Japan day 5: Kyoto -> Tokyo

     We get up and head out at 9am to a coffee shop Bailley found that was close. Coffee and food was fantastic, but the odd thing... everyone kept taking pictures of the building. Not just customers, people would walk in, take pictures, and then leave. 

    We decide to hit a few more places before going back to Tokyo. We check out of the ryokan and head to  a close shrine, Heian Jinju. 

    The gate is huge and is a 5:8 replica of a palace gate that was destroyed. 

    Then a walk to the metro to get to the instagram famous bamboo forest, Arashiyama Bamboo Forest. Very beautiful, but VERY crowded. Also, so many signs of no photos and small trails that said no entry, yet people were disregarding everything. For such a pretty and organized culture, this felt really bad to me. I guess social media can bring some bad things.

  The gardens were super pretty and just immaculate. 

   We take the metro to Kyoto station and struggle to buy Shinkansen tickets at the kiosk. So we go to what we think is a 'travel agency adjacent something' but while we wait I hop on an app. Looks like I can buy from the app and then we just deal with turnstile again, oh well.

    We buy a bunch of food for the ride and make our way to the platform. This time, no QR scanning issues! Not sure why, but we're through. We board and enjoy another 180mph train ride back to Tokyo. Now it's about 6pm when we get to Tokyo station, so it's popping! Tokyo station to Shinjuku to Hatagaya was some hot and crowded metro lines... but we did it.

    There was a little talk of going back out, but after everyone sat down a minute, a more sane 'wash clothes and relax' mentality came out. Madison did end up ducking out for some sake (and hopefully beer for me), but back soon. 

    A bit of rest before Tokyo Disney... man... what have I gotten into.

Japan day 4

     Up somewhat early again, early enough that we find it difficult to find anything open any way. So we walk until our trusty 7/11 or Lawson's shows up and we dive in for food and drinks. Food is consistently good, but we struggle to find a place to place to sit and eat. We finally commandeer a bench outside a closed office. It'll do fine.

    From there we decide to just taxi to Shariden Kinkaku, the golden temple. 

    Spectacular temple and sites. Also very crowded. Seems like it was field trip day in Kyoto and all the busses are right here with us :) . We decided to taxi again (yeah, seems so easy and we're getting so lazy and tired at this point) to the next stop, Imamiya Jinja Shrine. 

    Stunning and waaaaaaay less crowded. And even cooler, some ceremony started while we were there just browsing and relaxing.

    Then a taxi (ouch... sounds a lot worse typing this out) to a market. And man do I mean a market! I think down the main hall, I could see the curvature of the earth! This place had everything, and I do mean everything. 

   After lots of exploring, we end up splitting up. I grab some tempura shrimp at the market and eat before heading to a brewery that was to be our reconvene point. I rest and drink some good local beer while I wait on the girls. Eventually we all gather and decide to split up again. Madison and Bailley going to a knife shop and Abigail and I going to the Kyoto Museum. We start the 2 mile walk back after the museum, but eventually ditched about a mile in and, shocker, called a taxi. Madison and Bailley weren't far behind and oddly, did a similar attempt to walk then ditch strategy.

    We/I nap a bit and rest, before deciding to use our second wind to hit on of the most instagram famous sites, Fushimi Inari Taisha shrine. It was dusk and starting to drizzle when we got there. Was it crowded? Yes, but I'm sure not nearly as bad as during the day. Did the mist/drizzle make it seem more mystical? Oh definitely so. 

    Spectacular shrine and the gates didn't disappoint. It's basically a hike up a mountain and the path is lined with torii gates. Oh, PSA: This waiting for crowds of people to stop while someone takes 20 pictures each of 5 different poses, THEN SWAPS WITH THEIR PARTNER TO REPEAT has got to stop for the good of all humanity, please! 

    We are about at the midway point and it's basically light rain now and dark. At that point we were discussing keeping going to the top or starting the walk down. When all of a sudden this big Italian family comes scurrying by us, almost running and even pushing us. I think to myself, "Americans have the bad rep, but look here, that's just uncalled for!" when the last older gentlemen scurries by and he looks me in the eye and says "bear". Umm, ok, very scurry worthy! I grab Madison and pull her closer to us and we make a hasty retreat back to the main area. So, basically, we narrowly avoided a bear attack... whew!

