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  • TravelerSE Asia
    Day 98

    Our last post for this amazing trip

    April 4 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    It is bitter sweet that I sit here at the Westjet / United Airlines Lounge in Narita Airport in Japan, writing this last post of our 2024 Asia trip. We are excited to be going home to see family and friends and to be in our own place once again. However, this trip has been a big part of our lives for the past year. We started planning everything in March of 2023, and we left home on December 27. 100 days later, we are waiting for our flight home. We saw and experienced some amazing things over the last several weeks, and it truly was a trip of a lifetime. Looking at my Garmin watch, I logged 1,588,761 steps and 1,280km since December 29 when we landed in Thailand (average 16,212 steps per day!) Here are a few more pics of our walk around yesterday and this morning. We packed our backpacks for the last time for this trip. We will definitely be doing that again for any trips where we are moving around a lot - cheers!!!Read more

  • TravelerSE Asia
    1
    Day 96

    Moved to Ginza area of Tokyo

    April 2 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    I got up early and wanted to stroll around and let Chris sleep in before we moved to our last hotel on our trip, which is located in the Ginza area of Tokyo. It was nice seeing a bunch of seniors doing some morning exercises. I went back to Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden and found that the Cherry blossoms were a lot more open, over 50%. Afterward, Chris and I took the train over to Ginza and had lunch and then checked into our hotel. Later, we grabbed the train to a BBQ place and had some delicious ribs, and trained back in rush hour. The Japanese definitely are very respectful of each other in public places, nicely lined up to get on the train, and everyone on the train is quiet no eating or drinking on the trains, and you don't see any hoodlums bothering anyone, most people are well dressed too. Walking back from the train station to the hotel there are a lot if high end shopping places.Read more

  • TravelerSE Asia
    Day 95

    Day tour of Tokyo

    April 1 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    We took a bus tour around Tokyo today. We were picked up about a 15 minute walk from our hotel at 8:00. The first stop was the Nijubashi Bridge to the Emperor of Japan's Palace. The palace grounds are only open to the public twice a year. Nice area, and it is 5km around the property surrounded by a moat. Next was the Asakusa Temple, which is the oldest in Tokyo, neat seeing people dressed in old style Kimono dresses in the area. Mostly toursist wearing these and you can rent them for the day. We went to a Macha tea ceremony as well. The next stop was the Yokohama Bayside area and Yamashita Park. Here, there is a replica of the Statue of Liberty. The Statue of Liberty first appeared in Tokyo in 1998, borrowed from France as part of a one year celebration commemorating Japan's relationship with France. Later, because the statue was quite popular, France decided to make a copy to give to Japan, showing goodwill in bilateral relations between the two countries. In the same area, we saw the Fuji TV building, the Giant Transformer Robot Gundam, and the tulips garden. We had a great buffet lunch at Hilton Hotel. Afterward, we took a short cruise to tour the Tokyo Bay, and then the final stop was the Tokyo Tower. The tour bus dropped us off at the Tokyo station at around 5:30 = RUSH HOUR lol! Fighting the crowds and figuring out train routes back to Shinjuku was a challenge, but we made it. Back at the hotel, having a glass of wine and going to try the hotel restaurant as it is raining again.Read more

  • TravelerSE Asia
    1
    Day 94

    In search of cherry blossoms

    March 31 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    We walked around the famous night district called Kabukicho last night and had fun people watching and checking out all the lights. Today we took the train to Kita-no-maru Park in search of cherry blossoms, this is one of the recommended picturesque places to see blossoms, but unfortunately, they still aren't out, I would say less than 5% are out. It was still a great day walking around. It was also great to see so many families out having picnics in the parks on such a beautiful day. We are on a tour tomorrow and move hotels on Tuesday, so hopefully, on our last full day on Wednesday, we will be treated with more blossoms.Read more

  • TravelerSE Asia
    11
    Day 93

    Meiji Jingu Shrine

    March 30 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

    Yesterday morning, it just poured, so we chilled in the room, read, and did laundry. It's pretty cool, there are 9 floors with two washer/dryer combo machines on each of those floors, and you can see each machine on the TV in the room to see which ones are available and also see how much longer your load will be. In the afternoon, it was nicer, so we walked around and checked things out. Some of the cherry trees are blooming, hoping in a couple of days it will be much more. Today, we walked to Meiji Jingu Shrine and surrounding park and also checked out the Shibuya Crossing, which is the busiest pedestrian crossing intersection in Tokyo. It is estimated that 1,000 to 2,500 people cross every 2 minutes during busy periods. Japan definitely has its own vibe. They definitely respect queues or lines, every street crossing, bus stop, store/restaurants,etc. have orderly lines. They definitely try and automate as much as they can, but it is also interesting to see so many people employed doing seemingly meaningless tasks. For example they will have someone holding a sign in a park saying no alcohol allowed, or have 4 people at a driveway with orange flags ready to block the sidewalk traffic if a car is coming out of a parkade. It is also crazy busy here. I'm not sure if this is typical or if this is the cherry blossom rush. Today was a beautiful sunny and warm day.Read more

