Sorry in advance, because this is a very long post! I've had a great week with my family! Last week I didn't do much but work at the Board of Education until Wednesday. On Thursday Leah came over to my house for breakfast before we both headed to the airport! We flew up to Tokyo and I could see Mt. Fuji from the plane window! We made it to our hotel pretty quickly and hung out waiting for my parents to arrive. They were scheduled to get in a few hours after us, so we explored a little and found a beautiful cherry tree garden. We walked around before grabbing a snack by the hotel. After a bit of food we decided to go wait in the lobby, but as we walked to the hotel we saw their bus pull in! We all got settled into our rooms before Leah and I showed my parents the garden we'd found near by. By then it was getting late so we decided to get a bit more food and a drink at the top of our hotel at a lounge where we could see a beautiful view of Tokyo. It was a great first night!
The next day we were up early and headed straight for Ueno Park. Ueno Park is one of the most popular parks in Tokyo with almost 9,000 trees. It's especially popular now because of the beautiful cherry trees. The park is also lined with museums and a zoo. We walked around the park for a few hours, stopping at different shrines and 屋台 (yatai, small food carts). We eventually got lunch at a cafe with a table outside to enjoy the weather and sights. We saw many women in kimono's walk by and later found there was a kimono event being held near the museum! In the afternoon we headed over to Asakusa to see the famous shrine there. We again walked around for a while before eventually returning back to the hotel after a short coffee break. We rested a bit at the hotel and waited for Mike to arrive. My parents were a bit tired, so they turned in early and Mike, Leah, and I all went for a quick dinner. Mike went to bed after dinner, but Leah and I stayed out a bit later to enjoy Shibuya!
Saturday was Mike's first full day in Tokyo, so we decided to have a nerdy day! We started by going to the new MegaTokyo Pokemon Center and exploring around the Ikebukuro area. After exploring for a bit we got back on the train and went to Akihabara. We again walked around, played some UFO games, and window shopped. We'd gotten a late start and between over an hour of train time and our slow walking it was almost dinner time. We had reservations for a show in Shinjuku at 6, but decided to quickly run into the Gundam Cafe in Akihabara before jumping back on the train. We had to wait for a few minutes for a table, but it was really worth it! The drinks were all named after different characters and my coffee had a Gundam drawn on top with chocolate powder! The entire cafe was decorated to look like a Psychoframe Gundam (very glow-y) and the staff was dressed in Gundam federation uniforms. The walls were decorated with lots of Gundam paraphernalia and even the food was shaped to look like different Gundams. We had a soup dish that looked like a robot named Haro. After leaving the cafe with a few souvenirs, we headed over to Shinjuku for a show at a place called Robot Restaurant. Despite being called a restaurant, we decided not to eat there. The show was fantastic and we both really enjoyed it! We went to Shibuya afterwards to meet my parents so we could all go out to dinner. We got there a bit early and explored the area around the famous cross walk. We meet my parents and went to a great dinner before heading back to the hotel.
Sunday was a bit rainy. We went to Harajuku to walk around, but it was difficult with all the umbrellas. We found a few nice shops and had a great gyoza breakfast before giving up and trying to find something inside. We took the train to Ebisu and found a museum there for Yebisu beer. It was free and pretty interesting, not to mention indoors. By the time we were ready to go, we had to hurry back to the hotel. We quickly had lunch before grabbing out bags and heading to the train station. We took a shinkansen and then another train to Takayama. It took a while and we didn't get to our hotel until about 8:30. Mike and I stayed in a traditional ryokan with tatami floors where you sleep on a futon. Takayama is a very small city, but we managed to find a restaurant that was still open. We had a great dinner before turning in for the night.
We were up early the next morning to take advantage of the onsen our ryokan provided. We were meeting my parents at 7:15, but the bath opened at 6:30. Because it was so early, no one else was in either bath, so both Mike and I had our onsen to ourselves. It was a great way to wake up and Mike really enjoyed the traditional room! We left our hotel to meet my parents and we had just enough time to store our luggage and get train tickets for later that day before our tour bus came to pick us up! We went with an English speaking guide to Shirakawago, a UNESCO world heritage site. The bus ride was about 50 minutes, but the guide was very funny and kept us entertained the entire way. First we went to the observation site overlooking the village before heading down into the village. Shirakawago is famous for it's gassho style houses, houses with very slanted, thatched roofs. We had an hour and a half in the village which was the perfect amount of time. It was raining again, but we were able to go into one of the houses and explore the inside. We also found a small museum about their yearly sake festival and was able to try some of the Shirakawago specialty sake. We had just enough time to grab a few souvenirs before getting back on the bus and heading back to Takayama. We had lunch in Takayama before heading back to the train. Again we took a local train to the shinkansen and went all the way down to Kobe! We found our hotel easily and went to Harborland for dinner. We went to a great Brazilian restaurant that overlooked the water, Kobe Tower, and the Kawasaki museum. It was raining again, so we couldn't sit outside, but we had a seat right next to the window! We went back to the hotel afterwards and Mike and I found a great little bar across the street for one more drink before heading to bed.
