April 28th, 2007 at 5:05 pm
by bradandgeorge (Japan, Travel)
We woke up later than usual; George’s cold was getting worse and she wasn’t feeling well. Brad went to get breakfast at Kyoto station – a chocolate chip melon bun, some nondescript sugary bun, and some orange juice. After eating we met Sage, Elise, and Riley for the quick bus ride to Tamahan. We were too early to check in, but they kindly took our bags.
We had already seen the major sites in eastern Kyoto (Kiyomizu-dera, etc.), so the five of us split up. Sage, Elise, and Riley went to the Gion area, and we headed for central Kyoto to see Nijo-jo (Nijo castle).
We had tried to see it in 2005, but we got there just after it closed. On the bus there, a cab cut us off and the driver had to slam on the brakes. He started tailing the taxi and honking, and the taxi would slam on his brakes forcing the bus to do the same. This went on for a bit, then the bus driver managed to pull to the right side of the car and started yelling over an external loudspeaker. The taxi was next to the bus but behind a boxy white car (sorta like a Scion xB). The bus and the white car both stopped, trapping the taxi. The driver then opened the door and continued yelling at the taxi driver over the speaker. The taxi driver yelled back at first, but then just sat there staring straight ahead. After a minute or so we were on our way again. Quite a bit of excitement to start the day, and a great way to work up an appetite.
Nijo-jo is the castle with the famous nightingale floors that were made to squeak when you walk on them (so no one could sneak in and kill the shogun). There were mannequins in some rooms to give you an idea of how it might have looked. In one room the shogun sat at the far end on a raised tatami section, while all the others bowed at the other end. Each room where the shogun sat had doors with red tassels hanging from them, behind which were the body guards, ready to open the doors and rush out. Many of the rooms had painted screens, all quite old and by famous artists of the Kano school. Pictures were not allowed, and there were a lot of guards around to make sure we didn’t break that rule.
The castle grounds included two large gardens. One garden was more Japanese in style, while the other one had western and Japanese elements. Some of the cherry trees still had quite a few blossoms, and when the wind blew they would float down like snow. There was an inner castle surrounded by another moat, but it’s only open on special occasions.
We took the subway north on our way to Kinkakuji (the golden pavilion), then stopped at Starbucks to use the bathroom. We figured some caffeine would do us good, so we got matcha (green) tea lattes.
We started to walk west, but realized it was quite a long way and decided to take the bus. We were starving, but we didn’t have time to stop at a restaurant. Along the path leading to the pavilion were some vending machines, and one of them sold cup noodles. Chop sticks were in a little bin in the bottom of the machine, and it had a hot water dispenser. George’s noodles were bigger and milder, with some of those white and pink fish cakes. Brad’s noodles were like regular cup noodles, but they had shrimp, octopus, veggies, and were a bit spicy. School kids on an outing sitting next to us thought it was funny that we were eating these noodles.
It started to rain as we neared the pavilion, but it was still quite pretty. It’s almost completely surrounded by water, which reflects the temple. A path lead up the hill behind the temple and provided more views. Some white guy took pictures of George – did he think she’s Japanese?
By now it was time to head back to Tamahan, so we caught a bus that would take us all the way back (a long way with many stops). At some point a crazy old man got on the bus and made everyone a bit uncomfortable. He was short and a bit round, with a brown jacket and black nylon pants with puffy box stitching (like a puffy down coat but smaller boxes). He spoke loudly and pushed his way forward on the bus. He got off fairly quickly though. Tamahan was about a block from the bus stop, and on the way there we stopped at a little shop that sold nothing but crunchy snack things – nuts with various shells and flavors, small round crackers, etc. We walked around the store followed by the woman working there and sampled all kinds of things. We ended up buying about four bags, including an ume-boshi cracker suggested by the employee.
Back at Tamahan, we were led to our rooms. The five of us had two rooms, one on top of the other. Both had their own baths and a nice view of a garden. We took the upstairs room with a nice view of a nearby temple.
