The Gainer Family : Japan

I just got back from a 2 week business trip to Japan. It was a great trip, but such a long time to be away! Here are some pictures from my time in Japan (warning: Lots of pics below!) What a beautiful country and culture!

First night in Tokyo

The Imperial Palace in Tokyo

Getting ready for our first bullet train to Nagoya

View of Nagoya at dusk from our hotel

Trumpet-playing robot at the Toyota Museum

This kind of meal is called Shabu-shabu

Sharon (my boss), me and Maury, our medical director

Shinto shrine in Nagoya

These little statues at the shrines wear bibs for children who have died

Steve, our president at the Shrine

Shopping district in Nagoya

A tasty snack. Just kidding of course, but you see stuff like this everywhere!

We had dinner at a beautiful orchid garden one night in Nagoya

Our first day of the "Genba Kaizen" experience in the classroom at Shingujitsu. Note we are all wearing earpieces to hear the translators since all of he senseis spoke Japanese

Another bullet train ride to Shizuoka. The bullet train goes 300km per hour!

Sushi our first night in Shizuoka

The manhole covers were very ornate

Explored Sunpu Castle on an early morning walk in Shizuoka

We spent the next 2 days doing improvement work in a Hitachi factory where they make air conditioners. It was an exhausting and intense experience, but we learned a lot. Here is the North Shore team at the end of day 2 - we look really tired! Love the awesome hats that we had to wear in the factory

Here I am with my team's sensei, Harada-san

This was in out hotel in Shizuoka. Many brides don't wear white in Japan because it is the color of death

Another ride on the bullet train to Kyoto. You can see the rice paddies and mountains out the window

There were precious, well-mannered Japanese children everywhere. June is when they take school trips so we ran into lots of groups at the train stations.

First glimpse of Nijo castle in Kyoto

This waterfall was outside the lobby of out hotel

Our first group dinner in Kyoto was Korean barbeque. We sat on the floor and they cut the meat with scissors. Not our best meal.

Rainy Kyoto at night

We saw a kimono fashion show in Kyoto

We walked through Gion, the famous geisha district of Kyoto

Geishas

Lake with dragon boat at a restaurant in Kyoto

Another not so great meal in Kyoto

We watched a taiko drum performance after dinner

The next day was our only day off and we got to see lots of the beautiful sites in Kyoto. Kyoto is the old capital of Japan and the only major city that was not bombed during WWII, so the history of Japan is well preserved there.

Nijo castle

Heian shrine and the stunning adjancent gardens

Kinkaku-ji (The Golden Pavilion), a Zen temple whose top 2 floors are completely covered in gold leaf

A bonsai tree in the shape of a ship

A tea room in the gardens of the Golden Pavilion

Shinto shrine on the grounds of the Golden Pavilion

That night we had the most amazing dinner of the whole trip at a beautiful restaurant called Kikunoi near the Gion

The chef

The interesting 14-course menu

Every course was beautifully presented

Before dinner

One thing that I wanted to try while I was in Japan was an onsen or sento, public baths with naturally heated water from hot springs. I went to one in Kyoto and it was amazing! I couldn't take actual pictures since everyone is naked(!) but here are pictures of the sento that I went to from their website. These baths were on the roof and open air. It was a great way to relax and a very Japanese experience!