Japan Randomness

Every now and then I see some funny signs around town, and if I have my camera with me I take a picture. Here are some of my favorites.

During and immediately after the election, Japan was Obama crazy. All of my kids said "Yes we can!" about 20 times a lesson. When I would meet new people the first thing they would say after finding out that I'm from America was "Obama!" This hotel apparently thought the slogan would attract more visitors.


One of the more popular shows for boys here is called Kamen Rider. The main character transforms into a slightly more hardcore looking Power Ranger. The fighting is just as awful though. While walking through downtown Kagoshima we happened upon this guy and some girls kindly offered to talk our picture. I love that Frank is carrying an umbrella while Scott and I have sunglasses on....it was a cloudless day.


While the Obama sign seems like it would be successful, I am not sure about the slogan for this hair salon. I don't think it would be too good for business if your customers all said Yikes! after seeing their haircut....

Yakushima Part 2

So after a nice relaxing day at the beach we decided to go on a relatively easy 4 hour hike to Mononoke Hime, which for those Anime people out there was the inspiration behind the movie Princess Mononoke.

Me and Scotty getting psyched for the hike:



The island is just amazingly beautiful, the trees and moss and water all come together to make something that almost seems like another planet.



While on the hike we saw some deer.



Then we had a barbeque and ate the deer.



The owner of our cottage also lives in the house next door, and that morning he went out into to woods with his son and came back with SEVEN deer. We made Kababs to go with the deer and had a feast!

The next day we went to a waterfall, it was about 100 feet high. Pretty cool.


Here is our group, Kaori and Scott in the back, Courtney, Kelly and I in the front. We are all averaging about 4 hours sleep for 4 straight days at this point, so we look a bit haggard, but the excitement of seeing new things kept us going.


That evening we decided to relax, and we found this cool outdoor onsen on the ocean. Great way to watch the sun set.


With our reservation at the cottage over, we had one more night to spend in Yakushima. We decided to spend the night on the beach. Being a bit tired of playing cards, we decided to have a chicken fight.


Scott and Kaori won the judge's decision, but it was a very questionable decision and may get overruled with instant replay. I sure looks to me like Kaori's left foot is touching the sand.......


Later I would go night swimming, and saw pretty much the coolest thing ever....Sea Fireflies. Ume Hotaru as they are called here in Japan. There were literally hundreds of them swimming around me, and when I moved my arms they would glow electric blue for a second or two and then fade back into the darkness.



The next day we had a bit of drama with returning the car, buying gifts and making it to the ferry on time, but it did nothing to overshadow the greatness of experiencing Yakushima.