HONEYMOON IN JAPAN!

DAY 22: THE PARK HYATT TOKYO!!!

2010-04-13T12:18:00.000-04:00

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!

2010-04-13T03:29:00.000-04:00

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 ;)

DAY 20: SHOPPING!

2010-04-11T10:12:00.000-04:00

this is going to be a pretty short as well as boring post haha...

today it drizzled a bit, and we didn't have anything planned that we wanted to do, so we used it as a souvineer-buying day, and we actually went to the train station to do so! it sounds weird, but the big train stations here are like malls. they have a TON of restaurants, shops, and even department stores can be connected to them. so, off we went! we got a lot done, and then we went to coco curry for dinner and it was really good (as usual!).

nothing else to report! sorry! we're just taking it easy today. tomorrow we'll be heading off to our hot spring hotel though! so we are really excited for that! tomorrow's blog will be much more fun with pictures and stuff haha :)

DAY 19: HIKING UP MOUNT YOSHINO

2010-04-10T10:29:00.000-04:00

here is where mount yoshino is located :)

it took quite a few train rides and 2 and a half hours to get there from the shinosaka station (close to our hotel) but we finally got there, and started the long trek up the mountain!

mount yoshino is well-known for it's 30,000 cherry trees. it was a VERY beautiful hike! we made the mistake of going on a saturday though (and close to the end of the cherry blossom season, particularly for the lower 1000 trees) so it was sort of PACKED with people haha...

gorgeous views though!!!!!

once you get to the 2nd large group of cherry trees, there are a TON of souvineer places as well as restaurants so it took longer to get higher because it became quite cramped...but we couldn't help it, and stopped for some sakura ice cream!!!

as you can see, i took a bite out of mine before i was reminded to take a picture haha...i couldn't wait to try it! and it was so yummy!

then we saw this happen, but unfortunately we're not sure what was going on...

getting higher and higher though!

this part looked cool :)

LOVE this shot!

almost to our chosen hanami picnic spot!

the views up there were great!

LOADS of cherry trees in the distance

lots of people chose this spot for hanami, but it still wasn't packed which was really nice

our food erik had been carrying up the mountain this whole time for our picnic! haha

other people enjoying the cherry blossoms...and their gigantic bottles of sake!

heading back down...

and of course on the way down (it was really hot, okay?!) we got another ice cream cone haha...good thing we hiked off all the calories! this one was black sesame, and it was much stronger than the last one i had at himeji castle. it was really good :)

aaaaand then we took this uncomfortable train ride home hahaha...saturdays are bad travel days during cherry blossom season! hehe ;)

DAY 18: TRIP TO KINKAKUJI

2010-04-09T11:06:00.000-04:00

today we went to go see the kinkakuji temple (or better known as "the golden pavillion") in kyoto

it is completely covered in pure gold leaf

it was pretty cool to see :)

around the area as we walked around we saw some other interesting things...

like this spot where you are supposed to throw coins and try to get it in the bowl. we threw some, and i got one in, but it bounced right back out! haha

and these machines spit out your fortune for 100 yen (like, $1)

here's mine!

you unroll them and they give you quite a detailed fortune haha...

afterwards on our walk back, we saw this very loud van drive by yelling all sorts of things in japanese on the loudspeakers about this guy who is running for something. we weren't sure what he was running for, but we have seen posters around town

the voices faded as they drove further and further, but as we walked closer to the station, we heard them again! they parked right in front of the station and the guy running gave a huge speech as the other people in the van waved and shook their pom-poms hahaha...it was fun to randomly see.

then we hopped on the train and had another gorgeous ride back :)

we were starving by the time we got back, and i had picked up this cool spaghetti ramen thing, that ended up being way cooler than we thought!!! it had a little drain built in and everything!

and even gave a packet of parmesan to go with it! it was awesome :) and delicious! AND only like $1.50! can't beat that

DAY 17: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BUDDHA!!!

2010-04-08T10:35:00.000-04:00

today was an absolutely GORGEOUS day, and it was also buddha's birthday! so what better place to go than nara, where it has japan's largest buddha!

here is where nara is :) pretty close. just a 45 minute train ride away

now, not only was it buddha's birthday today, but the year 2010 is also the 1300th anniversary for nara! nara is japan's original capital, so that was pretty cool. they have banners and posters all over the place letting people know

nara is a very beautiful place with lots of parks...

