Flora.

Or as Yoron calls it: pana-uru.





Funky tree roots:


Plants of dragonfruit:


And.. bananas.


And apple mangoes. If I heard that right.

And now for something completely different.

Yoron Island:


A tiny little gem of an island -- only 8 miles in diameter -- north of Okinawa. Population: 5,000. And even that number seems too high.

A view of the beach at Pricia Hotel, where we stayed.



A walk to town along the coast:


And lots of farms. Yoron grows sugar cane, among other tasty things.

Cable car ropeway.

Everyone knows that I'm scared of heights.

But hey, you only live once, right?

In Hakone, we took a cable car ropeway to the top of the mountain.


It was pretty incredible. Too bad it was also pretty rainy.



Peering at the sulfer mines down below:


Did I mention that we were really high up?

When we got to the top, the views were pretty, but much too foggy. At one point it was so foggy, it felt as if there was nothing around us.




Oh, and of course, as soon as we got back down, the sun came out. And the next day, the weather was perfectly sunny. Our return to Tokyo felt like it came a little too soon.

Past travels.

I don't really get to do a lot of traveling, which is why I'm so excited for Japan in the first place. But I had enough travel photos to create a little collage for my header:

1. In LAX before leaving to Indonesia in 2005. Eep. Has it been that long since I've been out of the country?


2. This was captured at a beach within a five-minute walking distance from our hotel in Bali.


3. The most adorable Balinese babies you have ever seen. Taken in Bedugul (still Bali), a gorgeous lakeside village in the mountains.


4. My sister and I parasailing in Hawaii in 2003, about 20 minutes before I'm doubled over in seasickness, ready for the little boat to dock.


Of course, my plan is to take a bazillion more photos in Japan. I'll be posting them here.