Naomi + Dan = Danomi

In May, my wonderful friend from college, Naomi and her cool husband, Dan visited us for a couple of weeks. We hadn’t seen them in about four years, so we were really excited to spend time with them.

I met them in Osaka. I almost went to the wrong airport, which would have been disastrous, because I would have had to travel 2 hours from one airport to the other. Luckily I discovered my mistake early on and went to the correct airport. YAY!!! They are so awesome - I love the above picture of them.

We made our way to our hotel in central Osaka. We went out for Oknomiyaki for dinner and met up with Julian . We walked around Osaka to experience the big lights, sounds and energy of the city.

We stopped in at one of our favorite bars, Umiya and headed back to the hotel. Below: hotel issued PJs; I pity the fool that don't go to school (settle down Dan).

This is a strange advertisement that was in our hotel elevator.

The next day we headed to Kyoto and rented bikes. I love biking and I love Kyoto, so biking around Kyoto is one of my favorite activities. We headed to Kiyomizu-dera Temple, a world heritage site and a spectacular temple. It’s on the side of a mountain with a huge wooden deck/porch overlooking the trees.

There’s also a fountain which is from a waterfall. It’s said that if you drink the water you will have health and longevity. There was a long line of people, so we decided to risk it and not drink the water.

There’s also another lucky spot at the temple, if you walk a straight line between two rocks with your eyes closed and make it to the other rock then you will find love. We already found love, so we didn’t check it out…awwwwwwwww….

We went out to an izakaya restaurant that night and then...

...to a bar, where we wore our sunglasses at night

Sunday, Danomi went to Sanjusangen-do Temple, which has about 1,000 statues.

Then we met up and went to the Kyoto National Museum. The museum has a massive collection of pottery and sculpture and ancient objects from Kyoto and around Japan.

Next on our agenda, the steamy town of Kinosaki...to be continued...

If you want to see more pictures go to my photo gallery or you can click on Taube's Photo Albums in the links section on the right side of my blog.