Japan Trip Pictures

Pictures from My Exchange Trip In Japan

Contact info in Japan: email: jyago @ calpoly . edu (No spaces) cell: 090 6604 8569

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12/ 16 / 06 (Part 1)

So I'm in Japan and it's pretty cool. Now here are some pictures.

12 / 16 / 06 Part 1

Crystal, Amy, Pat, and Youko in a train station in Kyoto for Leaf Watching

Right outside the Hankyu Station, Hankyu Department store

Supposedly a famous bridge in Kyoto

The river under the famous bridge

Cool thing I saw, my host dad drew this on a ceramic plate

Youko, Kaori, Pat, Ayumi, Amy, Crystal somewhere >_>

What up huge parfait

Ummm hot meal vending machine

Youko and Pat in the Kyoto JR Station

In Arashiyama

Go go rickshaws

Look at the pretty leaves ^_^

So many people on the bridge :O

One of the smaller shrines in Arashiyama

Crystal is short like me, haha

Not a Geisha ;o

Paintings at a temple and the temple itself

Statue of something

Kaori, Ayumi, and Amy at one of the small temples

Little handicraft shop

Night festival

12 / 16 / 06 Part 2

Yes, I am a nerd

Gina passed out on a massage chair, kawaii ;o

Oh geez that little one did not want to be won

Gina, Amy, and Mandy with their illbegotten gains

Host family's ceramics booth at a local arts and crafts faire. It was raining. I was not amused with the rain.

Playing with the one of four cats at Pat's host family's home

Small park inside KwanGaku campus

Cat that stole my food and would not leave my lap

Holiday exchange student party

Jen Yu, Matt, and Eric performing at the party

Youko, Mandy, Amy, Gina, Sho, Pat, and Ai after the party

Outside and inside of the Takarazuka theater

Takarazuka at night

Myself and Pat infront of where my host mother's ceramic teacher's exhibition was.

Stuff around the ceramic exhibition room

One of the many ceramic pieces, and then Host mother, Pat, and Host mother's ceramic teacher after cleaning up

My Favorite Vending Machine

Grateful Dead shop

Snoopy and a Totem pole?

Temple and cool roof decoration in Osaka

Yes

More golf stuff for pops

Tasty Chocolate store

12 / 16 / 06 Part 3

Downtown Osaka at night

Takoyaki, a delicious treat

Gina and Amy editting purikura

Christmas lights at KwanGaku with Ai, Amy, and Mariko

Cool stuff in Amagasaki

Weird thing in an Amagasaki shopping district

Kobe at night

In a shopping mall near JR Kobe

The back of Yoyo's head and Osaka castle

GHOST CASTLE

Castle looks really good in the background

Yoyo at the Snoopy store

On the streets to Kobe's Luminaire with Pat, Gina, Amy, John, and Ai

The start of the Luminaire

Outside the main dome of lights

Inside the dome

Waaaah

Yoyo, Mandy, and Amy

Hooray Group shots!

Third Picture
Back Row (L to R): Ai, John, Pat, Mandy, Tsurugi, and Esther.
Front Row (L to R): Yoyo, Me, Gina, and Amy

Tempers flared during the Luminaire

All ladies group pic

Post-Luminaire at Starbucks

Someone found the sepia mode on my camera :O

Old school Japanese candy store

More Christmas decorations around a Japanese Television Building (MDS?)

Gina and Mie with their UFO Catcher prizes

After the game center ;o

11 / 19 / 06

On the bus to the Kobe-Sanda campus. Fellow exchange students Pat and John are NERDS. On an unrelated note, I wish I had a DS.

Entry way to the KobeSanda campus parking lot.

Massive mob of exchange students

I have no idea what they are hiding under the tarps

Another shot of the mob.

Mark of the school

Campus Interior

Aikido Demonstration

In Okayama! Pat, Nakaesan (in the back), Amy, and my host mom around the Kotatsu (Japanese for awesome)

The kitchen of the house which is 150 years old :O

Nakaesan is a ceramics teacher as you can tell

More of the house

Cool outside fountain thingy

Spiders EVERYWHERE

No idea but it looks cool

More ceramics

Stuff infront of the house.