AND DEER!!!!!!

waaaay more deer than miyajima had! and these ones are all over the place, walking around

SO CUTE!

a baby!

hahaha

anyway, we continued on our path to go see buddha

starting to enter the todaiji temple

not a cloud in the sky! as you can see, this temple where buddha is, is huge. it's also the largest wooden building in the world!

and here is buddha inside! again, you really cannot tell from the pictures, but this buddha is GIGANTIC. it's 49.1 feet tall! the ears alone are 8.3 feet tall haha...

the little statues on the gold part behind him are about the same size as a person (to help you see how big it is!)

it was pretty awesome

this statue (also inside the temple) is also huge, and carved out of wood! he is a guardian inside the temple

a supporting post in the temple has a hole apparently the same size as one of the buddha's nostrils. legend has it that those who pass through it will be blessed with enlightenment in their next life!

us in front of the todaiji temple

after the temple, we walked back through the deer park, and the great thing with this park is that you can buy crackers for the deer and they go absolutely BONKERS!

this guy made a mistake and didn't run away immediately after buying his crackers

they get...pushy haha

so we bought a pack of crackers, and ran a pretty good distance away with them, but the deer knew better, and a few followed us the whole distance!

attacking erik!

but...these deer also BOW for crackers!!! it was so cool!

okay they're gettin' grabby again haha...

then we rode one back to the station (just kidding!) ;)

but we saw this on our walk back, and thought it looked funny

we also saw these guys on our walk back. they were hitting that gluttonous rice ball really hard!

then in this part, it was SUPER fast, and the one guy was flipping the ball over with his hands while the other hit it with the mallet. i thought mallet was going to hit that poor guy's hands because they were going so fast! and look at those ARM muscles!

and then a 3rd guy has the super easy job of coating the little balls so people could buy them to eat haha

what a great day! and a gorgeous train ride home!

DAY 16: IT ENDED UP BEING FREEZING TODAY AND WE DIDN'T BRING JACKETS

2010-04-07T10:45:00.000-04:00

today we went to the sagano arashiyama bamboo forest and the gioji temple (moss garden) in kyoto.

we started out at the bamboo forest, which was pretty cool. we both wished the giant fences weren't there, but it was still neat to see the super tall bamboo

and of course there were vending machines (yes, even in there haha...) so i got some hot chocolate and erik got some hot corn soup! both were great!

we then continued on our way to the gioji temple, or, the moss garden

it was really pretty in there! and, there was a cute white cat hanging around!

i love how you can still see the cat in random spots in some of these pictures haha

then we were hungry, so we decided to try the popular mos burger

it was really, really good. we both got the same thing, and the burger is ground beef and pork combined. add some cheese, thin onions, soy sauce and black pepper and you have one delicious burger! mmmmmm...

then it was time to head back to the hotel, but our train looked so pretty i had to take a pic.

by the way, the U.S. really needs to get on with the whole public transportation system thing everywhere. it's amazing. we use multiple lines everyday and we absolutely love it.

DAY 15: ERIK ATE KOBE BEEF AND NOW HE'S BROKEN

2010-04-06T10:49:00.002-04:00

it's true. we ate at the wonderful grill miyata tonight and it was magnificent. erik said his body will now reject all other foods because nothing will ever be as good as the kobe beef was. ever. again. haha...more on that later ;)

we went to kyoto again today to walk around gion (the geisha district) and then eat at grill miyata for dinner. as i've said before, i looooove kyoto. we walked along these wonderful paths along the river to get to the gion area:

there was also a bunch of wildlife in the river

everyone enjoying this fantastic weather!

we get to our destination: pontocho alley, which is best known as one of the licensed geisha areas in kyoto. it is a very thin alley filled with tea houses

tiny alleys off of pontocho alley

after walking through it, we walked next to this canal nearby. it was very pretty with all the sakura!

you can see the LOADS of petals already starting to fall off and collect in the street

we sat for a minute to rest, and then this neko (cat) came by for a drink! it was so cute i had to take a picture :)

then suddenly, a super nice japanese woman tapped me on the shoulder and pointed down the street a little bit trying to show me something. i looked for a minute, then i heard her say, "maiko! maiko!" which is an apprentice geisha!!! we were really hoping to see one! we had heard about fake ones, but this was a REAL one waiting for her ride to go to her appointment!

there she goes! you can see her two "helpers" (don't know their correct name) going with her. it was so cool to see her! it was so nice of that japanese woman to point her out to us too! we would have never known had she not shown us!!! everyone here is just so nice hehe

afterwards, we still had some time before dinner, so we headed back to the river area, and walked along the edge

i could sit here for hours...

we saw a bunch of crows. they are everywhere here, and they a big and beautiful, unlike the ones back home

and a bunch of cats by a restaurant window waiting/hoping for some food haha

finally it was time for dinner at grill miyata!!! this place is hard to find if you don't know where you are going! which is cool because it's not all that well known. it's in the basement of a 6-story building

first we had this yummy salmon and a salad

and a potato/shrimp-filled croquette

then some fries and an awesome corn soup that tasted like cornbread! oh, and they kept loading us up with alcohol this whole time haha...and it was STRONG!!! you get a drink with your meal, so i chose white wine, but then they also give you this barley shochu which is like a scotch, and it's 25% alcohol! haha! they mix it with a plum liquor, and after 2 of those i think i was ready to hit the floor hahaha...but, they were included with the meal! so, we drank them. good thing for train rides home, huh? ;)

anyway, next was the fabulous (and i DO mean FABULOUS) kobe beef

the awesome mr. miyata himself showing us the kobe beef

ohhhhhh YUUUUUMMMMMM.....and mr. miyata cooks the steaks himself! and this is all after talking to us for about 30 minutes. he was so nice :)

here it is. ready for eating. and oh my goodness it was hard to eat that last bite. it literally MELTS in your mouth. we wanted to take it home and save it forever!!! erik is STILL talking about it right now, and counting up our money to see if we could possibly go back again hahaha!!!! it's really THAT. GOOD.

afterwards, we wrote mr. miyata a small note on a dollar bill thanking him because he had a bunch of these from past customers.

and here we are with mr. miyata! we also met this nice other couple from america (anna & dale) who we chatted with throughout dinner. grill miyata was yet another amazing experience in this fantastic country we will never forget!!!

