Love Having Visitors!

The night before our family left, my friend Nicole came to visit from Seattle. She was here for almost 3 weeks, and we had a great time! We love having visitors - it's fun to show people around Japan, and reminds us of how much we love this city & country! Here is a little slideshow of pictures from her trip.

She arrived just in time for cherry blossoms!

We went to my favorite castle in Inuyama.

Ate some delicious Japanese & Asian food
(pictured here is Japanese curry).

Also ate some not so great food...

And a traditional Japanese meal.

Went to the Nagoya Chunichi Dragon's baseball game.

Celebrated Nicole's 30th birthday!

Day trip to Kyoto to see temples & shrines
and have a maiko geisha makeover.

Had gorgeous weather! Went to the zoo and aquarium.
Visited parks and took long walks!

Dressed in kimono and experienced traditional Japanese tea ceremony.

Explored new temples and shrines.
This is the Tagata Jinja Shrine (penis shrine).

Went to Gifu and discovered a giant paper mache buddha.

Day trip to Nagano to see the snow monkeys in the onsen.

Thanks Nicole for visiting! We had a really great time with you here. Miss you already, but looking forward to seeing you in July! :)