It's My Life!: Japan = AWESOMENESS!

Wow…so for my summer vacation at the end of July, I spent a week in Japan and absolutely LOVED it! The people were so nice and helpful, the train rides beautiful as Japan is some ridiculous like 80 percent mountainous due to the fantastic earthquakes, and my experience was just amazing really! I have so many pictures so I’ve posted a few with captions to tell of my adventures :)

(They're not in perfect order..please forgive...if you want to see more, check out my photos on http://www.myspace.com/ingridannalisa)

Almost forgot to bring this with me...kinda need it to leave the country and to get into another country....

The Busan Skyline at night....quite lovely actually :)
(Busan is a southern coastal town....very laid-back beach town though also a major port city, so lots of businesses here.)

Some foreign teachers I boarded with on the ferry over to Japan...here we are eating dinner at a fabulous Indian restaurant in Busan - it's where I boarded the ferry to Fukuoka/Hakata, Japan.

Busan Fish Market
(I saw an octopus trying to escape and the adjuma [respectfully older lady] just smacked it on the head and threw it back in the bucket!)

Boarding the Ferry!

Land in Fukuoka/Hakata (not sure why it has two names), jump on the Shinkansen bullet train and head to Yokohama, borrow about 3 cell phones on the way and meet Cousin Thomas!

Yokohama Tower - tallest building in Japan but on a humid day, it doesn't allow much in the way of city views as you can see below...

Cute group of young people in their yukatas (sorta the summer version of the kimono)

The Sony building had awesome aquarium setup to show off their latest and greatest gadgets. This stuff was sitting there for photo display? Haha, I seized the opportunity!

The Japanese version of "fast food." You put your money in a machine, the machines gives you a ticket, you give the ticket to the person at the counter and they bring your food. Quick, efficient and you don't have to speak a word of Japanese to eat here! Only problem is the machines are all in Japanese....so if you're not careful you could end up ordering horsemeat! When in doubt, look for surrounding pictures and order whatever looks good on those!

Girls of Harajuku (ijime-ko Cosplay-zoku)
They dress up like this, carry around their suitcases so they don't have to go home like this I believe, and want to have their picture taken - even though they act like they don't sometimes. There are certainly worse ways to rebel as a teenager, so I am glad these Japanese teens have made theirs entertaining for the rest of us :)

INVASION OF THE KUDZU!!!!!!!!!!
(Mom, Dad - This pic is for you and all May's Chapel Folks)

Imperial Palace Gardens at Sunset

HUGE Electronics Store

Haha...I'm addicted to Guitar Hero...this is as geeky as I got in that HUGE electronics store...

Tokyo Tower...and Thomas's thumb :)

Statues for protecting children

Tokyo fashion....all movements are alive and well in fashion - the hippie, the punk, the emo, the hip-hopper....but the messages of these movements are sorta lost...or non-existent haha.

Park leading to the Imperial Gardens

Rotating sushi restaurant - yum!

It was DELICIOUS!!! (OK, so I didn't eat all that...Thomas helped...a lil ;) )

I met fabulous folks along the way in Japan. In Kyoto, I toured around with a Japanese and his American friend. We kar-ah-ok-kayed our first night - good times! Below, Tak is demonstrating how Japanese guys can rock the purses (my purse in particular - HAH!).

Rokuonji Temple (Golden Temple)