Trip Report Don't Touch My Mustache and Other Japanese Phrases

Konnichiwa! It's been just over a month since my husband and I returned from our wonderful 10 day trip to Japan. This was definitely the trip of a lifetime for both of us that took us on a journey to Mount Fuji, Kyoto, Osaka, Tokyo, and of course, the Tokyo Disney Resort. It was an adventure full of ups and more ups. I hope that each one of you enjoys this journey with me because I plan on detailing it all for you. I hope this trip will inspire all of you to broaden your Disney horizons and head over to the Land of the Rising Sun.

First though, if you are interested in how I did my planning (and yes, I did all of it on my own), check out my pre-trip report that is located here: http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/konnichiwa-yall-were-going-to-japan.884605/

The cast of characters for this trip was pretty simple. It was me (Rachel) and my husband (Jordan). I've gotten the question of what made me want to go to Japan quite a lot since we've gotten back. The truth is that my husband wanted to go. I always thought Japan would be neat to visit...eventually. There were a lot of other places on my bucket list to visit first, but last summer my husband convinced me to head over to Japan. He loves the culture and video games. So, while he chose the location, I made all the plans. By making the plans I became more and more excited about what waited for us across the Pacific. Plus, I kind of got to choose what we were going to do, which just so happened to be visit Tokyo Disney for two days.

Now I am very much a 'can't see the forest for the trees' type of person, and my husband doesn't even know a forest has trees half of the time. It works very well for us when we recognize each other's strengths and weaknesses. This trip turned out to be an excellent balance for us. When we left for Japan I had 8 typed pages of things to do in each city (that did not include my list of attractions at Tokyo Disney Resort), including train stops, addresses, cost, and descriptions of each site. While I am so glad that I had this list it actually caused me some anxiety. 'What if we don't do everything on the list? Which is the most important to me? To him? Why is nothing at the same train stop? Why does this book list this site in Central Tokyo but this book has it in Western Tokyo? Which ones are we going to on what days?' As much of a planner as I try to be, I just couldn't bring myself to piecing it all together on a map and detailing day by day what we were going to do. We were leaving with at least ideas of places to go, so I thought that surely that was good enough for now.

Monday, May 26

The night before we left I barely slept at all. I was so nervous and excited at the same time, which really just resulted in feeling restless, uneasiness, and just wanting to get on with it. I would almost liken it to the night before I got married, but I slept like a baby that night. My alarm went off at the horrible time of 4:30 AM. It really is a time that shouldn't exist, but fortunately adrenaline and excitement quickly kicked in for both of us. We were out the door by 5:30 AM for a 7:00 AM departure from Chattanooga. We only had an hour to get through security and our bags checked in Chattanooga, but I wasn't expecting any issues. In the scanner sometime suspicious showed up on my rear. I wanted to tell the TSA agent that it was just a wedgie, but she patted me down anyways. We flew from Chattanooga to Atlanta. We had a straight shot from Atlanta to Narita airport in Tokyo. However, once we arrived in Atlanta we had a five hour layover. We could have driven to Atlanta and back and half way there again during our layover time, but it was $50 more to fly out of Chattanooga and my parents were able to pick up my car. So off to the international terminal we sat and ate and lounged and paced and sat and ate until it was time to leave.

Our plane to Narita was definitely the largest plane either of us had ever been on, which is to be expected. However, I couldn't believe how crowded it was. When I chose our seats I googled the plane layout to see which seats were the best. The plane had a 3-4-3 layout of the seats, except in the back. As the plane narrowed in the back the seats changed to a 2-4-2 layout. I chose the first row of 2-4-2 seats. I'm so glad that I did! That meant that it was only Jordan and I together. Plus, we had about 2.5 feet between us and the window. It was just empty space. I was able to eventually put our stuff there instead of under the seats in front of us. Plus, it became my standing space when my legs couldn't take sitting anymore. I was just tall enough to fit right under the overhead compartment standing there. The only down side is that I didn't have a window to put my pillow against to sleep.

Here's us at takeoff. Sayonara, America!

