DAY 22: THE PARK HYATT TOKYO!!!

we woke up super early today to make sure to get the free breakfast from the hotspring hotel because we had a feeling it would be good, and it was! it was a traditional japanese breakfast, buffet style :)

YUM!

our shuttle bus took us back to gamagori station at 10am, and then we got on the first of 3 trains to get back to shinjuku to get to the PARK HYATT!!! we were so excited :)

we get there, and they INSTANTLY take care of you. our taxi pulled up to the turn around and we tried to help take out our luggage from the trunk, but the two tiny japanese ladies were pretty determined to do it themselves and said to just leave it there for them to grab haha...we felt bad because a few of our suitcases were super heavy! but, i guess if they insisted!

then they led us all the way up to the lobby on the 41st floor and checked us in. we were expecting the typical check-in where you wait in line in front of a big loooong check-in desk, but no. not at the park hyatt. they take you to your own private table in romantic lighting, ask you if they can get you anything to drink, and have you check over your address and e-mail on a piece of paper they put in front of you haha...they also gave us a little bouquet of flowers since it was our honeymoon! so that was pretty cute :)

after check-in, they led us up to our room on the 49th floor (yes, 49th!!!), and showed us around our room. this. place. is. amazing. so amazing, we feel out of place hahaha...super-duper, fancy-schmancy everything, and they have assistants to guide you and say hello to you practically everywhere you walk. it's so awesome yet intimidating at the same time! haha...but here is our rooooom! (those who have seen Lost in Translation will recognize a LOT of this!)

luggage area once you walk into the room

the hallway to the main area

a welcome card (hand-signed haha) and some free chocolate! and water! which is good because the water in the fridge is $13.00!

since i mentioned the fridge, here it is. lots of things we cannot afford haha...like that half-bottle of champagne there? the cheapest one is $75. yep.

a separate area for cute liquor bottles

back to the room though! the entertainment center :)

the comfy bed!

the huuuge window!

THE VIEW.

love it!!!!!

the bathroom

our honeymoon flowers that they gave us!

outside the room, in our hallway

the lobby!

and of course we had to splurge a bit and go to the same bar bob and charlotte went to in the movie! top floor :) 

where bill murray sat!

however, the bar has the same amazing night view of the city that we have in our room!!!

just so gorgeous :)

we also got these adorable cakes to eat with gold on them! haha...this place is ridiculous. 

it's 1:15am right now, and i think we're going to stay up as long as possible. all we really have to do tomorrow is get to the airport and onto the 12 hour plane ride back to toronto, and we both plan on being passed out for hopefully the entire thing haha...so, this might be the last blog post! we shall see :) i might blog again once we are home!

DAY 21: HOT SPRINGS ARE THE BESTEST!

didn't have internet last night, so we're updating the blog today!

first of all, we must thank josh hart a BAJILLION times for this amazing stay at the hot springs. he is one of erik's best friends and groomsmen, and as our wedding present he bought us this night at this AMAZING hot spring hotel. this place couldn't be more perfect. we are in LOVE with it!!! it's called tennomaru and it's in gamagori :)

now onto the details!

here is where we were located 

a shuttle picked us up from the gamagori station, and took us 30 minutes UP A MOUNTAIN (all while listening to classical versions of music from the anime movie "my neighbor totoro", and no, i'm not joking haha) to this fabulous place. we knew from pictures the views would be great, but we had no idea they were so great because they were so high up a mountain! we thought the building was just really tall! haha

anyway, the people who worked there were all super nice, and they even rang a cool gong outside as we walked in! then, only one guy working there spoke pretty good english, so they sent him over to talk to us about everything haha...he asked us when we would like to go to dinner that night, and explained where everything was, etc. 

THEN! before he showed us where our room was, he asked, "honeymoon, yes?" and we said, "yep!" so then they gave us a pair of special scissors and set up a ribbon across two posts so we could pose for a picture (about to cut it) and then after the picture they told us to cut it and that it symbolized "good luck" or "happy marriage" :) then they said how they were going to print out the picture for us and gave it to us when we checked out! how cool is that?! here it is!

anyway, back to getting us to our room...the guy then led us to the elevator, but the elevator was SUPER small. 

since we had all our huge luggage with us, erik and i got in with the luggage, and there was still a tiny bit of room for the guy to fit in, but instead he hit the "close door" button for us, spoke some japanese super quick, then dashed away. i laughed because i thought the rest was up to us to find the room (not that it was hard to do, it was just funny the way he did things haha) but erik said, "oh! i think he booked it up the stairs!" and sure enough, once the elevator opened, there he was! WAITING for us! it was hilarious hahaha...so then he continued showing us the way to our room and once we got there, he let us in, and continued to show us around the whole room telling us what everything was. haha, he was so very nice :)

so here are some pictures of the amazing room we had! it was SO PERFECT.

and our private hotspring right on our own balcony!!! 

by the way, our special rooms even have their own special sign haha

and they gave us yukatas to wear!!!

it was all just too awesome. LOVED every bit of it! 

we had made dinner reservations for 7pm, so down we went and really had no idea what to expect haha...we had thought it miiiight be something similar to ume no hana (with the 16 courses) because this place is very traditional japanese, but we had no idea we would be right! so here comes another HUGE meal!

our place setting once we arrived:

then they brought out this special "wedding rice"! it once again is supposed to be for a happy marriage :) it was so cute how they made it special for us though! the guy from earlier who showed us our room even came out to say, "you see, rice is normally white. but if you notice...this one is red" with a huge smile on his face haha...it was great. everyone is so nice!!!

so, we started eating after the wedding rice, and here was a bunch of sashimi (all raw fish). it was absolutely amazing!!! there was even squid in there ;)

but next...WAS A SNAIL! he asked us if we wanted it boiled, baked, or as sashimi, and we both said, "BAKED!" haha...and...we actually ate it! it wasn't all that bad, really. the bottom half was even similar to liver. the top part was rubbery and hard to chew though

afterwards we were rewarded with steak haha...

then some soup with mushrooms, tofu, salmon, a weird grey dumpling, and some other white fish in it

then a delicious eggplant and the other thing on the right was a type of dumpling that sort of melted in your mouth. both were very good

next was some white fish, shrimp, asparagus, and pumpkin squash all tempura battered! YUM!

then some white rice and miso soup with a side of pickles. you pour the miso soup into the rice bowl for this dish :)

next was an AMAZING raw peeled tomato in some sort of delicious dressing. erik isn't a fan of tomatoes, so he really missed out on this one haha...it was SO good. 

getting close to the end we had some melon and tea

and finally, ice cream! all different flavors. green tea, chocolate, mango, strawberry, and another flavor that was another kind of tea

oh! and this was the cute sign on our table reserving it :) had to take a pic haha

and then our really nice server took our picture for us! she didn't know much english, so it was hard for her to try to explain what the dishes were, but i was happy i got to use some of my japanese on her!!! i actually got to say a few sentances! she liked that :)

afterwards, the view from our balcony looked pretty awesome, so i took a picture of that too.

THANK YOU AGAIN, JOSH!!!!! THIS STAY WAS SOOOO GREAT! loved every tiny bit of it :)

right now we are at the park hyatt tokyo! the same hotel as the one in Lost in Translation! we're pretty much freaking out right now and taking a million pictures, so expect another blog update with all that info in it later ;)