Saying Good Bye to Japan

Finally, after all of these months, we are going to finish our Japan posts! Yah! Sorry that we have been stuck on this for a while. We promise that photos from our Portugal and Paris trip for Thanksgiving will be up soon!

On Sunday, we decided to catch a train and walk to the embassy area of Tokyo. This is also the area where the Tokyo Temple is located so we got to take some pictures in front of it. Hard as we tried we could not take a self portrait which included all of our faces as well as the top of the temple spire. Oh well, this is the best one we got. No matter where you are, the electrical wires are all over the city of Tokyo, obstructing every view but it is still a pretty building.

Next we walked and rode the train to the same area where Ryan and his family picked us up the day we climbed Mt. Fuji. Just around the corner is this beautiful park with wide walking paths and tall trees. I almost forgot that we were in the middle of the city! The street noise was almost completely gone by the time we arrived at the center of the park and Meiji Shrine.

We were lucky enough to see a traditional Japanese wedding party walk through the center of the shrine courtyard (through all of the crowds of tourists and Japanese people enjoying a nice Sunday morning) into the private shrine rooms beyond. Matt got this great picture of the bride (with the white "hat" and golden kimono) and the groom (in black and grey). I would have loved to sit in on that wedding and stare at all of the beautifully made kimonos.

Matt and I at the Meiji shrine. Then we were off to our hotel to shower (again... during the summer in Japan, you need to shower at least twice daily so that your clothing is not soaked through with sweat) and then head for the airport. Sadly, our Japan trip had come to an end, but it is one that we will remember for a long time to come.