DAY 14: I ASK ERIK, "WHEN CAN WE MOVE TO JAPAN?" EVERY DAY

2010-04-05T10:34:00.011-04:00

Here is where we are located right now in the country:

I pretty much want to pack up everything and move to Japan. We absolutely LOVE it here!!!

Today we went to see the Fushimi Inari Shrine, the Heian Shrine, and walk along the Philosopher's Path. First was the Fushimi Inari Shrine.

We have noticed that Japanese people always do this water ritual...

so we did it too :) You take the scoop and rinse your left wrist/hand first, and then the right. Afterwards, you wash your mouth, but you don't put your mouth directly on the scoop. You are cleaning your mind and body before entering the shrine.

Behind us were prayer tags and more origami cranes with one lit candle.

Then came the HUNDREDS of torii gates!

Before we get into more pictures of these gates...here is a picture of the map to show you JUST how far these go! There are SO MANY of them, and you have to remember, they are made out of tree trunks!

Looks unreal!

They were just so amazingly stunning. Definitely one of our favorite parts of the trip so far. Highly recommended.

Along the paths of them there were stops with more shrines.

Endless! Haha...

But next it was time to move on and head on over to the Heian Shrine. This photo below was on the way. I thought it was so pretty with all the sakura (cherry blossom trees).

Here is probably the BIGGEST torii gate we will see! By the way, torii gates always indicate there is a Shinto shrine nearby and they mark the transition into a sacred place. They can also be seen at Buddhist temples as well though. Shintoism and Buddhism are the two main religions in Japan.

Inside the Heian Shrine:

Loads of weeping cherry trees:

So pretty!!!

The sun was starting to set already, so we started walking over to the Philosopher's Path (very well known location for it's cherry trees)

They were in full bloom, and it was a PERFECT day to go! The weather was gorgeous today.

It was just so, so, gorgeous. Pictures really don't do it justice.

Then Erik got some dango! Dango is a treat made from rice flour. It's chewy in texture, and really yummy!

I got an ice cream cone with three different flavors of tea ice cream! Green tea (matcha), black tea, and chai tea! It was awesome.

Walking back to the train station watching the sunset was breathtaking.

After walking well over 6 miles today, we decided to walk a smiiidge more to this Domino's by our hotel to give it a try! We wanted to see if it would be different from back home.

Their Domino's is WAY different than our Domino's! It's all fancy!

Check out this menu! They have a TON of cool options!

We got the "Garlic Master" haha...LOADS of garlic and little kielbasa pieces! It was great!

Oh, and beer of course ;) mine was apple flavor for ladies haha...

Another amazing day in this fantastic country that we will never forget.

DAY 13: THERE WAS A HAIR IN OUR HOT WATER MACHINE!

2010-04-04T08:43:00.001-04:00

today was sort of a relax-day. we checked out of the crowne plaza kobe, and checked into our hotel in osaka, the chisun hotel shin osaka, but not before catching this beautiful sunrise :)

so here is where we are now:

not far from kobe!

but before we headed to our new hotel, we grabbed some lunch, and decided to sit in the park and enjoy hanami with the other japanese people having fun :)

our yummy bento box lunches!

people picnicking and enjoying the cherry blossoms

these people picked an awesome spot! they were using the cold water to keep their drinks cold :)

anyway, after lunch we took the 13 minute bullet train ride to our new hotel, and let me just say...we REALLY miss our kobe hotel hahahaha...

yep. that's erik almost touching both walls at once haha

pretty tiny! also...not the cleanest

and the bathroom is the size of an airplane bathroom (plus a tiny bathtub)

but they have a hot food vending machine in the hallway!

so we just took it easy tonight. went to the lawson's and the family mart to stock up on some breakfast foods/snackies, then ate some and hung out. tomorrow we will be going to kyoto!

DAY 12: THE DAY WE HOPED WE PASSED AS CANADIANS

2010-04-03T10:07:00.001-04:00

today was our planned day-trip to miyajima and hiroshima.

first was miyajima because we were most interested in the famous "floating torii gate" and high tide was at 11:20am, so we had to be there close to that time! we took the 75 minute bullet train to the hiroshima station, then hopped on another train for 25 minutes to get to the miyajima area, THEN got onto a ferry to get to miyajima island :)

on the ferry heading over!

i had to use a bathroom like this!!!

on the island, it was very pretty

and these guys were everywhere!

i mean REALLY everywhere

but what we were really here for...

