Gingerbread Houses!

Today I went to go see the gingerbread houses at Norway House in Minneapolis. They were so beautiful! I was good. I didn't taste or touch them--although it was tempting!!!

India - Auroville and Beyond

Auroville was a fascinating place. There is a crystal orb in this building. Looks a bit like Spaceship Earth at Disney's EPCOT.

This is the Hindu temple at Gangaikondacholapuram. It was an amazing site with the longest name of any place I know. 

These two guys at Gangaikondacholapuram

Burma - Ballooning over Pagan

Our next stop was Burma (a.k.a. Myanmar).One of my favorite place we went, especially going in a hot air balloon over the historic site of Pagan, where we had a bird's-eye view of lots of amazing temples.

Here's a rat's-eye view of the temple!

And another one of the 100s of temples in Pagan.

Some of the temples house huge statues of Buddha like this one which is all covered in gold!

Here I am at the first temple again.

And a close up!

Japan - Temples, Big Buddhas, MIce Houses and More

Here I am on our first day in Japan. We took the bus to Kamakura to visit temples. Now if only I could translate the kanji characters!

Success! We found out first temple. Here is the massive gateway!

Here is the great Daibutsuden - that means "Big Buddha" and big he was. We even were able to go inside of him!

We then went to Kyoto. It was very cold and rainy so we spend much of the day at the national museum. I am in the new modern wing and from here I can see the beautiful neoclassical part of the museum from the comfort of being inside the warm building.

When we were walking to the museum in the rain I stopped to talk to this guy. He was not too talkative. He seemed to be lost in his own thoughts!

Next stop Nagoya. We took a bullet train, which went really, really fast!

When we arrived in Nagoya we checked in to our hotel. I called dibs on the bed!

We then went to the fairgrounds for Expo 1970. The big sun deity is still there. This is its back.

It looks a bit weird don't you think?

This strange structure is just one corner of the massive space frame structure that use to surround the sun deity.

Mt. Fuji

Mt. Fuji again

In Tokyo we had tea to stay warm.

And then we went to the big mouse house--Tokyo Disneyland! Wow--to live in a house like that must be magical!