Here are the links to our amazing pictures!

First Set


Second Set

day 7- shopping in Tokyo

Planning for our last day was really motivated by more long train rides and the fact that we hadn't really hung out in tokyo much. We spent our day in Harajuku, Shibuya, and Akihabara. Kiddyland, Harajuku is the place for those of you who love kawaii like us ;) 5 floors of everything cute!! the best fabric store on earth and the best curry house are in Shibuya. In Akihabara, we had to plough our way through the 'figurine' shoppers to get to Super Potato and the other cute stores. And we had Spice for the second time in one day!! Back to the hotel to pack and get ready to go back to SF and plan for our trip back. Best trip ever!

day 6- Harmonyland

After a delicious complimentary breakfast at the Comfort Hotel in Oita, we walked to the train station and made our way to Hiji. It was very cool to train through the coastal cities. Our destination in Hiji: Harmonyland. An OUTDOOR theme park dedicated to Sanrio! There were roller coaters, trains, tea cups, a ferris wheel, boat ride, HK's castle, and A LOT of super kawaii sanrio characters everywhere! Heaven on Earth... but we'll be back to Puroland!
6 hours back to Tokyo... we played a lot of games and watched a lot of ipod movies and tv shows.

day 5- Studio Ghibli Museum and travel to Oita

Mitaka, the area that the Studio Ghibli Museum is located, is beautiful. The museum had some of the coolest 'exhibits' ever. The giant statue of the robot from Castle in the Sky towers over the park that the museum is in, making it extra cool. A Ghibli marathon is scheduled upon our return to SF, CA, USA. After the museum, we embarked on an 8 hour cross country train trip to Oita. It was beautiful. Among the cities we passed through was Hiroshima, a place we've both wanted to visit. Next time, we will actually make time to get off the train though.

day 4- Motegi Honda Museum

Aboard the Shinkansen, a bus from Utsunomia, another train from Mishiko, and a taxi at the Motegi station, we arrived to Twin Race Motegi after 4 hours to an unannounced closed Honda Museum. It was very, very sad. On the brighter side, we saw a ton of Honda Super Cubs from various years, Honda Lifes, Zests, Capas, Honda N360 atop a junk pile, and a million other Hondas. While we're on the subject of cars, Japan has the most kawaii cars ever. Everything is cute and tiny. Even trucks and vans are cute in Japan.
We ventured back to Tokyo and tried to find one of the vegetarian restaurants on our list; when we got there, it was closed. We ended up in an Indian restaurant that has become our favorite Indian place yet. We saw a tesco, and we lost faith in taxi drivers.

day 3- Mount Fuji and Hakone

Today we played tourist and rode on a tour bus with 50 other tourists to Mount Fuji and Hakone. The fog was covering Mount Fuji for most of our time at Mount Fuji, but it cleared as we were leaving, and we got to see it. While we were waiting for the fog to clear, we learned all about the volcanic eruptions that formed the mountain, and we got to see the fossils found there throughout time. Our tour included a traditional Japanese meal that was very kawaii. Hakone was a mojor part of the tour. It was beautiful, even though we couldn't see Mount Fuji anymore. Our tour guide kept telling us to imagine by looking at pictures! We rode on a giant peoplemover to the top of one of the neighboring mountains, and we saw a temple. After the death-defying peoplemover trip was over, we took a boat ride around the lake in Hakone. Next time to Japan will definitely include a couple nights in Hakone's hotsprings!

Later that night, we went to Akihabara and found "Super Potato," a Nintendo archivist's superstore. Dreams came true and a new, boxed famicom joined the family.

day 2- Osaka

On to the Shinkansen(!) and bound for Osaka, we got to see some of the countryside of Japan. We also passed Kyoto and caught a FAST glimpse of 2 of its temples. The trip to Osaka took about 3 hours. We met A. and her hubby at the train station after digging into 2 side salads at McDonalds :) (This was our only American fastfood experience in Japan, yay us!)
A. & R. drove us to downtown Osaka, where we happened to walk past a fabric store with CUUUTE fabric. We explored the city and walked to Osaka tower. It had an amazing view from the top. And at the bottom, there happened to be a vintage toy store, and yes, they had really cool Hello Kitty toys! A. took us to dinner, and got us to the train station before the last train left for Tokyo. We loved Osaka!

day 1- puroland

On our first day in Japan, we made our way to Puroland, an indoor Sanrio themepark. Pictures of Hello Kitty are all over this city. It was heaven!! After waiting in line behind hundreds of 5 year olds for an hour, we finally made it in and got to meet Hello Kitty, Keropi, Kitty's parents, and Pom Pom Purin. Our favorite part of Puroland was the boatride because we got to see Monkichi and his relatives in their village! We can't wait to go back!

Hotel Sunroute

We have finally made it to our hotel. We are hanging out in the Guest Lounge where we have access to the internet. Our flight lasted about 11 hours. We had to fly over parts of Russia because of some erupting volcano. Once we landed we started out on an adventure that would last about 3 hours as we went from the airport, to getting our JR Pass, to getting train tickets, to taking a cab about 1/4 of a mile to our hotel. Anyway, too tired to continue now, gotta get some rest. But tomorrow is Puroland Day!

Airport Security Threat = Orange

We have made it to the airport, thanks Brother. We just finished eating a salad, banana, and two coffees. When we got to the airport we got switched from one airline to another. However, we now will fly non-stop. Too bad she didn't order a vegetarian meal. Crunch crunch on the snack bars all the way to Narita. She is still searching for a butt pillow without any luck. Venture Bros. didn't download in time :( - gotta go find a charging station!

Wake-Up Call

Who needs an alarm when friends call super early in the morning? Yawn--- Anyway, she is packing at home while I have made a last ditch effort to do some laundry at LaunderLand. Free Wifi, 7-Eleven is next door, I just wish they still had arcade games. Also, I ran into a cohort member from school. We went on to talk about our jobs for next year, well, I'm glad that I don't have a Prius bill every month. But a new car would be nice. Maybe I can get some new wheels in Japan. Oh, spin cycle just finished... gotta go! I hope that the Venture Bros. Season 3 finishes downloading before we leave!

Pre-Boarding

We are at home, the night before we leave. Right now, she is painting her toenails, I am downloading electronic music for the ride to Tokyo. We are excited, we have both wanted to travel to Japan together. I have been once before, but this time it is for our mutual love for Sanrio! Our objective is to visit Puroland and Harmonyland, both of which are Sanrio themed parks. One park is just outside Tokyo, the other is all the way across the country, on a different island. Stay tuned for updates!