Aaron and Lauren visits!

So after much expectation from both me and my students my brother and his wife finally arrived to katashina on the 17th. We spent the first couple of days in katashina.. i showed them around, brought them to school (the students were really excited!) and went to dinner with my Japanese teacher and her husband. We then headed off to Tokyo to stay with the Naruis (amazingly hospitable family friends). We saw Harijuku and a crazy park, pottery, the lights of Tokyo, modern art, and lots of meat with our Korean BBQ dinner. The next morning we met with the Tajima's for lunch (yes, our whole trip was centered around eating, eating, and more eating). Ken told us that the Emperor sent his regards and we told him to tell the Emperor that we say hello as well. We met little Riko (the epitamy of pink chunk, i think) and adorable Mako (after got after the initial shock of so many foreigners (yes we made her cry) she turned out to be not that shy!). After exchanging gifts we were off to Kyoto. On arriving in Kyoto I found out that my friend, Logan, was there with "his driver" (this guy who loves to drive and sees no problem in driving Logan the 4 hours to Kyoto and then back in a day). We had dinner with them and a Japanese family (who we still arent clear who they are).. okinomiyaki! oishi! The next morning we started with Kinkakuji, Kiomizudera, and a sweet Zen temple. We saw a parade for the Jidai Matsuri and crashed before we took a packed train 30 min to a village outside of Kyoto for a Fire Festival. Although it sounded really cool it was kinda overly packed, cold, and not very entertaining. Still tho, fire is always pretty sweet so we stood around for a couple of hours before being packed into a sardine like train to go home. We had some excellent sushi and headed to bed. The next day we started with ?? and Ginkakuji, Heian, saw some touristy Craft place, went down the streets of Gion (saw two geishas!) then stuffed ourselves full of shabu shabu. The next morning we visited Fushimi Inari Shrine. I didn't really know anything about it but was completely blown away when we got there. The first temple had a service happening, which was pretty cool to watch and there was some nice music too. We then headed up the trail to the top of the mountain. This shrine is known for its 1000 toris (red gates) and foxes as they represent the Inari God. The toris climb all over a mountain, through the forests, with smaller shrines places scattered throughout the climb. It was a pretty thorough walk but it was too beautiful to stop or turn around. We ended up being there for close to 3 or 4 hours. It was a nice way to end such a great trip with Aaron and Lauren. I said goodbye to them at the train station and headed back to the countryside.

Links for pics... (there's a lot of them)
http://picasaweb.google.com/tajima.laura/AaronAndLaurenSVisit
Aaron and Lauren's Pics:
Katashina:http://picasaweb.google.com/atajima/JapanTripKatashina?authkey=LMXU8UQ8bB4
Kyoto:http://picasaweb.google.com/atajima/JapanTripKyoto?authkey=27ObNIde_I4


and Aaron and Lauren- I know that some of these names/facts are wrong but my memory is pretty terrible.. you wanna help me out with the things ive messed up?