...was this :) it was so gorgeous!

this was on the walkway to get a better view of the floating torii

part of the walkway

there it is!

pretty cool :)

walked around the area a bit before heading to hiroshima

and got some pork yakitori!

took this one on our way out. i'm in looooove!

at the hiroshima station

this is the a-bomb dome. they kept it in it's original condition after the a-bomb

this is part of the peace park right by the a-bomb dome

loooooots of paper cranes! way more than the 1,200 i folded!

ida, you will love these! hehe ;)

i like the comparison between the new re-built buildings and the a-bomb dome

more cranes as you get closer to the hiroshima museum

people adding more cranes

right in front of the hiroshima peace memorial museum

a model showing before the a-bomb...

...and after :(

actual cranes sadako sasaki folded

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadako_Sasaki

leaving the museum

it was really interesting to view everything in there even though it was sad. actual pieces of clothing, and other pieces they have saved like rooftop shingles welded together and melted glass bottles were some of the items they had for you to look at.

after the long trip back to our hotel, we were hungry so we got dinner and some coffee!

i guess the studio ghibli museum isn't the only one to make adorable coffee!!! erik got a green tea latte, and i got an almond latte. YUM!

tonight is sadly our last night in this fabulous hotel. we're heading to osaka tomorrow (15 min away on the bullet train) because the hotel there was super cheap (but also is going to be super tiny, and not nearly as nice haha). we will miss you, crowne plaza kobe!!!!!!!!!!!! you were great to us.

DAY 11: UME NO HANA IS AMAZING!

2010-04-02T10:52:00.001-04:00

first here are some views from our room during the day :)

the ocean!

mountains right behind our hotel

we walked around a bit today since we didn't really have anything planned, besides dinner

saw this cool dior store

and of course i had to take our picture in the little mirrors on the dior building haha

these are like our orange barrels back home...only they are monkeys haha

thought this sign was cute. if you ride your bike here, all japanese people of all ages will apparently be so disappointed in you haha ;)

found another arcade, and these prizes were crazy! cat paws! and they felt SO REAL it was freaky! the pads were made out of a jelly-rubber so it really felt like a cat paw haha...and check out the cartoon of the guy on the poster in the background hahahahahaa

this lady thought her puppies were her children i guess

and japan has every flavor of pringles ever!

we had a few food places in mind that we wanted to try thanks to our internet friend, keith (kobekeith on the trip advisor forums), who gave us the heads up on some amazing places to try!

first were the delicious gyoza from akaman. these things were so good! homemade potstickers that they prepare for the day, and then just close up shop once they sell out!

and then tonight we also had reservations for a place called ume no hana, which was AMAZING. keith told us how great it was, but we had no idea just HOW good until we got there tonight! it really was a VERY memorable dinner that we LOVED! also, keith was so great as to reserve a special private room for us since it's our honeymoon!!! normally these private rooms are for 4 or more people, but they allowed us to have our own room since it was our honeymoon! it was the BEST!!!

our private room!!!!!

cute table

AWESOME view of the city!

both ready for our 15-course meal. yes, 15-courses haha

our place setting with green tea

courses #1, #2, & #3.

#1) boiled green vegetable seasoned with soysauce and fish stock

#2) tofu-like food made from milk, fresh cream and arrowroot starch

#3) cold yuba

#4) cup of savory steamed egg custard containing shrimp, mushrooms, dumpling, and ginkgo nut

#5) sashimi

#6) chinese-style dumpling made with tofu

#7) deep-fried wheat-gluten coated with miso paste

#8) lotus root dumplings topped with fish stock sauce

#9) boiled tofu (eaten with soy starchy sauce, grind sesame seeds, and grated ginger)

#10) deep-fried yuba roll with ground whitefish

#11) yuba gratin

#12) savory steamed glutinous rice

#13) clear soup with yuba

#14) japanese pickled vegetables

#15) dessert!

i chose the soy ice cream with sugar syrup, and erik chose the strawberry ice cream. both were SO good

everything was AMAZING. the only one we weren't crazy about was the boiled tofu. i think it was a texture thing, but the whole experience was just so memorable. no one there really spoke any engligh, and luckily our server was a girl who looked to be about our age, so we all had fun together trying to figure out what each other was saying hahaha...she was trying so hard with her english, and we were picking up the very few japanese words we know, and we all did a lot of laughing together because it was pretty funny trying to watch one-another struggle to try to get across what we were trying to say :) she liked when we would say things in japanese though! it was such an awesome night :)

DAY 10: STORMING THE CASTLE!

