International Animals

We met many interesting people and saw many interesting places while we were on our trip.  We also saw many animals; some were similar to what we see at home but others were very different.  Here are some of the creatures that caught our eyes:

Dogs
In India, there were stray dogs everywhere.  Grandma and Grandpa A said they weren't aggressive, they just hung out and scavenged where they could.

Dogs hanging out

These dogs found a place to hang out and be out of the rain.  The roof of a museum!

Camels
Not all animals lived a life of leisure though.  Especially around Jaipur we saw a lot of hard working camels.  They were pulling carts and doing a lot of heavy labor.

Taking a rest until he is needed again.  See his cart in the background?

Elephants
Of course one of the highlights of the trip was our elephant ride.  Our elephants were named Gori and Rohini.  We saw a few more elephants and all were being used for tourist rides.

Matthew was nervous and wanted a saddle on his elephant but he quickly moved to riding on the head.

or standing on it!

After the ride, we got to feed the elephants bananas.  They loved them!

Megan loved seeing her favorite animal up close.  I'm glad they liked hugs.

Grandma and Grandpa Allen getting in the pictures too.

Insects
Bugs are bugs right?  Maybe.  We saw some beautiful ones on our trip.

This black dragonfly was in India (Amber Fort).

The beautiful red one is from Japan.

These colorful spiders were all over the forest around a shrine in Japan.

A Japanese butterfly.

An Imperial praying mantis (found in the Imperial Gardens)

Monkeys
Monkeys are just a normal animal in India; however we stopped to watch them whenever we could. Very different that what we see around our home.

These were called Red Faced Monkeys.  We all thought they had more prominent red features.

Rodents
As we went around town we did see some rats in India, however they weren't too common where we were.  The parks however were filled with chipmunks.  You could tell they had been fed as they were fairly brave.  It was fun to watch them play.

This poor baby rat was on a sidewalk and hurt.  The birds took care of him shortly afterwards.

 One of the many chipmunks we saw in India.

"Look at this perfectly good coconut someone threw away!"

"I can live off this for weeks!"

Bats
Empty stone buildings have a strong resemblance to empty stone caves, at least in the minds of bats.  We saw them or smelled them at many of the locations in India.

Need bat pictures!

Birds
There were lots of interesting birds that we saw, especially in India because of the tropical climate.

These birds had some beautiful songs.

There was a big open courtyard full of pigeons where people were scattering seeds.  I snapped the picture right as something startled them.

A pair of swans were nice enough to pose in the moat outside the Imperial Palace.

Lizards
We saw quite a few lizards in India.  Apparently the only one notable enough to get a picture was in Japan though.

Goats
Goats were very common in India.  We saw goats in autos, goats in trucks, goats wandering free and goats tethered in the median.  Sometimes they looked more like pets than livestock.

Hanging out on a wall at Amber Fort.

Cows
Yes, in India there really are holy cows.  It was interesting to see these animals just walking down the street.  Many of them eat trash to sustain themselves.  Once we saw a cow laying down in the middle of a busy road.  Everyone just went around it.  Very interesting to see.

This was a line of several cows that came walking out of a gate right in front of us and then started walking down the street.

I think this cow wanted to take a ride with us to look for something better to eat.

Day 17: Trains, Ueno Park and Home

Friday morning, we finished packing up our stuff and headed out to Ueno Park. But first we had to stop at the park by our guest house one last time.

We also went by the Shimogoinden Train Museum, which is really just a viewing platform by Nippori Station where you can watch trains including bullet trains go by.

Pictures of some of the different types of trains.

A bullet train!

Two bullet trains in a row. Next time we go to Japan, everyone definitely wants to go on a bullet train.

The kids also liked these "double-decker" trains.

Another bathroom sign asking you to please put toilet paper in the toilet.

After stowing our luggage in some lockers, we went to Ueno Park. It is a huge park home to many museums and temples. 

We enjoyed listening to the woman play on the ocarina while we ate a snack.  She had several for multiple pitch ranges.

We visited the Tokyo National Museum. The museum is HUGE! and consists of a series of buildings showcasing many displays. We didn't have a lot of time here but enjoyed seeing what we could.

Nice tapestry of a samurai.

An old sword.  This is just the hilt and scabbard.  They separated out the blades.

Some more weapons.  The bows they would use were really large.

Another sword.  Here you can see just the blade.  Japanese blades were some of the strongest in the world because of the way they made them.

Engraving on the above sword.

Samurai armor.  A lot of it was woven together, not a lot of metal.  

Some examples of fancy traditional Japanese clothing.  This is a man's outfit.

This is a woman's kimono.

There were many beautiful examples of Japanese art on screens and wall hangings.

Outside, there was a traditional Japanese home.

Another stone lantern in a park.

The kids enjoying playing a bit at the playground.

We rode our train to the airport.  Taking pictures from the train is never easy.

This is what the United area of the airport looks like when its systems are down. We are very thankful that we checked in online ahead of time and that a nice agent printed our boarding passes for us so that we didn't have to wait in these lines!

Our plane to take us to San Francisco. The sun was setting as we took off. I definitely saw Mt. Fuji. It was really beautiful with the dark cone contrasting with the orange of the sun as it set. I tried to get a picture but didn't have enough time.

Sarah and Megan on the plane. For some reason, this flight didn't have personal entertainment devices in the seat backs and the in flight entertainment on the big screens had technical issues. Sure glad we had our tablets with us!

U and Matthew sat behind us.

Dinner wasn't great but people really liked the dessert!

I often reminisce about things, saying "Yesterday at this time...." or "Last week at this time...." It was fun that for the rest of this day, I could say "Today at this time...." and then say whatever it was we were doing in Tokyo at that time. It was the longest day of my life (40 hours). It sure was an amazing trip!