Path down from the house

Path further down

Farmland across the road

This is still Japan, vending machines are never out of reach

Path to somewhere

Pat and a path to somewhere else

Stuff

Front of an older house

Nakaesan's brother's workshop

More cool things inside

More more cool stuff

Cool thing

Cool mask

Cool masks

No idea but this is cool too

Amy infront of the old building

More of the old building

More spiders!

Nakaesan plus grove of trees in the courtyard

Pottery Kiln smokestack

They pushed me into the oven to bake me. Jason is best served medium rare with a slightly bitter red wine.

Parting picture before I was devoured

Pat with the axes

I had other ideas

Someone's house I snuck a picture of

More art from inside the house

Nakaesan's neko hiding

The Totoro Store is serious business

Kurashiki Historical City

Cool boat

The leaves are being all pretty and such

Design on the bridge

"We've seen so much history we're getting old."

Swan

City Map

Cat slot machine

My lovely puru puru, check it out

Massive Hello Kitty

Christmas / Jewelry store

Again another massive spider

Pat and Amy's ill begotten gains

The Seto Ohashi Bridge

Pat and Amy, kawaii ^_^

More signage

Seto Ohashi Bridge Souviner Store

Mexico Pooh

Chimera Pooh gone wrong

Small seaside city by Seto Ohashi Bridge

Historical House

Christmas Lights :D

11 / 13 / 06

Pat infront of the monopoly medal game

The monopoly man stole our money ( -_- )

In Kobe there is a group of foreigner houses from back in the day. This is the German one.

Ai, Mariko, Me, Akira, and Amy infront of the house.

Crazy English Speaking Santa

Gate to Nankinmachi (Kobe's Chinatown)

Streets of Nankinmachi

Center Plaza in Nankinmachi

Other street in Nankinmachi

Other gate of Nankinmachi

Cool thing in Harborland that reminds me of the San Jose Tech Museum

Streams of lights in the Harborland plaza

Giant ring

Giant ring's information

View of the plaza interior

Plaza Exterior

Rides at Harborland

Outdoor Christmas Tree

Indoor Christmas Tree

Colonel Sanders as Santa ;o

11 / 4 / 06

Akira (Next Door Neighbor) and I inside a television channel building

Other exchange students (Jen Yu and Amy)

The Exchange Coordinator Scott and his son Kai

A band playing at the school festival

Another band playing at the school festival

Just some of the numerous food booths

Another band playing

I thought these people were lion dance teams but I think I was mistaken

Me with a silly hat on

The School at night ;o

Don't get caught riding dirty

On the way to a camping site in Nose

Front of a tradtional Japanese house

Information about previously mentioned house

The BBQ with Kazeo and Noriko's mother and father

This is a cow

Inside the house

Old School bathtub

Japanese dining room

Noriko, Noriko's mother, and my host mother

Beware of snakes ;o

Kazeo, Noriko, and host mother on the athletic course

Awesome zipline thingymajig

Host mother on the zipline

Rail thingymajig

Noriko and host mother at the bottom of a climbing structure

Kazeo and I at the top

Some rocks that Kazeo and I repelled down.

Scenery around the athletic course

Part of the course

Another awesome zipline

The leaves are changing color, kirei

Overview of the beginning of the athletic course

Kazeo at the top of one of the structures

Elephant thingy

Tenis Courts

Yea pretty leaves changing ;o

10 / 22 / 06

Cool looking tiered apartments

Patrick (Exchange student at Kwan Gaku) and Souma infront of the Cable Car

The first of many landscape pictures

Overview of the Park and Mountain

The nearby city

A Bird and things

More of the nearby city

Golfcourse for Dad at the middle of the mountain

So it seems too easy so far

Oh hey, bye bye paved surfaces

More golf

Landscape Pic

Souma found a bug!

Landscape pics

Inadequtely fortified tower in the small plaza

View from previously introduced tower.

Me giving the thumbs up which apparently also is the hand signal for boyfriend in Japan...

Hooray the summit!