Here's our extra space:

The takeoff was a bit of a bumpy ride. There was a lot of movement in the back of the plane, and it felt like it took awhile until the plane finally stopped fishtailing. Not long after we took off drink service started. Complimentary drinks, including alcohol, were offered for the flight. I asked for a glass of wine in hopes of getting to nap away that 4:30 wake up time. They were not stingy with the box wine on the plane. It didn't help though, so I went for the free entertainment. There was an impressive movie selection that would have definitely kept me occupied for the entire flight there and back. I opted for Monument's Men. It was okay. For such a wonderfully funny cast the humor felt forced and the timing was awful. Plus, it really shouldn't have been a comedy. The story is incredibly though.

Midway through the movie our first meal was served. I opted for beef stroganoff that was served with a salad, shrimp cocktail, a roll, and a brownie. I think the other option was chicken stir fry. The stroganoff wasn't took bad. It was heavy on the pepper but that didn't bother me. The brownie and roll however were not good.

Jordan asked for some sake with his meal. I wasn't sure what I was expecting, but I was surprised by the size of the bottle.

I really didn't get much sleep on the 13 hour flight. I spent the rest of it by playing mahjong tiles, trying to sleep, listening to music, and watching Star Trek Into Darkness for the 2nd time (I just really liked it, and I think Jordan looks like Bones). About 5 hours after the first meal our snack was served, which was a small turkey and cheese sandwich, a banana, and milano cookies. About an hour before we landed we were given breakfast. I had eggs, which were just not good. I didn't even make any notes on the breakfast. I drank orange juice. That's about all I remember.

Finally, we spotted land.

 

[mrdrift]

All I can say is "WOW", the park is completely different from anything hear in the states. There is so much to explore and see that we have never seen before. Thank you for sharing all the wonderful sites in the park. Your pictures are truly magnificent and do the parks justice.

 

[popsicletrees]

Once again, great photos and great report!

Thank you very much!

My Goodness, what an amazing TR!!!
I am loving this. A bucket list trip for sure.
The way you take the time to describe and take photos of everything (and remember the details) is wonderful and it really makes me want to go (I never thought I'd have the guts to travel to Tokyo but you've convinced me).
Thank you for putting so much effort into this!

I don't know which part I like the most so far but I do have to say the Legend of Mythica looks pretty cool..and the nighttime parade..and Tomorrowland....and Snow White....and the sushi....AND...AND...AND...

Thanks so much! I really wanted to give all of you as much detail as I could in hopes to make everyone want to go! Your last sentence reminds me of how hard it is to actually try to briefly sum up for people in about two minutes how great our trip was. There is just so much that we saw and did!

Agree with others. Great pictures and Trip Report!

As always, it is much appreciated!

All that comes to mind is one needs some serious toilet training when venturing into Japanese restrooms..

Well, fortunately there was only one toilet where I had trouble finding the flush. It seems the flush placement is pretty standard throughout the world. If all else fails, just push buttons until it does what you need it to.

All I can say is "WOW", the park is completely different from anything hear in the states. There is so much to explore and see that we have never seen before. Thank you for sharing all the wonderful sites in the park. Your pictures are truly magnificent and do the parks justice.

Thank you for reading along and the kind words about my photos. DisneySea was nothing less of stunning! There was really such a wonderful feel to the place.

 

[popsicletrees]

So, I didn't finish this part of the report yesterday because I didn't have my notes with me. I had written down some general observations about the parks that I wanted to share before I moved on to our next destination.

We logged 11.77 miles the day that we visited Tokyo DisneySea. We left the parks about half an hour before closing just because we wanted to beat the crowds that were leaving. A bus was waiting for us, and it wasn't crowded at all. This time we didn't fall asleep on the bus. We had adjusted to the time fully. It didn't take long at all. We got back to the room, packed up, and fell asleep without setting an alarm. We knew that we wanted to visit Fuji the next day before heading to Kyoto. That was our only plan for the day, so we figured we had all the time in the world. Boy, were we wrong. We aren't there yet though, so let me share mine and Jordan's thoughts and general observations about the Tokyo Disney parks.