We were to have a tea ceremony before dinner, but we had to wait for Sage, Elise, and Riley to get back. In trying to explain this, we almost canceled dinner – one of the main reasons we came to Tamahan. After a bit of back and forth with the kind lady, we scheduled dinner for 7:30pm (with sake) and breakfast for 7:30am.
Before dinner we took baths, but this time separately. We definitely couldn’t fit in the tub together! This one wasn’t too hot for Brad, but George liked it a lot more. At least the bathroom was clean.
Dinner was Kaiseki style – lots of small, artfully prepared dished. It was very good but felt a bit rushed (maybe because we had the latest dinner appointment).
We had planned to go out and walk the streets of Gion at night, but were too tired and decided to get some sleep. We called to have dinner cleaned up and we went upstairs. There was a knock on our door and we were offered some yummy green tea ice cream for dessert.
Once again, we slept on our futon beds on tatami. We love the buckwheat pillows they use on these beds; we’ll have to find some in the US.
We woke up ready for breakfast – another Kaiseki meal. Tea was already waiting downstairs. The breakfast was huge, and was actually better than the dinner. The highlight was a little paper cup filled with stock and some tofu. It was cold when they brought it into the room, and the cup was placed over a small flame until the tofu soup boiled. The water kept the paper cup from burning.
The meal included a lot of other things: fish, veggies, pickles (Brad does not understand the Japanese obsession with pickles), egg, and more.
Went upstairs to pack, again a bit too early – this time we nearly missed out on the coffee, but Elise came upstairs to deliver it.
We headed for Kyoto station to start our long journey to Shirakawago. Sage and Elise realized they left their camera charger at the Kyoto Century hotel; not only did the hotel have the charger, but they also saved the pennies Elise left there. What a nice gesture, and yet another reminder of how honest most people are in Japan!
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April 25th, 2007 at 6:09 pm
by george (Japan, Travel)
Unfortunately we didn’t get a photo of the amazing strawberries we had while we were in Japan. They were unlike anything we have ever tasted before – Brad doesn’t even enjoy strawberries, but he loved these ones! Elise and Sage originally got them while we were staying at Mt. Koya for Riley, and told us how delicious they were. It wasn’t ’til we got back to Tokyo that we got some at the store, and they lived up to our expectations. Here is a link about them. Yum!
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April 25th, 2007 at 8:30 am
by brad (Japan, Travel)
We’re back, but there are still more blog entries to come. If you want to wait for the details, the next one should be up tonight. A few people have said they just want pictures though, and we’ve got you covered as well – check out pictures.bradandgeorge.com for more pictures and movies than you’ll ever need.
There are also tons of great shots that we just didn’t have room to include with the text entries – we took over 3600 pictures over the course of this trip. There are two directories for most days – one for each camera.
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April 21st, 2007 at 5:16 pm
by brad (Japan, Travel)
If the number of pictures taken each day is any indication of success, our first full day in Kyoto was the best so far. We took almost 700 pictures – obviously we saw a lot.
We woke up and had breakfast in our room – some pastries we had bought the night before. Since none of us had done the famous philosopher’s walk in Kyoto, we all got on a bus headed for Ginkakuji – a temple marking the start of the walk.
The weather was absolutely perfect – partly cloudy with the sun going in and out of cloud cover, pleasantly cool and breezy. Ginkakuji had some of the nicest gardens we’ve seen, with meticulously manicured plants, ponds, gravel sculptures, and flowers. The caretakers there would get on their hands and knees, clean the grass with a brush, and carefully pick out even the smallest out of place bits.
The walk continued along a canal that flowed gently in the opposite direction, the water dotted with fallen cherry blossoms. For some reason there were almost no people around, and we walked in quiet for a long time.
