Train Hopping, Temple Hopping, General Hopping…

So 2 weeks ago was my longest trip! And it was awesome. Well, aside from the stupid mosquito bites. ><”

So, my cousin was in town for 1 week and then we spent a week traveling up north. That was a blast!!!

Friday we went to the Fukuoka Orientation dinner at a beer garden. It was all you can eat and all you can drink. There were also little grills on the center of the tables so that you could cook your own meat. Yum yum. And there were many beer options. I think Liz had fun trying out different kinds (since there aren’t that many in LA). But I think she like the ume-shu best of all (ume-shu = plum wine). And we were all having fun mingling with re-contracting JETs and getting to know the new JETs. But then it started to rain. And the beer garden was on the rooftop of a building in the city…so…we all kinda ran away for shelter. Haha. But since Liz and me were done eating (and I still had packing to finish), we took that as our cue to head home. Sadly though, it was hard to find people to say good-bye to…I had to resort down to e-mailing them…

Some hours after this, we were leaving my apartment, hit the combini and went to the main train station. After eating a quick breakfast, I sent Liz to activate the rail passes. At this point, I’ve adopted certain Japanese customs that I’m not sure I can play off the whole “I don’t know Japanese or anything about Japan” and so it was all up to my cousin. Luckily, we got it all done without a problem. HURRAY!!!

About 3 hours after that, we made it to Kyoto and checked in at our hotel. Since we had most of the still, we wondered about, had lunch and visited Fushimi Inari Shrine. One of my personal favorites in Kyoto. But I stupidly forgot to transfer the mosquito repellant from my luggage into my backpack. I was ambushed!!! And for just about the rest of the vacation my legs would become extremely itchy at random times (so I always had to walk about with the anti-itch solution…).

After trying to fight the bugs, we can back home, washed up (Kyoto was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo humid!) and planned out the rest of the our stay in Kyoto. I let Liz choose where she’d like to go (and I gave my recommendations). Then I spent the rest of the night trying to plan out the bus course.

While in Kyoto, we visited, Toji Temple, Sanjusangendo, Chion’in Shrine, Yasaka Shrine, Gion, Ginkaku-ji, Kinkaku-ji, the Imperial Castle gardens and Nijo Castle.

The morning of the day we were planned to go to Tokyo, an earthquake hit Shizuoka Prefecture. I can be a heavy sleeper and I would have slept right through it, had Liz not woken up all scared and telling me to wake up. Although I still didn’t really feel it. I just went right back to sleep. ehehe^^;;
But due to the earthquake, all the trains going in and out of Shizuoka Prefecture were temporarily stopped. Luckily, we were able to catch a shinkansen to Tokyo and arrive only a little later than we had planned.

In Tokyo, we did more city hopping than Temple hopping. But we got to see cool buildings, paintings, lights and huge crowds of people. :P

We stayed in Shinjuku and visited Shibuya, Akihabara, Odaiba, Asakusa Shrine, Meiji Jingu, Harajuku, Roppongi Art Museum, Tokyo Tower and almost ALMOST went to Tokyo Disneyland. That would have been awesome. But we hadn’t planned for it and by the time we thought about it, it was too late (as in, it’s too near the weekend during summer break).

The downside was coming back because a: I was coming back all alone and b: I lost my glasses somewhere in Shinjuku. I lost them on the last freakin’ day!!! Almost home-bound and then I realize I don’t have them and gah!!!
x’(

Four days later, I went to a glasses store recommended by one of my JTE’s and I can see clearly once again. Yay!