Kara in Morgantown

On Sunday, my friend  and I went on another marathon adventure.  This time in Morgantown, West Virginia.  Morgantown is hilly and has tons of trees.  You can see part of the basketball coliseum for West Virginia University behind me.  It was so much fun.  Now I am at the Minneapolis, St. Paul Airport getting ready to go back home.  I had a lot of fun and I am sad to leave, but I am also exited to go home.  I hope to go on my next journey soon. Till next time! Ciao!

Kara in Ohio

I am on my first adventure, and I am so excited.  I am in Dayton, Ohio, the birthplace of aviation.  Today I went to the Air Force marathon.  My friend took me along to the National Air Force Museum.  It was so awesome to see all the amazing planes, while doing my favorite thing...running!
I loved the marathon, but now I am really tired.  I need a massage.  Till next time; good night!

Kara

Hi, My name  is Kara.  I am named after the cross country star Kara Goucher. I love to travel, run and read.  My favorite food is bacon!  I also LOVE M&M 's  I am pretty sure I am the worlds biggest M&M eater.  I am super excited for my first Journey OHIO, the buckeye state!  All the other passing dolls say my first trip will be amazing, and I believe them.  Maybe I will even fit in some running!

Visiting Nijo Castle

Today we arrived in Kyoto.  The first thing we did was go to Nijo castle.  Nijo castle is a place that the Shogun stayed in.  Shogun are like guards,  the literal translation being military commander.  The castle had a hand built stone stone wall all around it.  The wall was built using no cement or mortar but using rocks shaped so that they were snug together.
The entrance gate to Ninomaru palace (the main part of the castle)  was decorated with gigantic birds and patterns made out of REAL GOLD.  Inside Ninomaru palace there were floors lined with tatami that squeaked when someone stepped on it so the shogun could easily detect intruders.   I thought that the Nijo castle was really cool, and someone must have really thought out the structure to make it beautiful and  functional and it so amazing that everything was made by HAND!  It was so amazing to explore the castle and if you ever get the chance to visit it it would be something that I would really recommend.

Hiroshima Peace Park

Today We visited Hiroshima peace park.  When we got there we visited the Sadako statue.  Sadako is a true story about a girl that got sick from radiation from the atomic bomb that the Americans dropped on Hiroshima when she was a baby.  Sadako had an illness called leukemia, which is a form of cancer.  Sadako's good friend told Sadako a story about someone  that got there wish after they folded one thousand cranes.  So sadako folded crane after crane bestowing her wish to get better on each and every crane  until she had folded ONE THOUSAND cranes!  But Sadako did not overcome her battle against leukima and soon died.  

Her classmates decided to honor Sadako by building  statue of her holding a giant crane.  People still make cranes to hang at Sadako's statue.  And I decided to make cranes to hang too!

making cranes to take to Sadako

  

After hanging our cranes, we headed to Hiroshima peace memorial museum.  Inside were displays of clothing, toys and buildings that were destroyed by the bomb.  The museum was really interesting but also very sad.  Today we had a great outing I really learned a lot and it was an amazing experience but I would not recommend the museum for very young children.

Settling in at Hiroshima

Today was our first day in Hiroshima.  After taking the ferry to Miyajima Island, which is where we are going to stay, we stopped at a Okonomiyaki restaurant.  They made the Okonomiyaki right in front of us on a griddle.  At this restaurant they made the Okonomiyaki Hiroshima style which is pancakes with vegetables and other things inside.  It was delicious!
After the yummy snack we walked in the sun looking for our ryokan.  A ryokan is a traditional hotel where you sleep on the ground and the floor is covered with grass mats called tatami mats.
The island is a little town.  There is a large torii in the water near the temple, there is a large pagoda, a long shopping street full of stores and restaurants.  The most surprising thing about the island are the deer.  They roam around the island freely, everywhere.
Finally, we found the ryokan and settled in. We tried on our yukata, which are summer kimonos, before going on a hike. The scenery on the hike was  beautiful.  There were big rocks, green moss and trees all around. It was very peaceful.
It was a very busy day today.  The hike was a really nice refresher.

On my way to the ryokan where I will be staying  I found some friends!

View on the hike.

Torii

The deer likes me!

Okonomiyaki Yumm!

Hisako in Asakusa

Front Gate at Senso-ji

Kappa

In the middle of my favorite foods at the plastic food shop.

Chanko nabe cooking

Ready to eat

It's ready

In front of the Kabuki Theatre

Old Edo

Today we visited Ryogoku and Asakusa.  First we went to Asakusa.  When we got there we went to temple shopping street.  We tried lots of things like mochi on a stick and fried manjiu.  The temple was very beautiful.  There were two gods as guards at the entrance gate.  The doors where painted with shiny black lacquer with golden knockers.  And in the garden were pretty maple trees and koi.
After visiting the temple we headed to Kappabashi-dori. A kappa is a Japanese legend.  One of the characters that live under water and pulls swimmers legs; Aaah!  People say that the kappa has a plate on top of his head that he has to keep wet because if it gets wet it will die.  Kappabashi-dori Is known as kitchen street where people sell dishes knives and realistic plastic food for restaurants to use in their front window so people can see what they serve.
When we finished browsing Kappabashi-dori we rode a train to Ryogoku, a sumo area.  When we got off the train the first thing we saw was sumo wrestler.  Paintings of sumo stars and their hand prints and height.  Once we got out of the station we went to a sumo shop where they had T-shirts, postcards, wash cloths, giant Geta a woven sandals and even sumo wrestler shaped tops!  After we left the shop we headed to a chanko nabe restaurant.  Chanko nabe is a soup with meat often chicken and vegetables that sumo wrestlers eat.  The sumo wrestlers eat twice a day. Chanko nabe is the only food the wrestlers eat other than rice and sometimes fish.
When the waitress brought the chankonabe she put it on top of of a flame  to boil.  When it was cooked through, we dug in.  It was delicious!  It was sort of rich and different than other things I had eaten so far in Japan.
After we finished looking at sumo things we went to the Edo museum.  It was amazing!   There  were life sized models of old Edo. Edo is what Tokyo used to be called.  There were even models small enough for me to live in!  They also had things to do like you could use a thing that fire men used to use to put out fires, two heavy barrels on a yoke that you could try to lift. I really like the Edo museum because it was sort of like you were a part of the story instead of just reading a lot and looking at pictures.   I never knew history could be so fun!
Today we had a lot of fun.  Here are some things that I would suggest doing if you are in the area.
1.  Edo museum
2.  Kappabashi-dori  and
3. Sensoji the temple because it is beautiful.