2010-04-01T10:00:00.001-04:00

today was a pretty gloomy day (with rain in the morning) but once it stopped in the afternoon, we headed to himeji to see the himeji castle. it was still really overcast, but at least it didn't rain while we were out!

where himeji is (pretty close to kobe)

took the bullet train again! not long though, just 16 minutes haha...but at 170 mph!

grabbed food for the train ride again too. this sandwich was amazing! it was like an egg salad with lettuce, shrimp and asparagus! it was so, so yummy, and only $2.50!

once we got to the himeji station, it wasn't too far of a walk, and after a while you could see the castle at the end of the road! it's barely visible in this picture

there was a big field across the street from the castle's entrance which was pretty cool

this was the little character they use everywhere for himeji castle stuff haha...one again, adorable ;)

the view of the castle from across the street. you can see they have started a bit of the planned renovation, but luckily we got here before they started on the main part of the castle!

at the entrance

LOTS of cherry trees inside

loved all the moss!

it was a very pretty castle :)

afterwards, we got some ice cream!!! erik got strawberry & apple/mango swirl, and i got black sesame! both were SOOOOO yummy

we headed back to the station to go back to kobe, but we walked through some of these open-air "mall" areas first.

and of course i had to take this cute puppy's picture haha

once we got back to the hotel, we took a little stroll around to look for some dinner, and saw all the cherry trees by our hotel lit up. so beautiful.

DAY 9: HANAMI PARTIES AND TRAVELING TO KOBE!

2010-03-31T10:35:00.003-04:00

hanami in japanese means, "flower viewing" and there is TONS of it during cherry blossom season!

today was our last day in tokyo until our very last day of our honeymoon, and we saved it specifically for going to the chidorigafuchi garden and ueno park to see all the cherry trees in bloom (as much as they could be for tokyo while we were there, because by the time we get back on the 14th they will be gone, or almost gone!)

starting out at the very pretty chidorigafuchi garden

beautiful all along the river which is perfect because we wanted to rent a rowboat today too!

GORGEOUS. loved it so much!!!

hehehe :)

so romantic <3

having the best time EVER!!! hahaha

okay, normal smile too ;)

rowing too close to the sakura, babe!

he loves being so close to them hahaha

love this shot of erik. he rowed us carefully under the weeping sakura and it was perfect!

smoooooch!

after boating, we headed back to the subway station to go to ueno park and we saw this on our walk! thought it was cool :)

the start of ueno park! it's VERY well known as the hanami hot-spot to go

people come here during the EAAARLY hours of the morning to reserve their perfect hanami spot and wait for their friends so they can eat, drink and have a great picnic all day under all the beautiful sakura. oh, and did i mention there's no public intoxication laws? haha...that, plus train rides everywhere so you dont have to drive anywhere is sort of the perfect combination for them hahaha

SO pretty!!!

what a GREAT day for our last day of our week in tokyo! now onto the bullet train to head to the other side of the country :)

heading to shin-kobe station! our hotel is connected to it, which will be super nice for heading out to places, and we got ADORABLE bento boxes for the bullet train too :)

mine! see the cute soy sauce bottle in there! oh my goodness everything is just so cute haha

erik's!

and we bought some yummy banana cracker things with cream in the middle for dessert

they were very banana-y!

a shot i took on the way to kobe while on the bullet train (looking out the dirty windows haha)

195 minutes later, we are now in KOBE!

and we are in LOVE with our AMAZING HOTEL!!! it's the crown plaza kobe, and it looks so nice, AND they even upgraded our room from a standard to a deluxe so it's a bigger room for FREE! check this place out!

the view of it outside from the train station we came in on

the walk to the hotel

our HUGE room right when you open the door

we love it!!!

and we can't forget to show you the view from our room on the 25th floor!

you can see the ocean from our room too! it's just more to the right in this photo. we'll be able to see it better in the morning :)

now, not only are we connected to a big train station, but we are above a MALL! and there are tons of cool restaurants/shops!

nothing was open when we walked around, but you can still walk through everything

(and obviously there are vending machines haha...)

and here is the lobby to our hotel :) now, remember, this hotel is not $400/night like how it looks! it's just over $100! it's amazing the quality of hotel you can get here for the price. still, we are only staying here for 4 nights to save on some money, but it's such a pretty place!

that's it for today! erik now has the sniffles too, so hopefully he's not getting sick!!! aie!

DAY 8: "LOST IN TRANSLATION" DAY WITH A SIDE OF YOKOHAMA

2010-03-30T10:50:00.002-04:00

today it was very sunny and clear! so we decided to run around (walked over 10 miles again today, easily) finding key spots from Lost in Translation as well as a trip to yokohama (about 30 minutes away on a train) to go to cosmo world!

first, we headed to the post office to exchange our postal money order for more yen, then went to an awesome arcade which was by stop #1 for Lost in Translation (LiT) scenes where erik won me this ADORABLE CAT PRIZE on only his 3rd try!!!

but i liked the one with the other colors more, so the ticket guy exchanged it for me :)

here it is!

HOW CUTE! america needs to have more "compete for cutest thing ever" contests haha

anyway! here is stop #1 for LiT scenes! the final scene! it was cool to see it in person

(my pictures: one facing up the alley, one facing down) this alley is actually not well-known. like...it's just an alley. not a main street or anything, so it was cool we were able to find it!

