japan – summer 2008
We spent a couple weeks in Japan, visiting Okinawa, Kyoto, Hiroshima, Miyajima, Hakone, Tokyo and even TokyoDisney! Trip diary: Day 18 (2 Jul 2008): Tokyo > Home Day 17 (1 Jul 2008): Tokyo Day 16 (30 Jun 2008): Tokyo Disneyland Day 15 (29 Jun 2008): Hakone to Tokyo Day 14 (28 Jun 2008): Hakone (+
Mondays are for Dreaming: (The Wonderful World of) Disney
Ah Disney. Every family dreams of heading to Disney. Or not. I personally don’t dream of Disney. But my kids sure do…almost as much as they dream of going back to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. It’s not that they’ve never been to Disney. Truth be told, they’ve been to Disney on three continents.
Mondays are for Dreaming: Hakone, Japan
When I woke this morning, I was not dreaming of Japan. But, as I sipped coffee and read the news this morning, this article from the Washington Post jumped out at me: Going Our Way: A plan for first-timers in Japan. Curious as to what they might suggest, I was thrilled to see that Hakone
Japan Trip, Day 18
A morning spent packing, organizing and washing dishes. Not too rushed, not too exciting. At the Shinjuku station, we got some pastries and coffee drinks for the train. The Narita Express made it super easy to get to the airport! At the airport, we had to go through inspection to get in from the train
Japan Trip, Day 17
Today we took it quite slow. We hung out in the apartment late, then took the train over to the Toy park in Ginza where Camille bought a dress designer toy. In the afternoon, we went to the “Foreign Language” floor of a large bookstore and bought some manga books. Rob had us go through
Japan Trip, Day 16
After a long trip of being immersed in a foreign culture, we decided we needed a huge blast of American-ness. What to do? Head to your nearest Disneyland. Yes, we spent the day at Tokyo Disneyland. Not much to say, except it was Disney. In a surreal sort of way. The rides were identical to
Japan Trip, Day 15
Rob and Chloe went down to breakfast. Camille and I worked on packing up, then I tried to catch up on photos. Checkout time was 10am, but the rain was still pouring down. We walked down the hill to the train, getting soaked in the process. Bought tickets (not a JR train), got on the
Japan Trip, Day 14
We decided to take it slow and skip breakfast this morning. As we headed out, Chloe really wanted to explore the stairs that headed up into the woods. The stairs went up and up and up. Eventually, they hit a road, and we opted to head down the road. Windy, narrow and wet, it didn’t
Japan Trip, Day 13
Breafkast was at 8 in the dining room. The room was beautiful, but there was little in the way of vegetarian choices. We had some lettuce, egg and rice. Chloe got a snoopy rice bowl. A short walk down to Tonosawa, then we tried to figure out which bus. Finally the third one that stopped
Japan Trip, Day 12
While I caught up on photos and email (last internet for a while), Rob ran over to the station to reserve seats on the train to Odawara. Once we were all packed, we “Checked out”. The lady at the ryokan gave each of the girls a nice little Japanese purse. At the station, we again
Japan Trip, Day 11
After running around for two days, we decided to take it a little easier today. We headed out of the inn in a leisurely manner and walked over to yet another great Japanese breakfast place, Starbucks. After breakfast, we headed to Kyoto Station to see the tourist information office as well as the gisnt department
Japan Trip, Day 10
Chloe and I were up early. Chloe coughing, me going through photos. Chloe fell back to sleep and Camille slept in. We had wanted to get an early train to Hiroshima, but felt the girls needed rest more than anything else. After they woke, we packed the backpack and headed to the station to get
Japan Trip, Day 9
Yet again I was up before 5:30. I hadn’t gone to the toilet the night before, but had to pee, so I had to wake Rob to ask him where it was. Chloe woke while I was finishing up blogging and photo editing. She asked me to hold her, and we both ended up falling
Japan Trip, Day 8
Again up at 5:30. Chloe had no fever! But I had a sore throat ๐ Camille said that she had a headache. Ugh. We headed down to breakfast. Chloe had corn, cucumbers, rice and orange quarters. She said that the juice hurt her throat. Camille and Rob both enjoyed the caramel pastries. I had a
Japan Trip, Day 7
Chloe woke this morning with a bit of a fever still. We actually were at breakfast later than 6:30. The place was packed already. It seems that this resort is quite busy on the weekends compared to the middle of the week. Chloe ate a little potatoes and rice (skipping the pasta and bread that
Japan Trip, Day 6
Chloe woke this morning still feeling under the weather. (I woke first at 4:30am; Rob thought my typing was raindrops — it has not rained since we’ve been here.) Speaking of weather, there were reports of a typhoon (that’s a Pacific cyclone, as opposed to an Atlantic one which we know as a hurricane) coming
Japan Trip, Day 5
I was up very early. The rest woke soon after. We headed down to breakfast just before 6:30. The buffet wasn’t open yet, so we went down to the beach for a few minutes. The buffet was half closed; squid ink sausage was on the table again. Black sausages look strange, but Rob said that
Japan Trip, Day 4
Chloe still woke up at 5am, even though we went to bed much later last night. We again headed down to breakfast early this morning. It felt like we were walking into Moe’s; all the employees yelled (well, loudly said) “Ohayo Gozaimas” as we walked in. Today one hostess sat us and another came around
Japan Trip, Day 3 (Quiet Time + Dinner)
We were all sun and waterlogged from the morning outside, so after lunch, the girls and I hung out inside. Well, I sat on the balcony overlooking the ocean, reading Jitensha: Down the Japanese Archipelago on a Bicycle on the Kindle. It is quite interesting to hear the author’s perspectives on Japanese culture and customs
Japan Trip, Day 3 (Swimming + Lunch)
Seeing how *many* people there were at breakfast at 7am, we decided that they all go somewhere other than the beach and pool. Maybe lots of people go golfing, which I think I once heard was popular amongst the more affluent Japanese (expensive because of the lack of open land, I think). But maybe there
GBK Gwyneth
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