The Great Japan Escape!!!!

I was going to write a really nice and detailed post about this but it's been almost a week since I got back and I still haven't found the time to do it, SO.

Confetti candy that I bought in Kyoto!

The quick and dirty (it's long, but believe me, this is bare minimum of what I want to say):

I flew out of Hong Kong, stopped briefly in Taiwan, then flew into Osaka Kansai Airport, and then took the train to Kyoto (this was actually several trains, and before leaving the airport I bought a Japanese pre-paid SIM card, exchanged some money, and got my tourist rail pass). In Kyoto, I didn't realize I needed to take the local trolley so I had a minor adventure walking to my hostel at 9pm. Google Maps told me to take a road that turned out to be a path through someone's field, and I said "nuh-uh no way I've seen enough horror movies to know how this goes, ESPECIALLY in Japan at night," so I backtracked and found the real road.

My hostel was super adorable! The host was very friendly, and I had pleasant chit-chat with some of the other folks staying there.

The first full day in Japan, I went to Nara (45 min outside Kyoto) to feed the local deer, and then I stopped at Inari Shrine on the way back. Inari Shrine is famous for being the site of the Senbon Torii (Thousand Gates), and I've wanted to go for ages. It was unfortunately dark by the time I got there, but there was decent artificial lighting, and wandering around a shrine at night has it's own kind of spooky delight. I met two shrine cats, but they were very shy and ran away, alas.

On my way home I stopped in a cat cafe, but all the cats were tired and didn't really want anything to do with me, haha.

On day two I just wandered around Kyoto's Gion district: Yasaka Shrine, an extremely expensive restaurant on the outskirts of Yasaka Shrine that was totally worth the money, Kyoto Museum of Traditional Crafts, Heian Jingu Shrine, and a tiny, tiny okonomiyaki bar that I ducked into when I got caught in a sudden downpour. Luckily living in a tropical city has taught me to always carry an umbrella, but I still didn't want to trudge through puddles. There was a Chinese couple sheltering from the rain too, and we struck up a conversation (faltering on my part, but they were really nice about it!).

Day three was my first taste of the Shinkansen! If you ever go to Japan: you want to ride the Shinkansen. Especially if the weather is as beautiful as it was when I went! A very kind old man next to me pointed out Mt. Fuji as we passed, so I got a picture through the train window even though I didn't have time to pay my respects in person!

I took the Shinkansen from Kyoto to Tokyo, then from Tokyo to Akita, where I hopped onto a normal train to go out to Yokote. Yokote's not really a tourist destination: I was visiting my friend Laura who's teaching English through the JET program!

I got to Yokote around 5pm, and Laura met me at the train station, then we went out to eat at a local restaurant where her fellow JET teachers joined us briefly.

On day four, I slept in. Laura went to work and I hung out around her apartment (and the local convenience store) until she got home, and then we got dinner - at an incredible yakiniku restaurant - and did karaoke!!!! <- my first time singing karaoke in a private room, which is so much more fun and less embarrassing than doing it with strangers at a bar, haha.

Day five was another Shinkansen adventure into Tokyo! I met my friend Chiaki, who I hadn't seen since my first year at Randolph! We did a whirlwind tour of some major Tokyo sights - Asakusa Shrine, Tokyo Tower, and then shopping district Ikebukuro - and then went to her house where her mom had made a home-cooked meal for me. I was really touched....

And the next morning the whole family drove me to the airport, and we had lunch together! I was really stunned by this level of hospitality, because in my family, we hate the airport and tend to just drop people off and leave immediately. But they waited with me in the check-in line, insisted on holding at least one of my bags, and then paid for my meal. I'm still in shock, honestly.

I flew to Taiwan for a five hour layover - WHOO BOY - had dinner there, and then flew into Hong Kong at 1am, where I took a taxi to a cheap motel to sleep for a few hours before catching the metro to the border crossing at Luohu and then home to Shenzhen!

AND THEN I TAUGHT CLASS THAT AFTERNOON!!! Boy howdy was that a packed 48 hours. I hardly felt like I got a vacation because I was doing so much, but the good vibes from getting to see friends did energize me a lot. :)

Misc notes:

- Do not take the metro to the Hong Kong airport if you are in a rush IT IS NOT EFFICIENT, IT IS SO NOT EFFICIENT I left at 7am from Shenzhen and had to run to make it to my 11:40am flight. Part of that wait was customs, but a lot of it was the metro.

- Airline service in East Asia is UNREAL. The flight from Hong Kong to Taiwan takes about an hour and a half, and I got a full meal. And not the full meals they try to sell you in the States: meat, rice, a veggie side dish, a fruit side dish, dessert, a beverage with your meal, and tea/coffee after it. On an hour and a half flight. And then, from Taiwan to Kansai, I got another one. And then on both flights back, too. Amazing!!!!!

This was one of the desserts - a little sesame cookie with white chocolate~

- Reuniting with a friend who speaks fluent English is an incredible feeling of homecoming: Laura and I chattered pretty much the entire time we were together, earning us some Looks in the grocery store, but we were too giddy to care. It's super fun to move to a foreign country and explore new cultures, but the language barrier really does change how you relate to people. Seeing someone from my college environment who is also experiencing a lot of the same strange new things was a much-needed breath of fresh air.

- I didn't have enough time with Chiaki in Tokyo!!! So I'm going back for sure. :)

Here's a gallery containing altogether too many photos for your enjoyment.

Peace, y'all <3