Riley walked a good part of the way, pointing out all the flowers. Her sippy cup fell out of Sage’s bag and went right in the canal. As it floated away, Riley pointed at it and said “Uh oh!” The canal was shallow, but the bottom was about ten feet below us with no stairs leading down. Elise rolled up her jeans and lowered herself as much as possible using the plants for support, then jumped into the water to retrieve the cup.
The only crowd we saw on our walk was a group of people filming a movie on the canal.
A lot of the temples were closed along the walk (maybe that’s why it was so deserted), but there were a few we got to see. One big temple was basically empty, and we felt like we had the place to ourselves. We left our shoes at the front and walked through tatami rooms and down wooden walkways. The breezes got a bit stronger, and the air took on that electric feeling like it was about to rain – something that kept happening throughout the day without any actual rain. You could stand alone at the edge of a tatami room, look out over the ponds and listen to the flags flap in the wind – someone please buy us a house like this.
The last temple had more people, but it was far from what you’d consider crowded. Towards the back of the temple grounds was a large brick bridge (spanning nothing) held up by several arches. It looked just like a Roman aquaduct and seemed out of place, although it was pretty. We still haven’t found out why it was there or what it was for. Up the hill behind the bridge was another temple, but we decided not to go in (we were hungry and the description said something about frogs – definitely not George’s idea of a good time).
We walked back toward Gion and stopped at a restaurant that seemed to have a style of food we hadn’t tried yet. Both couples ordered the same thing – one pork, rice, and curry dish; and one pork, onion, and sprout dish. Both were delicious and a nice change of pace.
Elise, Sage, and Riley decided to head back to the hotel, so George and I marched on to Gion. We were hoping to get some tickets to the theater that night, and we wanted to check the schedule. Lucky for us we arrived about 20 minutes before a show was about to start – the 135th cherry blossom dance. I realized a bit later that this was the dance mentioned so many times in Memoirs of a Geisha. Anyway, the only seats left were “second class” – open seating on the balcony in tatami boxes. This actually worked out perfectly, because the tatami gave us enough room to spread out a bit, and we were far enough back that no one seemed to care if we took some pictures (it also felt more authentically Japanese for some reason). The dance started with several women playing instruments from rooms along the left and right walls of next to the lower seating area. Dancing maiko filled the stage. After that there were several dances, each one with a seasonal theme. The geisha wore ornate kimono, some of which were quite impressive. The whole show was great, and we felt like we really lucked out. The usual shows at the theater are geared towards tourists, but this show was mostly filled with Japanese people, including quite a few VIP types.
After the show, we walked the small streets of Gion. Geisha were all over – presumably hurrying from the show to various tea houses to entertain. We randomly decided to walk up one of the narrow side streets, and we came across a crowd of people, cameras at the ready. We guessed this was where the geisha exited the theater and we were now part of the Gion paparazzi. We waited long enough to see a couple geisha come out, but after about 15 minutes we lost interest and moved on.
We headed back to the hotel – a long walk through the restaurant section of town and then the shopping district. We stopped at the supermarket for food, and picked up all kinds of exciting looking things (yakitori, veggies, beer, some random box with shrimp and chicken, and chocolate cake). Once at the hotel, we found most of the food was pretty bad. It was a good thing we had bought way too much – there was enough of the better things for dinner.
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April 20th, 2007 at 5:50 am
by brad (Japan, Travel)
The train from Mt. Koya back to Osaka was long, and it wasn’t very nice. As much as we love the bullet trains, the old, slow commuter trains are kind of annoying. From Osaka we got on a faster and slightly more comfortable train to Nara. At the station we wanted to drop our heavy bags in the lockers, but a group of Australian girls led by a middle aged woman took the only big locker. The girls saw that we had big bags and suggested that we take the big locker, but the older woman said no. Instead she had all the girls pile their small bags in the locker. After a minute or so, a nice old Japanese couple came by to collect their stuff and offered us their locker. Japan: 1, Australia: 0. We managed to squish our stuff in two of the smaller lockers, but it took some doing.
