Kyoto Pics

Wow, we are down to our last week in Matsumoto! Its unbelievable how fast time is flying, but I'm not complaining!! I'm so excited to get on with my life in Utah. I'm excited for my own car, schedule, and house. I'm also excited for HD in English!!!
Here are the Kyoto pics we took when we were there 2 weeks ago. Kyoto was amazing and I loved every minute of it!!! I love Kiel so much!!!! That doesn't really have anything to do with Kyoto, I just wanted to add it in there...
This is a lot of pics but I just couldn't leave any of them out! Japan is so beautiful and has so much culture. America is culturally lame. The end.

Kiel and I were saying how nice the Tanaka's car was when WHAM! They slammed into two granite pillars, breaking them in half and crushing the car. We felt so bad

This is the most famous Zen Art rock pond in Japan

This is completely plated in real gold

I WISH I could've taken a picture of inside this shrine. There are 1000 golden gods enshrined in it and in the middle of all of them is a giant god buddah thats at least 30+ feet and it has like 100 hands holding all these cool things...it was so amazing!!! And there was a priest that was offering incense and chanting in front of the buddah while we were there. Really cool.

This poor guy had to pull this Big Japanese guy up a really steep, long hill.

This was at the actual festival. There were so many people for like 20 blocks that you could hardly walk. I got so claustrophobic!!!

The sumo championships were going on in Nagoya and this guy was one of the lower ranked Sumos! He is one of the smallest sumos I've seen..well, he's the only Sumo I've seen in real life

Nagoya Castle

The Tanaka Family!!! We stayed with them the whole time we were in Kyoto; they are super nice!!

The (incredibly expensive) cake we bought for them to say thank you! I think its very cute

These are called Tori--and are entry ways to shrines. They go on for miles, all the way up a mountain and back.

This picture does not do this statue justice. It is HUGE!!! Literally the size of a small mountain.

Oops I forgot to flip! This lady had 2 feet of tissue hanging out of her pants and it gave me a good laugh for quite a while!

She wants to eat you.

Youtube Debut

So with all the spare time I've had lately I decided to videotape me singing a favorite -I'm Not That Girl from the musical WICKED- and post it on youtube. I always wondered how ppl got up the nerve to post videos of themselves when others would bash (and complement) them but recently I got that nerve, out of sheer boredom, and jumped on the youtube wagon. I ALREADY KNOW I'M NO PRO, especially my piano skills, although I will say that I just barely bought the music and given some time I could be a master. Anyway, if you get as bored as I was feel free to watch it, critique it (trust me, theres plenty to critique as I was friggin nervous to sing on videotape!), and do whatever else you feel so inclined to do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQzMLOaUOSA

Birthday WISH List

Im not asking for much, quantity wise, but in case you have been stressing over what to give me (I hope Kiel reads this!) I thought I would make it easy and just tell you.

1) a yoga mat

2) a chic bicycle, preferably light blue or pink, with a little white or brown wicker basket on front and a baby seat in the back. Something that looks like this:

Don't worry, I'm not really expecting to get this bike (as this particular bike costs over a $1000 and would have to be imported from france)...but

I can wish can't I??

2 Weeks in Pictures

Kiel and I eating the super yummy taiyaki (a pancake in the shape of a fish stuffed with chocolate and custard...oishii!)

Blueberry picking with Kanako and Rumy

Date night at a very Japanese resturant

Caleb's favorite play place

The kimono fashion show that Kiel and I were in. Last time I blogged about this it was just the rehearsal...this was the actual show. Tons of ppl showed up to watch!