tokyo part 1

 we went to tokyo, japan for four and a half days.  we had a wonderful time exploring the city, learning the culture and spending time with family.

this is the outside of a buddhist temple.  the sidewalks are full of shops with toys, paintings, knick-knacks and people shopping for all of the above.

on the inside, locals kneel to pray.

this is an incense well.  there is incense for sale told to promote good health.  people buy the flavor that suits their wellness, or lack-there-of, at the time.

this is an ice cream shop that sells 33 different flavors of soft serve ice cream.  a dream come true for me, since soft serve is how i like to take my ice cream best.

this is the entry way of a shinto shrine.  there are three aspects to the shinto religion.  1- affinity with natural beauty.  2- harmony with the spirits. 3- purification rituals.  that is why there are three metal plates at the top of the entry way.  unlike the atmosphere outside the buddhist temple, the environment surrounding the shrine is very natural.  we had to walk along a gravel path for about a mile or so until we reached the outside of the shrine.  it is a very quiet attitude within the boundaries.  people walk with a hush in their footsteps and quietly admire and pray.

this is upon entering the inside where the shrine is.  we weren't allowed to take pictures on the inside.

there was a large fence/wall set up where people could by a beautifully decorated slab of wood to write their wishes for the year and hang it up.  i was able to find some in english.  

owners of businesses are also able to buy paper lanterns with their company name on it and hang it along the gravel trail to the shrine in hopes of good business and great prosperity for their company over the following year.

after we left the shrine we went more into the city.  we went to a part of the city called shibuya, (which ryan and i couldn't stop saying all week.  "hey, do you have any gum?"  "yeah, SHIBUYA!")

shibuya is a part of the city that is very popular.  we went to a starbucks on the second floor of a building just to watch the walls of people flood the streets whenever the crosswalk flashed the little green man and gave the "ok" to cross to the other side.  after all the people would cross the street, more people would start building up on the sidewalks waiting for the green man to return.  every time there was a flood of hundreds of people.

we also got to see a statue of the dog Hachi.  Hachi was a dog in tokyo that would walk with this man to the subway to send him off to work, and every day he would return to the subway to meet that same man when he returned from work.  they made a movie about it with richard gere, but the original story took place in tokyo.

after we took the picture with Hachi, i saw some girls offering free hugs on the street.  i couldn't pass up the offer.

slow progress

katie's current yarn project: fingerless gloves.

ryan's current yarn project: scarf.

christmas in korea

we went to a festive christmas eve party and took our outfits to the extremes.  we showed up and found that we were some of the only people who actually showed up festive.  it was a lot of fun.

it's beginning to look a lot like christmas

we opened one of our christmas gifts from my parents...christmas lights!  we listened to the sufjan stevens christmas album, laid in bed with the christmas lights on and played cards.  

it's christmas time in the nielsen house.

halla!

we went to a south korean hockey game with two other couples that we met.  we had so much fun!  the ice arena was more like an ice rink.  there were about four rows of seating around the rink, which is quite small.  south korea was playing japan.  the best part was that south korea's hockey team is call halla, so all night we got to scream "halla!", whenever they scored a goal.  they lost about 10 seconds into overtime.

snow please

it snowed during school.  it was beautiful, so naturally everyone had to take a break and stop everything they were doing to go outside and play in it.

please welcome ron

this is ron burgandy, the newest addition to our family.  he is a lot more calm than ritalin was, and he and power ranger already have a bond like brothers.

where we live

this is our apartment building.  our apartment is five windows up and two to the left.  below us is a market, salon and restaurant.

our view.

our television and built-in desk.  our bed is in the corner of the picture with the ledge of our window.  and most importantly, our air conditioner at the top of the desk.

our front door.  at least once a week we get a new magnet on the outside of our door from a local restaurant.  our goal is to fill the entire inside of the door by the time we leave.

our shower doesn't have a door, so unfortunately water goes everywhere on the floor.

laundry room/ kitchen/ dinning room/ part of our living room.

ryan's closet

katie's closet

shoes/ cleaning supplies/ vitamins/ linen closet

best day

we had the best day.  we went to church and met some really good people that we are excited to hang out with.  the best part is, the church is 1 subway stop away from the mexican restaurant we found before.  so it is now our sunday tradition to eat lunch at los amigos.  after lunch, we found a foreign market.  inside the market was indian food, mexican ingredients and all sorts of goodies from the states.

we picked up some spinach tortialls, taco seasoning mix, black beans, gummy rings, dried mango, salsa, and fiber one bars.

the day continued to get better as we explored the streets and found a foreign bookstore full of books in english.  and the best part was that they were used books, so they were cheap.  we picked up the catcher in the rye, the call of the wild/ white fang in one, and the art of loving. 

our day continued with finding an electronics market.  it is a whole strip of street filled with outdoor vendors selling laptops, tvs, phones and mp3 players for pretty cheap.  it seemed that they were all refurbished.

and then i found a forever 21.  i naturally picked up 3 shirts, 2 pair of earrings, and a necklace.  it's fine.

professional wedding photos