Japan

I recently got the opportunity to spend a week vacationing in Japan. It was a really amazing trip, and came at just the right time. Things at work, as always, are high energy and high stress and we only get two weeks vacation a year. I’ve known ever since I had plans to move to Korea that visiting Japan was high on my list of places to go. It certainly met my expectations, both as a getaway from ‘it all’ and as a country that I have always wanted to visit.

I traveled there with my co-worker Jordan. Together we planed a trip which started with 3 days in Tokyo, a day hiking Mt. Fuji (see below) and 3 days in Kyoto (the formal Imperial capital of Japan, and thriving historical center).

While in Tokyo we tried to enjoy a budget vacation (hard to do in the world’s most expensive country!) So, we stayed in these capsule hotels. Pretty cool, eh? Basically like a hostel, but with a bit more privacy, tv included and all! It was a really neat and uniquely Japanese experience.

We ran all around the city, walking LOTS and just soaking in the city and all that it has to offer. Probably one of the highlight of Tokyo was when we were wandering around the  Harajuku area and happened upon these guys:

These greased out 40something year olds were rocking out to Japanese diner rock in the 100 degrees weather non stop. They were really into themselves, and even had a full length mirror where they kept dancing over to so that they could check out their hair and six packs. Ah, Yoyogi park, I love you!

Other highlights in Tokyo included eating delicious sushi at 8am at Tokyo fish market

YUM!

Checking out Shinjuku crossing both at day and at night. This multi lane crosswalk is thought to be the world’s busiest crosswalk, and it could easily supply hours of people watching

After Tokyo and our hike up Fuji Mountain we headed to Kyoto on the super fast bullet train, another unique Japanese experience. By the time we got to Kyoto we were feeling tuckered, but still eager to soak it all in. We enjoyed staying in a slightly more luxurious Ryokan (Japanese style hotel). We woke up early and tried to soak in as many temples and shrines as we could each day, but the weather was hot and my body exhausted so I spent the afternoons relaxing in the hotel, soaking in the onsen (hot springs public bath), watching BBC world news, and reading Siddhartha, which was the more than perfect book to meet the cadence of my travel. Retreat from chaos, spiritual symbolic journey up Fuji, reflections on my relationships, break in my daily routine. The book was thought provoking and beautiful in a myriad of ways.

Here are some photo highlights from Kyoto:

For a larger selection of photos from my trip click below:

Tokyo Album

Kyoto Album