A few pictures from Japan

Flying over the Bering Sea, I think.

The Research Institute where I worked

Samantha Cherry, my friend from college, took me to see Tokyo Bay. It is part of the Pacific Ocean. Yay!

I bought groceries at this store.

At one of the many train stations in Tokyo

After I finished at RIKEN, I stayed with the Nishimura family. They are the family of one of my classmates at Washington University. The two on the far left are his parents, Tateo and Yoshko, and the one on the far right is his sister, Nana. The guy sitting next to her is her boyfriend, Akiras. The other guy is an exchange student from Thailand who is staying with them. His name is Vioo. They made a dish called 'Sukiyaki'.

The last week I was in Japan I went to Kyoto for a couple of days. Kyoto is known for its many temples and shrines. Here, I am entering into Kyumizu-dera temple, which is known for its natural springs.

The main part of the temple. It was in the middle of the woods, which I thought was neat.

This is a place where you can drink water from the springs. There was a sign that said that the water is blessed by the Buddha, and that drinking the water will bring blessings. I wanted to taste the water, and I remembered the section in 1st Corinthians about food offered to idols. I even got in line, but in the end I just felt too uncomfortable, so I didn't drink the water.

This is another famous temple called Kinkakuji. The outside is covered with real gold. The setting would have been quite serene, except there were hundreds of people there, mostly school kids on a field trip.

In fact, a group of school children approached me and asked me some questions in rehearsed English. They had to complete an assignment for their English class, and I had to sign their papers after they had finished interrogating me, ha, ha. That was fun.

Another part of Kyoto called Arashiyama. The place was quite beautiful. I loved being among the mountains.

On the way up to 'Monkey Mountain', where they keep a lot of Japanese monkeys

At the top there was a place where you could feed the monkeys. The monkeys would often stick an arm through the screen waiting for someone to give them food.

Here I am feeding a monkey a peanut. One of the monkeys I fed screamed at me whenever I stopped feeding it. It would grab the peanut, quickly stick it in its mouth, then extend its arm again to demand another one.

A baby monkey

A famous shrine called Fushimi-Inari. It is a shrine honoring a family of foxes who were believed to be messengers from the gods, some several hundred years ago.

Here are people offering prayers to the gods. I could never figure out who exactly they prayed to. They throw in a coin into a coffer, and then they clap twice, or ring a bell to get the god's attention. Then they bow and pray for about a minute. I was very saddened to see people doing this.

At this shrine, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of these orange gates. They are called Torii

More orange gates.

The entrance to an old Samurai castle called Nijo-jo.

There was a moat around the castle

Some intricate sculptures at the top of a doorway into the palace inside the castle

This is the palace, I think. There were two main buildings, but I can't remember which one was the palace. It was not allowed to take pictures inside. Too bad, because there were beautiful paintings inside with a gold background.