    It's raining now, so we look for the first place we see where we can get out of the rain. Huh, a metro station. Wow, I guess we haven't been trying very hard with public transit in Kyoto LOL. 

    We take the metro back north and pop up to look for food and a pharmacy (normal vacation stuff for us it seems). We ducked into a place and had ramen and gyoza. No metro runs east enough for the ryokan (I at least looked this time), so we taxied back for our second and final collapse of the day!

    

Japan day 3: Tokyo -> Kyoto

     Hmmm... so much for going to bed late and getting up late, I'm tied to the sun. 5:30am. Ok, doesn't matter. I get up and put most of the clothes we washed on a drying rack while waiting for 7am bakery opening. Bailley got up before 7 as well, so it's not just me. At 7 I walk to a local bakery and grab just a few things for everyone to share. So scrumptious. 

    We all get ready and do a light sub-packing-pack using just our backpacks for our 2-3 days in Kyoto. Walk, a couple of metro lines, and we're in Tokyo station. Whoa Nellie, this is a big station. And to make it feel even larger, it's attached to a mall? Multiple malls? We explore a bit and then everyone goes and gets a drink and some food for the train. Most Japanese trains and metros we were told not to eat or drink, but the Shinkansen (bullet train) is fine. Oh, speaking of rules on the metro, there's no talking, no phone conversations, no nothing... just amazing silence. After we get food and just chill a minute, we make our way to the Shinkansen area. The entrance turnstiles are different, so we watch a minute... ok... scan train QR code then tap Suica... boom... we got this. Well, not so much. We got in line for help and the person evidently had to do special scanning and the Suica taps to let us through, but we made it.

    This is our train pulling up. The thing to notice is all the blue uniformed people are each exit/entrance to the train. They are cleaners. They attacked that train like it's the SWAT olympics. Cleanliness in general in this country is no joke.

    Got a short glimpse or the very top of Mt. Fuji! It's supposed to rain on the return trip, so I think this was our best shot.

    Made it to Kyoto station and then grabbed a taxi to the Ryokan.

    The person who showed us to our room also showed us how to use the tea set and how to dress properly in our kimonos. 

    She also would come back and make matcha for us. After the matcha, we just explored the grounds a little and chilled. Later they came and escorted us to dinner. Wow, we had such a great time... so much food and very very good. 

    Then the girls went to the onsen and I went back to start resting up for tomorrow.

    

Japan day 2

     Up at 4:30am again, but back to sleep a few hours. Finally out to get breakfast to bring back and eat. Not a lot open, but we are successful.

    We get ready and go to Meiji Jingu shrine. Lots of walking but, just so beautiful... naturally and the shrine itself. We did the washing after entering, made a wish, and even went to the altar for a prayer. 

    We walked around through the garden area until almost 11am. Nice... right outside was a metro station, so we hopped on going to EDW Yellow. We exit the metro, pop up, huh... we're in the Shibuya scramble... in fact we did the scramble! A short walk to EDW Yellow and a line. However, it moved faster than expected and soon we were sitting down.

    The omurice was great, but I think maybe the French toast we split stole the show.

    After that, we split up, with the girls exploring and shopping, and me headed back to rest a bit. We all finally convened at the airBnB and all got some rest. Hopefully enough to do more things at night and hopefully sleep past 4am. 

    We took the metro to Shinjuku station and explored from there. Shinjuku is probably what everyone thinks of when thinking of Tokyo, lot's of big buildings and neon are far as you can see. It's also the home of Tokyo's red light district, but very conspicuous and discreet compared to other places. We finally made it to stop one: the Godzilla head! Very cool. Even got to see the last animated roar for the night.   

    After that we took a short walk to Omoide Yokocho (Memory Lane). A famous alley of small restaurants and bars. We eat, drink, chat, and laugh (and drink more). 

    Then we all made our way back to the rental. Hey, finally out past 10:30pm... look at us!

Japan day 1

     I work up at 4:47 this morning... weird... it's light outside. Sunrise is at 4:27am... wowza. I finally go back to sleep, but everyone is starting to get up pretty early. I'm not sure if it's due to it being Sunday, or if it's just normally like this, but not a whole lot is open before 10:00am. That's ok, we get in another of our "must do's"... a short walk to buy food and drinks from a 7/11. Very tasty that first 7/11 egg salad sandwich. It has the hype for good reason. 

