Japan photos

Hope you all had a fantastic holiday weekend! Today I thought I'd share some pics from my visit to Japan.

First of all...yes....I found COPIC HEAVEN! The sketch markers and refills were priced at the equivalent of $4 US dollars! This is a Japanese kitten. Adorable, no?
Cats in Japan cost about $3,000 US dollars - yes, you read that right. Insane!! No one could explain why, but that's the price no matter where you go. Most people have to get a loan and set up a payment plan of approx. $90 for 36 months. Dogs only cost about $1,300, but we did see one for $100,000! Apparently his grandfather was famous in the dog show circuit. Since most people either can't afford the prices, or don't have the space at home, you can rent pets by the hour for companionship.

Since doggies are so expensive, mans best friend in Japan is.....GIANT BEETLES! This is my son holding one for the first time. And yes.....he begged to bring one home. But gosh darn....they're illegal in the US...bummer (do you sense the sarcasm?)

Much to my sons delight, his Uncle had two of them and brought them to our hotel for my son to play with. (That was my cue to head down to the gift shop)

"Please Mom? Isn't she cute?"

Okay...enough bugs!
In Japan you can get soft serve ice cream in ANY flavor that you can imagine.

My daughter and I hit the jackpot one afternoon and found soybean soft serve ice cream that was totally vegan. OMG - it was so good!

This is one of the hotels that we stayed in. It's a very old school traditional style hotel.

When we checked in to the hotel, we had to take off our shoes and they gave us slippers to wear for the duration of our stay. Then we were taken to the "kimono area" where we had to pick out a kimono to wear to dinner. Mine was pink with butterflies - my daughter was SO jealous!

This was our room.Before dinner, two staff members came in to get the room ready for sleeping. They moved the table and seats out of the way and set up our beds for us.

Sleeping on the floor was super cool to the kiddos, but oh my achin' back! This was the view of the mountains from our room - just incredible.

Here we are all ready for dinner...

We had our own private dinner room and everything was set up for us when we got there. Beautiful dinner. My husband was in heaven!

Sadly....nothing vegan. Just dead little critters. Good thing I brought a granola bar! Did I mention that my husband was in heaven? He got to eat his dinner and mine!

I had SO much fun taking photos of funny signs.

Smorking is very popular in Japan. Everybody smorks.

On our first day, we went to pay respect to my Mother-in-laws sister who recently passed away. This is the place where her ashes are buried.

Anyone want a beer?
There are beer vending machines all over town!

Or would you prefer french fries?

There are literally vending machines for everything all over the place.

This was a snack bar we stumbled upon. Stuffed waffles.....oh my. Such a cool trip! I'm SO grateful for the opportunity that we had to take our kids and experience a completely different culture. Thanks for taking the time to stop by today. I'll be back tomorrow with a "sweet" challenge for you.