Japan Travels

Japan, January 2017


Last summer, my brother invited me on a trip that seemed like it'd be the trip of a lifetime. We planned on traveling to the eastern hemisphere. This gave 6 months to plan all the details (he did most of the planning).

Taipei
I met Scott and his friend at the Chicago airport Friday evening of December 30th. After a long flight, we arrived to Taipei January 1st at 6am... We missed all of the New Years celebrations! In Taipei, we walked around, saw sights, and met up with friends who were coincidentally in the same city at the same time (thanks to Facebook for letting us know).

Tokyo

After a nine hour layover, we boarded a plane to Tokyo and arrived with jet lag feelings worse than a hangover. Our AirBnB for the week was located in a quiet neighborhood slightly outside the city. In the mornings, I rose before the sun, and ran through the streets only to hear the pitter-patter of my shoes and the occasional crow announcing my passing. I have admired the agility and stealth of ninjas since my childhood and this was a dream come true to run through the dark streets of Japan (no, ninjas didn't live in Tokyo and no, they didn't wear black).

Quality model shot! 

Our time in Tokyo was filled with temples, shrines, walking, and food. My travel mates have a detailed journal of the places we visited and foods we ate. We walked at least 10 miles everyday and managed to find our way around thanks to Google maps!

   

Kyoto
Kyoto was the next city on the list. We took a 3 hour walking tour once we arrived and were introduced to the main cultural aspects of the area-- temples, shrines, Geiko girls, and exclusive loyal-customer restaurants. Our AirBnB was in a quiet neighborhood and more traditional inside. Our beds were traditional mattresses on the floor upstairs and the walls welcomed the outside's winter air. When in Kyoto, you can visit the monkey park, bamboo forest, temples, see many people dressed in colorful kimonos, learn the traditions of a tea ceremony, and visit markets. We did it all! Another highlight of the trip was a 6 course lunch. We were the only guests for the two hour period. Boy, the hot tea flowed and we sampled mysterious dishes! One day, we took a side trip to Nara and Iga to see wild deer and the ninja museum.

 
Next, we took a train to Hiroshima and arrived before the city woke up for the day. We visited the peace memorials. The city was very calm. For lunch, we at Japanese pancakes! Next, we took a train and boat ferry to Miyajima island-- famous for the shrine arch in the water. 

Lunch in Kyoto

Our hotel was a traditional Japanese ryokan. They greeted us with tea and sweets. We wore kimono robes to dinner and sampled more mysterious food. The hotel had a public bathhouse where you can bathe and relax in the different baths and sauna rooms. After the hot bath, an entire counter is dedicated to hygiene and beauty maintenance. :-)


Okinawa
Just like all the previous mornings, we woke up early (first enjoyed another bath and breakfast) and caught a flight to the South Island, Okinawa. Our dreams of warmth on the beach were replaced with the reality of grey skies and chilly weather. On the bright side, we got to experience driving on the left side of the road (with a rental car) and had an AirBnB with plenty of space to spread out. While in Okinawa, we went whale watching, explored a castle, visited the museum (Battle of Okinawa) visited the aquarium, and hiked a mountain. Whale watching consisted of 3 hours fighting nausea and 15 minutes of spotting whales. It was pretty cool but that may have been my last time.

Okinawa

purple "ube" ice cream

Back in Tokyo for 3 days and we felt like pros navigating the city. Our hotel had another bath house (cha-Ching!). We went to a sumo-wrestling tournament and a Robot Restaurant to watch a robot show (robots moved around and people-performers danced and sang).


Japan surprised me with its extremely kind people and rich culture. It was tricky navigating and ordering food with the Japanese characters, but we managed!