At the Zoo!

While wondering around Tokyo, we came across this little zoo and park in Ueno. Just wanted to share some pictures of the animals we saw!

 This guy was my favorite! a Malaysian Eagle Owl. Too bad the pic is blurry..... 

Yes, there were a lot of birds... Corey commented, "Oh good, a seal. I'm sick of birds!" Anyways, we got there with only an hour left before closing time, and they started putting all of the animals in their beds thirty minutes before they closed... so needless to say, we didn't see much. 

 I dont know who this guy is! but a good photo op :)

 crossing the street in Ueno, Tokyo

Sumo

One of the things I was looking forward to doing in Tokyo was seeing some sumo wrestlers... So, when Dave and Julie mentioned also wanting to see them, I was pretty excited. Turns out the Tokyo Grand Sumo Wrestling Tournament was happening this week, and there were only two days left in the tournament. Seats were sold out, but Dave eagerly made a trip to the stadium early the next morning to see if he could get same day tickets. He came back with 4 tickets, I think we paid 2,000 yen a piece.

We made our way to the stadium via subway and train. The stadium, called the Sumo Hall, was pretty crowded, but we figured out where to sit (the back wall of the highest section!). We decided to get some bento boxes for lunch, and began to watch some of the bouts. Apparently, the actual "fighting" only lasts about 10 seconds; the rest of the match is the two men facing off, throwing salt (I had to look this up; we originally thought it was rice that they were throwing), drinking sacred water (Power Water) then spitting it out, and squatting a lot. Luckily, we had a zoom lens on our camera so even though we couldn't see too well from where we sat, we were later able to see more up close when we looked at our pictures!

 Posing at the train station

 stretching...

 throwing some salt

 The tournament lasted all day; from 10-6. The second to last match of the day was the most exciting. When the two sumos entered the ring, everybody whipped out their cameras and got on the edges of their seats! I'm pretty sure the favorite guy (the one in red, above) ended up losing, as he slipped and landed belly first on the ground.

I read that the winner of certain divisions could win up to 10,000,000 Yen (about $100,000)! I'm not sure who ended up winning this tournament though; we watched about 15 bouts and the whole tournament had lasted 2 weeks!

We ended the night with a walk to the Tokyo Sky Tree, which is the tallest structure in Japan. We didnt go to the top though- it would have cost 2,000 yen per person! (about 20 bucks) We figured it looked just as good from the bottom, and saved $80.

Baseball in Tokyo

We decided to spend our first night in Tokyo with Julie and Dave at a local baseball game. At the first thought of this, I have to admit, I was not too excited to watch a baseball game. I had never seen a live game, only on tv, and was expecting to be bored out of my mind... But, corey and Dave seemed really excited, and being the good wife and sister in law that I am, i went along with it...Haha..
Anyways, it turned out to be really fun, and I only asked to leave early once! Lol.

The two teams were both from Tokyo: the Tokyo Giants vs the Tokyo Swallows. Tokyo actually has 5 professional baseball teams to represent them, which shows how big the city is! We sat in the Giants section, but turns out we are actually Swallows fans (Corey and Dave decided this halfway through the game, and we ended up switching seats lol)... The Giants fans had a trumpet player and sang rally cries throughout the game. Swallows fans were a little more subdued, but had cheerleaders to route with them.. They also had umbrellas to wave, not sure what that was all about..

We bought some Swallows merchandise to represent our new favorite team, and were disappointed when the final score was 4-2, Giants!

Enjoying some caramel corn

 Jingu Stadium- home of the Tokyo Yakult Swallows

They let us hold the flag!

Go Swallows!!!!!

Kyoto, Day 5

Our last day in Kyoto had come, and we still had some time in the morning to see some more sights before we headed to Tokyo. We decided to go to a Zen temple, called Silver Pavilion, or Ginkakuji.  The grounds were very pretty and was a nice last stop in Kyoto!

Our room at the Ryokan had a "hobbit" door.... we had to crouch down to get in. Cute! 

Inside of the Inn 

Out in front of the Inn 

Ginkakuji 

a Zen garden 

 We got sesame ice cream, mango shave ice, and vanilla ice cream with brown sugar syrup

they had a piano at the Ryokan we stayed in... 

Corey and I then jumped on the bullet train and headed to Tokyo, and left Julie and Dave in Kyoto. They wanted and extra day there, they liked it so much! We were hoping to see Mount Fuji on the train ride, but it was too foggy. We made it to our hotel, and were excited to see some sites in the big city...... 

Kyoto, Day 4

Day 4 of Kyoto for us began the same way as day 3: with a coffee and toast from Colorado Coffee.

We met back up with Julie and Dave, and started our adventure at Fushimi Inari. From what I had seen of this place, i knew that there would be a lot of  Torii gates to walk through, but I had no idea we would be walking through thousands of them for 2.5 hours to the top of Mount Inari. It was quite a hike, passing shrine after shrine and going through gate after gate.... but well worth it, and such an experience!

 how we really felt after the hike... haha

we were rewarded at the bottom of the mountain with shave ice! 

We left Fushimi Inari exhausted but still looking for more to see, so we headed to Kiyumizu Temple to see the sunset. This is the most visited temple in Kyoto, and even as we got there with just a few minutes to closing, there was a line of people going in. 

watching the sun set from the temple

catching water in the fountain.. It is said to have wish-granting powers