- Those parks are clean! I think WDW does an excellent job of keeping the parks clean, but these were truly an exception. I had read before we left that the parks are very clean, but it was so obvious that Jordan even commented on it several times.
- CMs were super nice and helpful. Most of them spoke enough English to help you get by.
- There is detail everywhere! Not that I wouldn't expect this from Disney.
- DisneySea is ginormous! Seriously, that place is so big.
- You will see a lot of crazy outfits there. When we've been asked if we ever saw any crazy outfits there we always answer that we did at Disney.
- It wasn't a very diverse place. We were very easily and quickly spotted to be Americans. No worries, though. They love Americans in Japan, which brings me to my next point:
- Be ready to wave a lot because people will wave to you. Every once in awhile we'd hear, "Hello!" We would turn and look to see someone waving to us. Wave and smile, that's all they want. Even in line a few times a Japanese parkgoer would turn around and say the ride's name in English in a questioning way to see if that was correct.
- Duffy was everywhere! I have absolutely nothing against Duffy but my goodness I've never seen so many adults carrying around stuffed animals before. And yes, it was the adults!
- Character hats and mouse ears are huge there. These were way more popular than they are in the U.S. We were in the minority by not wearing any.
- They are character crazy in Japan. I know that we all see long lines for characters in the U.S., but it is a literal stampede when a character makes an appearance. Honestly, it is great fun to watch.
- There were three types of merchandise (other than hats) that we saw a lot of that I thought was pretty unique. 1) Dish towels. Yes, dish towels. I saw so many of these in the stores. I have no idea why these were so popular, but whatever. 2) Plastic. Pieces of plastic that were about 2x3.5 were sold in several stores throughout the park. These were giant place mats to sit on while you are waiting for a parade or outdoor show. Apparently the people in Japan started showing up with these things to hold their places, so Disney decided to capitalize on it by selling their own. According to park rules you can only set them up an hour before the show though. People in Japan have no problem sitting for parades and shows, even several rows deep. However, most will not sit directly on the ground. Hence, you buy your plastic place mat. 3) Hooded cloth things. Yeah, I have no idea what these were called. They were basically made out of a towel-like material, had a hood on them, you wore it like a cape, and they came down to about your midback. These reminded me a lot of the towels small children have with the hoods that are super adorable, except these were for adults. We saw a lot of people wearing these. They seemed like they would be too hot to wear, but in Japan people seemed to be more concerned about protecting their skin.
- People were incredibly patient at the parks. We were never bumped, pushed, prodded, or touched at all. In fact, no one bumped into our stuff either! There is a definite respect for personal space in Japan.
- Shows were a major deal in the parks too. As I mentioned in an earlier post they have a lottery system for some shows. In true Disney style they really put a lot of effort into their shows, and they were fun to watch.

 

[popsicletrees]

We woke up around 9:00 AM the following morning. We (I) were sad to be leaving the Disney parks, but we were excited about what was ahead of us in our trip. Before we left for our trip we had read from several sources that in Japan it is very polite to bring a gift to your host. It is also uncustomary to tip anyone. Considering that we really didn't have a host while we were there and that I hate not doing something for having good service, we decided to bring something from home to leave for the cleaning staff at the hotel. Since Moon Pies are made where we live, we brought those (booze is totally acceptable too if you want to go that route). So, at every place we stayed we left a bit of Tennessee behind with a note from us. We sincerely hope that everything was correct and that we didn't offend anyone.

We went back to the convenience store for breakfast to get our sushi triangles again. They had them, but this time we had to wrap the seaweed ourselves. These are supposed to be triangles.

We grabbed our things and boarded the bus back to Disneyland. The drivers had no objection to us bringing our luggage on. In fact, they put it on for us. This was pretty common it seemed. We got off the bus at the Disneyland stop and walked up the ramp to the JR station. We knew that we needed to get to Tokyo station in order to exchange our JR passes and catch a train to Fuji. It was smooth sailing once we got our train tickets and to the Tokyo station. At this point things fell apart. Before our trip I purchased JR vouchers that were good for 7 days. These vouchers are exchanged for basically a JR passport that allows you to travel on most JR lines for free around Japan (this includes the bullet train!). You can buy the vouchers for 7 days or 14 days. They are good until midnight on the 7th or 14th day. I didn't want to exchange these when we arrived in Japan because we would have wasted three days. So, we paid the $4 for the 30 minute train ride into Tokyo. In case you couldn't guess, Tokyo station is huge! This was where the real test of how we were going to survive Japan started. Fortunately there are maps around the station to give you a rough idea of where things are, but we couldn't find where to exchange our vouchers. Add to this that we had our stuff with us, and our patience was beginning to wear thin. We finally found a JR booth in the middle of the station, and we asked where we could exchange our vouchers. Fortunately, the attendants spoke English and told us to exit out (don't remember which exit) and the exchange office was in the lobby.