    We all clean up a bit, dress, and look at how best to get to the MORI digital art exhibit, teamLab. Turns out, a taxi was waaaay quicker and not too expensive. A bit of a fun walk/wait due to all the one way streets around the apartment, ie. the taxi can't easily get anywhere. But in the end, we found each other. A nice ride to the museum. We were early and it's inside a huge plaza, so we did some exploring and found a great coffee shop and grabbed some drinks and snacks. 

    Ok, close to time so we walk and enter the exhibit. Wow, it was really great. We stayed inside almost two hours. I'll post a few pictures, but everyone's favorite seemed to be the room with the lighted balls. A cool runner up was the Lilly pads where you could affect the 'fish' buy moving your hands.

    Art seen, we take another taxi to the post office where we pick up the baseball game tickets we ordered. Post office? Ummm... ok... that's what it said. 

    Tickets in hand, we walk to the metro for a short ride, then long walk around the Tokyo Dome to our entrance. A section in the outfield which was also the cheering section! And if you haven't seen Japanese baseball games and cheering, well, it's insane and pretty much constant. 

    Got food and beer (yay beer!) and enjoyed and even joined in the chants and singing! Afterwards, we take the metro all the way back to the apartment. It's going to be a short rest before maybe some dinner, and probably a pretty early crash. Great day for sure, but we're (or at least me) definitely needing to catch up on rest.

Japan travel day

     Well, this trip started off with a bit more excitement than we wanted. Two delayed flights on the first legs and one missed alarm to leave for the first leg! But, surprisingly, we all made it to our last flight ok. Abigail, Bailley, and I were on the same San Francisco to Tokyo flight and Madison was on a Vancouver to Tokyo flight landing at almost the same time.

    This was my first time in business class and boy howdy it was nice! 

    The only issue was that I needed a primer on "what to do in business class" before I got to try it. The attendant, Suzuki, knew my name as I boarded and proceeded to redo/fix everything I did for the first half of the flight... definitely a learning experience! 

    We land and deplane and meet Madison at immigration. 

    Once past immigration and the customs, we hit the only real issues so far. Getting from Narita airport to Shibuya/Shinjuku. The Skyline requires a different ticket and doesn't use Suica... so all our prepping and planning kind of hit a snag. But we finally got help, bought tickets, and after a wait got on the correct train. Thirty minute or so ride to Shinjuku then on to the local lines. 

    There, Suica in affect, we negotiated a few transfers and then a walk and we are at the apartment. The owner met us there and gave us a run down on everything. Most importantly, they gave us some ramen recommendations that were close and left a ton of Japanese snacks and candies! 

    We take a minute to regroup, then had back out for food. As we were trying to find a ramen place, we ran into the house owner, who basically hand led us to a place and showed us what to do. Well, that still wasn't enough, because we struggled a bit. At the door, you used a machine to pick what you want and it printed tickets. Then you give the cook the tickets and waited. Well, first, you couldn't select any of the meals. Oh, maybe money in first. But then the machine wouldn't take my bills. Finally my first "sumimasen"... ah, evidently you can't use a 10,000 yen bill. She gives me a 5,000 and 5 1,000 yen bills. Hmmm... won't take the 5,000 yen bill either.... oh, maybe the 1,000 right above the bill slot is telling us something. Ok, we finally get ordered and wait. Wow... the wait was worth it. Fantastic ramen in a tiny place all together. We sat, slurped, and exchanged dishes until we were all full.

    A short walk back to the apartment, get ready for bed, and crash.

St Lucia to home travel day

​Well… and just like that another vacation comes to an end.

A few last pics from the rental overlooking the pitons…

A few bites to ‘clean out’ the fridge of leftovers, then on the road to the airport. The airport can’t be more than 15 or so miles away… which is definitely an hour or more. Oddly, we have adapted to the driving so well, that the drive was pretty quiet… no constant ‘stay on the left!’ or ‘I’m not sure, but it loooooks like we should be going on the straight, left-ish road’, just drive and chat and discuss the trip. It’s weird, but the only thing I still periodically got wrong was the blinker… not that people used them a lot… but it was on the left of the steering column, and that never completely felt natural. I guess I didn’t use it enough to get that pure muscle memory. 

Bye bye trusty jimney.

On to the next trip!!!