(actual scene from the movie, facing up the alley)

since we were so close to the tokyo metropolitan building and it was a super clear day today (unlike last time when it was raining) we headed to the top to see if we could see mt. fuji this time

WE COULD! it was PERFECT conditions today :) so awesome to see it from this far!

you can see it in the distance as well as our hotel all the way on the left (for our last night in japan, the park hyatt tokyo)

us with a barely visible mt. fuji between us! haha

this is the meiji jingu garden from above. the one we always walk though, and where we saw the wedding happen :)

back down on the ground, we stopped by the park hyatt to take a quick pic. see you again on our last day!!!

okay, back on track with finding LiT scenes. this one was HARD to find, and we walked FOREVER to find it haha...it's where bob and charlotte had sushi. super tiny hole-in-the-wall place:

(scene from the movie) and we saw that guy they are talking to!!! he is the actual owner! so that was cool :)

NEXT!

the arcade where charlotte wanders around:

(scene from the movie)

NEXT!

where bob and charlotte have their awful lunch:

another super hard place to find!

(scene from the movie) it was VERY expensive!!!!

NEXT! AND LAST!

where they go karaoke!

(scene from the movie)

so that was pretty cool to see a lot of the places they went to in the film, in person :) after all that walking, we needed FOOD!

this place is awesome. we have eaten here twice already haha...i know we're in japan, but sometimes you just want good ol' delicious italian haha...and they do a GREAT job. this pasta is soooo good. and that cupcake looking thing was also absolutely amazing.

after lunch, it was time for THIS:

erik's worst nightmare. he's afraid of heights haha...poor guy. but he was the best guy ever and went on with me!

this whole place is called cosmo world, in yokohama, and it was pretty cool. all i really cared to go on was the cosmo clock (the giant ferris wheel), but it was cool to see the other options too.

fun games

rollercoaster thing WHILE spinning

log ride

rollercoaster that "disappears" under the water ;)

ice world, which was -22º inside!!!

a two-story carousel!

and various other rides to make you throw up haha

we also got a delicious crepe!

they love to show the plastic food options everywhere ;)

here was ours! it had bananas, and cream, and chocolate syrup. oh my, was it good

but back to the cosmo clock!!!

we got on, and up we went! it was 15 minutes to go around the whole thing

erik was...doing okay hahaha

and then he got better :)

we were super high up though...

we could even see a putt-putt course on top of another building!

heading back down...

and back on the ground again :)

it was getting darker, and also colder, but luckily, we are in japan and that can be cured by a hot coffee in a vending machine!!!

PERFECT!!!!

we waited for it to get completely dark so we could get a few cool night shots:

whee!

then we ran into the cosmo world arcade to warm up a bit more before heading all the way back to shinjuku

so many toys!

these are also very popular in japan. girls get SUPER dressed up and put on their perfect makeup to take some fun pics in photobooths :)

oh, and of course we played some games haha

another LONG day, but very fun!

DAY 7: KOISHIKAWA KORAKOEN GARDEN

2010-03-29T10:24:00.001-04:00

today was sort of a random day because we were supposed to go to hakone to see mt. fuji closer up, but it was really cloudy/overcast and supposed to rain all day so there was really no point in going and spending all that money if you can only see mt. fuji on a clear day. so, we headed out thinking we would be spending the day in department stores, but it was actually not raining when we walked outside! so, we headed to the koishikawa korakoen garden instead since it was on our list of things to do.

i took a few pictures of some things that we saw along the way...

a lot of tokyo's highways are up in the air like this at all times, interweaving through buildings. it's really awesome and smart!

the first gas station we've seen!

we arrived at the garden, and it's quite gorgeous. it started drizzling a bit after about an hour that we were there, but it wasn't bad! just cold, and we were prepared with our umbrellas! here are a bunch of pictures that we got :)

this weeping cherry tree is 60 years old

lots of people enjoying their bento boxes (lunch boxes) by the big pond

it was cool to see the huge buildings in the background :)

i thought this was so pretty

it was a beautiful garden that we really enjoyed :) we'll be seeing a lot more once we are in kyoto, but it's cool they have a lot of things like this in tokyo too! we headed back to the hotel, ate lunch, then walked back all the way to shibuya again (seriously wish we had a pedometer to see how many miles we walk each day...i can already tell i've lost weight!) because we wanted to see all the lights/TVs at night

oh! and these are the umbrella accommodations i was talking about in an earlier post:

they are literally in front of every store/restaurant/everywhere you can go inside. the blue thing is where you wipe your wet umbrella, and then there are plastic bags to "dip" your umbrella into as erik is showing in the picture. then, you just take your umbrella-in-a-bag with you inside :) it's great!

after all that, we were in for the night. but not before buying this!

"for a relaxing time...make it suntory time"

yes, we love Lost in Translation THAT much haha :) saw it, and had to do it! haven't tried it yet though. i'm sure i'll hate it haha

DAY 6: THE STUDIO GHIBLI MUSEUM IS AMAZING!

