Japanese, if you please.

On Valentine's Day, Kelly and I started our Chinese New Year holiday traveling to Osaka, Japan. We struck a great deal buying our tickets early and through Peach Airlines, which serves flights directly to and from Japan.

The temperature was around 40 and after exchanging our currency to Japanese Yen, we hustled to catch the last subway into the city. An hour journey later we arrived in Asakusabashi area where our hostel, Hotel Toyo, was located. We were pretty wired with excitement so after settling into our separate dorm style rooms and deciding we needed to sleep together to avoid freezing overnight, we spent a couple hours in the common room with the other travelers. The double sized room had signatures, drawings, and quotes written on the walls from the ceiling to the floor. It also had a small kitchen, flat screen TV, and video games along with the usually bean bags and pillows covering the floor. We were offered some sake and made plans for the next few days. It was the first hostel we'd been in where they separate all guests, offer a bag-o-beans as a pillow, and supply Crocs for indoor shoes. We were pleased with the clean, hot showers and the convenient Family Marts near by.

Sunday, (my 26th birthday!!) was our first full day in Japan and we walked up and down the famous food street. We had out first taste of Japanese sushi and busted out the selfie stick which proved to be a hit.

They were having quite the time and loved our selfie stick.

Billiken; The God of Things As They Ought to Be.

Almost as many onlookers as players. 

Happy 26 Years Young to ME!

Isshinji Temple entrance.

Isshinji doors, I read were made of human bones. 

Praying to the Gods. 

Countless shops and props along the way, we also walked to the Isshinji Temple which has doors made of human bones. An elderly man in the street gave us a short lesson on useful phrases in Japanese. I don't remember much, but the important one, aligato means thank you.

In front of the Osaka Castle.

Our 'couple' style shot in front of the Osaka Castle moat.

We took the subway to the Osaka Castle that was surrounded by a gorgeous moat. Spent quite awhile in the gift shops and left as the sun was setting to go to Namba.

Famous Glico Slogan Man.

Namba is a huge district with famous shops, endless restaurants, and loads of bars. Being as it was my birthday night, Kelly and I bar hopped from place to place trying a few different drinks and finally settled on an Irish pub. Made great friends with the bartender who we named Luke after failing to pronounce his name correctly. As the night went on, he let us play DJ and paid for a couple of our drinks.

On Monday we activated our week long Japan Rail Pass, which was the smartest purchase we made. This pass allowed us unlimited travel on the rail lines from city to city as well as in and around each city.  I would highly recommend this for anyone going to Japan for at least a week.

It mentions that this building still stood after the first atomic bomb dropping,
however it now looks like it's getting some reconstruction work. 

Our first destination outside of Osaka was Hiroshima. This infamous city is known for its history and the site of the first ever atomic bomb in 1945. Now it advocates for world peace with its dedicated parks and museums. We had a traditional meal near the station and visited the atomic bomb dome and remembrance monuments. Before heading back to Hotel Toyo, we stopped back in Namba for some shopping and a late veggie dinner.

Tasty traditional Japanese food.

They know how to do avocado. 

Tuesday we took the JR to Universal Studios in Osaka. Harry Potter was the huge theme as well as Sesame Street. We had a delicious Indian dish for lunch and stayed until it closed. 

Frightening Japan sitcom area we ran into. 

Kisses for Spider-man, he seemed to like it. 

Snoop D-O-G

I'm not even close to the biggest HP fan, but WOW. The details of every room were exquisite. 

The Spider-Man and Harry Potter rides were impressive and made the trek worthwhile. I was impressed by the amount of girls wearing high heels at the park. 

Back in the city we had a fancy dinner with wine, then walked to Hankyu Higashi Dori shopping area. It also had tons of small alleys with places to eat sushi, have drinks, bright lights, and signs everywhere. We went back to the hostel to wait for Brittany to arrive, unfortunately she didn't get in till 2:00 a.m. so we were sound asleep.

Gift shop in Nara.

Wednesday I woke up early to do a solo trip to Nara and planned to meet the girls in Kyoto. I spent two hours in Japan's first capitol Nara. There were magnificent temples around every turn, a few of which are world heritage sites. I really enjoyed walking through the deer park, the roaming tame deer, the trees, trails, and temples all gave it such a peaceful, unique, and serene feel.

I believe this refers to Nara being Japans first Capitol. 

Roaming deer in front of the Historical World Heritage site Kasuga Taisha. 

Love.

Historical Monument of Ancient Nara.

Another country, another animal sniffing my hair. 

Roots. 

One of my favorite photos. Seems unreal that I took this shot waiting for a bus in the rain. 

Afterwards I headed up to Kyoto, also the old capitol of Japan. You could easily spend more than one day in Kyoto with its cultural wonders that are well preserved and proudly displayed. After lunch and waiting for the girls I decided to head to Saga-Arashiyana for the Bamboo Forest. As I was walking I ran into a group of Geisha girls who I asked to photograph. They turned extremely giggly and offered me to join in. A light mist started as I got to the bamboo and it seemed to be the perfect fit weather. I also came across a shrine for lovers to make wishes together. 

Not REAL Geisha girls of course, but they were acting the part & put a smile wide across my face.

Bamboo Forest of Kyoto. 

Nonomiya Shrine.

I will never forget the beauty of this place. 

I took the city bus to the Kinkakuji Golden Temple. A peaceful walk around the famous temple and as I was leaving I spotted a rainbow! 

Made it to the Kinkakuji-hi Golden Temple!

Serene. 

