The Rengeoin Sanjusandgendo Temple in Kyoto is the famous temple of 1001 life sized statues of the Buddhist Goddess Kannon Bodhisattva. Kannon resides in the center of the temple flanked on each side by 500 bodhisattvas in 10 columns of 50.
Translated, the name has a very specific meaning. Rengeoin means Temple of the Lotus while Sanjusangendo literally means...
The first stop on the Freedom Trail is Boston Common. This 50 acre park in the center of the city has a playground, visitors center, restaurants and food trucks, frog pond and is adjacent to Boston Public Garden home of the famous swan boats and where Mr. and Mrs. Mallard make their new home with 8 baby ducklings. It...
Our most magical experience during our family trip to Scandinavia was Husky dog sledding in Norway through the snow blanketed fields of Tromsø.
Truly, we had some incredible experiences in the land of Trolls - a spiritual excursion to witness the Northern Lights in Kirkenes, an authentically cultural journey through the North Cape on the Hurtigruten, and even celebrating...
The Volcano House in the city center of Reykjavik doesn’t sell batteries, but they are open on Christmas Day. They are the only place we could find open on Christmas Day in Iceland, when my insulin pump ran out of batteries and we were desperate. That is just the how of why we came to the Volcano House, (you...
Miyajima is home to the famous Itsukushima Shrine, the iconic famous shrine that floats on water. This location is considered one of three of the most beautiful sites in the whole of Japan. In addition to the shrine and temple, there are deer covering the island that walk with you and steal all your food, and a gondola ride...
My very first job, at 16 years old, was at See’s Candies in Portland, Oregon at the Lloyd Center Mall. I loved it so much I transferred to the store in Orem, Utah during college, and when Gabriel and I were married came back to my job at Lloyd Center. Eating bon bons all day? That's the life. Especially,...
Where organized religion is all but disappeared in the Japanese culture, our family didn't want to miss visiting the LDS temple in Japan. Wherever possible our family makes a point of visiting a LDS temple on our travels. We want to show and teach our children that principles transcend all cultures, fads and history. It's important to stand for...
After 3 weeks of bedtime stories about Konichiwa Kitty and Sayonara Dog, with an accompanying song no less (that remarkably ended up sounding a lot like the tune of Keep the Commandments), it was finally time to visit the Original Hello Kitty Store in Tokyo.
I’m not sure if I expected a factory, or a warehouse, but I know that...
Hallgrímskirkja Church, erected high on the hill in the city of Reykjavik, brags of her immense beauty, as she can be seen from nearly any point within the city. She stands as a beacon, with the wings of the church flanking her towering peak and resembling the pipes inside her. Yet, the exquisite beauty of Hallgrímskirkja is nothing compared...
We spent two days amongst the areas that were ravaged by the Atomic Bomb in Hiroshima, centered around the Atomic Bomb Dome. We learned about the past and present of nuclear weapons and Japan’s view of world history and World War II as the people there experienced it in real time. As we’ve come to learn through life experience,...
