Japan Part 1 – Tokyo, Kyoto, and Nara

After a long journey taking us through Dubai, we arrived in Tokyo. The sprawling metropolis swallowed us whole as we stepped into the neon craziness of Shinjuku and walked to our hotel. In the following 10 days, we explored Tokyo, and then Kyoto, and Nara with Dan and Jake who were visiting from LA.

While we got over the jet lag, we took it easy for a couple days. We met up with Alan’s family for dinner, and we explored nearby Shinjuku and Harajuku. Then, we ventured out to trendy Shimo-Kitazawa mainly to find these adorable cream puffs. (What a mission, right?!) Needless to say, the Totoro-themed cream puffs were adorable. It also happened to be a festival day, so shrine-floats were being lofted through the city.

A couple days in, our buddies Dan and Jake arrived to Tokyo. We hopped onto a shinkansen to Kyoto, hoping to beat the typhoon there. We arrived to our amazing rental house, a renovated traditional home, and set out to eat some ramen. The next day, with the typhoon forecasted to arrive in the afternoon, we got up early to walk around in the calm before the storm.

The next day, we took a bus across town, to Arashiyama. We were hoping to see some monkeys, but they didn’t have a great time with the typhoon, so the park was closed. We still saw an incredible Zen temple and garden “Tenryu-ji,” and the famous bamboo grove which was a bit more disheveled than usual due to the winds.

Afterwards, we made our way to Nishiki market to find some lunch.

The next day, we took a short train to Nara. Nara was the capital of Japan in the 8th century before it was moved to Kyoto. We visited Nara park, where holy deer roam the park grounds. They’re very friendly with humans, to the point of demanding attention and food.

In between deer selfies, we visited a huge buddha who lives in the biggest wooden building in the world! He has some serious body guards!

We boarded the shinkansen in the afternoon and shot back to Tokyo. In Shibuya, we ordered sushi on a tablet and it arrived on a little train, we went to a huge record store, and browsed the quite strange Mandarake shop. Near Ebisu we ate snacks in a tiny snack bar alley and went to a trendy book store. In Shinjuku we took in the view from the top of the metropolitan government building (free!) and drank at a tiny bar in the Golden Gai. Every train stop we got off at could have been a city on its own.

After sending Dan and Jake off to Narita to catch their flight home, Melanie and I stayed a couple extra days to plan our escape from the city. Tokyo was starting to be a bit overwhelming (and expensive!) and we were excited to get into the countryside. With some sort of plan in mind, we ventrued north to Nagano prefecture, toward the Japanese Alps.