By the time we got out of the train station, everyone was starving and we needed to find an ATM. A random bank employee, without being asked, pointed us in the direction of an ATM that would work with our cards. Lunch was the usual Japanese style tempura, rice, and various little dishes. I think leading up to that everyone was getting a little tired and grumpy, so the food helped a lot.
After lunch we headed toward the park section of town to find all the temples and shrines. Along the way we spotted a cool fountain and stopped for some pictures. A man on the street came up to us, gave us a brief history of the statue and of Nara, and then just walked away. I wasn’t sure if he was just really proud of his town or practicing his English, but either way it was pretty interesting stuff. He talked about how the priest wasn’t welcome in the city for quite a while, but then when he helped rebuild the city, the government wanted him back. I’ve said it before, but it’s amazing how friendly and helpful people are in Japan. Japanese people who visit places like LA must be shocked at how gruff everyone is.
We had read that Nara has some tame deer wandering the park, but we didn’t realize that they would be everywhere. You can buy little stacks of crackers to feed to them, and the deer are quite aggressive when they see those crackers. We were surrounded by deer bumping us with their heads – one even grabbed my sweater with its teeth and started pulling. It was entertaining, but most of the deer were a bit mangy and dirty. After about five minutes we started ignoring them completely. Here’s a tip: you don’t actually need the crackers if you really want to get up close and personal with a mangy deer. Just act like you have something in your hand and they will come to investigate.
The first big thing we saw was a five story pagoda. It was a reconstruction, but even the reconstructions here are old – this one was from the 1400’s.
Nara was filled with school children while we were there, and each group of children was led by an old Japanese person with a megaphone (presumably their teacher). The children loved the deer, perhaps a little too much. They were quite rambunctious, and they kept chasing the deer and annoying them. It was easy to feel sorry for them. They just want some crackers and some peace and quiet.
The one thing the kids loved even more than deer was Riley. She was a huge hit. Everywhere we went we were followed by screams of “Kawaii!” – Japanese for “cute”. Groups of children would stop Sage and Elise and get their picture taken with Riley. Some would rub her blond hair, which George said might be for luck. Riley was in an energetic mood, so it was fine for a while. Once she started getting tired it was too much for her, and the only thing Sage and Elise could do was put her in the stroller with a rain jacket draped over the top so no one would bother her.
Our next stop was the big buddha – according to the guide books this is the world’s largest bronze statue and is housed in the world’s largest wooden building. It’s hard to give a sense of scale in the pictures, but this thing was huge. You could easily stand four people in the palm of it’s hand.
The building was equally impressive – the exposed wooden beams showed hundreds of years of weather and aging. Inside there were a few models of the complex as it used to stand – the current building is quite a bit smaller than some previous versions, which were simply immense. It’s amazing that they were able to construct something so large without modern tools. Wherever we travel in the world, it seems like the most impressive buildings are religious ones.
Outside, a wall encloses the building and the lawns, and it’s lined with trees. Some of the cherry trees were still loaded with blossoms.
We walked through more of the park to a temple on the top of a hill. It had a steep staircase leading up to one of the buildings where we got a great view of the city. It was lightly raining, but not enough to be annoying.
We started to head back through a different section of the park and came across a red bridge, painted more brightly than others we’ve seen. We also stopped for some soft-serve green tea ice cream – yummy. We stumbled across a bus stop that took us straight back to the train station. The driver accepted our JR rail passes as payment, but we don’t think it was actually a JR bus. We think he was just being nice. We took a fairly quick train back to Kyoto.
Our travel agent Kiyomi, without whom we couldn’t have done all this, booked us in a hotel literally next door to the Kyoto train station (the Kyoto Century Hotel). After a long day of carrying all our crap, that was just what we needed. We dropped our stuff in the hotel and went in search of food. First on the list was Riley; she needed some fruit, bread, and other staples. We headed into a department store – big department stores in Japan have supermarkets on the bottom floor. Going to the market in Japan is always fun, and we spent a while just looking at everything on offer. We picked up some snacks and beer and got food for Riley.
