Japan: Week 7

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1. Sapporo to Wakkanai to Sapporo
2. Sapporo to Okayama
3. Okayama to Takamatsu to Imabari to Onomichi to Tokyo
4. Mitaka: Studio Ghibli Museum
5. Emperor's Garden, Tskiji Market, Sailor Moon, & Capsule Hotel
6. Kimi Ryokan
7. Tokyo Shopping and Flight to Seattle

Here is a map of the route we took and the exact places. Wow did we make it far during our first week. We were traveling at the speed of a Shinkansen (Japanese bullet train)! Sadly Google Map doesn't allow you to have all those points while in public transportation mode, but we did travel the entire way on JR train.

Cape Soya, Wakkanai
Most Northern point
of Mainland Japan

We went from Akita to Wakkanai. Ever sense I had seen a Japanese animation I had wanted to visit the most northern point of Japan. Wakkanai has an actual monument about an hour outside of the city that marks the most northern point. Ending our main travel by going from the south to the north was mindboggling to say the least.

To round out our large Island hopping we visited the last of the four main islands, Shikoku. We travelled over the only bridge that connects the main island of Honshu with that of Shikoku by train. The ride was even on a sleeper train, which we really wanted to experience if only to ride on, and we were just in luck, we each had our own bunk! We originally planned to bike across the Shimanami Kaido which is a bike/pedestrian bridge that goes from Imabari to Onomichi. We ended up instead traveling the same route by bus, as we were a little short on time. At the transfer site we found an amazing vending machine that basically materialized a fabulous banana icee for 200¥ or about 2 USD.

All the girls going shopping

Goodbye Japan! Hello Space Needle
and Seattle

After this final travel adventure, we headed back to Tokyo for a stay at a capsule hotel and some souvenir shopping before heading to the airport. After leaving the capsule hotel we saw all these Tokyo-ites with their suitcases. It had become a regular site to see many people walking around with suitcases. It helps them when shopping as they are easier to manage when getting on and off trains while also going up and down stairs or escalators which are everywhere around Tokyo and most of Japan. After some last moment shopping around Tokyo we headed to Narita Airport and eventually lift off. Our last official photo for our first excursion overseas was a photo of downtown Seattle and the Space Needle Seattle. Coming home was a lot different since we saw everything in a different light, and a new perspective.  The way only traveling gets you to question and experience new things and allows you to make new assessments about your own Country, State, City, and life choices!

Seattle, WA

This site is no longer going to be updated. I have upgraded my site and the new location is:

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Seattle and Space Needle from Lake
Washington on the Duck Boat Tour

Beautiful water and cultural city. Largely known for the Space Needle and being a mecca of new bands and musics. I personally know it as the land of flowers, since I always see the flower sellers at Pike's Place (more on that later). Side note: Sea hawk's just won the Super Bowl; not much of a sports fan, but it is pretty cool to live by a city that just won.

I have also been to the Space Needle, Pine St shopping area, taken the monorail between the two (great transportation), then walked down to Pike's place and the new Ferris wheel. My father also talked me into going on the duck boat tours, since it was the only time he had been to Seattle and the second time I had. Some comments on these attractions:

Getting around: If you aren't willing or able to drive around, that's a-okay is this part of the Pacific northwest. There are many buses that can get you from Tacoma, to Sea-Tac Airport, to Seattle, to Olympia, and you can even catch the Amtrak down to Portland. If you do decide that buses are how you want to travel, make sure to come with dollar bills and quarters (you need exact change) or buy an Orca card. Orca cards allow you to get a little of a discount on the pre-loaded card and give you some benefits, such as longer transfer windows, and can even work on ferries.

Activities:

Seattle Public Library

• Seattle Public Library: a very interesting and modernistic perspective on how people interact with learning and books. They offer different lectures, never been to one, but just from walking around in the building I feel like they would be pretty good. The library has different colors for different floors, one was bright red, not faded or muted, but RED! It was spectacular, had a little photo shoot, right then and there with mother. 
• Space needle: personally, I wasn't very impressed with the observation deck. It was a good one time thing, but I wouldn't do it again, I wouldn't even recommend that you go up it. They did provide a free photo that they green screen the space needle into; you could e-mail the picture to yourself at the kiosk in the top of the needle. From experience I would just stand at the bottom and look up, see it from different perspectives there. The needle is an amazing engineering feet.
• Monorail: It's a lot of fun, faster than buses, and takes you right to Pine Shopping center from the Needle. I've taken it many times and it's still fun to wander through the shops in the shopping center and get a free tea sample from Teavana. Last time I took the rail it only cost 2$ per person.



Seattle's hardest working man

• Duck boat tour: Wow was this a goofy experience, the driver put on different hats while talking about different local attractions. They take you out onto Lake Washington, the building that is shown as the outside of the hospital in Grey's Anatomy, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Hardest working man, the needle, and plenty of other sites. It was worth the price and gave you a very good tour of the city. Especially if you have limited time or you want a good overview of what the city has to offer.
• Ferris Wheel: Gone up in it twice and am still amazed with the magnificent view of the port. Especially on rainy days the clouds and calm of the water are breathtaking. 
• Underground tour: I heard a lot of hype about this place. It's where they give a tour of the original Seattle walk ways, before they lowered the grade a smidgen to correct plumbing and whatnot. I really had high expectations for this tour, but they really let me down. They did provide some good history of the city: fires, plumbing, how it started, infrastructure, etc. You do see a different side of the city on this tour. That's my two cents.
• Uwajimaya: If you are any kind of fan of Asia you will love this store. They have everything from candies to fruit to books to cooking supplies and everything in between. Ah, I have spent many an hour in this store and sometimes even take the bus from Tacoma up just to visit this place. 

  

   Flower stalls at Pike's Place Market

• Pike's place: Every time I visit this wonderful city I share Pike's Place Market. Yes, the market may be very touristy at this point, but I go to encourage the local flower arrangers, you can buy wondrous pieces of living art - I guess they are technically dead by the time the consumer sees them - for pretty cheap and the flowers, wreaths, depending on the time of year last a really long time. I would recommend anyone that's never been there to at least check it out once, plus you can see the first ever Starbucks and see the fish throwers.