Keip/Sherb Visit Day 6!

The sixth and penultimate day of the visit was a good one... Much like Day Two, Day Six started slowly... (Review the pics from the end of Day Five if you are forgetting why Day Six started slowly...)

We chilled for a bit in the morning, then walked around Akashi for a bit, heading down to the sea walls and looking towards Awaji Island and the Akashi Bridge... Saw the good ol' Tako Ferry... Good times!


Then we walked through the Akashi fish market, and then headed to Kobe for the evening... We had dinner (not really together per se, as our food was all brought out at different times) and then walked to see the Luminarie, which is a huge outdoor light display, kinda for Christmas, but much more-so for a memorial to the victims of the Kobe earthquake...

Then we headed back to Akashi and relaxed... It was the Keiper's and Sherbie's last night in Japan, so we just chilled and chatted...

Check out the pics from Day Six here!

p.s. There are no pics from Day Seven, as all it entailed was getting up and escorting our guests to the airport bus... Which, while emotionally riveting, does not provide a very compelling photographic experience... So... yeah.... These are the last of the pics from the Keiper/Sherburne visit... Enjoy!

Keip/Sherb Visit Day 5!

Day Five and Stayin' alive!

Day Five was an eventful one as well... In the morning, I went to my English Cafe job that I do on Thursdays, and the rest of the folks joined me later for a little bit... I'm guessing it was pretty interesting for the Keipers and Sherburnes to interact with some Japanese people who speak English... I finished up the cafe while the rest of them went to Himeji Castle... I've seen it a couple times, so I was fine not seeing it again... After they got back we all got geared up for a night of Yakiniku!!!

The restaurant we went to, Gyu-Kaku, is quite possibly the greatest restaurant ever... 4200 Yen ($37) for all you can eat meat (various cuts of beef, and, of course, scallops for Emma) and all you can drink beer, sake, or cocktails for 2 hours... Good times!

As the pictures can attest to, the night was a blast... We topped it off with a round of bowling... Fun fun fun!

Check out the pics here!

Keip/Sherb Visit Day 4!

Wow, already onto Day Four!

Day Four was a very eventful day... It was the most walkingest of all the days with us hiking all day...

We started out at Joe and Tiff's, but packed up our stuff as we were going to ahead to Akashi that evening... We went to Kyoto Station, dropped off our luggage, looked around, then hopped the train to Nara, where we spent most of the day... Nara is famous for it's ridiculously tame deer who greatly enjoy being fed small round crackers made of what I assume is ground up Chinese newspapers...

Also, Nara is famous for Todai-ji, which is a big temple and purportedly the largest wooden building in the world... It also houses a gigantic Buddha statue and a fun squeezin' hole...

We also walked around to some other shrines, some of which were more notable than others...

And after the long day of walkin' we took the train to Akashi, and ate dinner at Oh-Sho (which was so delicious we forgot to take pictures), and then headed to our apartment...

Check out the pics from Day Four here!

Keip/Sherb Visit Day 2 and 3!

"Buh'Whaaaaa? Why are you combining Days Two and Three?" you ask...

Well, if you look closely at the end of the pictures from Day One, it should become clear that Day Two was spent in the midst of a large hangover...

There are all of 13 pictures from Day Two, and 23% of them were taken in massage chairs...

Day Two consisted of us sleeping in until 1 or so, recovering from Day One, walking around Omihachiman, having dinner, and going to a large electronics store... Good times!

Day Three saw us off to Kyoto. We went to Fushimi Inari (Big Place With a Lot of Orange Gates (tm) ), Kiyomizu-Dera (Big Shrine That is Built on a Cliff and Surrounded by Beautiful Foliage (tm) ), and "Japanese Covered Shopping Area #218409.23"... The autumn leaves were a'changin', even in December, which was nice... The guys even had Shakey's Pizza for dinner... Which apparently is a more common Asian dinner than American dinner...

All in all Days Two and Three were good... But oh, the best is yet to come!

Check out the photographic evidence here!

Keip/Sherb Visit Day 1!

As you may or may not be aware of, The Keipers (Mark and Kate) and The Sherburnes (Erik and Kirk (They're brothers (Not Life Partners))) came to visit Japan last week.

They flew from Minneapolis to Tokyo on Nov. 28th (Wednesday) and stayed in Tokyo for a couple days before catching a Shinkansen down to Maibara to meet Emma, Joe, Tiff, and I. From there we stayed in Omihachiman at Joe and Tiff's apartment.

Since we have a ton of pictures that include duplicates from multiple cameras that need to be gone through and organized, I'm going to post one day at a time... So.... Without further ado, Day One:

The highlights of the first day of the Keipers' and Sherburnes' stay in Japan, or Day One as it will henceforth be known, included many highlights. Among the highlights was seeing our friends from Minnesota for the first time in a while... But more specifically, Day One included us getting settled in Omihachiman, having sushi at a conveyor belt sushi restaurant, buying a ridiculous amount and variety of beers, drinking some of them, proceeding to an izakaya for more beer and food, going back to the apartment for more beer, and topping the night off with a spirited round of karaoke until about 3 a.m...

Good times!

I can sit here and try and tell you about all the events of the day, but they are best conveyed by an image created by light falling on a light-sensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic imager such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. In another, possibly more simple word, pictures!

Check out the pics from Day One here!