Day 14 - Tokyo to Boston

Day 13 - Tokyo

Day 12 - Kyoto

Day 11 - Kyoto

Day 10 - Kyoto

Day 9 - Beppu

Day 8 - Beppu

Day 7 - Matsuyama

Day 6 - Matsuyama

Day 5 - Koyasan

Day 4 - Nagano

Day 3 - Nagano

At just about every temple we visited there was a priest or some official who would provide a calligraphic signature for that temple for a small cost - usually about 300 yen. Alex and I made a game out of seeing who could collect the most signatures (he won, of course). I like the way the sketches work with the signatures. There are more of these to come.

Day 2 - Tokyo to Matsumoto

Day 1 - Arrive in Tokyo

(This is Ken and Alex's Excellent Adventure in Japan - our first overseas trip together and it started in Tokyo. The next couple of weeks I plan to post my sketches from this trip.)

My son, Alex, has wanted to go to Japan for a long time - at least since he was 4 or 5. So, when the opportunity came along for us to travel it was the obvious first choice for our first overseas trip. I had been on a couple of tours with Gap Adventures - Thailand and Ecuador - so when I found a tour that was featuring Temples, Castles, and Hot Springs I signed us up for it. The trip we took follows along with this itinerary from Gap.

Tokyo

First sketches from Japan. The one on the left was done by Alex at the first restaurant in Tokyo near the Shinjiku Star Hotel. It is a sketch of a tile on the wall in the room we ate in with the tour group. The sketch on the right was from outside our hotel looking across the street. Alex and I both couldn`t sleep so we wandered the streets of Tokyo from 3 to 5 in the morning exploring and started sketching when it got light.

We`re visiting the castle in Matsomoto today and then visiting Zenkoji Temple later.