At the end of March, Alex's parents came to Japan!! They came for about 2 weeks and we showed them around Ayase and NAF Atsugi and went to Kyoto for a long weekend. Alex's brother, Gabe, flew over from Australia to spend the rest of the trip with us!
Prepare for picture overload! (I apologize for the craziness, I realized about partway through I should have made a few posts...but that's a lot of work. haha, sorry!)
We picked up Alex one day from work to go have lunch at the Sushi-Go-Round! Super fun and super delicious! (obviously, none for me...womp womp)
They arrived on a Tuesday night and on Friday morning early, we took the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Kyoto!
We checked into our hotel early (maybe 1000?) and went to grab some coffee. Yes, that's a Starbucks. I really wanted to try their Honey Almond Milk drinks that are special to Japan!
Afterwards, we ventured over to the Fushimi Inari Shrine, also known as the 1000 Torii Gates Trail.
I was trying to get a picture of that girls sweatshirt, but it was a fail. Japanese shirts with english writing are hilarious; they usually don't make perfect sense and it's great fun to find them. 
We ended the night with an FANTASTIC italian dinner and the boys smoked cigars!
We wandered around Gion the next morning and found this amazing coffee shop!
The next day, we wandered around to some other shrines. There were 3 Japanese students attending University in Kyoto who asked us if they could take us on a tour of a shrine to practice their English. They were so polite and nice, how could we say no!
Apparently, there was a warrior who used to carry these iron staffs; to test your strength, you're supposed to try to pick them up. 
I did it! (with Alex's assistance)
I think this sign shows the cost of each of the donated torii gates...YIKES!
Our tour guides!
After the tour of those shrines, we went to Nishiki Market...it was so fun!
new obsession: matcha ice cream! (green tea ice cream) holy moly this stuff is AMAZING!
We went to Aritsugu, a very old Japanese knife shop to get a knife (or a few in Carol's case!)
After testing out a few knives, I chose mine (a chefs knife, carbon and stainless steel), they sharpen it and I had it engraved with "Castillo"
I was so excited! Also, just for future reference, it is an AMAZING knife. It's super sharp and cuts great! 
There are hundreds of stalls filled with all sorts of goodies and weird things! Most of it I had no idea what it was, but it was cool to look at!
Little octopus things, pickled I think? with eggs in their heads! ...yum?
It was super packed!
On Alex's birthday we went to the Bamboo Groves (beautiful!) and to a monkey park (Alex has always loved monkeys; he'd LOVE to have one as a pet...oh lord) and for dinner, we went to this restaurant (a total hole in the wall) where the owner hunts his own game and cooks it up on the grill! It was quite an adventure...
This dog was just hanging out in the window of the third story. It was so cute!
We were setting up the timer on the camera from a rock to see if we could take a group photo...I collected all these little flowers to throw. Epic fail haha.
This adorable little house!
I think someone said these are apricot trees? They're so pretty and vibrant!
Gotta love "Engrish"
MONKEYS! They're just out and about! 
Feeding them apples!
Afterwards, we went to the Golden Pavilion, Kinkaku-ji.
The palace is SUPER ornate, and obviously, gold! The grounds that the pavilion are on are just stunning. There's a lake, hundreds of trees, waterfalls...it's so beautiful!
More green tea ice cream!
At this dinner place, he makes his own liquor and soaks snakes/hornets in it....sounds like a win, right?
We ate locusts, bee larvae, deer, bear, all sorts of stuff!
and back home!
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