We found the office and exchanged our vouchers without any problems. It was easy and efficient. Then, we were asked where we would like to go for the day. We asked about Fuji.
- What part?
- Ugh, the pretty part? The part with the lake.

So we were given two bullet train tickets and a timetable and where to get off and change trains for Fuji. It was going to take an hour and a half to get there. I asked if we could go to Kyoto from there. No, we'd have to come back. WHAT?! I really , really thought that we could travel easily from Fuji to Kyoto. That was part of the reason why we were going to Fuji because on a map it is almost smack in the middle of the two places. This is really where the guidebooks failed me. It was only on this though. The guidebooks really made it seem like it would be easy to travel to Fuji from Tokyo and Kyoto. She explained that there was a private line that ran to Fuji that we would have to take, and it is much faster just to go back to Tokyo.

We headed to try and find the bullet train with only 15 minutes to spare before it left. We had no idea what platform to go to. We didn't bother to ask, and it wasn't printed on our ticket. Add to that we couldn't seem to find an escalator or elevator anywhere. So, we lugged our stuff up and down several flights of stairs until we realized that we weren't going to make our train. Defeated we went back to the JR exchange office and asked for tickets for the next bullet train. It left in 45 minutes. This time we asked the platform number too. The JR staff was very knowledgeable and very pleasant to work with fortunately.

There was a mall attached to the station that we went into to try and find a food court. On the top two levels there were plenty of places to eat, but they were all sit down restaurants. Fearing that we would not be able to make it in time, we opted to not eat there. So let's add hunger to our frustration of having no idea what we are doing and heavy luggage.

With time running out and no quick food in sight we walked to the bullet train platform. Happily, there were food kiosks right next to the platform for the bullet train. These sold a wide variety of bento boxes ranging from $3-$7. All of our problems were solved in one short instant as we asked for $5 sushi bento boxes. We boarded the train, placed our stuff overhead and sat in silence for a few moments.

So, here's what the outside typically looked like.

And the inside:

With a little soy sauce bottle

These were amazing, AMAZING! Seriously, who do I talk to about getting these everywhere stateside. This was exactly what we needed for our journey to Fuji.

 

[popsicletrees]

The bullet train ride to Otsuki was very scenic. Japan's countryside is beautiful!

When we arrived at Otsuki we switched over to a private line that heads to Fuji. We were not able to use our JR passes here because it was private. We spent $50 roundtrip for both of us to travel to Fuji. There was staff available at this particular train station that spoke fluent English. They were very helpful. We had our luggage with us and rented two lockers to stuff everything in. They cost roughly $5 for each locker.

The private train that we boarded was really neat. It was by far the most unique train that we rode on while we were there.

There was an attendant who went throughout the train making sure that everyone was comfortable. We had about an hour ride to get to Fuji. We rode in a seat that put our backs to one side. Fortunately, I turned around in time a beautiful view. It was bright and hazy, but there she was: Fuji!

Then, the attendant came around with hats and this sign and offered to take our picture.

There was no "now buy this" or "you can get an 8x10 of your photo once we depart" (which wouldn't make sense because she used our camera anyways), she just wanted to help us make the trip more memorable.

We stopped at a station about 20 minutes out from Fuji. We stopped here for around 10 minutes. The staff invited us to get out and walk around. I'm not sure why we stopped but that's fine.

Anyone who was operating a train or metro in Japan was absolutely wonderful! The people of Japan really take pride in their work no matter what it is. No matter where we went we never saw anyone who was working on their phone, and we never saw any worker give a customer any sort of attitude. That was something that completely diminished 5 minutes after we landed in the states. The train conductors though, they were top notch. Their operating booths had windows that they opened at each stop, put their head out of the window, and made sure that everyone was safely away from the doors before they closed. That has not been the experience that I have had in any metro station in the U.S. I really appreciated just the courtesy of knowing that the door wasn't going to shut on me the entire time we were there.

Back on the train we went and for nearly the rest of the train ride we had beautiful views of Fuji.

