My two highlights from the month of May...
Japan…I had to fly back to Boston for a wedding in May so I decided to stop in Japan on the way for six days. I guess Japan was never on my bucket list
but since my good friend Tasha is currently living there on a military base and
it wasn’t too much to add the stop onto my trip, I figured why not?? When else would I be able to fly to Japan for
$200? I ended up doing Tokyo on my own for 3 days before heading south and to
my surprise, I loved loved loved Tokyo!
And even more to my surprise, NO ONE SPOKE ENGLISH. Like no one.
I figured since it was an international city, some people would but
nope. And I think it’s the most
expensive place I have ever been. And definitely
didn’t know that American debit cards don’t work there so I was living on one
cent for 12 hours. One cent...until I
figured out how to do a cash advance on my credit card at 7-Eleven. Luckily
I met some other backpackers at the hostel I was staying at and we explored the city
doing all the free things possible. I did so much in three days! Woke
up at 3am to go to the world’s largest fish market - Tsukiji Fish Market, went to a 9.0 earthquake
simulation at the Tokyo Fire department, went to the top of the Toyko
Metropolitan Building to see the views, wandered the streets of Asakusa and walked through the
Hozomon Gate to the Sensoji Temple, walked through Ueno Park, saw the lights of
Ikebukuro, went to the Meiji Shrine and saw four wedding processions, napped in Yoyogi Park, went shopping in Harajuko, saw the Tokyo Tower but didn’t go up it, and
got seriously lost in the pouring rain for two hours....
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| Early morning at the Tsukiji Fish Market, Tokyo |
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| Tsukiji Fish Market, Tokyo |
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| Ever heard of the Tuna that sells for thousand of dollars at a 3 am auction in Toyko? Well here they are being carted out of the auction |
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| Hozomon Gate, Asakusa, Toyko |
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| View from the top of the Tokyo Metropolitan Building |
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| Tokyo Tower |
Then I
hopped on an overnight bus to go down to Kyoto for three days to meet Tasha and
her mom who also happened to be visiting.
Kyoto was great but I should have read “Memoirs of a Geisha” before I
went, not after because it was set in Kyoto.
The food in Kyoto was awesome and I ate real sushi for the first time
and hated it. The Fushimi Inari Shrine
with it’s stretch of “red arches” was defintiely the highlight of Kyoto for me. Overall, I unexpectedly loved Japan and
learned a lot from my time there. Could
write a lot more on it but moving on…
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| Tasha and I at the Kyoto Palace |
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| Sushi with about every possible kind of fish in it...did NOT like but I ate the whole thing |
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| Rainy day in Kyoto |
Jen and Ryan’s Wedding: I was lucky enough to be able to come home to
be in my best friend’s wedding in May. I
made it home in time for Jen’s bachelorette party in Boston and their beautiful wedding
May 26th! Bought a plane
ticket back to Thailand and arrived with approx $90 in my bank account but
thankfully my school had let me take the time off and I had a job to return
to. I enjoyed my time at home but was dying to get
back to Phuket and my friends…
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