2010-03-28T08:47:00.001-04:00

i forgot to show on the map where exactly we are right now (tokyo still) so you can see where it's located in the country in case you dont know :)

the little sakura flower shows where we are!

well, today was WAY more productive than we thought it would be. first of all, it said rain all day. secondly, i still felt crappy this morning from being sick. well, a few hours after we woke up and a couple advil later, i felt ready to go! so off we went to the meiji jingu shrine :)

gorgeous. this is located in that giant park from the first day, so it was another familiar and pretty walk

and we were SO excited to see this...

...but then...

we actually got to see a WEDDING HAPPEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

they take about 20 minutes making sure EVERY fold is perfect for the big family portrait.

and here it is!

afterwards, we walked to harajuku, known for it's fashion

it was...packed. haha

these shirts cracked us up

"i want to go to there" haha

this was crazy! suddenly, we see a band (literally musical) of protestors making as MUCH noise as they possibly could, heading towards the Nike building. we couldn't really figure out what was going on, or what they wanted/hated, but one of the signs said (that a ghost was holding), "is there life in the NIKE PARK?" and on the back it said, "R.I.P. the Nike Park" with the Nike swoosh on it haha...it was so weird, but when they got to be in front of the Nike building, they got SUPER loud with their instruments/yelling (yet still staying peaceful haha) and then they moved on. it was interesting to see...

one of the ghosts

a super creepy looking guy!

afterwards we headed to the bridge because we were going to try and catch the kids in their costumes. unfortunately i think we were maybe too early (noon)? or it was too cold (it was freezing/windy)? but i managed to get a few

although, i think this guy might have been promoting a restaurant haha...either way, he was standing there, so i took his picture! and then there were these guys!!!

so obviously i had to hug them haha

so fun :)

next on the list of things to do this day (since it was still surprising to us that it wasn't raining) was to head over to the studio ghibli museum!!!

here is the bus you can take from the station, but we chose to walk because we like seeing stuff and stopping to take pictures instead. but, the bus looked awesome haha

it was a beautiful walk. the sakura are blooming more and more!

these signs kept telling us we were on the right path

and these haha...so cute

we arrived!

now, the museum doesn't allow you to take pictures inside, but we SOOO wish we could have. it was AMAZING in there. cool animation stuff, things around every corner, it was way cooler than we thought it would be. and these tickets they gave us at the front desk got us into a 15 minute movie that was made JUST for the museum this year!!! it was about sumo rats, and it was adorable :)

also, it was really cool sitting in a theater filled with japanese people and seeing when they laugh at things. it was just a really fun experience. oh, and the movie wasn't subtitled for us, but that's okay because it was an easy enough story that we didn't need them. and again, it was super cute. but what else would you expect from studio ghibli???

here are some pics i took from the outisde:

the entrance

sprites crammed into a window!

us with totoro :)

more of the outside

a giant awesome robot soldier from Laputa: Castle in the Sky

then we went into the Straw Hat Cafe (which was connected) for the CUTEST food we will ever eat. yes, i said CUTEST

i got the "fruit sandwich of your dreams" (it truly was haha), and erik got the pork cutlet sandwich. oh, and we both got the coffee!!!

WHO DOES THIS?!?! the studio ghibli museum does, that's who haha...LOVED it.

it was getting dark by this point, so we started to head home

everything is so very pretty and completely safe at night

we stopped at a grocery store on the way home too :)

baby squids...

so. much. delicious. candy. everywhere!!!

we're home now after a long day of walking, but it was a great day, and i'm glad i'm feeling better already!!! i'm going to get a lot of rest again tonight so hopefully this will be COMPLETELY gone soon :)

DAY 5: DAY-TRIP TO KAMAKURA

2010-03-27T18:59:00.001-04:00

i'm sick...but i refuse to believe it...so i'm attempting to ignore it haha...

okay, i NEVER get sick. MAYBE once a year, and it's just a little cold. which thank goodness is all i have right now. but it's really annoying to have right now!!! hopefully it will go away soon. we were supposed to see kamakura AND yokohama yesterday, but after kamakura, i felt awful (achy, sneezy, runny nose), and we just went back to our hotel. we're planning on going to yokohama on tuesday now, which should work out. we got back from kamakura at around 3pm, and i slept from 4pm until 5am this morning haha...rest is really what makes me feel better the fastest, so i'll continue doing this.

anyway, back to kamakura!

we pretty much wake up every morning at 6am, which is pretty helpful in trying to get things done. so we got ready, and headed out onto our hour-long train ride to kamakura. we decided to go on a hike from the jochiji shrine to the great buddha. it was 3.59 miles, which doesnt sound very far, but you go up and down a bunch and the total climb up is 708 ft.

walking from the station to our hiking starting point

more pretty flowers planted everywhere

the starting point

really cool ivy!

then we got to this cemetery part which was really interesting to see:

and they had super tall bamboo everywhere :)

bamboo roots are awesome!!!

we continued on our hike up...

some houses a long the way before it got to the trails part

the trails part haha

a park was about halfway through where people were enjoying lunch under the budding cherry blossoms

a gorgeous view! you can see the ocean :)

starting to get closer to the bottom again...

so pretty!

back on the ground again, still heading towards the great buddha. japan has some really pretty wild flowers

finally arrived at the great bronze buddha!!! my pictures really dont show how BIG it really is. in person it looked huuuge! here are some stats:

height: 43.8 feet tall

weight: 93 tons

length of face alone: 7.7 feet

even with these people in the picture to help show scale, it doesn't truly show how big it was in person

and there was a cool hawk flying around too haha

after the long hike, we ate our well-deserved yummy lunch!

delicious :) and probably burnt-off immediately hahaha

well, that's all for that day since we came home and i pretty much passed out haha...hopefully this sickness will go away very soon!!!

