Rob and Emily's Awesome Asian Adventure for our 27th Anniversary

 Off on our Asian Anniversary Adventure! We'll see how the rain and extreme heat and other weather phenomena affect our plans.

Manila, Day 1: Our Philippine airlines flight was pretty light so we had a row to ourselves and Rob has never slept better on an international flight. We had an overnight layover in Manila and having never been there, we decided to venture in. Well we ventured into a spa that had an onsen and a Philippine massage that, because of the late hour, we practically had to ourselves. After a few hours of luxurious relaxing that was just so nice after a 14 hour flight, we walked a few blocks in downtown Manila and were surprised to see kids and teenagers just roaming. In the middle of the night. Huh. Anyway we got some ube cake and shared a jollibees plate before heading back to the airport since it is forecasted to rain 2+ inches here. Another Asian country checked off my list.

Shimanami Kaido, Day 2: Ever since I heard about this national bicycle road here in Japan, I knew Rob would want to come back to Japan with me to try it and that plus ramen talked him into this trip. We flew from Manila to Osaka, took the bullet train down to Onomichi and fell in our bed at 7 p.m. Twelve hours later we woke to a beautiful but hot morning on the coast. We got some breakfast ramen and then got our bikes and began. Now we knew it was going to be hot (like excessive heat warning via the weather app hot) and humid so prepared with wet towels, fans, good sunscreen, hats and lots of water. The route had either two temperatures: very hot and not hot. Not hot was not cool, mind you, but it was not hot when the sun was behind the clouds or in the shade. Nicely the sea wind and bike wind kept it not hot for much of the time. And I've always wondered why there are so many drink machines in Japan. It's for summer. Definitely for summer. We drank so many drinks, cold chocolate, pocari sweats, apple juice, cherry juice and more. Our first stop was the beach where I got up to my knees in the sea and we got local spiced lemonade, so good. We also stopped at a cute cafe for lunch by the sea and had cold chicken, salad and shaved ice with oranges on top. Our third stop was my favorite, a local onsen with lemon scented water to bathe in and drink. I felt so citrus-y and even snapped a picture before anyone else came in. Rob decided to instead head to the beautiful Kosanji Temple. And said it was neat. Then back together we biked to our third bridge (the bridges were incredible to bike across) and then to the cyclists sanctuary monument and then over to Family Mart where I felt my first inklings of heat exhaustion (dizziness and cold sweat) but sitting and having a fami-chicki solves all and I soon felt much better. Evening treats in hand, we biked the final mile to our Airbnb where our cute hostess bumped us to the nicer room with two tatami floors and such cute, old style Japanese decor. A wonderful place to rest before our second half of the shimanami kaido.

Shimanami Kaido, Hiroshima, Fukuoka  Day 3: We slept pretty good although I may have had a few "what if this place is haunted" moments in the middle of the night, but woke with the sun. Which was perfect because we wanted to get off by 6 a.m. Out back on the road, the sun peekabooed with us for the first hour of cycling, which kept it relatively not hot. The views were gorgeous and the bridges so wonderful to cycle across and then zoom down. We stopped at a Lawson for some strawberry milk, but that was about it as we made our way the final 35 kilometers to Imambari. I didn't like the final bridge because it was hot by then and mostly uphill, but cycling down to the station, I started feeling immense relief that we made it, even in the extreme heat of Japan. Near the end, Rob asked when we were going to come back and I said "not the summer!" But he was like, "I'd do it again in the summer." It will definitely be the highlight of the trip for Rob. On the train, we laid out seats back in the ac and watched the Japanese countryside go by. We headed down to Hiroshima. Rob wasn't thrilled about going to the museum, but still wanted to. First stopping for dandan noodles because it was now lunch time, we slurped until our tongues were numb. So good. Then over to the peace park and museum where once again I was reminded how horrible nuclear arms are. I just can't. I've never seen Rob do a history museum faster, he wanted to learn but it's hard to witness. Back to the bullet train, we got a bento and some snacks and settled in for the 1 hour ride to Fukuoka. We got in right at check in time to our hostel upgrade, which is a room with a shared bathroom. It's one of my favorite ways to travel. Cheap but not with other people. We grabbed the offered rental bikes because after all that, we still weren't sick of biking and headed to the nearby park and the Fukuoka Art Museum, which was so lovely with some wonderful pieces to take in. We rode around the little lake before heading over to the yatai food stalls and they were doing some sort of filming at one so we went to a different one but I think I'm in the background of some of it. I knew this was touristy but it really was quite good and not too expensive and a fun intimate experience with the chef. Back to our place, we grabbed some milk and chocolate and settled in to watch the first half of my chosen Ghibli, The Wind Rises.