  • TravelerSE Asia
    Day 91

    Travel day to Tokyo

    March 28 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

    Travel day from Kyoto to Tokyo, we took the high-speed train Shinkansen JR Central. It was an incredibly smooth ride at nearly 300km/h. It was just over 2 hours to Tokyo. We then had to navigate trying to find a train from the Tokyo station where we arrived at, to the Shinjuku station, which is near the hotel we are staying at. We eventually figured it out and checked in, then went for an early dinner, after we walked around a bit before the rain started, and then we headed back to the hotel.Read more

  • TravelerSE Asia
    1
    Day 90

    Kinkaku-ji temple

    March 27 in Japan ⋅ ☀️ 14 °C

    Yesterday, we decided to walk to the Kinkaku-ji temple. It was a nasty day of rain, but we persevered for the 1.5-hour walk each way. When we got there, it was so busy, and everyone had an umbrella, so seeing anything was a chore and trying to walk around without getting your eye poked out was the challenge, lol. Walking back, we were completely soaked, so we went back to the hotel to wash and dry our shoes with a blow dryer before supper. I was so glad my phone survived the moisture. Without that, getting around is nearly impossible. We went out for some delicious udon and tempura for dinner. The restaurant only held 8 people, so we waited in line for 45 minutes. Today, I went for an 8.5k run in the morning sunshine, ahhhh. Then we went for breakfast and walked through some malls, then had lunch, then walked to a park, and enjoyed sitting on a bench for a couple hours reading in the glorious sunshine. I saw some plum wine on a menu at a restaurant earlier in the week, so we found some and took it back to the room. Wow, it was super sweet. We went for supper to a Kobe Tepan-Yaki steak house, super delicious! Now we are in a British Pub having a beer and writing this. It's 7:30 here, off to Tokyo tomorrow morning, our last stop 😥
    (PS - they eat sparrows here 🫢)    Read more

  • TravelerSE Asia
    1
    Day 88

    Singing in the rain...

    March 25 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C

    Well, maybe no singing, but lots of walking in the rain, checked out a few temples and shrines in Kyoto today, walked through some cool neighbors and gardens, too. Some highlights included Heian Shrine, Higashoyama Jisho-ji, and Nijo Castle.Read more

  • TravelerSE Asia
    1
    Day 87

    Walking around Kyoto

    March 24 in Japan ⋅ 🌧 11 °C

    Well, spring is definitely later here than we anticipated when planning our trip. The cherry blossoms are at least a week away. Hopefully, we will get to see them in Tokyo next week. We spent the day walking around and checking out the city. Went to a cute little restaurant for breakfast, and then we went to the Kiyomizu-dera temple. It was really busy. There must have been at least 100 tour buses in the parking lot. The streets have real character, and so many are really pedestrian only. Had a great Wagyu burger for lunch and we went to an Italian restaurant for dinner and then went walking around the Pontocho Alley area, where there are narrow streets for pedestrians only, closed the night at a British Pub for a night cap.Read more

  • TravelerSE Asia
    1
    Day 86

    Trains, Plane, automobile

    March 23 in Japan ⋅ 🌧 9 °C

    Last night we went to a Greek restaurant for supper but it was raining and we had to dodge so many umbrellas lol. Today was a busy travel day to Kyoto. Took a couple of subway trains from our condo in Myeongdong Seoul to Gimpo Airport. It's always a challenge trying to navigate the right paths for transfers and exits to get where you need to go. The airport process was familiar. The flight was about 1.5 hours. Arriving at Kansai Airport in Japan, the Customs were a little different and had a Japanese flair for sure. After we had cleared, we had to figure out how to get to the train station for our scheduled train to Kyoto. Signs were not in English, but luckily, we found some train symbols and followed those, which took us from terminal 2 to terminal 1, then a long walk to the train station. Once at the station it stressed us out, it was chaos and nothing in English, after several minutes and some broken English help we made it to the right train deck for the 1.5 hour ride to Kyoto, then we grabbed a cab to the hotel. Once settled, we went to an Irish bar for a beer and some food. The streets have a cool vibe, and it is busy in some areas for a Saturday night.Read more

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