Now it was time for our dinner, and everyone was too tired to get excited about anything. It was Elise’s birthday, but she wasn’t in the mood to really celebrate. We stopped at a sushi place near the top of the department store (the upper floors were restaurants, middle floors the usual department store stuff). Most of the things we tried to order were sold out, but it was fine. After that it was off to bed.
Overall we were really happy we went to Nara. It was a lot of work though, and we decided to cancel plans to go to Hiroshima and Miyajima the next day. It would have been 3 hours on the train to Hiroshima and three hours back, so we’d spend more time traveling than actually seeing things. Instead we decided to explore more of Kyoto.
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April 17th, 2007 at 4:58 am
by brad (Japan, Travel)
We woke up fairly early in Osaka and packed up for our trip to Mt. Koya. We had a reservation to spend the night at a Buddhist temple and we wanted time to explore the surrounding mountain town. We bought our tickets at the train station in Osaka without realizing that we could have gotten tickets on a faster train. Luckily someone at the station showed us how to upgrade our tickets. There is always someone in Japan eager to help – it’s just amazing. We bought breakfast at the store and ate on the train – mostly rice and sushi. After about an hour and a half we got on the small cable car for a five minute ride to the top of the mountain, then a bus ride to our temple – Shojoshin-in.
When we got to the temple they couldn’t find our reservation, and we were worried that something got screwed up. After they saw my name written on my passport, they found what I think was my name written in Japanese on one of the reservations (all the other western names were in English). We had to pay in advance, which led to another scare when we couldn’t find enough Yen (George saved the day by finding an envelope with Yen in our bags). We got the tour of the temple, including the bathing room, the toilet (western toilet thankfully – I’m still too worried that something will go wrong if I ever have to try a squat toilet). Our rooms were very simple but comfortable with tatami floors, a low table, a heater (it was very cold in the temple), and a TV. The TV seemed a bit out of place, but I’ve noticed in Japan that they don’t have the same distaste for technology that we do in certain circumstances. They gave us two adjacent rooms separated by a sliding screen that we opened to create one big room. We left our bags and went for a walk.
We started down a long path lined on both side by thousands and thousands of graves. Good pictures were everywhere, and we couldn’t walk 10 feet without stopping to take some more. Finally we had to cut ourselves off or we’d never make it through the cemetery.
At the end was a large temple where cameras weren’t allowed. I’m a horrible person though, so I took pictures and video (discreetly). Nothing really came out anyway.
After that we walked back to town. We got some snacks along the way – sticky bus with red bean paste and some weird gelatinous stuff covered in finely ground peanuts (I much preferred the bun). We tried to find an ATM, which we did, but it was all in Japanese and we were too scared to put our card in. By this time we were starving, so we ducked into a little restaurant with attractive plastic food in the window (we are experts at judging the quality of a restaurant based solely on the plastic display food). We ordered and assortment of noodles, rice with chicken and egg (the waitress’ suggestion and quite good), and two huge beers. Sufficiently fed and inebriated, we headed to another interesting looking temple.
This second temple was quite old and all the sliding screens were covered in beautiful paintings. Signs everywhere said we weren’t allowed to photograph or even sketch the screens, and my guilt about the previous pictures kept me from snapping any more forbidden shots. We did take a lot of pictures of the rest of the place though, which included Japan’s largest rock garden (supposedly meant to look like dragons in the clouds, but we couldn’t make them out).
It was surprisingly empty, so we got some great shots of Riley alone in the huge temple grounds. She wanted to walk everywhere and wouldn’t let anyone carry her. We were about to leave when George suggested we try one last hallway. We were greeted by a small woman with tea and cookies, and she directed us into a large tatami room with red carpet. We sat and had our tea and cookies (somewhat concerned that we were eating an offering, but when Japanese people did it we felt ok), then headed out. We had to be back at Shojoshin-in for dinner by 5:30.
