Now it's time for some photos!
There are so many I want to show... :cry: Too many, so I just picked up a little part of my collection. I have several thousand photos of Japan. :P And the number will increase this summer.

Let's begin with my grandpa's temple. It's called "shonenji" 正念寺.
You could translate it with "Temple of the sincere ideas" or something. You can do a lot of interpretations with the Japanese characters.
On the photo you see the temple on 31st December 2004. The decoration in fornt of the main hall was made by grandpa and me. And I put the colored flags on.

Another photo on the same spot some days later.

That's the main entrance to the temple. Inside there is a big chime. The bell is tolled 108 times on new year's midnight to expel the humans' 108 bad behaviours after Buddhist belief.

The next photo shows my wife, me and grandpa. He's a Buddhist monk and one of the highest ranked priests in his sect.

Next is the water well. The well has very good water and it's said to preserve your youth when you drink it. It's quite famous in all Japan. This temple was on TV and in national newspapers several times.

This is the treasure of the temple. It's a Buddha statue made in the Kamakura period, which was from 1185-1333, so it's probably over 800 years old. It's made mainly from gold and quite pricy I think. I don't even dare to touch it... :

Next pic is of the so-called jizo 地蔵, it's a Bodhisattva who looks over children and travellers (and the underworld). Those are said to be very gentle. The green little bucket in front is made of fresh bamboo. That year this was my work. Yes, I made that. )

Next pic is the sight from the living rooms towards the main hall ("hondo" 本堂) of the temple. That's just so Japanese I have to show everybody. Like from a photo book. )

And a nice little Japanese garden on the other side of the house.

Following are 4 photos as an overview over the city (it's called Onomichi) from a hill. The water you can see is not a river, it's the sea. The Seto inland sea. (Look it up on the map. )




And a pic of another nice temple in the city. Isn't this very postcard-ish? :

And one you shouldn't leave out when talking about Japan is the cherry blossom. I've hundreds of cherry pics, but I had to choose one. ) I like cherry blossoms.

Here we went to eat sushi. As explained in a post above, you pay for how many plates you have. What you see above was about 4900Yen (49$), when I remember right. Not bad when you consider there were 4 people who ate quite much.

I had to take that photo. The text says "made in Onomichi". 8)

Here we're climbing on the nearby hill. Nature is really beautiful around that place. And those so-called torii (鳥居) are everywhere. Those gates are an archway to a Shinto-shrine.

Last but not least for today is a photo from a nearby city called Tomono-ura. It's very beautiful there. The building looks very Chinese. I like it.


How do you like my photos?
Please tell me your thoughts. :D

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May 16th...

wow, a lot of those images are just amazing! one day I absolutely HAVE to visit japan. if I thought I could do it, I'd move there full time!

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I stumbled upon a photo I wanted to show you, especially to Saito. :)
I hope he's still around?
It's a koi with a big red dot on its forehead. :D



2 more photos.
That's the whole koi-pond.


Nagasaki at night. Unfortunately it's a bit blurry cause I didn't have a tripod.


I took those last year in Nagasaki on February 20th.

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May 16th...

:D
I will have fun. It's the first time I spend August in Japan.

There will be lots of festivals, fireworks and stuff.

I try to post as many pics as possible here in this thread. :o

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May 16th...

manuel
I envy you on your upcoming trip. I love anime and Japn has such a neat culture. I've never got to leave the US, except for a trip to Canada once.
No offense to any canadians in here, it just wasn't an exciting trip.


murder_killz
I feel the same way. The goverment has basically f'd my husband and I so far up our asses that we will be in pain for years. Specifically the I.N.S.
Plus the embassy workers were very rude to my sister in law for no reason; even yelling at her in front of other people. So bascially they suck.

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http://www.myspace.com/jennikisa

I need friends.... I had to nix Tom. He wasn't really my friend. His smile "mocked" me.

hey manuel, what kind of jobs could an american get in Japan?

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Japan would be more of a culture shock. because I've looked alot of stuff up in the past few days and from what I can tell, USA + Japan = 2 different worlds. Im not joking when I say I want to move there. if I could get a job there now, I'd be on the next flight to Japan tonight. all I'd take would be my cloths and my NES stuff... 'cus thats all I have... Im too cheap to buy anything else.

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...they sell A/C power cords over there for the NES... they got to... stop it! I dont want to hear that! lol j/k yeah I didnt think of that. I should be able to pick up a new A/C power cord over seas.

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I know, Im just kidding around. I just didnt think of that before and that would make me a sad NES Gamer to get off a REALLY long flight and try to hook my NES up and my first night in Japan I die from over 1200 volts of power surging through my body.

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I don't need to move to another country, I feel happy here so I have no reason to move to another country. If I had to move to another country, I would go to England or Australia.

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