JAPAN-Nikko

We are here and we are absolutely loving it! After a loonnng plane ride (and no sleep) flying into the sun, we arrived on Monday afternoon. Two of our bags were on the plane coming in behind us (about 4 hours later) so we gathered what was there and went past customs to finally greet Grandpa and Grandma! It was so wonderful to see them again and hug on them a little. We drove about 1 1/2 hours to the mission home where Grandma had some homemade soup ready for us. We all ate and then went straight to bed! It was about 8:00pm Japanese time but 5:00am Utah time so we were all exhausted. The next morning we were all up by about 6:00am (Camryn and Milly were up off and on from about 4:00am on).

On Monday Mom and Dad A. took us to a place in Nikko Japan where there are all sorts of Temples from the 1600's. It was beautiful. Looking at all the building and seeing all of the detailed work was simply amazing. Here are a few photo's from Nikko:

In front of a Temple

The girls acting like monkeys! Camryn being her normal self. (You can see the monkeys in the background above the girl's heads. They were across the top of a building.)

This is where the famous "Hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil" came from. Seriously.

These buildings are what you think of when you picture Japan.

Nikko with Grandma and Grandpa :)

No, Camryn was not in the men's restroom. This is the women's! Yep, those are "squatter" toilets (as we have come to call them:)

This is the sign that is placed above the squatter toilets. Seriously, you needed to be careful. Not everyone has very good aim.

The stairs leading into the different buildings were so steep! I think that since they are such a tiny people they just didn't need that much space back in the 1600's!

This was a highlight for all of us! There were sooo many school groups touring at Nikko and when they would see us they would say "Hello!" or "Hi!" and then giggle if we answered them. Sometimes a group of brave students would come up to us and try to talk to us. Dad was with us at one time and he translated and asked the children questions. One little boy kissed his hand and then waved it at me, so I kissed my hand and blew it back to him! He almost turned red! It was so cute and funny at the same time. The older generation of people were all loving looking at Camryn with her blond hair and less than delicate attitude. They would laugh and giggle. It was all so fun to watch.

Lyndsie pointing to some hand carved woodwork on one of the Temples. Amazing detail.