It’s video time! This is only meant to be cinematic and not used as an account of my trip! A full account of the trip can be found in the writings here/below, or by sitting down and visiting with me! haha

P.S. Make sure your volume is on! 🙂

It’s now a little past 4:00 in the afternoon here in Japan. I’m living now in a 3 hour window of time that I will get to live twice! Our plane is scheduled to depart Narita at 7:10 this evening and land at 3:45 the same afternoon in Dallas. It’s a crazy thing that is the responsibility of time zones, an international date line, and so on. But enough of that confusing stuff.

Wow, the thought of living 3 hours of your life over is really making me reflect and think deeply about all that has happened in the past week and a half. I’ve had the adventure of a lifetime. Been exposed to some of the most foreign culture I’ve ever had the chance of experiencing. Spent 10 days in a country that’s based on a non-latin alphabet and survived… Ha! Admittedly though, America is slacking when most of us only know one language fluidly. The people here, for the most part, knew as much English as they would need to know to survive in America. And for that I’m thankful because I sure did not know enough Japanese to survive in Japan.

As I sit here on the Narita Express anxiously anticipating our flight home this evening, I’m looking around at the other people here and trying to figure out their stories. What brought them to Japan, or what is taking them to the airport? I see an (obviously) American couple sitting across from me. He’s on his iPad playing a game and she has her window shade pulled down. It’s quickly apparent that they’ve probably had enough of Japan and cannot wait to sit down at a Chili’s with bottomless tortillas chips and endless Diet Coke (don’t get me wrong, I’m right there with them on the Chili’s but there’s no way I’d pull my window shade down and miss these incredible views of the Tokyo suburbs).

Behind them, there’s a couple speaking a language I cannot quite detect. They have two LARGE backpacks above their seats making me think that they are accustomed to traveling. More than likely, they took a quick trip to Japan and only what would fit in their backpacks came with them.

Lastly, I look in the window next to me and see my own reflection. What brought me to Japan? Adventure, world travel, exposure to new things… Those are all normal reasons of mine. I’m sure many of them apply to this trip, but I think this trip was about something else. A slightly more personal reason and a chance to discover some of my own self. This was my first trip without parents and family–one might say even my first trip on my own (even though I’m very thankful Max was here to help get us around from place to place)! Whatever the reason, outcome or eventual understanding of why I decided to come to Japan, I’ve enjoyed every moment of my time here!

Alright, our train is approaching Narita.

Sayonara, Japan!

My last full day in Japan has come and gone. Tomorrow we will make the trek (via Shinkansen) back to Tokyo and on to Narita Airport for our 1910 departure bound for DFW.

Today was a nice, relaxing last day. The majority of it was spent on Kyoto City Buses (because traffic is so bad congested here getting from point A to point B takes forever), but during the time we spent off the bus, we saw a castle and some temples.

As much as I have enjoyed my time in Japan, I am ready to go home. Life stateside has become more appealing day by day. The things that we take for granted (free refills on soft drinks mainly), I am greatly looking forward to having again, but now with a greater appreciation of them.

I would like to thank everyone who helped make this trip possible for me. It’s been expensive, so the money that you all provided me with has been more than welcomed! I couldn’t have done it without you! Be watching the mail … the Japanese Post Office was closed for four days straight due to the New Year’s holiday, but I finally got a chance to send some mail home!

In about 24 hours I’ll be boarding American Airlines flight 60 for DFW. But crazily enough, due to the time change, I’ll be home in a little less than 20 hours… See you all soon! 🙂

The eighth day of the trip started off kinda rough. Our first priority today was to find an ATM and get some cash out. The first place we tired was the post office–up to this point, that had been the only place we had success using our cards for ATM transactions. Unfortunately and very upsettingly, the Japan Post Bank has decided to take an EXTREMELY long New Year’s holiday. We found out that they will be closed until January 4 (and when the JP Bank is closed, they turn off their ATMs across the city … Why? I have NO idea).
Ahhhhhhhhhhhh! Feeling immediately defeated, we decided to go to they World Currency Exchange Center in Kyoto Station. But the joke’s on us, when we got to the currency exchange, the sign on the door informed up they will be closed too until January 4. We have no cash to our names; only American Visas that work at very limited ATMs in this country and every place that could potentially help us is closed for the next two days. Time for Plan B … But wait, this was a trip where most of the time we didn’t even have a Plan A. Oh well, it’s all apart of the experience.

We sought refuge at the International Tourist Information Center in Kyoto Station. Luckily, they were open. The man at the “English” counter told us to try 7 Bank (ATMs inside 7-11 stores). Alright, anything was worth a try at this point even though our prior times of trying 7 Bank had failed. The man pointed us in the right direction and off we went. We arrived at the 7-11 and immediately started trying our cards. Fail. Fail. Fail. None of them were working. I tried my BancFirst, Citibank, Sooner OneCard–anything with a magnetic strip, I stuck it in that machine. None of them were working though. We got the bright idea that maybe we were putting the cards in the machine wrong even though we were doing it exactly like the video depicted… Would you believe it, we were putting them in wrong! Crazy as it may have seemed, we began to feel a little more optimistic.

With some cash in our pockets, we bought our all day Kyoto bus passes and headed for Kinkaku-ji temple in northern Kyoto. The bus ride was an hour and we had to stand the entire time due to the crowded state of the bus, but it was worth it. The temple was beautiful. Admission to see it was ¥600, and I can confidently say that was the best money I had ever spent to simply just look at something. Take a look at my panorama below (or the beautiful Wikipedia picture here) and you’ll see what I mean.

Beautiful panorama I captured of the temple.

Some rain came up on us while we were at the temple so we decided to get back on the bus and head back for Kyoto. Stopped at a castle on the way back and, go figure, it was closed for New Year’s. We got off the bus on the main street of Kyoto and had a quick bite to eat for dinner then walked down the bustling street poking our heads in and out of the many shops. There was a lot of shopping to be done, but by this point in the trip, I think we both are on reserve mode! So back to the hotel it was.

Even with the rough start to the day, it all turned out ok. Kyoto is no Tokyo; everything operates at a much slower pace. Public transportation is the main difference. The bus is the most common way of getting around, but it’s slow and doesn’t hold a candle to the JR. Despite all of this, I do like Kyoto. It has a nice traditional feel that was sometimes hard to find in Tokyo.

Not quite sure what the plan is for tomorrow  Maybe take a Rapid Express train over to Osaka, or just stick around here in Kyoto and do some final souvenir shopping. Whatever ends up happening tomorrow, it’s been a great trip so far and I’m sure tomorrow will be the perfect ending to it!