Universal Studios - Japan (USJ)

In Osaka, we planned a whole day for USJ. We got VERY lucky too, right before we paid for tickets a group of High School teachers came up to us and gave us 3 free tickets. They were on a school trip and they had a few students who didn't show up! Yayy!!! 5,500 Yen SAVED!

It was strange being there. The whole park was divided between New York, San Francisco, Hollywood and other American places. SO, they had Stop igns and blue US Postal boxes on the street. WEIRD not seeing all that stuff for so long! Fun times!!! Can you find Beth the pic? :)



The Hello Kitty Parade! I think it was HK's b-day party like 4 times that day! :)
Spider Man - the Ride!

We waited in line for TWO HOURS!!!!
Check out our COOL 3-d glasses we had to wear for the ride! We actually rode Spriderman TWICE that day after we smartened up and purchased the speed passes for the rides. (The Japn. guy wanted to sneak into the pick behind us a well - nice!)
Ater riding the ET ride and laughing how dorky it was the whole time, Shanna pulled our her camera and started shooting away! Plus, after Shrek 4-d we bought green ears and crowns - cuteness! We wore them for the rest of the day too!
Tinsletown - Baby!

The Big Apple - Yeah! Check out the kid on the ground behind me - hehehe strange!?!
JAWS - baaaadummm....baaadumm....badum!!!

AHHHHHH - T-REX! Yay - you get the idea! :) The ride on the other hand was quite scary - the drop at the end at least! Yicks!!!
Aww, San Fran! How fun - we even had Clam Chowder and ate on the Wharf!

Kyoto's Imperial Palace

Well....two down and umm....not sure (maybe 3-4 to go). Imperial Palaces I mean or at least places in Japan that you have to fill out a form to visit. Yes, it's the form I detest asking for my nationality and only listing TWO options: 1)Japanese 2)Foreign. Any-who....After the rainy/cold sad time I had at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, I was really hoping that the Kyoto Imperial Palace would make up for it. Well, hmmmm......it didn't!

We made the best our of the trip though!
We made fun of our tour guides accent. I swear- after traveling around all over the world, i haven't heard one as weird as hers!
We took some posh- diva pictures!
Admired the art. This was pretty much IT! Besides big open spaces and buildings far off in the distant and GRAVEL on the ground everywhere....this was all I saw!

The gardens were perhaps the only truly pretty thing we saw on the whole tour!

It was strange seeing all these foreigners. They could understand what we were joking about, which is something I haven't experienced for a while.

All in all, this is pretty much what we thought of the whole tour!

Fuji-Rock 2006 - YAYY BABY!!!

Okay, I'm seeing tons of you guys posting this on your Blogs and I just can't stop myself either. I'm so excited!!! :) I'm gonna be down south Niigata with tent and all. These are a few of the bands that I really HAVE to see, but I have a list of others as well. Yayy!

The line-up ROCKS - http://www.smash-uk.com/frf06/line-up.html

ふしみ いなり じんじゃ

Fushimi, a sake production center just south of Kyoto, hosts the most famous and important of the roughly 40,000 Inari shrines in this country. Inari is the Shinto god of rice and sake, two central and essential commodities both in the culture and history of trade and life in Japan. As such, with the rise of industry and the diminishing importance of agriculture, the role of Inari shrines has grown to represent success and prosperity in business.


Characterizing the site are numerous statues of foxes, messengers of Inari, and guardians of the shrine. A pair of stone fox statues stand on guard at the entry to each of the site's shrines and sub-shrines. Inari's foxes are said to be helpful, but others are said to be dangerous and bewitch people, sometimes even in the guise of beautiful woman. Foxes are also believed to be capable of possessing humans, entering them under their fingernails. A key often seen in the mouth of a fox statue is for the rice granary.

The shrine complex also has four kilometers of paths and trails winding up through woodlands to the top of the mountainside where a good view of Kyoto can be appreciated. Walking through these trails can take between two to three hours.




Keeping in character with the shrine, kitsune udon ('fox udon'), a noodle soup topped with pieces of aburaage (fried tofu), a favorite food of foxes, is served at small restaurants along the hiking trail as is Inari sushi, fried tofu wrapped around sweetened rice, which also gets its name from this place. A slightly different local delicacy available here is barbequed sparrow.