My favorite part of our trip to Japan has to be the gentle deer of Nara at the Todaiji Temple.  Surrounding Todaiji Temple is a huge park where thousands of deer roam free.  These deer are considered to be the messengers of the gods and are treated with adoration by everyone.  I just love them for their beauty and sweet nature. Throughout Nara Park, you'll find deer feed stands where you can purchase (for a $1.50) a stack of deer crackers to feed them.  As you can see, I made some friends really quickly. :-)

The deer are so comfortable around people that they've learned little tricks that can get them more crackers.  If you bow to the deer, the Japanese greeting gesture, the deer will bow it's head in response!  They are get rather pushy and I had a couple of deer pushing me with their heads, one even nipped at my coat to get my attention.  They are also extremely clean.  I could've easily fed them all day long!     

As we strolled along the beautiful Path of Philosophy in Kyoto, Japan we came upon the cutest knick-knack store I've ever seen.  The store sells these wonderful plastic decorative balls each with a little surprise inside.  Some have little airplanes others little birds inside the colorful circular weaves.  They are displayed a variety of ways, hung from the ceiling, from tree branches, or from a little display stand.  They also sell a variety of adorable mobiles.  The entire store has a magical feel and it attracted quite a few tourists taking pictures of the store, including myself.  But I exercised an enormous amount of will power for I left the store with nothing but a couple of pictures!

It would not be a vacation without cheesy tourist pictures.  We took our share of those pics throughout our trip in Japan.  Here are a few of my favorites of us posing (starting from top left going clockwise) in front of the Imperial Palace Garden in Tokyo, at the Ginkakuji Temple, the Kiyomizu Temple, and the Path of Philosophy in Kyoto.  Often, we exchanged photo favors with other tourists.  Other times we just asked passersby to take our picture.  Happily, most pictures taken by others turned out very well.

We are back from 10 days in Japan and I had a wonderful time!  Japan is truly a magnificent country and we were lucky to have gotten to see a third of the country thanks to their efficient rail system.  One thing I learned about the country is that it is the cleanest country I've ever seen.  I could not find a single piece of trash on the subway, streets, nor buses.  We also only saw two homeless people and one of them even picked up a tiny piece of trash to throw out!  I think this is attributed to their sense of personal responsibility.  The Japanese also don't use any napkins or paper towels (which may contribute to the cleaniness of their country).  I had to use my own napkin at all of the restaurants and public restrooms.  Another thing I learned about Japan is that they do so much walking!!! I walked more in one week than I did in a year in the US.  No wonder I didn't see any overweight people!  Even if you take the subway there's tons of walking involved.  To switch trains, you have to hike long corridors and tons of stairs. 

Overall, we had a great time.  We were lucky to catch the cherry blossoms in full bloom!  Take a look at the pics I took of them.  They came in a variety of pink shades and they smelled wonderful.  There were several types of trees some draped down like a waterfall, others stretched towards the sky.  There were cherry blossom trees everywhere, across the country from Tokyo to Osaka.  Some lined entire street blocks while others enclosed parks.  When the wind blew, the petals fluttered like snow.  I couldn't get enough pictures of them.  I hope you'll like the pictures below.  I will be posting much more pictures from Japan in the next few weeks.

Sorry for the lack of blogging lately.  Life has been quite busy for me.  Work has been insane, extremely demanding the past few months.  And on top of that we are preparing for a big trip to Japan.  I am very excited and looking forward to putting a mark on my decade-old passport.  We will be there for ten days, splitting our time between Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka.  We have a loose agenda but have a few "must-sees" such as Mt. Fuji, the electronics district, Imperial Garden, and Nara.  You can  be sure that I will be posting tons of pictures when I return.

In other news, I recently discovered a small lump on Toby's back.  I was simply petting him mindlessly as I was on the phone with a friend when I made the discovery. Needless to say I became extremely worried and the next day took Toby in to see his vet.  It only took the vet 2 seconds upon feeling the lump to determined that it was only a lipoma, a fatty deposit very common to middle-age and older dogs.  It's kind of sad to think that my little Toby is middle-age, but I'm happy to discover that his "lump" is not dangerous.  I will return in a week with pics from our Japan trip! :-)