Day 22 pt 2

Even though we flew home on Day 22, we still had some time to enjoy ourselves before our evening flight.  Because it was within walking distance of the hotel, our destination was the Imperial Palace East Gardens.  Since it was a Saturday there were a ton of people just jogging and walking through the parks, but it was still awesome to see.  Must be nice to live near such a beautiful garden.  We walked around the outside a little bit to see the moat, then cut inside to explore the twisting paths through the greenery.  There was a huge water area with irises that were in full bloom, as well as a teahouse tucked away behind some trees.  Apparently these gardens are still in use by the Emperor as well, and close for special ceremonial occasions.

(this statue was labelled as a "dolphin" but I don't buy that)

After walking around for a bit we headed to the airport to buy more souvenirs and get some food before our flight.  Ironically, our last meal in Japan was western-style Chinese food, but oh well.  It got us through the flight!

Now that we're back in the US, we unpacked all our souvenirs, and wow.....we brought back a lot!

This was such a fun trip, and we're so happy we got to see so much and meet so many wonderful people!  Thanks for reading along on the blog :)

Coming soon: Food Blogging.  Just pictures of food.  Get ready to be hungry.

Day 22 pt 1

Hello all!  We have arrived home safely and are recovering from all the flying and unpacking!  I will post pictures from our last day tomorrow, as well as food blogging later :)

Day 21

Our final full day in Japan!  Tomorrow will be all travelling, so it doesn't really count.  But today was jam packed full of fun things, what a great way to end the trip.

Our first stop was the long anticipated trip to the Ghibli museum!  The Ghibli museum is dedicated to all things Ghibli and Miyazaki, and features iconic characters like Totoro and Kiki.  Entrance to the museum is restricted by day, and tickets need to be purchased months in advance.  All photography is prohibited inside, although they do let you take pictures of the outdoor areas.  And while all these rules seemed a little strict at first, once we got there it all made sense.  The museum is a whimsical building with three floors and a rooftop area, and it is designed for you to "get lost" in.  There are no maps and no set routes, so guests are encouraged to wander around and explore at their own pace.  It's hard to explain, but the building had such a charm to it.  There were little nooks and crannies to explore, and every area was beautifully detailed.  The entire museum was made for children as well, so the areas were either set low or equipped with little steps for them.  The restricted tickets meant there were just enough guests in the building for there to be a bustle, but not so many that the fun was sucked out of it by the crowd.  Likewise, the no camera rule meant no blocked hallways with people snapping photos, and no pressure to capture everything.  We were free to just explore and enjoy.  Which we absolutely did!  We even got to see an adorable museum exclusive short film.  Here are some shots from around the building.

Leaving Ghibli with new merchandise in hand, we hopped on the train and headed to Yokohama.  We had plans to meet our next Nagomi visit host, but had time to kill.  So we stopped at the Maritime Museum there, which has a big ship outside of it.  The Nihon Maru is a sailing ship that was built back in the 1920s and is now an educational ship.  It stays most of the time in the harbor as an exhibit boat, but sometimes rides out to do training runs in the ocean.  We were lucky enough to catch the last half hour where we could go on it.  Dad was excited, since he loves sailing ships and reads a lot about them.

After touring the boat, we met up with our second Nagomi visit host.  She took us back to her adorable little apartment and served us a huge home cooked meal.  It was all delicious, and we enjoyed the conversation as well!  It was pretty late by the time we finished dessert and finished talking together.  Now it's time to rest one more time in the Ochanomizu Shoryukan before we set off for home tomorrow :)

Fish paste sandwich and enoki mushrooms

Steamed salmon and cabbage

Dessert: Mandarin oranges in a mochi-like filling

Day 20

Today was not a very big day for sightseeing, but it was a fun day nonetheless!  Taking it easy in the morning, we left Kyoto for our final destination: Tokyo.  Coming back to Tokyo was funny, since it's just a little bit familiar!  We were only here 3 days at the beginning, so it feels good to end our trip where we began.  Arriving in Ochanomizu again, we trekked back to our little hotel.  Tonight we stay in two separate rooms, then come back together into the big room because of scheduling weirdness.  So I got a tiny little single room~  It's very exciting haha

With some time to kill, we wandered back out into Akihabara to enjoy the evening air and the atmosphere.  And Akihabara did not disappoint for entertainment.  As we were walking across a crosswalk, a car illegally turned on red and pulled through the sea of pedestrians.  Almost immediately there were about three whistle blasts and a policeman came charging out on foot.  This irate policeman then proceeded to run after the car, which got stuck at a red light and thoroughly reprimanded.  The image of that cop angrily sprinting after a car totally made our day.  Unfortunately we didn't get a picture, but here's a book tower we saw near there.

Looking to find some desserts we eventually ended up at a little cafe/bar advertising honey toast.  And lo and behold, there was soccer playing there, so dad was happy.  The Iraq vs Japan match was fun to watch (Japan scored two goals very early), and the desserts were delicious~

Honey toast with caramel sauce

Orange kitty ice cream

Tiramisu parfait

To top off our night, we all three of us shared a Jaeger shot.  It was advertised as an "ice shot" and came in a tiny test tube.  What fun!

Day 19

Day 19 was another fun day filled with more walking than expected!  We had a few important stops to make today so we got up early and set off.  We had already gone and seen Himeji Castle, but still wanted to see Nijo Castle.  Nijo Castle is famous for its Nightingale floors, floors that sound like birds when you step on them.  This was a way to protect the Shogun from harm by preventing would-be assassins from sneaking in.  There were no pictures allowed inside, but the outside was very picturesque!  We walked along the two moats and the gardens inside, and met a couple of guys from California on the way, haha.

Trudging home from Nijo-jo we tried to get curry, but it was sadly all meat :(  Disappointed, we went to a Familymart and bought ramen instead.  "Fox ramen" was delicious nonetheless, with abura age pieces in it~

Our convenience store lunch was not a problem though, since we knew a delicious dinner was coming up!  Tonight was the night of our first Nagomi Visit dinner.  Nagomi Visit is a service that lets visitors meet up with Japanese families and have dinner with them!  We met up with our host a little early and went to see the Lake Biwa museum.  Lake Biwa is a huge freshwater lake that has been around since prehistoric times.  The museum was fascinating, and we learned about old methods of transporting goods across the lake and the fact that there were giant elephants back in prehistoric times.

With our exploration finished, we went back to our host's house and started dinner.  And oh boy did we have dinner!  It was a huge spread of homemade food, from a professional chef and Sommelier.  Here are just a selection of the delicious things and drinks we had!

Sake cocktail with fruit!

Ingredients to make Temaki (hand made) sushi

Fresh sushi, yum!

Ridiculously spicy fresh Mapo Tofu!  

Sweet Dango to finish it all off

Our awesome hosts and their cute dog~