First white Tori Gate I have seen

Some of the people I went with (From front to back: Kenji, Souma, Patrick, & I forgot the other guy's name) Not pictured: Patrick's host parents and Souma's Grandmother

Apparently Japanese boars are three times the size of a human. I must fight one to the death now.

10 / 14 / 06

Ai and Mariko infront of the Suizokukan (Aquarium)

Some Asian Sea Otters

A pretty chill seal

Another seal taking a break

Penguins! Hooray!

Whale Shark

Sun Fish

An aquatic art inspired exhibit

More lamps

Even more art

Cool stuff

Large Spider Crab

Jellyfish

Marine Life as Art Exhibit

More of previously introduced exhibit

I forgot this fish's name

A shot from a Kanransha (Ferris Wheel). The actual Ferris Wheel is quite high since it is built upon a department store.

Ai and Mariko on the Ferris Wheel

Myself and Ai

Myself and Mariko

Southern Osaka (I think)

If my previous assertion is correct, than this is Northern Osaka

10 / 8 / 06

The front of my host family's house

Carol, my host family's dog

Pictures of my room in Japan

Stairs up to my room, yes they are not fun to go down in the morning

"Noble Stubborness", right infront of the Kwan Gaku Training Center. Quite fitting.

A special food district in Nanba, Osaka

A pic inside the district

Big mechanical cat

Christman Store!

Japanese signs!

Ceramic store in Doguyasuji

Knife Store in Japan

A picture of an advertisement for Japanese Pro Wrestling

Mach 1 Mustang. Sounded pretty nice.

Downtown Osaka

NHK Osaka

Police Building under construction

Lawn around Osaka Castle

West Entrance to Osaka Castle

A little Osaka Castle History

Map of Osaka Castle

West Entrance of Osaka Castle

Inner Gate of the West Entrance

Inner moat of Osaka Castle

Bridge to Osaka Castle Proper

Martial Arts Dojo within Osaka Castle

I dunno

Host father

Me infront of Osaka Castle

Host father infront of Osaka Castle. Osaka castle was recently rebuilt. Can you tell?

Other side of the inner moat

Host mother and father on the path from Osaka Castle to the JR station

Big fountain

Downtown Osaka from the 31th floor of a department building

Oh Japan, you're so silly.

9 / 30 / 06

A quick shot coming out of the train station in Sannomiya (Kobe)

Kobe Tower

Big hovercraft-like thingy

Shot from the tower of Kobe Tower, a neighboring roof.

An amusement park, across the water from Kobe Tower

Downtown Kobe

Kobe Tower's AntiAircraft Defenses

The Japanese Police were ready to catch me riding dirty.

Next Stop, really large bridge connecting Kobe to Akashi Island (I think)

A pic from under the bridge

A pic directly under the bridge

Pic from under the bridge on the visitor walkway. The bridge was shaking everytime a car went over. Scary Indeed.

There were glass panels built into the walkway. As you can see there is only the glass panel ;o

People fishing by the bridge

My host mother, myself, host mother's friends

Side view of one of the cables in the bridge

A sign at the bridge's visitor center

Ummmmm Kobe Beef (I think)

And you thought the beef was expensive...

A shot of an open air market in Kobe

Random Kimono Shop in a food market

Pirate Theme Hotel. Awesomeness

My host mother had to head home so now its just me sightseeing in downtown Kobe

Huge pedestrian bridge

I won two drinks for the price of one! Banzai!

Name of the Road I was traveling down

A Kobe manhole cover

Big High Class Department store

I found Lassie in Japan

Tommy Lee Jones did not appreciate that last joke.

A Chapel off the main throughfare in Kobe, it was also at this time I realized I was lost.

A graveyard

Apparently I've found Tijuana, Japan. Alert the presses!

Elephants :)

NHK Building (Finally found my way). NHK is a major broadcasting company in Japan.

Fun stuff inside!

More fun stuff!

Mos Burger, a burger chain in Japan. I had read about it in an Article last time I flew to Japan. It wasn't too shabby.

Japanese women are slim but, this is just pushing it now.

Gates leading to a big shopping district.

9 / 28 / 06

Since I filled up my school account, I've started using imageshack to host pictures. There will be a thumbnail which links to a larger image (with ads though :/ )