Japan to South Korea Ferry, Day 4: We slept pretty good, had a nice breakfast at the hostel before walking over to the ferry port. We grabbed some snacks at 7-11 of course and then settled in for a nice ride across the sea. It was quite calm and we watched the waves, watched our shows, listened to books, wrote a review (Rob) ate snacks and went to the onboard onsen (me). It was just lovely and a nice quiet day compared to the two cycling days. And Rob loved watching the ferry dock with all the rope work. It was fun to watch him so fascinated. Once docked in Busan, we settled into our hotel right by the station and went out to find Korean fried chicken. And we did. Mmm. Then back to the hotel with a few snacks to enjoy while I introduced Rob to The Extraordinary Attorney Woo, which remains delightful and is set in Busan! Then to bed.

Busan, Day 5: What do you do with one full day in Busan? Well if you're Rob, you go on an amazing day trip through the countryside abd see the silla empire. If you're me and you've already done said tour, you hit the beach and go shopping. Both of us thoroughly enjoyed our days. Rob loved the history and art, and I loved the ocean, the sky capsule ride and thrifting and buying skincare for the kids. Back together at 7, we made our way to the BIFF market for hotteok, before training over to the beach to see the Saturday night drone show. Back to our hotel area, we found a few more treasures at daiso before getting late-night Korean bbq, which of course was amazing. Then we got some convenience store treats and finished the first episode of the extraordinary attorney woo before heading to bed.

Busan -Kyoto, Day 6: This was an in-between day as we got up in Busan, had a lovely hotel breakfast of Korean food, which I remember being like salad for breakfast, no way! But I've missed salads in the states so this time I was like, yes please. We headed to the airport and got settled with one final meal in Korea before jetting the 1.5 hours back to Japan and I listened to most of my convenience store book (delightful). We trained over to Kobe for some good thrift shopping, but especially to go to the San plaza again in honor of the Japan Eat guy. I took Rob to my favorite tomato ramen place and then we tried another s tier of Chinese noodles. Both incredible. Then a quick(ish) bullet train ride to kyoto where we checked into our boutique hotel near the gion area and went to bed.

Kyoto, Day 7: Waking at 6, I decided to pivot our Kyoto morning plan, woke Rob up, and headed straight to Fushimi Inari because the weather said that Kyoto would be 100 degrees and if we wanted to do the hike, it was now or never. And I'm so glad we did, we grabbed a few snacks at the Lawson before heading up one of my favorite hikes in the world. It was also nice because there weren't a lot of people at that hour, just clever ones. It was still pretty hot but we got great photos and great views, and Rob loved it. Then surprise #1 for Rob. I found a printing museum in Kyoto but it was by appointment only. We had a personalized tour of the nissha printing relics and Rob was in heaven. They were so kind and their displays were so cool. Plus another Gutenberg page. We had enough time to get a 7-11 smoothie and see the gion pagoda before onto surprise #2. A michilin ramen place that was so good but also all ramen is so good. But it was a fun experience. Then we split and I went to see a few temples and shop while Rob went to Nijo castle since I've already been there. It was hot but fascinating, he said. Then meeting back, it was time for our Nintendo museum slot. We were both delighted by the museum, the video game history that so many share. It was so fun. We loved reminiscing about the games we played out watched and loved the screens showing the years of the different games and the progressions in quality. Our favorites: Zelda. Kirby. Mario. Metroid. Then we played games and there was one shooting game that Rob said "this is for old men to relive their glory days" and then out of everyone, he won. Haha. Afterwards, we had our first coco curry, which is a good as always Back to our hotel to eat familymart snacks and watch more Ghibli before bed. A wonderfully full day in Kyoto.

Kyoto, Day 8: Today was the day I kept open for doing whatever Rob wanted to do and he agreed that doing the Kyoto Romantic Train near the bamboo forest and then taking the river run back through the canyon would be a lovely and hopefully somewhat not hot way to spend the morning. And it was lovely. And our guides were fun. And the scenery was incredible. Then we split up and I went to find treasures for the kids (Jetta kept reassuring me that "you are doing great, Mom" in trying to find their favorite characters from somewhat obscure and obviously in Japanese shows and books, she knows it's overwhelming for me). I also grabbed a green tea ice cream from nishiki market. Then I went to the local onsen for some lovely pampering and I loved the cold pool on the 100 degree summer day. Rob hiked to see the monkeys and then went to some temples and the national museum before meeting up with me to go get one more meal of Dandan noodles. It was so good. Sated but still wanting treats, we got some 711 snacks and headed home to pack and finish watching The Wind Rises, which verdict is my least favorite Ghibli. Then to bed.

Osaka, Day 9: we got up early and trained over to Osaka so we could have a few hours getting last minute treasures and treats before our flight. I showed Rob the gilco man and he gamely shopped with me at daiso, donki, Uniqlo, capsule stores and the Capcom store. It was fun. We began our trip with two backpacks (with two big ogio bags stuffed inside as well as our clothes) so that we could bike pretty freely and not use luggage services. And we ended our trip with five bags, including one checked. Pretty awesome. We got back to the train to go to the airport and Rob got one last curry soup and I finally got some sushi. Our flight to Manila was pretty empty but we got some coconut pie and a condensed milk donut before boarding our flight back to the USA and home.