Starting with the photo in the upper left corner and going from left to right row-by-row:1. We stayed with relatives for the entire trip and slept five across in a tatami floor room. Ryan usually found his way in between Mom and Dad, and managed to wake us up with his nai-nai request at least once most nights.
2&3. It was the peak of the cherry blossom season in Osaka. We attended the opening of the Japanese Mint Bureau grounds on April 12 for cherry blossom (sakura) viewing. The sakura are located on the grounds along the banks of the Okawa River. http://www.pref.osaka.jp/koho/brand/no6/sl/24sakura.html
4. Only managed to get a few photos of us in a shinkansen (bullet train). A picture of a still shinkansen from outside wouldn't have done it justice anyway. We have videos that'll give you a better feel for these trains that reach top speeds of about 185 mph. The 90-mile trip from Osaka to Okayama took about 45 minutes including three stops on the nozomi (super express) train. http://www.japaneselifestyle.com.au/travel/shinkansen_history.htm
5. A view of Okayama Castle from the Korakuen. Okayama-jo aka U-jo, Crow Castle, because it is one of two castles in Japan that is painted black. The Korakuen is one of Japan's official "Great Gardens" - there are three such gardens. http://www.japaneselifestyle.com.au/travel/okayama.htm
6&14. A view of the Yojima Bridge, the 4th of six bridges spanning 5.8 miles between Honshu (Kurashiki city) and Shikoku (Sakaide city) that make up the Great Seto Bridges. On Yojima, there is a Fisherman's Wharf area that is sort of a mini version of "Fisherman's Wharf" areas like those in Seattle or San Francisco. The bridges were constructed in 10 years at a cost of about $7.7 billion (assuming $1 = 130 Yen). http://web-japan.org/atlas/architecture/arc22.html
7. Beaver's Bakery is Tetsuya's (my cousin) bakery located in Kurashiki. In our humble opinion, it is the best bakery in Japan!
8. Muscat Stadium (capacity of about 30,000) is located in Kurashiki. Although Kurashiki (where Casey's relatives live) is not home to a professional Japanese baseball team, a small number of pro games are played there each year. We attended the game between the Yomiuri Giants and the Yakult Swallows on April 18. We rooted for the underdog Swallows to no avail as the Giants prevailed 1-0. The highlight was the release of thousands of noise making balloons at the end of the 7th inning stretch.
9, 10&13. Another highlight for our kids was the Kaiyukan (aquarium) in Osaka. It's an interesting aquarium with a 9-meter tall central tank display that houses a whale shark (9 years ago there were 2 such sharks in the tank). It's touted as one of the largest aquariums in the world. There are some 30,000 specimens of plants and animals representing 580 species in the aquarium, including dolphins, both sea and river otters, penguins and a sun fish. Headphones with narrations in English are available. http://www.kaiyukan.com/eng/profile/index.htm
11. Wish we could have gotten more pictures of the amazing train stations. Even in the smaller urban areas such as Okayama (population of about 1.9 million in the prefecture) the train station is home to several lines and plenty of shopping both above ground and below ground. The picture is of Casey and Ryan at the Hankyu train platforms at the main Umeda station in Osaka. Including the Hankyu line there are 5 private train lines, the JR line, a subway system with 7 lines and a monorail system in Osaka. There were something like 8 slots for Hankyu trains that were coming and going every couple of minutes. The slots were designed so that doors can open on one side to let passengers exit and open on the opposite side to take on passengers. http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e4006.html & http://www.osaka-u.ac.jp/eng/accessmap.html
12. A highlight of shopping in Japan is the appealing cakes and pastries on display. The cake in the picture was Ryan's birthday cake. He celebrated his 2nd birthday during the trip.
15. Kurashiki is known for its Bikan-chiku area where several rice storehouses remain from the 18th and 19th centuries that were used to store rice harvested from the area around Kurashiki. The storehouses are located along the tree lined canal in the photo. http://www.osaka-u.ac.jp/eng/accessmap.html
16. The last photo is of us in front of the Okayama train station at the statue of Momotaro, Peach Boy. Momtaro is the main character in a well-known (at least to Japanese) Japanese fable about a boy found inside a giant peach in Okayama. Of course, the area is well known for its peaches with the peak peach season being in late summer. http://www.pref.okayama.jp/kikaku/kokusai/momo/e/momotarou/momotarou.html
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