Matsushima - June 25

We had a get-away weekend in Matsushima on June 25-26. It was our first real departure from ARI since arriving in April.

Matsushima is a little seaside village northeast of Sendai. It is listed as one of the three most beautiful places in Japan. Most foreigners do not get this far north, so we really were vacationing in Japan.

Lunch was at a restaurant with a harbor view, and then we took the island cruise through the many islands in Matsushima harbor.

Our hotel was in the next town Yamoto, 25 minutes on the train.

The next day we had a guide who spoke english show us around the Entsu-in Shrine.

Karasuyama Festival - July 24

We went to the Karasuyama Festival yesterday with a group from ARI. The teams pull the shrine and pieces of the scenery through the streets and set it up. The good guy wins and controls the mountains in the end.

The street viewing area was very hot. We were not able to stay for the parade but walked through the staging area and saw all the other shrines.

But everyone had a great time at our first Japanese festival

Bangkok Highlights

We had to leave Japan after 90 days to renew our visas. So we went to Bangkok.
Highlights of our vacation were the Thai dinner cruise on the antique rice barge and lunch at the Oriental Hotel’s Thai buffet. Much Thai food is spicy hot, but the heat can be adjusted, and some places willingly do this.

Oriental Hotel’s Thai buffet

The visit to Wat Arun was a beautiful sunny day, just too hot. The pictures came out great.

Wat Arun

Japan’s rainy days welcomed us back. We have new visas and will be here at ARI until the end of August.

Bangkok Highlights ---- July 3 - 9

The over 90 degree heat limited our sightseeing somewhat. But we enjoyed lots of mango, pineapple, papaya and cooled off in the hotel pool.

In the mornings we visited many wats (Buddhist temples). They are all elaborately decorated with gold, mirrored mosaics and ceramic tiles. The Reclining Buddha is immense, the Golden Buddha serene, and the Emerald Buddha is really jade. At every wat, the Thai people offered lotus blossoms, burned incense and prayed.

The Golden Buddha
   
Our hotel was on the river, so the water taxis were convenient, fast and cheap. We preferred this transportation to traffic jams and tuk-tuk drivers and their buddies who offered to guide us to places we weren’t interested in. We learned to beware of friendly locals welcoming us and informing us that the attraction we were headed for was closed for some reason!
  

The Reclining Buddha

 We were lucky to find the Monks at Wat Po chanting publicly.

Buddhist Monks at Wat Po

Visit to Nikko on June 12

We visited Nikko World hertitage site. On the street of Nikko, we stopped to take a picture of a team preparing to carry a portable shire up the mountain and were invited to have some sake at 10:00AM.
The Shinkyo Bridge is the link between the city and the shrines across the river.

Shinkyo Bridge

The Toshogu Shrine is dedicated to the Shogun who unified Japan. In side of its Torii gate,there are many beautiful building, many of which I would like to include here. So much color and so much gold.

Toshogu Shrine

 
There are many, many individual shrines and temples close together, so I have only named the major ones, - Toshogu Shrine, Futarasan Shrine, Taiyuin shrine, Rinnoji Temple, and the Abbott's garden.
It was a photographer's festival.

The Futarasan Shrine had such a colorful ceiling, I had to get down on my knees to get a good shot.