All There Is To Do In Ephraim...

This weekend Brandon and I took a little trip to Ephraim with our friends Eric and Kendra. On Friday night we went to a little Mexican Restaurant and had the greasiest enchiladas ever made. Then we headed out to the movies and saw Paul Blart Mall Cop...anyone seen it? It's pretty funny. On Saturday we were able to go to the Manti Temple and do a session. It was beautiful!

Brandon and I want to try to go to as many different temples as we possibly can...especially while we're still living in Utah because there is like thirteen! So far I've been to Los Angeles, Newport, Provo, Manti, and Tokyo and Brandon has been to Los Angeles, San Diego, Oakland, Preston, Timpanogas, Provo, and Manti!

...only 135 to go!

After the temple we went shooting...it was my first time in about seven years!

Load 'em up boys!

Mr. Sharp Shooter...

I didn't do too bad myself...Dad would be proud!

I hit 2 outa 3!

When we were shooting skeet we found out that I suck at throwing so Brandon had to throw for himself and shoot!

Eric got it down.

I thought Eric and Kendra were joking when they said Ephraim was a small town but we really were able to do all there was to do in Ephraim in the two short days we visited!

I <3 Japan

So I was looking at my parents facebook and my mom had just posted a picture of me in Japan. I decided to look through all my pictures and I really started missing it. So here are some of the highlights from my trip two summers ago.

p.s. If I look nasty and sweaty in all my pictures...that's because I am.

This is the street we lived on in Funabashi City.

This was our stop at the train station, Shimosa-Nakayama.

This was a neat little idea. On the train there are certain cars that are designated for women during certain times of the night and early morning to help reduce harassment.

This is the English Learning class that we helped out with. The class was put on by the missionaries in the Koiwa Ward.

This is me...doin some shopping in Harajuka. It was amazing, there were great deals everywhere! They had a seven story dollar store...That's where I bought C.j.'s fireworks :)

This is at Shibuya Square, one of the busiest places in Japan.

Yes, I read Kanji.

This is on our dinner cruise to Odiva Island.

This picture is from our iPOD dance party.

This picture was taken part way up Mt. Fuji, only 526 meters to go! Probably the worst experience of my life.

We were able to visit the Atomic Bomb Museums in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This is a picture of the hypo center in Nagasaki.

This is the entrance of the Peace Park in Nagasaki.

This is a pagoda in Nara.

There are deer EVERYWHERE in Nara.

This is a temple in Nara that houses the largest Buddha in Japan.

To put it in perspective, I was about the same height as the table in the middle of the picture.

These are some fun friends that we met at a river party...for some reason they LOVE Americans and all wanted their picture taken with us.

I saw this gazebo when I was in Kyoto and it reminded me of Brandon :D

This is a prayer tree at the Kyoto-Jo (Temple).

This is on top of Monkey Mountain in Kyoto. There were hundreds of monkeys EVERYWHERE! It was cool but a little creepy. Before we started the hike up the mountain we were told not to look the monkeys in the eye or they will attack you...well I accidentally caught the gaze of one of the monkeys and it nearly clawed my face off! Note to self: Follow directions!!

China Town...in Japan!

We were lucky enough to take a little trip to Costo and have real American food! It was WoNdErFuL. Japanese pizza is...well...NASTY! The sauce and toppings usually consisted of mayonnaise, corn, squid, tuna, and mushrooms. So Costco pizza was quite a treat.

This is Kinkaku-ji, "The Golden Pavilion Temple", in Kyoto.

This is the LDS temple we visited in Tokyo.

This is Osaka-jo. We were able to attend a festival held for King of Osaka-jo.

This is us dressed in our cute Yukatas at the Onsen Park in Odiva. This was basically a huge public bath amusement park.

These were my best girls on the trip. Lissa and Liz...we did everything together! This is us in our lodge during our spa weekend retreat.

And last but not least...my absolute favorite part of the trip was our excursion to Aomori. Aomori is on the Northern tip of Japan. It is a little rural and famous for their delicious apples! The people of Aomori were so amazing. They were extremely hospitable, they took care of our food, housing (we actually stayed in a geisha house!), travel, and entertainment. They threw many parties for us, welcomed us in their newspaper and on T.V., and also let us be in the Aomori Nebuta Matsuri (Nebuta Festival).

The man that I am sitting next to in the middle of the picture is the reason we were able to come to Aomori. He organized and funded our entire trip to Aomori. His name is Kojuro Wada, President of the Aomori International Exchange Association.

This is a picture of our group with the family that took such amazing care of us.



This is the cute woman that owned the school that we stayed in.



We also were given a tour of the Sake factory in Aomori. It was one of the largest factories and the one that exports the most sake internationally. Our professor let the President know ahead of time that we didn't drink so they had crates of Aomori apple juice ready for us.



This is the President of the sake factory.

This group of lovely ladies taught us some traditional Japanese dances, including the one we danced for the Nebuta Festival. Since they took the time to teach us some of their traditional dances...we taught them one of ours...the Macarena!

This is the Toshiba float we danced for in the festival.

Getting dressed for the festival.

This is the full traditional Nebuta costume.

Going to Japan was such an amazing experience. I am so grateful to have had this opportunity and I hope to someday be able to go back and visit with my family.