Here are some photographs of some of the places and things we tentatively plan to experience in Japan:

Tokyo

Tokyo as viewed from a skyscraper near Harajuku.

Shibuya, one of the wards of Tokyo full of shopping and nightlife.

Some modernist architecture in Tokyo.

Ah, the bento box - staple of the Japanese lunch cuisine. Here we have chicken and asparagus, omlet, daikon radish, pickles, and a root vegetable. We will probably eat a few of these.

The bullet train (known as Shinkansen) which we will take from Tokyo to Kyoto.

Kyoto

Kyoto is Japan's most historic city. The capital for more than 1000 years, there are more than 3000 temples and shrines within the city itself.

Kinkakuji: The Temple of the Golden Pavilion. The famous novelist Yukio Mishima wrote a historical novel about the mentally disturbed zen student who burned the temple down in 1950.

Ryoranji: The Temple of the Peaceful Dragon. This Temple has a famous rock garden. In the class, we will read a recent Nature article about the spatial configuration of the rocks.

The Kamo River that runs through Kyoto. This is during the 'sakura' season, when Kyoto becomes awash in a sea of pink flowering cherry trees. During this time there are many hanabi (flower parties) in which the Japanese drink sake under the trees.

Most Shrines and Temples are marked by orange Tori Gates like this one in Kyoto.

The Fushimi-Inari shine in Kyoto is a several mile long procession of Tori gates like these that wind up a mountain. It is a shrine to economic success.

In most shrines there are these wooden placards (pronounded 'ima') on which you write your wishes and hang in the hopes that they come true.

A fire festival at a temple on the side of one of the mountains surrounding Kyoto in which you can walk barefoot across a 50 foot long pile of burning embers of the fire. The fire consists of the wooden placards noted above - the burning of this year's wishes.

Here is someone walking across the fire.

In western Kyoto, you can climb a mountain where, at the top, there is a monkey park, home to about 500 Japanese macaques like this one, and a wonderful view of the city. You can feed the monkeys, too.

Lanterns at dusk at a temple in Kyoto.

We will sample Kyoto 'kaiseki' food. This style of food in which one has many small servings of food delicately and intricately prepared to reflect the flavor of the season.

In a section of Kyoto called Gion, there are still Geisha (technically Maiko) that walk around and go to restaurants to perform dances.

Nara

We may make a side trip to Nara, a city near Kyoto, where tame deer walk through the streets.

In Nara is the largest wooden building in the world - the Temple of Daibutsu.

A wooden buddha at the Daibutsu temple. If you have an illness in a certain part of your body, and touch the same part of this buddha, it will cure you.

Hiroshima

Hiroshima has long played an important role in the history of Japan, but it is today best known for being the location where the first atomic bomb was dropped. We will visit Hiroshima to view the memorial, which includes a museum and the 'atomic bomb dome' - a former industrial hall that was the only building left partially standing at ground zero.

Paper cranes left at the memorial.

On August 6, people from all over the world go to Hiroshima and light lanterns and float them down the Miyogawa river. They write prayers on the sides of the lanterns. By the end of the night, the entire river is covered by tens of thousands of lanterns.