Along the way I tried to get George some Tylenol for her worsening sore throat, but ended up with Codeine instead. That’ll work.
We waited in our rooms to be called to dinner, which was served just down the hall in another private room. I think they normally would serve dinner in our room, but they wanted to sit us together. All the food served at the temple is vegetarian, and it was surprisingly varied. If they hadn’t mentioned that it was all veggie, I never would have noticed. There was amazing tempura (somehow cooled without getting soft), different kinds of tofu (including a really soft tofu that I liked but most of the others did not), pickles, rice, two soups (one with some sort of amazing ginger thingy), and more. We hung out for a long time in the room talking and playing with Riley.
The baths at the temple are only open from 4-9, so our only option was to bathe before bed. There are separate boys’ and girls’ baths, but I wasn’t really interested in bathing with random people, so we decided to just take one bath per couple. Sage and Elise went first while George and I watched Riley sleep. Sage and Elise were immediately caught, but I don’t think anyone really cared. George and I decided to be more careful, and after a couple aborted trips to the bath we finally found it empty. We hurried in and locked the door. George loved it, but I didn’t think it was worth the effort. It was way too hot for me. It was nice to be warm when we got into bed though – it was freezing. I think we fell asleep around 8pm.
We slept with the screens open, and Riley cried a few times in the night but quieted down almost immediately. Elise took her out to play at some point during the night, and later woke up to find Riley happily playing on her own. She’s been quite independent the last couple days. Around 6am the monks started their prayers, and we sat in the back to watch. It was a dark room, lit by candles and filled with incense. The walls were black and gold, with lots of little rectangular things along the back wall. There was red carpet on the floor, and something like a shrine in the middle. One monk sat at the shrine, another sat to the left, and a third arrived late and looking tired. The woman who ushered us into the room sat off to the right. They started chanting – non-stop rhythmic chanting that went on for quite a while. Occasionally the monk on the left would strike a large ceramic looking bowl, which would resonate with an interesting sound, or he’d bang cymbals, all while chanting. The tired monk just kind of hummed along, wiping his eyes and looking a bit out of it. There was an old couple there who looked like they might have just come from a funeral, and at one point they were taken to the back of the room behind the shrine. They emerged with a handful of stuff (looked like papers mostly), and that was pretty much it.
Breakfast was served in the same room as dinner – similar style and just as tasty. As we were packing we noticed that it was raining, so we got prepared for the worst. We waited at the covered bus stop in the rain, on our way to Nara.
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April 16th, 2007 at 3:57 pm
by brad (Japan, Travel)
We were a bit worried that we wouldn’t get a seat on the train to Osaka, but it was pretty easy. The train took two or three hours, and the sights out the window weren’t particularly interesting. We did snap a picture of this statue though – this seems to be the default pose for most Japanese when they are taking pictures too.
We got off the train at Shin-Osaka station, which it turns out is not the same as Osaka station. After searching for the shuttle, we finally got on another train bound for Osaka station. Then we got on the shuttle to the Rihga Royal Hotel, which it turns out is not the same as the Rihga Grand Hotel. This was becoming a theme. Another detour there, but it didn’t take that long.
After checking in (the Grand is nowhere near as nice as the Royal, although it was totally fine), we were starving. A hotel employee pointed us in the direction of Namba, where there is a food/entertainment district. It was loud, hectic, crowded, and fun. We wandered for a bit before picking a restaurant at random. We later found out it’s one of the more famous restaurants in Osaka (Kuidaore). From the inside you would never know there was such commotion on the street. It was quiet and relaxing. We ordered a few random things from the non-English menu, and ended up with a huge variety of stuff: shabu-shabu, amazing tempura, sashimi, noodles, sauces, and veggies. The waitress walked us through making our own octopus balls – she brought out some molds heated by a flame, and you fill the molds with a batter. Then you drop in the octopus, sprinkle on some random stuff, then wait. She told us not to touch anything until she came back. After a while, separate the balls and flip them over to cook the other side. Once the flame dies out, you serve covered with bonito, nori, and bbq sauce.
