the States, but would buy one if I could.


This tori gate in Kyoto was the largest I saw on the same trip. You pass through a tori gate when you visit a Shinto shrine. We didn't go to this shrine. I wonder how big that was!

So that's it for my Japanese pictures. This was just the tip of the iceberg, but perhaps it gave you a glimpse of my experiences. It was a splendid trip!