 

[popsicletrees]

There were three stations for Fuji. We were heading to the third stop. The first or second stop was an amusement park. There were several roller coasters there, and it took all I had in me not to just take off running off of the train when we got there. I mean an amusement park with views of Fuji, how cool is that!

We arrived at our station and asked at their customer service how to get to the lake. We had two options: walk or ride a bus. We decided to walk and were given a map that showed us how to get there. It would take about 20 minutes we were told to get there. Even though the bus would have taken a lot less time I didn't trust taking the bus. That was way too intimidating for my comfort zone.

The walk to the lake was very nice and through a small town.

We only had an hour from the time we left the station to go see Fuji and make it back. We had a four hour trip to get to Kyoto. So we booked it the entire way. It took us about 12 minutes to get to the lake, but there was no sign of Fuji anywhere.

This area was beautiful! I could live here. Really, I could. It was a nice 75 degrees outside with a steady breeze from the lake. There was a path that went around the lake, and it was just so peaceful being out there. Plus, waking up in the morning would be a lot more bearable if I could see Fuji from my window.

We saw plenty of people walking around the lake or riding bikes. We even saw a fisherman.

 

[popsicletrees]

We knew that Fuji was behind us, so as we were walking we kept looking back to see if we could finally see it. Then, suddenly, there she was. It was nothing short of beautiful!

 

[popsicletrees]

It was so bright out that if we tried to take selfies with the mountain in the background it would just wash out.

We spent about half an hour around the lake, but it wasn't enough time! I really wish that I had done more research and had gotten up super early to go and see Fuji. The buses would take you to all of the scenic places, and I wish that we had had more time to go and see those. However, we had no time to account for getting on the wrong bus.

So while we were walking around the lake we kept checking back again and again to see when we would finally see Fuji. Little did we know that while we were walking through to town we just needed to turn around.

We tried one more time to take a picture of ourselves with Fuji in the background. It was a major fail on our part, but the picture makes me laugh.

 

[popsicletrees]

I should have mentioned in my previous post is that the reason we had so little time at Fuji was because we were trying to catch the express train back to Otsuki for Tokyo. We made it back to the platform with about 5 minutes to spare. Our train back to Otsuki wasn't nearly as adorable as our train that left out of there. It was just a normal train. I felt a little jipped considering it cost so much to get out there. Once we arrived at Otsuki we got our things out of storage and asked an attendant where we boarded the train back to Tokyo. She told us that it was already at the platform. So, off we went up the stairs with our things. After we arrived back at Tokyo we went back to the JR ticket station and asked for two tickets for Kyoto. We were told that we were getting the last bullet train out of Tokyo for the night, and it left in 45 minutes. Whew! That was close! I am so glad that we had decided to try and catch the express train back to Tokyo or we never would have made it to Kyoto that night.

With a JR pass you are able to reserve seats on the bullet train as often as you like for no extra charge. There are a few luxury cars that require an extra charge, but I can only imagine what those must have looked like because our seats in the regular cars were awesome. There are three cars on the bullet train that are first come first serve, but with the JR pass it is so much better just to go to a ticket station and reserve seats. As long as they have seats available you can book for the train leaving in 5 minutes. A separate ticket is printed out for you that you must present on the train with your JR pass. The JR pass itself lets you get through the gates to each JR station. It works like a metro pass would. However, you just go through the security side office, hold up your pass, and they wave you on by.

With 45 minutes to kick around we just went to go find another place to pick up a bento box for our journey. This stand had over 30 options, but as it was nearing the end of the day many of them had already sold out. With our dinners in hand we boarded our bullet train for the two hour journey to Kyoto.

The bullet train was amazing! It was such a smooth ride! You could feel the acceleration and it even put some g forces on your body. The stops were smooth too. Inside of the bullet trains were very nice as well. The aisles typically sat three on one side and two or three across the aisle. There was an attendant who went around selling food and snacks throughout the trip. Each car was equipped with its own bathroom. There were scroll signs at the beginning of each car letting you know what the next stop was going to be in Japanese and English. Now the most important thing: leg room. There was plenty of it. I'm 5'4'' and sitting down I could stretch my legs all the way out in front of me. That was so nice! Plus, the seats reclined nearly all the way back. This was really a relaxing experience at the end of a long day. My only complaint was that the lights in the car were on the entire time. I understand that this was a necessity as conductors and the attendant were in and out the entire time. Plus, each bullet train made various stops along the way, so people were getting on and off the train, but it made it difficult to nap. Still, it was an awesome experience.

