I thought you would like to hear a little about my 10 day trip to Japan this fall. You would? Alright.
I loved my brief time in Japan. I really could have spent some more time there, I think, although travel weariness was setting in. For me, the most unique part of the experience was not being able to speak or understand any part of the language. I'm used to at least having some experience with the language when I travel, or for there to be a lot of English words derived from the language (think German) so that I at least feel comfortable on my own. This was not the case at all. Although I could easily follow words like beiru (beer) in restaurant settings, I don't think I could have ever arrived at the restaurant on my own. For this reason I was completely dependent on my brother, Josh, as a tour guide and day to day life guide.
I have to say I handled the situation pretty well, considering my tendency to be the travel guru in most situations. There were some other words I did learn that helped along the way, like "suimasen!!" and "arigato gozaimas!" (this is how it is spelled in my head).
So the trip was very short but we did a lot of things. The first two days in Tokyo were raining because there was a typhoon (that's another word I learned-typhoo) coming to the islands so we spent some time in fancy shopping malls where you can buy melons for 300 dollars or something ridiculous. And I mean cantaloupe. In a box. We also went to a 5 story (maybe more) video arcade which was one of my things I wanted to do. We played Mario Kart and Guitar Freaks, and just looked at funny games. Josh's birthday was great, we went out with Tomoko and some of his students to a fantastic restaurant and ate sashimi and other great things. I tried some sake. And it rained. Which was actually fun because we got to walk around with umbrellas, and lots of shops have these plastic bag umbrella bags that you put on your umbrella (and yes, I know, it's a green living sin) but some places had these plastic bag umbrella machines which put the bag on for you. Wow! It's the little things like this that I love.
Then we took a 3-4 day trip to Kyoto, Hiroshima, and Fukuoka. Highlights? Seeing Geisha leprechauns in Kyoto at night, almost passing out from a panic attack in a shrine with 1001 statues of Buddha, Peace Museum, conveyor belt sushi, and okonomiyaki and tayaki. I won't tell you what those are.
The rest of the days in Tokyo we relaxed, walked a lot, went to see the Emperor's palace, tried to find funny stationary and succeeded at the last minute, and I probably annoyed Josh with wanting to go to so many cute stores. Oh and there was this great festival for a founder of a sect of Buddhism at this temple, with all these lanterns, it was great. I kept imagining that I was doing this travel blog and all the things I would say. It was that type of thing.
Next trip? Disney Sea, Hello Kitty World, cat cafe, tea ceremony, sumo, and more food. I will miss good Japanese food. :(
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