The morning of our final day came a little later as we were able to sleep in just a bit. We made it downstairs for breakfast and then it was time to bid goodbye to Mel and Chris. They have a friend in Tokyo and were going to stay with her for a few extra days, so they were going to catch the bullet train back to Tokyo.

( this is the end, my friend )

The beginning of day eight marked a free morning for us in Kyoto. Because Christian didn't want us wandering around aimlessly, though, he volunteered to take us to see some of the key sites in Kyoto (unless we wanted to wander around aimlessly - guess which one I chose?).

( strolling along the Kamo )

Day seven was an exercise in using someone else's camera. I knew that I was going to take a ton of photos in Japan so I bought backup memory cards before the trip. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera when I bought to cards so I just asked what would work. Guess who bought the wrong cards? I discovered that the morning of June 1. Chris and Mel were ( Read more... )

The morning of our sixth day started out rainy and overcast. This means we had to cancel a trip to the rope bridge - I'm not sure what exactly that is but I know weather prevented us from going - and we weren't going to be able to see Mt. Fuji in the distance. Some of us on the trip joked that Mt. Fuji is one of the world's greatest tricks - people ( Read more... )

The morning of our fifth day started with us checking out of our hotel in Tokyo. We were headed to Atami to spend the night before catching the bullet train to Kyoto. Because there's not much room on the bullet train, we had to pack an overnight bag and have our main piece of luggage couriered to Kyoto. This was an interesting experience in crime ( Read more... )

The morning of our fourth day arrived too early - at 3:30 a.m., to be exact. Those of us interested were going to the Tsukiji market, the biggest wholesale fish and seafood market in the world.

( to market, to market... )

Our first morning officially in Japan broke and we all headed downstairs for breakfast. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I know it wasn't the spread we had. It was a buffet with a mix of what we'd consider traditional breakfast foods like eggs, sausage and toast and what I can only assume are more traditional Japanese breakfast foods like ( Read more... )

After way too much travel (15 hours plus layover time - in short, it was uncomfortable) that started way too early (4 a.m. arrival at the airport), we arrived at the Narita airport.

( Entering the land of Nippon )

So, I looked around for an easy place to provide a good recap of my trip to Japan and this is it. I'm going to write up multiple recaps (likely one per day) on LiveJournal and make them public posts...and I'm going to direct everyone who asks about the trip to read the online overview here ( Read more... )