Here's my bento for the night.

Being super excited that orange water could be found outside of the Disney parks, I opted for peach water tonight. It was good. I liked the orange water better, but this wasn't the last peach water I had on the trip.

Jordan's dinner:

And mine:

His was better overall. I had some odd stuff in mine, but I was hungry so I ate it.

We made it to Kyoto just before 11. It had been a long day with our luggage. We left Kyoto station and went to the closest JR station. According to Google Maps our hotel was 1.3 km from the nearest JR station. There was a metro station about a two minute walk from our hotel, but we would have to pay for that. I know that sounds really cheap, but we thought that since we already have these JR passes we were going to try to not pay for transportation as much as possible.

Google maps was awesome when it came to getting around Japan most of the time. It's walking directions were awful though. They were honestly turn left, turn right, go straight, make a slight right. Where, google maps, where?

While we were in Kyoto we had three nights book at Hotel Villa Fontaine Village Kyoto. This received excellent ratings on TripAdvisor. It was described as a mix between a traditional Japanese hotel and a modern one. I thought it might be fun to stay in something more traditional so I booked it. Once we finally found the hotel (it took some time and we ended up walking in alleyways during most of it) we were really impressed by what we saw.

So, here's our room:

See those seats? Those are our beds. Yep, Japanese futons.

The room was a perfect square. The bathroom and closet were by the doorway, and there was a sliding door that separated the living area.

Our towels and hotel pajamas. No, we couldn't keep them, but we were given a clean set each night and they were comfy.

 

[popsicletrees]

Here are the beds all rolled out and made up. They do not make the beds for you at the hotel, which is fine because they don't know when I want to sleep and when I want to sit.

I had my best sleeps of the trip on those futons. They were very comfortable! It was an experience, but it was a really enjoyable one. I am honestly glad that we booked this hotel even though it was far away from the nearest JR station. We logged 6.65 miles walking that day, which was our lowest day of the entire trip.

The mirror in the bathroom didn't fog over the sink. Loved that!

When we checked in we were given a list of three breakfast options. We were told to pick what we wanted each morning and what time we wanted it delivered. They told us that the sushi breakfast was not available our first morning. So, we chose the bread service instead. I don't remember what the third option was, but it didn't seem appealing to us. I chose 7:30-8:00 as our time each morning to have breakfast delivered. Each room had a doorbell outside of it, and it rang promptly at 7:30 each morning.

This was the bread service from the first morning. There was a piece of ham, a fried egg with a dab of ketchup on it, something that tasted almost like potato salad, and an onion hash brown something or other. Jordan wouldn't touch it. Thankfully, 7/11 was right next door and to the rescue that morning.

 

[popsicletrees]

After breakfast we walked back to the JR station. On the way Jordan saw a sign for an arcade, so we went in. It was empty, but it was not what we expected. It was set up entirely for Pachinko. This is Japan's gambling game. These seemed to be open from early in the morning to way early in the morning. We saw several of them throughout our trip that were extremely crowded. They were also extremely noisy. I would have such a headache if I had to be in there for more than five minutes.

Right after I took this picture of him we were kicked out because we weren't supposed to be in there. It wasn't open yet. Oops!

We stopped to get more vending machine drinks along the way.

I had the green lemonade, which was just a tart lemonade. Jordan had the Milk Tea. This ended up being his go-to drink of the trip. It was basically heavy cream and green tea. I didn't much care for the taste, but he loved it!

This shop was attached to the JR station closest to us. We went in several times over the next few days, but we never saw the heart.

Our first stop of the day was the Inari Shrine. This is the shrine of the thousands of red torii gates. The JR line took you right to it.

This place was absolutely beautiful! It is designated as a shrine to the fox and sake and rice goddess. The gates lead up a mountain path. It was another hot day, and I wasn't too excited about having to climb up a mountain path, but it was nicely shaded, which cooled it off significantly. There was a religious ceremony going on while we were there. We were not allowed to enter into that area though. We planned on going up and around the entire path, but we eventually made a wrong turn somewhere.

