Japan Day 1 & 2: Flight & First Glimpse of Tokyo

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Set up our SMr Nube and Hammocks to make sure
that we both knew how they worked and what all
the components were.

The flight over the Pacific was an emotional one. Not bad emotions per say, but they did make the flight a lot longer  then the quoted nine hours. It was like being on a roller coaster. First me were super excited, then anxious - what if Japan didn't live up to our expectations? what if it was horrible? what if...? - then we were tired, it is a nine hour flight after all, then we would get happy - we are really flying to Japan, other people do things like this...not us, right?. Well I think you get the idea, every emotions was coursing through our veins, minus anger.

Man! have flights changed since the first time I flew back in the 1990's as a child....

• Head phones actually look like headphones, not stethoscopes that doctors use to listen to your breathing, minus the metal piece at the end.
• You actually get your own TV that has a bunch of recently released movies, instead of multiple monitors that are attached to the ceiling that play the same movie on all of them. Oh, and the you have right in front of you provides information about the flight, music, games, and shopping too.
• They feed your really good food and unlimited drinks. It also appeared that they gave an allowance of alcohol to those of age.
• There's no longer a pull down shade, you press a little button down below to set what kind of darkness you would like and then before landing it gradually brightens back up to mimic a sun-rise.

We arrived into Narita Airport at a little before 4pm Japan time. We were through customs with no hiccups and on the Narita Express into Tokyo Station. The Express was a little expensive...but we really wanted to get into the city quickly and we were new to the train system.

Or at least that's my excuse, since I was the money manager and the navigator and the translator during the trip - not that I knew very much Japanese, but since I was the one carrying the money and knew where we were going, it was kind of a default . By the time we were into Tokyo station it was a little after 6 and we were headed to Kimi Ryokan in Ikebukuro. After taking a couple moments to get our bearing and figuring out the rail system we were off.

In our Yukatas in our room at Kimi.

Once settled out our Ryokan we were back out on the town to find food. We were hungry. After wandering around for about an hour we went back to the Ryokan and asked for any recommendations for food. They recommended going back to the train station as there are food malls with plenty of options, but after a long flight and being up super early to go through TSA we did not feel like walking all the way back, so we settled for the closest decent looking restaurant.

Our first restaurant in Japan was Chinese... 

That restaurant happened to be a Chinese place named Ma La Gong Fang...alrighty, so we looked at the menu which thankfully was a picture book. And made two selections a celery, peanut stir fry and one that looked like sweet and sour. The server told us "no" and then started talking in Japanese..."uhhh, why not?" was our response. After trying to figure out some English to stick a sentence together that would make some more sense to us, which didn't work out very well, one of the other customers blurted out "chicken heads" to try and help the server and us out a little. "Well alright, we don't really want to eat chicken heads on our first night in Japan" is what was running through our heads.

We then asked for recommendations and ended up with a stir fry rice dish and some other things. Once the third plate arrived we were a little bit more confused by our food and how to eat it as they also provided a bowl of water with it. After tasting it was a sweet potato that had been caramelized in ginger which was still piping hot, so to make it cool enough to eat you had to dunk it into water and then eat, but first you had to pry it off the plate with your chopsticks. It was a decent meal and we even made friends with a couple of the other customers. Our fellow neighbors ordered us a traditional Chinese tea...oh, goodness, it was better then the sweetened chilled tea that you can buy in the US. Sharing the experience with the fellow restaurateurs was nice and even fun. It was a fabulous welcome to the country, even if it was on the basement floor of a Chinese restaurant.

Japan Countdown

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There are only 6 days until we get on an airplane to head over the pacific ocean to Tokyo, Japan for our 49 day trip to all of the major islands: Honshu, Kyushu, Shikoku, and Hokkaido, plus some minor ones. It feels like yesterday that I got mother to agree to travel to Japan with me, that we drove to Barnes and Noble to pick out a good travel book, and that we purchased an overall map of Japan to start learning the locations and geography. I grew up with manga and anime, like many children in the United States, but as I became older I started falling in love with their traditions, history, and contradictions.

I have compiled a lot of research on the different attractions, combining our interest in the Japanese experience and trying to cut costs. We finally came to the conclusion that we would try camping as much as possible and pay to use onsen/ofuro (indoor bath) or rotenburo (outdoor bath) whenever necessary/we really want to be clean. While in the Grand Canyon we tested out our Sierra Madre 3 person tent with 2 vestibules. The tent was fabulous, it didn't weigh too much, was easy to set up, and had plenty of room for us and our possessions. We did have to clear a path and make sure that we found semi-level location, so we opted into performing research on hammocks, but with hammocks you have to have a shelter in case it rains (we are traveling to Japan during their rainy season).

