Japan: Sister Trip

 So back in July, over the 24th, a deal came to go to Japan. I thought Japan was open at the time (it wasn't) and thought even if it wasn't completely open, it would definately be open by October 14 (it was but only by two days so visas were an exciting process) and asked Rob to go with me, since i had planned it twice before during the pandemic. He said no, he'd rather go to Yale to research, which he ended up doing a few weeks prior because a deal to New Haven came out a day later. Anyway, my sister-in-law Kim said, "I'll go with you" and thus the trip began to be planned. Jess and Sara also agreed, especially since Sara could meet us from Vietnam and Jess could get off school. Now it ended up being quite an exciting thing to get us all there (visas) and then Kim ended up missing her flight because, get this, she was on another flight they put her on, but she made it two days late and we were finally able to have an entire Sister-in-law adventure in Japan. Yay!

Here's the days as I wrote them up on Facebook: 

Japan, Day 1: We got in very late, and it wasn't as slick of an aiport that I was expecting for Japan (a lot of paper arrows and a lot of handing people paperwork for covid and then getting more paperwork that you hand to another person). But after a few hours of that, customs, immigration, getting train and bus tickets and finding our bus, we finally made it to our darling modern hotel in Tokyo and after a quck stop at 7-11 for some food, feel hard asleep. And then woke up at 3. Jet lag. But I rested for the next few hours and Jess and I both got up around 7ish. Sara was coming in from Vietnam at 7 so it was good to hear her plane landed fine and she got through the airport lickety split. I walked to meet her at the train station and it was so good to be back with my sister. At the hotel, we let Sara nap a bit after her red-eye then made our way over to Akhibara, the anime capital of the world. Sara and Jess helped me navigate the craziness of trying to find the exact anime figures that my kids had painstakingly listed (with pictures). Most everything was in Japanese with millions of figures and so many people, so I got pretty overwhelmed. But, we found them! Most of them anyway. I pretty much have souvenirs for four of the kids now and that's some pressure off. We also needed an hdmi cord so we can watch some beautiful japanese movies while we're here and funnily enough, Akhibara is also the electronics capital of Tokyo so it was super easy to find one. We trained back to the hotel and made a plan for dinner. We decided we needed comfort food, so our first real Japanese food was Japanese curry at Coco Curry. Oh it was so comforting. I had the pork and omelet kind and it was filling and silky and lovely. Tip from Sara, get the smallest amount of rice so that you don't fill your stomach too much. On the way we back we found a shrine and some lovely little shops and I picked up a pancake red bean fish that I tasted and then saved for breakfast. We also showed Jess Daiso and being the crafty person she is, did love it. Back home we started our first Japanese movie: A Silent Voice. It was gorgeous and full of emotions. And we snuggled into our beds until we fell asleep exhausted still from jet lag.

Japan, Day 2: Slept a bit better, which was nice. Jess and I made our way over to church at the Tokyo Temple and thought we were late, but found out that we were actually 45 minutes early for stake conference. Haha. So we walked around the visitor's center and temple and the nearby park. It was all gorgeous. Then we enjoyed church before heading back to get Sara for lunch. This time we decided to get counter sushi. It was so delightful to choose exactly what we wanted from the plates traveling around the counter, and try new things. I loved the tuna sushi and the melon ice cream and disliked the natto sushi. And it was very reasonable once we counted up all the plates and so delicious. We might have to do it again. We then made our way back to the hotel and rested for a few hours before heading over to DisneySea, which is the secondary park of Tokyo Disneyland. It was so fun to share a Disney experience with Sara and Jess. I had gone with Sara when she was 5, but I don't remember it. We first headed to the Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull ride. It was marvelous, my favorite ride of the night! Then over to Sinbad's adventures, which was like Pirates and Small World mixed. Then to the Journey to the Center of the Earth which I thought was like the Indiana Jones ride, but was a secret roller coaster that shot you out of a volcano!!!! It freaked me out. I keep saying I am done with roller coasters forever but I keep accidentally riding them. This was Sara's favorite ride. Then to 20,000 leagues under the sea, which was a nice quite submarine ride. We were pretty done by this point, but I found a fun souvenir for one of my kids (no spoilers) and Jess found a fun souvenir for one of her kids and then we headed back to the hotel, our feet aching but our delights fulfilled. We grabbed some snacks and snuggled into watch a Ghibli I hadn't watched: Castle in the Sky.

Japan, Day 3: I wanted to see the famous Shibuyu Crossing, the Times Square area of Tokyo. It was pretty cool but wasn't super busy so wasn't as effective. We then went thrift shopping and scouting out souvenirs. I then left Jess and Sara and headed over to the airport to pick up Kim. It was quite the ordeal to get here, but she perserveered and we're finally all together (missing Neena and Ash, but they weren't able to come). We made our way to the hotel to meet up with Jess and Sara and we all went to the Owl Cafe! Have you ever wanted to pet owls? Hold owls? Take amazing pictures with owls? It was as amazing as it sounds. We had so much fun. Then we walked to some ramen and I had the best ramen of my life thus far. Maybe ever. Back to the hotel, we enjoyed some history of Japan youtube that was informative and hilarious: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mh5LY4Mz15o And then finally to bed on our last evening in Tokyo. Kyoto tomorrow.