 

[popsicletrees]

The water is to purify your hands before participating in the religious ceremonies here.

As part of the rituals, you grab the red and white fabric, swirl it around a few times, clap your hands twice, and bow.

 

[popsicletrees]

 

[popsicletrees]

At times throughout the area there were individual shrines set up.

 

[popsicletrees]

 

[fractal]

amazing stuff. Fuji is beautiful, the motel room is cool and the temple pictures are great!

 

[DisSplash]

Loving this report! Really, I love everything about it and I am learning so much! I can certainly appreciate being frustrated on a train platform with ALL of your luggage and the uncertainty of what platform to get on. One wrong train, and your plans are all kaput! Thank goodness it al worked out for you. And bento boxes wherever you go? I am so there! I do want to know how you knew what was in each box tho ...

Mount Fuji looks A-Mazing! Your pictures really came out great ... I loved the stroll through the town. You get a sense of what it must feel like to live there.

Are those really swan boats on Lake Kawaguchiko? Hmmm ... is that what really happened to Magic Kingdom's swan boats? Not a bad way to retire, if you ask me .... Seriously though, how fun would that have been to ride around that lake in a swan boat looking up at Mount Fuji?! So. Very. Cool. Loved the Koala head boat too. So quirky!

Loved your mini Google maps rant ... sounds like something I've said recently. I am so not knocking Google maps as I fully appreciate the fact that I have in my hands a world map capable of drilling down to a particular street corner in mere seconds, but as with everything, there can be glitches and the map's glitches tend to occur at the worst possible moment!

That hotel in Kyoto looks awesomely traditional! Loved that, and loved that breakfast in the room was standard operating procedure. So how did that "western-style" meal taste? It looked edible enough ... well, at least it looked like food I recognize!

The Inari Shrine is just beautiful! It looks like some of the gates are newer than others, so I am guessing they just replace them as necessary? I am curious to know what is actually written on those gates. Do they represent families, or are they more prayers?

I cannot wait to read more about your Japanese adventure. I am waiting now with bated breath for the next installment! My DH, with whom I have been sharing some details of your report, is also waiting with bated breath to see whether you ran into anything 'Godzilla." With everything there is to see and do in Japan, that is his primary focus. Oi!

 

[acrab3t]

The more I read this, the more I see a trip to Japan in my future.

 

[popsicletrees]

amazing stuff. Fuji is beautiful, the motel room is cool and the temple pictures are great!

Thank you very much! Fuji was so beautiful. Next time I'll know to plan better because I would love to explore the area around the lake more.

Loving this report! Really, I love everything about it and I am learning so much! I can certainly appreciate being frustrated on a train platform with ALL of your luggage and the uncertainty of what platform to get on. One wrong train, and your plans are all kaput! Thank goodness it al worked out for you. And bento boxes wherever you go? I am so there! I do want to know how you knew what was in each box tho ...

Mount Fuji looks A-Mazing! Your pictures really came out great ... I loved the stroll through the town. You get a sense of what it must feel like to live there.

Are those really swan boats on Lake Kawaguchiko? Hmmm ... is that what really happened to Magic Kingdom's swan boats? Not a bad way to retire, if you ask me .... Seriously though, how fun would that have been to ride around that lake in a swan boat looking up at Mount Fuji?! So. Very. Cool. Loved the Koala head boat too. So quirky!

Loved your mini Google maps rant ... sounds like something I've said recently. I am so not knocking Google maps as I fully appreciate the fact that I have in my hands a world map capable of drilling down to a particular street corner in mere seconds, but as with everything, there can be glitches and the map's glitches tend to occur at the worst possible moment!

That hotel in Kyoto looks awesomely traditional! Loved that, and loved that breakfast in the room was standard operating procedure. So how did that "western-style" meal taste? It looked edible enough ... well, at least it looked like food I recognize!

The Inari Shrine is just beautiful! It looks like some of the gates are newer than others, so I am guessing they just replace them as necessary? I am curious to know what is actually written on those gates. Do they represent families, or are they more prayers?

I cannot wait to read more about your Japanese adventure. I am waiting now with bated breath for the next installment! My DH, with whom I have been sharing some details of your report, is also waiting with bated breath to see whether you ran into anything 'Godzilla." With everything there is to see and do in Japan, that is his primary focus. Oi!

