We are back on the road! We boarded our flight to Japan late on Wednesday night and flew over the International Date Line on our way to Kyoto. We arrived in the literal land of the rising sun Friday morning and missed Thursday altogether. At least we can look forward to a 36 hour Sunday when we return in ten days.
Last year, the 5 Adventurers used the week-long school break for Thanksgiving to travel to Cambodia and Singapore.
We had such a wonderful time in a relatively condensed period of time that we knew we wanted to replicate those experiences in a new location.
Prior to our 13 months traveling in 2021-2022, we had scheduled visits to Japan and China for September 2020. Unfortunately, these countries were not yet welcoming foreign visitors when we started our Tour a year later. We loved our two months in Thailand instead but vowed to return to other parts of Asia in the near future.
Today, we arrived in Kyoto (via Tokyo and Osaka airports) in time for the morning commute. The street commute wasn’t distinctive but the short flight across Japan gave us a great blue sky view of Mt Fuji.
Our van driver dropped us off at an apartment hotel in the Gion neighborhood of Kyoto adjacent to the picturesque Kamo River.
We were all excited to start our Friday by walking the neighborhood eating street food and trying to adjust our body clocks. We figured that if we could remain active for as long as possible we might be able to prevent the jet-lag curse of a 1am awakening.
Rice balls (Onigiri) are sold with various flavors and toppings (e.g. Korean BBQ, grilled salmon, spicy tuna, etc.) and are a snack staple through the country. To become real hand-held street food, we wrapped them in seaweed paper. It was tasty, satisfying and cheap. Everyone agreed that we will eat more of these soon.
Our foot travel took us into the central business district where we explored the famous Nishiki market. The depth and variety of storefronts in this market was impressive and colorful.
We then kept ourselves awake at an arcade which are plentiful in Japan. The parents played Pong while CreeperKitty almost got a top 10 score on Blast City MegaSlug 2!
We returned to the hotel pleased with our outing and our energy levels. We’re going to enjoy Japan a lot if today is any indication. Hopefully, we can sleep until morning (local time).
5 Adventures Together 
When I was in the Navy I spent six weeks in Japan. I LOVED it!
Alan
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I would bet that the signage had no English then. Today, it’s as prevalent as Spanish is here in CA
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Actually most signs were dual language. I had no problem at all getting
around, finding the right choice in restaurants, etc. And especially
while riding their wonderful trains, Japanese who were learning english
were anxious to speak with us.
We all felt very welcome and overall it was a wonderful time.
I suppose that was the legacy of MacArthur treating the people with
respect and helping to rebuild their country.
Enjoy your remaining days there.
/)_
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Oh, and the exchange rate was 365y to the dollar. EVERYTHING was cheap.
We hired a taxi for the day for $10. He took us to Hakone, beautiful
place even though it was mostly shrouded in fog.
Great Buddha of Kamakura, downtown Tokyo, only there six weeks but I
crammed as much fun into it as possible.
Still memorable more than fifty years on.
/)_
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