Random Update

Hey! Long time, no see!  

Between this and that and life in general Bryn and I have completely neglected our poor little blog.  So here's a quick update since we last spoke...

Bryn came to Japan for his spring break.  It was cherry blossom season, and we took full advantage!

I moved back to Al Ain.  I'm not working, but devoting my time to keeping our house as sand-free as possible (a full time job in itself), ironing Bryn's work shirts and working on my other blog.  You knew I had another blog, right?  This is it.  I'm actually much better at keeping it up to date, and if you want to peek at the remainder of my time in Japan go read!

Bryn's garden is doing really well.  Of course, with the intense desert heat a lot of things are...yeah, dying, but some things are doing really, really well!  Like, his frangipani sticks.  He picked them up off the side of the road.  I laughed that he had stuck sticks in pots of dirt, but they are growing!  One even flowered this week.  It's very pretty and smells SOOO good.

We're slowly gearing up for our trip to the US this summer.  It will be Bryn's first time at mom and dad's new house in Alabama, and his first time to meet William!  He's looking forward to beer, BBQ and southern accents.  I'm looking forward to planting myself at the pool and not moving til we have to come back.  Ok, and a trip to New Orleans for beignets, cafe au lait and a po boy.

I promise we will try really hard to update this space more often.  If there's nothing new here, check out Channeling Audrey to see if we've been up to anything!

Fushimi Inari Shrine

Have you seen Memoirs of a Geisha?  If so, then you'll remember the scene when Sayuri runs through the tunnel of orange tori gates.  That's Fushimi Inari Shrine, and I'm pretty sure it graces the covers of many Japan guide books!

I was surprised to discover that it is just 2 stops from Kyoto station.  Fushimi Inari was one of the very first places I visited in Kyoto when I came to Japan in 2007.  Of course I didn't know my way around then and I can't remember how we got there, but I do remember it felt like we were on a tiny train forever, then had to walk a mile to get there.  If you take a train from Kyoto station, it's directly accross the street from Inari Station!  Sorry Mom, Dad and Prad...if I had known it was that easy, I definitely would have taken you there!!!

As with all temples and shrines in Japan, there's an area to wash before going in to pray.  It's not mandatory, I never do it (mostly because I don't know the proper way).

The shrine is guarded by foxes - they are everywhere, glaring down at visitors who enter.

As was this menacing figure!!

In Shintoism, when you visit the shrine to pray, you must first call the Gods or Spirits (kami) by clapping and ringing a bell.  Then you pray and make your offering (Someone told me once that 5 yen is good luck).

I love seeing all of the ema that people have written their prayers and wishes on.  It's amazing how many different languages there are represented on the little wooden plaques. 

Fushimi Inari is famous for the thousands of orange tori gates covering the paths up the mountain...it really is breathtaking and a little bit surreal.  Place like these make me so thankful that I live in Japan.

 

Right? Left? Decisions, decisions...

   

 

 

The ascent up the mountain is dotted with tiny shrines...at certain places they are almost built on top of each other.  Most look so old, and the offerings and candles make them both haunting and peaceful at the same time.

  

Snapshots

I treated myself to a new camera lens last week.  This one, to be exact.  Although it will take some getting used to, I like it.  It is a good addition to the kit lens that came with my camera.  After buying it, I immediately attached it to my camera and took some street shots of my walk around Kyoto.  What do you think??

First picture with the new lens (of course I sat down in Starbucks to play with the camera.)

Looking for some military gear? I know just the place!

I'm working on a couple other tourist spot posts, so check out my other blog Liz's Scrapbook to follow them!