Japan, Day 4: We checked out of our lovely Tokyo hotel but left our luggage to go explore before our train to Kyoto. We headed to the Edo Museum and loved walking around the reconstructed Edo Village. So fascinating. Then over to Takeshita street, the cutesy street of Tokyo where we picked out some fun little souvenirs before grabbing our luggage and catching the train to Kyoto. We caughed a small glimpse of Mt. Fuji before getting into Kyoto after dark. Our Airbnb was so very traditional, so beautiful, and so not workable for our four planned nights because the mats they had for sleeping was like sleeping on a blanket on a hard tatami map.  So while we took some beautiful photos, we knew a night of hard sleeping was ahead before we could change accomodations.

Japan, Day 5: First full day in Kyoto. Our backs were hurting from those comforter-thick-sized mattresses, but we were determined to explore kyoto. We first went to the nearby temple, the Toji Temple, and learned about temple-living and viewed beautiful artworks and gardens. Then we decided to do a hop-on hop-off bus to get a feel for Kyoto. We stopped at the Nijo Castle first and again, marveled at the architecture and wall coverings. Unfortunately, you couldn't take photos there. But my favorite part was the nightengale floors that if you walked slowly, they squeeked, but if you went fast, it was silent. They wanted to catch those silent-footed ninja assassains.  The ground were also beautiful. Then we made our way via bus to the Gion area.  alot is closed because of covid, but it was nice to not have a lot of tourists, I guess it's normally packed. We had a lovely lunch of tepanayki and udon and then split up. Jess and Kim headed shopping more and to find a luggage for Jess since her wheel broke, and Sara and I went to find better accomodations. Our first one was still not goign to work. Little pads on floors are not mattresses, airbnb! So we finally decided on a boutique hotel close to the Kyoto Station. It was perfect, near a subway station to get around and actually had four mattresses! Yay. We moved the luggage from the first place to our second place and met with Jess and Kim, got snacks from the nearby 7-11 and watched Memoirs of a Geisha, because of course.

Japan, Day 6: We were really excited for today, as we planned to hike the Fushimi Inari, which is the thousands and thousands of red gates that you pass through going to shrine after shrine. It was such a gorgeous day for it as well and so lovely to just chat and hike though amazing scenery, both natural and man-made. And what's the best thing to do after a hike? Why an onsen of course. We took a risk and went to a public bath house nearby our hotel, knowing it's not the same as a spa in a hotel, but it was absolutely delightful to be helped by a bunch of nude Japanese elderly women telling us which baths were what and how to go in order and the baths themselves were so refreshing and hot springs like and so fun. It was a highlight for us all. Then at the end, we go wagu on sticks! Mmmmmmmm! Back to the hotel, we said goodbye to Sara, who had an early flight from Tokyo. That was sad and hard a bit, but she is doing a kung fu showcase in Vietnam, so needed to get back. But I'm so glad we could meet her on her school holiday! Kim, Jess and I then relaxed by watching Your Name, my favorite Japanese anime of all time. So wonderful to watch it in Japan.

Japan, Day 7&8: Jess's birthday! I went off early to the flea market held monthly at the Toji Temple and found all sorts of treasures. Do you know how hard it is to find a nativity in Asian countries? Hard. But I did! And clothes for the teens, art, and more. Meeting back with Jess and Kim, we headed out to the bamboo forest hike. It was gorgeous. And a lot of people. But so worth it. We also hiked along other parts of the mountain and caught some gorgeous views. We then seperated, with Kim going to the nearby monkey preserve and Jess and I headed back into Kyoto for our kintsugi (golden pottery joinery) lesson that makes broken things even more beautiful. It  was so fascinating and lovely to fix fill a small chip. Jess wanted more crafting then we got in the lesson, so ordered herself a full kit and then later found japanese pottery in which to try it on. Jess then wanted to go to the flea market and we made it just as they were cleaning up, but she found a few treasures. We met back with Kim for dinner, Jess choosing counter sushi for the third time this trip and we piled up the plates. Mmm. Then we parted Kim, who headed back into Tokyo and Jess and I watched Spy Family that evening. Waking, we grabbed some breakfast and checked out and made our way to the bullet train. It was a long travel day, but I loved seeing Mt. Fuji, this time not covered in clouds and eating a bento box while riding. We got to the airport within my "don't freak out time" and got onto the plane just fine. A few movies and a long sleep later (Mr. Malcolm's List and Mrs. Harris goes to Paris were pretty cute, actually) we landed in Toronto...and got stuck in waiting for the US to xray our bags. But the plane waited for us and our bags but it is never fun to run from customs to the waiting plane and Toronto isn't the most intuitive of airports. Oh well, we made it and settled in for the last leg of the flight and got into very, very cold Utah Saturday evening, glad to be finally home.

And now the picture dump: