August 13th

Final day in Japan!

For our last day I had to go back to Fuji Ramen. After an amazing lunch we just packed all day and got ready for our flight. Currently tying to get everything organized and try and get some sleep before our 4am take off time.

Our time in Japan was amazing and went by extremely fast. We went to a lot of places and did way to much stuff. Spent hundreds of dollars and ate some incredible food. And on top of everything i'll always remember this trip because of the fact that Cassy came with me and I got to propose to her (^-^)

For anyone who kept up with my posts thanks and I hope you enjoyed all the pictures.

Cya!!!!

-Alex Potter

August 12th

Golden Temple Day!

This morning the typhoon came through Japan at around 5am and flooded a lot of the country. But by around noon it was pretty calm around our area and so we decided that it was dry enough to go see the Golden Temple in Kyoto.





But first, I wanted to take Cassy on a little jog to a golf course up in the mountains. My dad first took me there about 10 years ago and its still one of my favorite places to go running.

We were both out of shape so we went pretty slow.

Usually we would go running early in the morning so no one is on the course but we went around 11:00am so there were a few people on the course restricting us from running around on it. However I made Cassy do a jumping picture.

On our way to the temple, we first made a stop at the world famous Baby Face Planets restaurant.

Taiki and I on the left and Cassy and Aina on the right.

My food on the left and Cassy's on the right!

They gave us hand towels and we never gave them back (^-^)

The whole crew in front of the gate at the temple. Grandpa came along too!

The trip was great and tomorrow is our last day here.

To tired to keep typing.

August 11th

Today was our last day of our JR train pass. So we decided to go to Osaka to see the Osaka Castle. Its only about an hour away and its really beautiful to see. I went there once before back in 2006 when I came to Japan with Maysam and Jonathan. Its weird to think its already been 4 years since that trip but we all know that time goes by to fast. We headed out around 12:30 because we couldn't decide where to go for a couple hours. We were torn between going back to Tokyo for a day or going to Osaka...

At the Wani train station waiting for our train to Katata and then to Osaka.

 We first got to the Osaka train station and then made a transfer to the place where the castle is. So this pic is of the first view out of the train station.

On our way to the castle there were some guys flying helicopters for fun. They were actually pretty sweet.

 School group that also went to the castle.

 First view of the castle!!!

The castle was burned down twice. Back when it was first build and again in WWII. Apparently the actual castle and surrounding area is 3 times smaller then it actually was. Volunteers rebuilt it after the burning in WWII. (If my history is wrong then sorry! I was told this by my cousins haha)

Which one do you like??


 

View from the top floor of the castle. The wind up there was incredible.

 

We took a little ice cream break for Cassy. She loved it.

There was a guy that was feeding pigeons. He reminded us of the pigeon guy from Home Alone...

Random picture. Added some random effects to it.

We went to a mall nearby for some food and Cassy found a sweet wig.

Random staircases we saw from the train back home. Literally random... there are no doors or exits. Only in Japan...

Anyways, we were there for a few hours and went back home. It was around 95 degrees today so it was nice to go back home to cool off.

August 10th

Rest day...

After the past couple days we really needed some time to just sleep in and rest up a bit. Plus it was sorta raining today on and off so we took it easy. By the afternoon we all took off to go shopping once again. I was going to just stay home and hang out by myself but Cassy convinced me to go.

We found a sweet asian Kernel Sanders at the mall.

Mister donut!!!! 1000 times better then Dunkin Donuts. The donuts here are super light and not super heavy.

Killer hats.

Cassy with her new jacket from UNI QLO!
I told Cassy she couldn't buy the jacket because it was too expensive and that we needed to save money so after crying about it she put it back.

But my mom went and bought it for her while she wasn't looking and surprised her with it as her engagement gift. Cassy was super happy after that!!!

Thanks Moto for telling us to go here!











I was supposed to go to a "beer garden" in Kyoto tonight with my friend Nakagawa but since it was raining and the place where we would be drinking was on top of a building outside we had to cancel.
So instead we just chilled at home and relaxed.

August 8th and 9th

This is going to be a pretty long post so just a fore warning.

So Cassy and I went to Tokyo for the 8th and 9th. It was an amazing trip and yet a very tiring trip. We left at 10:04am on the 8th and it took us about 3 hours to get there by bullet train. I have a friend that lives in Tokyo who used to live in Michigan 6 years ago so we pre planned to stay with her parents and she was going to show us around Tokyo for two days.

Both wearing red and ready for the trip!

Trying to look smart... we took the local train to Kyoto and then from Kyoto a straight shot to Tokyo by bullet train.

I have no idea what this building is, but I saw it on the way to Tokyo and I thought it was pretty sweet.

We also got a glimpse of Mt.Fuji. We got lucky to see it when it was so cloudy.

Yu is our friend in the middle.

I know probably no one cares, but after getting to Tokyo I really wanted to go see a world famous Ruckus shop (the type of scooter I have). So another hour later we got there.

The shop was really small but there was some pretty crazy tricked out scoots.






After we left and went back into Tokyo and went to Shinjuku.

Cassy and Yu. Kinda hard to see though...

Another shot of Shinjuku.











After this we went to go check out the Tokyo Tower. It took another thirty min by train but it was worth it.

Cassy and Yu

We walked for about another thirty min from the train station to the tower. It was a lot bigger then I thought and apparently they are currently building another tower nearby that is almost twice the size.

The family we stayed with was very kind and we were lucky to have somewhere to stay. We took this picture the next morning actually. We got back to Yu's parents house by about 11pm and we ate dinner after that. We got to bed around 2am and prepared for the next morning.

Come 7am, I wake up to some sunshine and the smell of bacon. By 8am were all having breakfast and by 9:30am, Cassy, Yu and I are off to see Tokyo.

Yu's boyfriend met up with us at Shibuya and hung out with us all afternoon. He was really nice and gave Cassy and I a gift when we first met. If it weren't for Yu and Takuya, we would have been so lost in the city.

New fad in Japan... dress like a hip hop 9 yr old. The girl in the picture was a employee of the shop haha.

Cassy found Maysam on a poster so we had to take a picture...

We went a really good Ramen place for lunch and this is what I found in the bathroom lol. 8 rolls of toilet paper...

The soup base is made from pork bone marrow and is supposed to be really good for your skin?? But it was so good... Apparently they opened up a shop in New York. I honestly think that if a shop like this opened up in East Lansing that it would be extremely successful. Its so good, cheap and quick.

This was one of the coolest buildings I got to see in Tokyo. It looked like it was made of all glass. The first floor was an Audi dealership and inside were some pretty sweet cars. Yu told us that she used to get haircuts on the 5th floor. This was in Shibuya.

We found the only Forever 21 store in Tokyo. We didn't go in but there was a line to go in the store lol. In Japan clothes are usually really expensive so I'm guessing they are going crazy over the fact that F 21 clothes are super cheap and western.

Mario Kart!

I found a signed picture of Christiano Ronaldo in a small soccer shop. I could have bought it for 500 bucks!

Our train ticket was for 6:03pm so after spending the day shopping and walking around we went back to the train station.

Final shot with everyone at the train station. We ended up going to Shinjuku, Shibuya, Harajuku and Ueno.

Here are a couple random pics.

Harajuku

Shibuya cross walk

After a long day and some sleep on the bullet train we got back to Kyoto at around 9:30pm. I figured since we were in Kyoto we should at least see the station a bit and look at the Kyoto Tower.

Picture on the bullet train!

And our final picture together after two really long long days and about 5 hours of sleep total.

I need a day to rest...