Monday in Japan

I woke up automatically at 7:45am. Quite surprising to me after my trip, but I was raring to go.

We went by the base and I got my first official tour. It was so interesting! I was captivated by the uniforms and intrigued by the exchange that sold all the best souveniers. So I got a general idea of what trinkets I'd be finding, got some yen, we picked up Scott from work and we were on our way.

We went to this AMAZING sushi place. Seriously amazing. I really should have taken pictures. The chefs stood in the middle of the room. Surrounding them was a conveyor belt about waist high. All the dishes they were making circled the room and we just picked up what we wanted. I tried all sorts of yummy, COOKED sushi and udon noodles.

We went for a crazmazing hike past the Kintai Bridge up Kintai mountain to the Kintai Castle. It was awesome!!!

Holly is seriously such a trooper! She carried her 25 lb baby on her back for the entire 1400m hike. I don't know how long 1400 meters is, but it was steep and fairly taxing. Maddie Sue was a trooper to stick it out too; especially since she was a bit scared of her hiking chair at first.

All the way up we learned important facts from the road signs:

Translation: Watch out for rodents in flame-retardant hats.

Translation: If you want to smoke, put your face really close to the campfire to light your cigarette.

Translation: It's really exciting to jump into the soccer net!

They even had a public drinking bamboo shoot complete with plastic cups!

The view from the top was awesome.

The castle was equally amazing. 

The clock at the top of the hill had this nice fishing boat with the birds. Holly says she thinks it's a famous type of fishing where the fishermen steal the fish from the birds' mouth.  Eww.

These gods have blankets. How nice for them.

Tell me this does not look like an adorable little elf-man. Apparently, this was suuuper disrespectful 'cause I quickly learned he's a god. The hat was not a silly, vandalizing decoration but placed by an adoring follower. Oops.

"Those are huge koi! Look at those cute statues of turtles! Oh, those are real?  It's like the zoo!" -Brittney

Hey, they have music on that monument.

Holly politely informed me BEFORE we took the picture that this was NOT a deity and I could, therefore, pose like an idiot all I wanted.

Then we went to dinner at a place called Cocos. Apparently all the servicemen from base LOVE it there; not gonna lie, it was way yummy curry.  Afterwards we went to a bakery where I discovered the unique softness of Japanese bread: the beginning of my new love affair.