As always, Riley was a huge hit with the locals. The waitress gave her a wind-up ladybug toy that would wheel around in circles and occasionally flip over. Riley was not impressed – she would pull away from the toy and shake her head “no”. Elise gave her some layered tofu (yuba), and she absolutely hated it. She started crying and didn’t know what to do with this stuff in her mouth. She was a champ though, and she always calms down almost immediately when something goes wrong.
After eating, we tried to find this floating garden that’s hundreds of feet in the air and reachable only by an exposed glass elevator. In keeping with the theme of the train station and hotel mixups, we found our way to a different rooftop garden that was not nearly as impressive. It was a good spot to plan our next move, which was to head to the aquarium – Riley had never really seen fish!
We took a cab to the aquarium, and it was a nice way to see the city; on the train you never really know where you are and all you see are tunnels. Riley promptly fell asleep on the way, so she missed the entire aquarium. The quiet dark halls were perfect for her nap though. This was also George’s first aquarium, and it was one of the best I’ve ever been to.
We were absolutely worn out once we got back to the hotel, and we almost fell asleep right away. Sage, Elise, and Riley went to bed, so George and I went in search of dinner. We found another food district – expecting something quieter than the street in the afternoon but finding something even more hectic. 
Before eating, we stopped in a pet store. The front of the store was fairly normal, although some of the dogs and cats were kind of funny looking. As we walked deeper into the store, it got dirtier and way more sketchy. They had monkeys in small cages, an owl, a goose, and all kinds of exotic animals that did not look happy. We left and wandered into a yakitori (skewers) restaurant. Everyone sat around a central bar, and they placed the skewers on a warmed metal shelf running the length of the bar.
The chef cooked everything over an open wood flame, and all the staff screamed back and forth as they delivered food. 
A few beers and a lot of skewers later, we were spent. We didn’t have the energy to try some of the more adventurous things on the menu…
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April 13th, 2007 at 1:29 pm
by brad (Japan, Travel)
We didn’t get as much sleep as we’d like, but Sage and Elise got almost nothing. Riley woke up around 1:30 am local time, so they are operating on just a few hours of sleep. Hopefully the bullet train will give us a chance to have a nap.
We’re not sure what internet access we’ll have, but hopefully it won’t be hard to find free wireless.
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April 13th, 2007 at 5:10 am
by brad (Japan, Travel)
We’ve arrived at our friends’ apartment in Tokyo. Getting here takes a lot of energy – I feel kind of delirious right now.
It started when we arrived at LAX to find a check-in line that wasn’t moving. We got there 3.5 hours early and still barely made it to our flight. I forgot to request an aisle seat, so I couldn’t stand up whenever I wanted without forcing someone to get up as well. There were high crosswinds when we landed in Tokyo, which made for a pretty dramatic landing.
After another 1.5 hours on the trains, we dropped Sage, Elise, and Riley at their hotel and took a cab to the apartment. I have to say that Riley is the best behaved baby I’ve ever been around. She is just so mellow.
We went out to sushi with RT and Kari at a cool place with tatami floors.
Ok – I have to get some sleep. I’m dizzy.
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April 9th, 2007 at 5:26 pm
by george (Japan, Travel)
Funny how after all these years, everyone else blogs, but we don’t. Since our vacation to Japan is just around the corner, I had Brad install WordPress so that we can be part of the blogging world too. It took about an hour to figure out what our theme would be, and we finally decided on this cool dusky theme. There were so many to choose from, but we’re happy with this. We’ve got a couple days to pack and get organized for our trip. Can’t wait. It is pathetic to say I’m going crazy thinking about the food? But also extremely excited that we are going back to Kyoto, and going to new places too. Yay for blogging! Yay for vacations!
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