Sierra Madre Nube and Hambunks

After hours, days, and many google searches later Val found a very interesting hammock set. After watching every video and finally deciding to splurge and purchase this amazing package, we finally received the set over the weekend (5.3.14). Val finally had a chance to set it up yesterday, although rather gusty in Eastern Idaho, and came to the conclusion that after some finagling that it would be perfect for all our trips. We really liked that it had a mosquito net, two could sleep under the same shelter, you could roll everything away to cook under the shelter, you can also convert it into a small tent by using hiking poles to prop up the two points, and it all packed down really small. Val and I are extremely pleased to be taking this on the road with us and can not wait to hang it from some beautiful Japanese trees.

We have also received our:

• Japan Rail passes 
• Studio Ghibli Museum tickets
• Reservation for our first ryokan (traditional hotel)
• Printed our Welcome Cards: discount coupons for different locations that are available to foreign visitors to reduce costs
• Written some common words we will want in Kanji, English, and pronunciation
• Copies of all vital documents
• Received two months worth of medication: you can actually receive a vacation waver from your insurance that allows them to pay for more than one months worth of medication if you are going to be gone
• Medicine documentation for entry: for some medications you actually need to supply documentation to the Japanese government for approval before entering the country. We also found that in the case of bringing medications abroad it makes it easier during customs to have:
• On your doctors letterhead, type of medications, generics/other substitutes, what you are taking the medications for, how long your have been seeing the doctor, and contact information
• Duplicates of the prescription(s)

Synopsis: Trips 2014-15

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

http://worldgallivant.com

As the first blog I should probably give you the low down of what's in the works.

   

First trip: Grand Canyon (oh yeah, for not much of a hiker, definitely jumped into the deep end).

We (my mother and I) are going meet up in the Salt Lake City Airport and fly down to Phoenix, AZ. Pick up the rent-a-car and drive to the Canyon edge. As this will still be March, it may be a bit chilly. We are making the transition from Northern US to a little bit father south, so I'm not expecting too much of a temperature shock, but just in case it is too chilly for camping on the rim, we will have a car to sleep in. We are fine with sleeping in cars, tents, hostels, pretty much anywhere as long as we have running water and cheap food somewhere close at hand. 

Havasupai Falls, Grand Canyon

After a night on the rim, we will be waking up bright and early to hike down into the Havasupai Indian Reservation. This place has always been on my mothers bucket list to go back to. I grew up hearing "If there is one place I could take someone before they died, that would be the place". How can you blame that idea when she's actually been there once before and it looks like that. Naturally, when thinking of a place to get our feet wet and "test" out our gear before a big trip, we wanted to check it off.

Second trip: Japan

When asked about where we are going in Japan, the simple reply is everywhere, of course one cannot travel to every single place in a country in 49 days, but we will sure try. This will be taking place right after my Junior Finals are over, from mid-May to the beginning of July. We will be taking off from Seattle- Tacoma Airport and landing in Tokyo with our Japan Rail Passes in hand. Some of the highlights are:

Hagurosan Approach (2,266 steps),
Dewa Sanzan

• Tsukiji Fish Market, Tokyo
•  Ueno Zoo (Giant Pandas!), Tokyo
• Sumo Tournament, Tokyo
• Ghibli Museum (yes, I am one of those Americans that grew up with Miyazaki; yes, I do own all of his movies; and I have made a quilt that is captions from all the famous movies that he produced, that were out in 2010).
• Hakone Loop
• Takeda Castle Ruins, Asago
• Kii Peninsula Hike
• A-Bomb, Hiroshima
• Bike Shimanami Kaido (Shikoku to Honshu)
• Floating Torii, Miyajima Island
• Takachiho gorge
• Dinosaur Park, Sakrajima (next to Kagoshima)
• Yakushima Island 
• snorkel with turtles
• watch turtles lay eggs



Shirantani Unsuikyo, Yakushima Island

• forest that Princess Mononoke was based on
• Akiyoshi-dai Tablelands
• Noto Peninsula
• Hagurosan, Dewa Sanzan
• Rishiri-Rebun
• Jigokundani Onsen, Nakano (bathe with monkeys)

We will be seeing plenty of shrines, temples, rice patties, museums, ryokan, and other attractions along the way. Didn't want to bore you with all of the details in one shot, when all I know is what I and my mother have gleaned off of the internet.