I was really worried that we were just going to go to the wrong place on the wrong train and just have no way of knowing where we were or how we would get back. That frustration never became a problem again as we continued on with the trip though.

As far as knowing what was in the bento boxes there is a food display at each cart. Some of them had so many options while others just a few, but there was a wide variety to choose from. There were at least 5 I would have tried from where we picked up dinner. Even though there are displays showing you what is in it, there aren't any descriptions available in English.

Yes, those were swan boats. We saw little huts along the lake that I'm assuming were there to rent them out. However none of them seemed occupied. Had we had more time I think that would have been one of the most perfect ways to explore the area.

Google maps saved our lives there. It really did! Whenever we traveled by metro or train 9 times out of 10 Google maps had what platform we would go to and everything. Honestly, I don't know how we would have gotten around without it. Well, we wouldn't have. However, walking with it was a pain!

Our first breakfast was just okay as far as I'm concerned. Jordan didn't like it at all, but he is a very picky eater. Our sushi breakfasts there were much better.

I read that the inscriptions on the gates are names of the families who donated them and the date they were donated. There were places where gates were missing, but a small stick with writing on it was sticking out of the foundation. It makes me wonder if those were damaged and were being repaired. Some were in much better shape than the others and some looked freshly painted while others not so much. We saw workers there cleaning certain areas, so I'm guessing that they try and maintain them as much as possible.

I'm glad that your husband is following along too. That is such a compliment that y'all are waiting with bated breath. I'll go ahead and tell you that we couldn't find anything Godzilla related. Just two days ago a friend we made in Japan posted a photo of him in front of a giant Godzilla statue. I think the biggest reason that we didn't see anything Godzilla is because the movie had not come out there yet. Frozen was huge when we went, and Noah was being advertised as about to be released. So my guess is that they were at least 4-6 months behind in their films from the U.S. I'm sure there are plenty of Godzilla things there. Honestly, it was the one thing on my list that we didn't get to cross off.

The more I read this, the more I see a trip to Japan in my future.

I hope you do get to go! It was a beautiful and amazing place no matter where we were.

 

[popsicletrees]

Since we took a wrong turn somewhere along the path of the torii gates we decided to move on from the shrine instead of spending another two hours trying to back track. We sat on the stairs of the main shrine and planned out the rest of our day. We decided to head to the Monkey Park Iwatayama, which is located in the Arashiyama mountains. We took the JR line to the Saga Arashiyama station to make the trek over to the park.

Buddha statue we found while leaving Inari

This area of Kyoto was so nice. It was touristy but not in a bad way. There were rickshaws and bikes for rent all around the station. Looking back on it I wish we would have rented a bike. It was so hot that day, and we had a decent walk from the station to the monkey park. If it had been 10 degrees cooler outside it would have been great weather for a walk, but it was just miserable at times. The area has all sorts of shrines and parks, as well as stores, restaurants, and street vendors. It is a very clean area with a lot of foot traffic and not too many cars.

We saw these little statues in several home gardens in the area. When I got home I found out these are tanuki statues, you know like the power up in Super Mario Brothers 3.

This was part of the Tenryuji Temple, which is a UNESCO site. This was a very large area that we didn't have a lot of time to explore. We didn't even make it 1/4 of the way through.

While we were in the temple we met a group of college students who asked us a few questions about media and whatnot we enjoyed in the U.S. They were doing a project for class. Their English was excellent. They were very friendly too. Not long after that we were approached by a group of middle school students. They asked us if we wouldn't mind helping them with a homework assignment for class. They had to find American tourists in the temple and ask them questions in English. They asked us about where we had been, where we were going, and what kind of food we had enjoyed on our trip. I told them in Japanese that I am a teacher. When I got a few "oooohhhhs" in return I was super proud of myself for pronouncing it correctly. They were so polite, and I just felt honored by our interaction with them that they asked us for help. They got a picture with us, so of course we had to ask for the same in return.

Okay, back to searching for the monkey park. We crossed a bridge leading over to the mountains. I could have lived in that water for awhile it was so hot out.

On the other side of the building to the right the water extends and there were plenty of people wading around in that area.

After we crossed the bridge we started seeing these adorable signs.