Tokyo Day 2

Day 2 we went on another tour, this time to Nikko National Park, about 1 1/2 hours outside of the city.  It was nice to see another area of Japan that wasn't big city.  It was even colder than the day before and a little drizzly.

We first saw a Shinto Shrine plus Buddhist temple.  It was super interesting because they were together in the same place.  Most Japanese people participate in both religions.  Shinto= Gods in nature, the religion in Japan before Chinese influence.  Buddhist= Buddha, ancestors.

This was the entrance to the temples.

 For some reason, I thought we'd see monkeys on this tour, but it actually was just the monkeys on this building.  "See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil".  Major bummer!

 We loved all the lanterns along the walks.  So cool.  I guess I am blocking it with my head, but you get the idea.

 They took us to a traditional Japanese restaurant with quite the spread.  We had tempura, noodle soup, soy roll things, pickled vegetables, rice and fruit.  It was fun and the dishes were so neat.  The vase looking things had 3 levels where different food was on each level.  You just worked your way down.

 After lunch we stopped by a waterfall.  Do you see it?  Yea, it was really foggy!  It was raining a little harder, so we switched jackets so I could cover Bridgette.

 Muscle jacket!

 Our last stop was the Imperial Villa, which is a vacation house for the Emperor's family.  It was cool to see the traditional building style complete with paper walls, sliding doors and the beautiful painted sliding doors.

 We flew home the next day which went very smoothly.  It felt so much shorter because it cuts off 2 hours since the earth is rotating in your favor.  Awesome!  Tyler caught a flight in Chicago to LA to apartment search and I headed home with Bridgette.  When we got home in the yucky snowish weather, our house was freezing!  Like 55 degrees freezing.  We both bundled up until the heat finally kicked on.

We are feeling like normal people now and are happy to be back.  Bridgette was such a good baby and so flexible.  She deserves some sort of award!  We had a wonderful experience and are so glad we took the opportunity to travel and see the a different part of the world before Tyler has to buckle down and be super busy!