DAY 4: SOMETIMES 9AM IS JUST NOT EARLY ENOUGH

2010-03-26T07:15:00.001-04:00

we woke up at 6am today, hung out for a bit, ate some breakfast and got ready for the day. today we were going on a day-trip to nikko/kegon falls.

well, that just didn't happen haha...

we were out the door by 9am to head to the train station. apparently getting an "all nikko pass" is much harder than we anticipated. we had to go to the asakusa station first (which i had read about), but it was very confusing, and by the time we asked just about every person at every help desk at each station where to get the pass, it was 10:45am, and the lady who sold us the tickets to go said it would be a waste to go by that point. we knew it was a long journey to get there (2 hour train ride to nikko and then another 50 minute bus ride to get to kegon falls), but we didn't realize the last train to get back was at 6pm. so, she was right. and we're SO happy she told us all this instead of just letting us go (the passes aren't cheap, like $45/person), so she gave us our money back and out the door we went. well, "now what?" right?

we were already in asakusa, and we were planning on coming here anyway as part of our itinerary for monday, so, we did a few things we had planned for monday instead. after being bummed for a bit, we got some delicious curry, and it ended up being a great day :)

the curry that fixed our sadness

love the faces next to the levels of spice hehe

asakusa buildings

a fun bus!

off subject, but this yellow line needs to be talked about. okay, these things are on EVERY sidewalk, everywhere in tokyo (and possibly elsewhere, we just haven't been outside tokyo yet). any guesses as to what they are? we had no idea. we thought maybe they led to major hotels or shrines or something? nope. they are for blind people. how awesome is that?! the textures mean different things and they can feel them with their walking stick. i love it.

the biggest tourist trap yet haha

SO many outside shops FILLED with souvineers or food to eat

these stands are pretty common. they have cool unusual flavors that i definitely plan on trying haha...here are the flavors listed: vanilla, green tea, black sesame, chocolate, strawberry, cherry, ogura, custard pudding, vanilla & green tea, vanilla & chocolate, vanilla & strawberry, rose, rum raisin, cookies vanilla, grape, pineapple, mango, melon, cappuccino, almond jelly, a white peach, citron, banana, sweet potato, bean curd (tofu), caramel, plum, marron, orange, and blueberry yogurt. yuuuuuummmmmmm...

past all the souvineers, you get to the temple/shrine area

sakura blooming!

an awesome 5-story pagoda

so pretty! can't wait to see them all in full bloom!

by the asakusa shrine, people were washing their hands with this water

and writing out prayers. people were also burning a TON of insense which smelled really good, and prayed some more:

cool statues around, and a ton of cool garden areas (pics below)

lots of tombs too.

afterwards, we walked around the surounding area just exploring alleys and streets. it's amazing how much is packed in this city, and so much is happening in one tiny area of it

a cool door that i liked :)

erik and i being goofs

we also found "kappabashi street" which is well known for all their kitchen supplies for restaurants. i loved this guy's shop.

and we stopped at one of the many vending machines to get this grape drink. it had jelly in it! sooo good.

after seeing asakusa for a while, we did what was next on the list for monday: akihabara. very well known as the "electronics district"

for starters, this building was 9 floors high filled with all sorts of electronics/games/toys

action figures GALORE

these things are also everywhere. they are like those 25 cent capsule toys you can get in a checkout line, only they are like $2.00 and you can get some pretty decent toys from them!

baby carriages from the future. also like $1,600

lots and lots of floors!

walking around some more...by the way we probably walked at least another 6 miles today haha...

oh! and this is very common too. plastic food in the window to choose what you would like to eat :) it looks quite realistic!

elevators leading into a building with 25 different restaurants inside. hence, "chomp chomp" on the mats haha

and, well, we obviously had to go in here

it's sort of hilarious because it's quite common to see a lot of business men in suits and ties coming in these types of places after work haha...they love their video games!

we were exhausted by this point, so we headed to the train station to go back to shinjuku. another fun fact: trains can get PACKED, but they are almost silent inside! NO one talks! and the announcements ask you kindly to silence your cell phones and not talk on them while you ride the train. it's so quiet! very strange. but also nice!

we got back to our hotel as it was starting to rain. we headed to the 7-11 again for some food, and are just taking it easy for the night. tomorrow is another adventure!