New Years Vacation

During our Winter break, we were invited by the Swenson family in our LDS Branch to go to Osaka with them. The wife is Japanese and we stayed with her parents for a few nights. We left on the 30th of December and followed their car all the way there. We passed over a series of bridges that go over the Naruto strait that separate the island of Shikoku (Where we live) from Honshu island. We left later during the day so we had beautiful lighting on our way there.

We also got to see the ocean!

Once we arrived in Osaka (The drive taking two hours, the tolls costing about 5,500 yen! Yikes) Scott Swenson (he's from Utah) took us to Costco! We rode down flat escalators that are designed for taking the mighty Costco shopping cart up to the parking garage.

The Costco here was very similar to ones in the states. Almost like a huge import store. Though there was a considerable amount of seafood, rice, and other various Japanese treats and electronics. We did get to grab a block of cheese, cereal, and chocolate covered raisins!

Before leaving, Scott treated us to American Costco Supreme pizza! All four of us were in heaven while devouring true pizza. (Japanese pizza is very different, the crust is not usually as fluffy, sometimes using thin cracker like dough, very ittle sauce, and put things on like shrimp, scallops, corn, and other weird things that don't belong on pizza.)

As you can see, very reasonably priced too. Pizza hut would sell such a pizza for about 4,000 yen here, and it would be Japanese Pizza.

The next morning, Scott took us to some places in Osaka, including "DenDen Town" an electronics district. It was New Years Eve, so a lot of the shops were actually closed, but we had a good time.

We also passed through a fish market that was filled to the brim with people getting their last minute shopping done for the New Years. It was packed! It smelt of fresh grilled fish. I enjoyed it, though we learned the smell of fish made Scott sick. So we didn't stay long.

New Years mochi was on sale. These are placed on the shrines found in family households till the near year. The family then cooks it up and eats it after the new years commences. They represent longevity within the family. (Or something like that). Many people just buy the decorations these days and no longer eat the mochi. We tried some, and it wasn't that great. It's just pounded rice, no flavor. And a large number of Japanese die each new years choking on it cause it's so thick and sticky. Sounds like fun!

Another new years decoration attached to the hood of a car.

Also experienced our first curved escalator. Didn't even know such a thing existed until we came across this.
One New Years day, Rachel, Jacob, and I went to Nara. The Swenson family was cleaning their ancestors graves and said it wouldn't be much fun and told us to find something else to do. So we did! Rather than driving, we thought we'd spare ourselves bad traffic and took the train to Nara. We got to see a great view of Osaka as we left that area.

The train was rather vacant when we left Osaka, but it continued to fill as we came closer and closer to Nara. By the time we arrived, the train was stuffed full. People spilt out as we stopped at the terminal in Nara. The train ride was about 1.5 hours, and 1,000 yen per person.

We began our exploration of Nara! I had been there four years previously with my host parents. It was a much different experience doing it with two other foreigners on New Years day. Because it was new years, there were lots of festivities and vendors - including this one that sold roasted yams.

We approached the Todaiji Temple - the largest wooden structure in the world. Just the gates leading up to it were massive.

On our way to the Todaiji, we found this interesting rock tablet. It seemed mystical somehow.


We also came across this more modern metal pagoda.


Rachel and Jacob excited to Enter the Todaiji Temple!


Our first view of the Todaiji through the gateway.

The Great warriors at the gateway that protect the shrine from evil.

We entered the shrine and lit incense for good luck.

And then washed our hands and mouths of evil.

We then approached the temple!



Inside is the Daibutsu, one of the largest indoor Buddhas. There's a hole in one of the pillars that's the size of the Buddha's nose hole. It is said if you can crawl through it, you will gain spiritual luck. There was a line to enter the hole with many children waiting to go through the hole. Most adults can't fit through.

Another shrine within the Todaiji Temple.

After leaving the Todaiji, Rachel and Jacob decided they wanted to feed the deer that wander around Nara. There are hundreds of them, and when they see you with food, they attack you!

We climbed up to a higher shrine and got to see a great view of Nara. You can see the Todaiji Temple near the foreground.


While wandering about Nara, we found ourselves caught up in a rather large crowd heading up to the Kasuga Taisha shrine. At first we weren't sure what was going on, but we figured we'd stick around to see what was up. There were thousands of people in both directions. We were luckily caught up towards the front so we didn't have to wait long to be let into the shrine. At first we thought there was some sort of event, but it was people waiting to get in to pray and buy new years souvenirs.

People waiting in front of us.

And the people waiting behind us.

Walking up the steps to Kasuga Taisha shrine.

On our way back to the station there were many vendors selling food. I picked up this candied strawberry. It was covered in hard sweet candy, inside was a delicious ripe strawberry.

And most important of all! The Nara manhole featuring a deer.

We had a great trip! We headed home the next day. Grateful for our experience here in Japan and such wonderful friends!