Day 32: Into the Great Wide Open!
Today was one of my favourite days of the trip so far. Derek planned a great hike at Daimonji about 500m up part of the mountain. The bonus about hiking up is that you leave the crowds behind. There were 2 tops to this…
Day 31: Day Trip from Kyoto to Arashiyama
I started off this morning reading this article entitled “The next trend in traveling… DON’T!” https://brightthemag.com/the-next-trend-in-travel-is-dont-226d4aba17f6?gi=d719013f6967 That was a bit eye opening – the author argues that we all need to stop traveling because the crowds are causing serious damage to the environment. As…
Day 30: Day Trip from Kyoto to Hiroshima
Today we went for a tour of the Mazda plant in Hiroshima. It’s a free tour of the Mazda museum and the assembly plant. It was great and very different from all of the temples and shrines we’ve seen so far. Directions if you…
Day 29: The Great Outdoors
“There is the hidden presence of others within us, even those we have known briefly. We contain them for the rest of our lives, at every border that we cross.” Michael Ondaatje Today we went for a fantastic hike from Kibune to Karama. The…
Day 28: The News
“Where we love is home, home that our feet may leave, but never our hearts. ” Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. It may sound ridiculous to need a day off while on vacation, but today, we did. We were all pretty tired, and it was…
Day 27: Tour with Ohashi
“Veni, Vini, Amari” Today we explored Kyoto with an excellent guide named Ohashi from MK Taxi. Fushimi Inari Shrine We began with a visit to the Fushimi Inari Shrine where we learned about the god Inari, who is the god of rice, and general…
Day 26: Imperial Palace & Shinkansen
We got off to a late start this morning which meant that we missed breakfast and had to trudge about in the 30 degree weather looking for something to eat. In retrospect I suppose it didn’t mean we had to trudge, but trudge we…
Day 25: Disney Tokyo Sea
“Vacation calories don’t count.” Last night we went to a beer garden called Lion. They brought Derek a baby sized beer. He was sad. Then today we went to Disney Tokyo Sea. They have re-created several different places all within the property. It was…
Day 24: Shrines
“If you look like your passport picture, maybe you really need a trip” Did you know? You can buy a bottle of sweat in almost every vending machine in Tokyo… yum! Did you know? The 11 under the person (in the cross walk sign) does…
Day 23: Travel Continues & Tokyo Zoo
“If you want to discover new oceans, you need the courage to lose sight of the shore.” We arrived in Tokyo at 6:30 am, and sorted our JR rail passes, and then we were off to our hotel. Here’s the view: Cole was very…
