Friday, May 30, 2008

Out and about visiting Japan

I'm back from my trip with my parents. Dad took almost 650 but I've managed to narrow it down to 60. We had a lot of fun. Starting out in Tokyo, we visited the Tsukiji Fish Market, Ginza, Harajuku, Shibuya, and Asakusa. My dad bought a new backpack with a compass especially for this trip, which I teased him to no end about.

"Did you think we were going on an urban safari?" It got better when he kept getting us lost. Eventually, I had to take over navigation.

From Tokyo we took the shinkansen to Kyoto where we visited temple after temple including, Kiromizu Dera, Ginkakuji, Kinkakuji, Fushimi Inari (my favorite!), Nijo-jo (actually a castle and not a temple) with a day trip out to Nara to feed the deer and look at the largest Buddha in Japan.

Then it was off to Miyajima to see the famous floating torii gate. Dad somehow restrained himself and only took 50 pictures of it. (You think I'm exaggerating, but I'm not.) We stayed in a Japanese-style inn, called a ryokan, that night. Sleeping on the floor usually wouldn't sound like an appealing idea but our hotel in Kyoto had been so crappy that futons and tatami sounded luxurious indeed. Besides there was a huge Japanese meal and a small onsen to go with it.

On the way back to Tahara we got off the train in Himeji to see the famous castle there. Then it was back on track to Tahara where I acted as tour guide, showing off my favorite places around town. We had a nice party with friends Saturday night and then I put them on the train back to Tokyo on Monday.

It was a great trip, mostly because my parents are awesome and are great to travel with.

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