On Tuesday we slept in a bit later than we had been before. We still made it to breakfast a few stops away from our hotel by 11 AM. Breakfast was delicious and right next to our next destination! After breakfast we walked only a minute or two before getting on the ropeway for the Nunobiki Herb Gardens. I went to this garden before with Leah and I was so excited to go back! The ride up to the top of the mountain is stunning, even with the foggy weather. The gardens and huge and beautiful and seeing all the spring flowers instead of the October ones was great! We spent more than a few hours up there walking around the gardens, eating herb burgers, and drinking tea. This is probably one of my favorite spots in Japan and I was so excited to go back! By the time we got back down the mountain it was pretty close to dinner time, so we went back to the hotel for a little rest. There was a miscommunication with the restaurant we were supposed to eat at, but we found another restaurant close by. The first restaurant is very showy and geared towards tourists, which is fun, but was much more expensive then where we ended up. We all tried Kobe beef at the new restaurant and it was amazing! There was no real show to it, but the kitchen was completely open so we could see them cooking everything. The food came out on a sizzling hot plate and along with the steak was a little spinach, a few fries, and a bed of garlic and onions. I'm really glad the first restaurant didn't work out, I'd been there before last time I was in Kobe and the food we had was even better! We had a little ice cream for dessert and my parents headed back to the hotel. Mike and I, continuing our Gundam trend, found a Char themed bar. Char is a character from the Gundam series and the bar was really fun! It had paraphernalia everywhere and the waitress and owner both dressed as Char. They were really nice and even let us watch a new Gundam movie that had just come out the week before. They put on English subtitles and we got to watch it long before it will come to America! It was a great night!
We left the hotel on Wednesday and walked through a shrine near our hotel. We leisurely made our way to the city office building. There is an observatory at the top, so we had great views of the city! We found a cafe up there for breakfast and sat facing out over the city. Mike and I went to Kobe's Chinatown next. The Chinatown in Kobe is very famous and I wanted to go last time, but it was too crowded. This time there were much less people and we could see everything! We tried some pork buns that were incredibly delicious and walked around seeing all the statues and buildings. Eventually we went back to the hotel to meet my parents before heading to the train station. We got back on the shinkansen to make our way down to Kokura. Thankfully this trip was only two hours. We made it back to Kokura by mid-afternoon and my parents got settled into the hotel while Mike and I went to my apartment. We meet back up for dinner. We went to a yakiniku restaurant Caol and I often go to. We went with Caol and Leah and it was delicious! The owner even made special chicken wings for all of us free of charge because Mom said she liked the chicken. After dinner we went to karaoke for my parents first Japanese karaoke experience and we had a blast!
Now I'm at school for the first year students' entrance ceremony. I'll be leaving soon to meet up with Mike and head to Nagasaki. My parents left this morning, so we'll me them there. We'll meet at Huis Ten Bosch, a giant park made to look like parts of Europe. The gardens are supposed to be amazing and I can't wait to get there!
On Saturday I took the train to Mojiko to meet Megan. We caught a ferry over to Shimonoseki where we went to the fish market and walked around the wharf. There was a festival going on while we were there and we could see different performances going on. There was even an inflatable puffer fish bouncy house! It was pretty cool to see it all, but after a few hours we decided to head back on the ferry to Mojiko. Before heading back to Kokura, we walked a bit around Mojiko and found a huge market with over 100 tents set up along the waterfront selling pretty much everything. They had hand-made crafts, furniture, food, plants, and even collectibles. We walked around and had a late lunch while looking at everything that was being offered. We didn't really get much, but it was a really fun way to spend an afternoon. We caught a train back to Kokura in the evening and had some bubble tea before each heading home. I ended up going back to to meet Juha, Kyoka, Dan, and Leah for dinner. I hadn't seen Dan in a while, so it was great catching up with him. We met Patrick at karaoke after dinner, but I headed home after that.
I met Fumiko and Dave Sunday morning to go to the Kawachi Fuji Garden. We bought some food for lunch on the way and caught a bus as far as it would take us. The weather was beautiful, so we decided to walk the mile and a half from the bus stop to the gardens rather than take a taxi. I hadn't seen Dave or Fumiko in a while, so it was great catching up with them. We had a great time at the garden even though the wisteria wasn't fully in bloom yet. We had a picnic lunch and stayed in the garden for a few hours before heading back into Kokura. I went back to Fumiko and Dave's apartment with them to play some games and watch movies. Leah eventually joined us and we decided to all have dinner together. Fumiko wanted to use her new takoyaki pan, so we all took turns making takoyaki while snaking on some Kitakyushu senbei. We watched some more movies before Leah and I headed home.