Once I got back to the JR I headed to Tokyo switched to Asakusabashi and walked to Anne Hostel. This is probably the best hostel I have stayed it yet. A big ten-woman, WARM room. Cozy beds with a curtain and shelf for personal space and privacy. They were extremely helpful, had tons of suggestions for places to go, and even offered a free breakfast every morning! I hung out in the lounge and met some fellow travelers from England and Canada as I waited for the girls to arrive. 

Thursday morning at breakfast we met quite a few people who were also traveling teachers living in Taiwan. We spent most of the day in Harajuku shopping, being tourist, and checking out the famous Harajuku girls. Before the sun set, we visited the Meiji Jingu Shrine.



"Harajuku girls, you got the wicked style
I like the way that you are, I am your biggest fan."
-- Gwen Stefani

Barrels of Sake offered every year to show deep respect
for the souls of Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken.

Entrance to the Meiji Jingu Shrine. 

Valar Morghulis

We had to see the busiest, craziest station of Shibuya which is nicknamed the Time Square of Tokyo. It has one of the busiest intersection in the world, huge buildings, flashing lights, and thousands of scrambling people. We zig-zagged in and out of alley ways stopping in a few shops, trying our best not to make too many purchases. 

After stopping back at the hostel, we headed to Shinjuko for dinner at an Alice and Wonderland themed restaurant. A bit pricey, but a fun experience. 

Friday we woke up early and took the JR to Nagano for probably the most beautiful, fascinating day we had. We arrived in the snow covered city and took a bus out to the mountains of Jigokudani Yaen-Koen wild snow monkey park. In some places the snow stood deeper than my height. The snow in Nagano is so exceptional it was the host city for the 1998 Winter Olympics. We had a great lunch at the cafe on the mountain and took a 30ish minute walk through the exquisitely beautiful snow covered trees. It was lightly snowing which also added to the experience. 

 
As we neared towards the hot springs, we saw a mama holding and rocking her baby back and forth. They let us get pretty close for a picture before taking off. About 200 monkeys live in this area, some were digging in the snow, climbing up and down the trees, balancing on rocks, picking at each other, or the best part, relaxing in the hot spring. 

My greatest shot of the snow monkeys. ^-^

Just like humans, relaxing in the hot springs.

I adored watching this little guy fight
for some attention against this snowman. 

Namaste.

PURE WHITE BEAUTY. 

Best day in Japan :-)

Exhausted from so much walking and traveling we went to our hostel earlier that night after some Japanese  BBQ. We had planned on getting to sleep early, but while enjoying some tea in the lounge a hilarious conversation with some other travelers led to a night of games and laughs. 

A picture will never do these mountains justice. 

Hostel friends on Friday nith

Saturday we were pretty slow moving, a week of sightseeing and endless hiking around each city was catching up with us. We went to the well known Tsukiji Fish Market, famous for its 5 a.m. fish auctions and the best sushi you'll ever have in your life. We arrived much too late for the auction and after waiting in line for almost an hour without moving we decided to give up and take the JR to Mt. Fuji since cloudy days were soon to come. And come they did. The biggest disappointment of my trip to Japan was missing Mt. Fuji and all her glory. We arrived around 3 P.M. and she hid behind the clouds around noon. I was pretty devastated as we headed back to Tokyo.
 

Luckily we turned the evening around by taking an elite subway line out to the Rainbow Bridge. It was a wonderful sunset view of the city and some of its endless skyscrapers. There was a mock Statue of Liberty and a huge mall with an aquarium, puppies, and kittens to adore. We had an excellent sushi dinner and went back to get ready for our last night in Tokyo. 

Best sushi I had in Japan! Nom nom nom!

Of course we had to experience the night life of one of the world's largest cities. There was a rambunctious group of Australians going out for karaoke which we almost joined, but then decided we wanted to make it to Roppongi known for its crazy nightlife scene. 

The girls and I on one of our last subway rides Saturday night. 

You won't get far off the subway line before men are recruiting you with bribes of free entry and free drinks to enter their workplace. We made it to three different clubs trying to get a taste of as much as we could. Each place had great music, one had shirtless male dancers, another had hookas all around. We danced the night away enjoying every late night minute.

After checking out of our hostel the next morning we enjoyed some coffee in the lounge, said goodbye to newly made friends, and had a quick curry lunch down the road. We went to see the recently built SkyTree Tower of Tokyo which currently is the second tallest building in the world. Unfortunately it was too cloudy to see the top or pay to go up.

Getting from Tokyo back to the Osaka airport took us nearly six hours. We arrived around 10 O'clock, had a meal, charged the phones, and camped out on some benches to wait for our 7 am flight back to Taipei.

Japan was a huge success, staying over a week definitely wore us out and put a good dent in the pocketbook, but I have no regrets (other than missing Mt. Fuji) and I don't think we could have done it better. Japan does many things top notch, they are efficient with recycling, offer public, clean, and heated toilets, many people are already driving Eco-friendly cars even though the subways can get you just about anywhere. They are very clean when serving meals, always giving wet towels for customers, and many people wore masks especially when traveling.  Multiple times we were disappointed with the serving size of our meals, however the quality was always high. 

I was surprised by the limited access to wifi in such a major city. The language was not what I had imagined and finding someone who spoke English was more rare than I'd have guessed. The people were helpful like most Asian countries, but the men were much more shy to speak to us. I also noticed the men had more facial hair than I've seen in other Asian countries. 

The subways and railways were easy to navigate, but I also think I have become a much better traveler as far as directions and planning. It was an amazing Chinese New Year and I am so happy to have spent my 26th birthday in Japan with two girls I've come to love and care about so much.

Thanks for reading. Lots of love. -K