Beautiful Nikko

We finally, finally went to Nikko! I've been dying to go there ever since our first trip to Japan last year. We were so fortunate to have my brother and his wife come stay with us last week so we took them with us! It was the most gorgeous place! (I know I've said that about multiple places...really hard to decide which place is the most gorgeous)

We went to a lookout point that oversees a waterfall. The place was so foggy though, that we could barely see it. That second picture is the best we got. We also saw the famous red bridge! It was beautiful and definitely Pinterest-picture-perfect! 

This was the most gorgeous shrine I've ever been to, Nikko Tosho-gu, build in 1617! Alex has been here before so he said it would take a couple of hours. I was thinking to myself, "Why would we spend a couple hours at a shrine?" Oh I'll tell you why. First off, it's huge. So many beautiful structures and buildings. They are national treasures to Japan. And the man who pretty much unified Japan, Tokugawa Ieyasu, is buried at the top of these super old steps above the shrine. 200 of them to be exact. Also, huge shout out to my sister-in-law Julia. She is 7 months pregnant and climbed the whole thing. This is also the "monkey" shrine, where the three wise monkeys originated. Pretty neat!!

^^bro cannot take a normal picture

If you ever get the chance to go to Nikko, GO HERE---Kanmangafuchi Pools. It was like a hidden gem. We seriously saw like 5 other people the whole time we were there. It's just a river with these statues lining the whole thing. But it's BEAUTIFUL. Some of the most gorgeous scenery and not touristy. My kind of place.


Japan is the best place, but sometimes all people think of is the busy city of Tokyo. Most of Japan is country-side and there is so much more beauty the country has to offer. Nikko is one of those beautiful areas that everyone should visit! We loved it here!


xoxo,
kay

Hakone

We were lucky to get our own private tour of Odawara/Hakone last weekend. One of Alex's colleagues lives there and showed us around. It's about a 1.5-hour train ride from Tokyo, close to Mt. Fuji. This place was absolutely breathtaking and it was great to get away from the busy streets of Tokyo and see so much green!

We went to the Odawara castle which was awesome! It used to be inhabited by samuri long ago. The views from the top were beautiful. It's right by the ocean so you could feel the sea breeze. Plus there were people dressed like ninjas, so that was cool haha.

After the castle, we drove for about 45 minutes up to Hakone. Hakone is known for their onsens (spa pools) and a place where rich people vacation during the summer. If you ever come to Japan, you need to go here! It's up in the mountains and looked like a magical fairytale land. Normally, you are able to see Mt. Fuji across a beautiful lake, but it was SO foggy, we couldn't even see 10 feet in front of us. Kind of a bummer not to see the lake and Mt. Fuji on a clear day, but the fog made the place majestic. We went to a shrine (in the middle of the mountains) which was awesome. There are a ton of red bridges and torii (those big red gates) which obviously I loved taking pictures of. We also had some great seafood since it's right by the ocean! I'm going to miss that when I go back to Utah.

This was such a nice getaway for us and such a fun day trip! Alex's friend was so nice to take us around all day. Seriously. Japanese people are the best. I will definitely go back here again and highly recommend it!

xoxo,

kay

Tokyo Adventures pt. 3

The adventures are not stopping until the day I leave! I've noticed that I'm getting faster at responding in Japanese with the phrases that I do know, and I've also picked up some Japanese mannerisms. Hopefully I take back the courtesy I've learned to America as well :)

Japanese Quirks #3

1. About 95% of the cars here are new (like within the last 5 years) Not sure why.

2. There are a lot of boxy cars (like those cube cars) 

3. You never really know how old someone is. If they look 30, they're probably more like 40-50

4. The streets here are so narrow! It's basically a one-way street for two cars, plus people walking and bicyclists 

5. The same meal at a restaurant is usually 2-3 times more expensive at dinner than lunch

6. Seeing Japanese people say goodbye is hilarious. They say goodbye and wave and nod at each other for what seems like 10 minutes. It's like it's a battle of who is going to walk away first, and you don't want to be that person.

7. There is no tipping at restaurants. This is the greatest thing ever! If you tip, they see it as you needing to help them as a restaurant or they're not good enough.

8. There are people from everywhere around the world living here, so I've gotten mistaken for French and Australian. I guess all white people are the same to them.

Yes, I went to a Sailor Moon exhibit! This was in the Mori tower, a huge building in Roppongi hills that is a 5-minute walk from our apartment. Lots of art, shopping and restaurants. And great views!

 ^^Savory pancakes. One with ham, egg and cheese. One with tandoori chicken. Both SO good!

Just some other places in our neighborhood. I love that the Tokyo tower is right there. I will never get sick of it. I also went to a Renoir museum--amazing. And the last picture is Ippudo--my favorite ramen place. 

Yes, there is also a Snoopy museum 5 minutes up the street from our house. This was actually the most underwhelming place I've been and not worth the $20, but I got some cute Snoopy pancakes out of it so that part was good! (And no, I didn't have the whip cream because I'm still not eating treats!)

Went on a little outing to a hydrangea festival. Gorgeous place and beautiful flowers!

Took a trip to Ginza. This is one of my favorite areas. Lots of shopping, food, busy streets, but also some quiet areas. There are some streets that look like New York, and lots of expensive stores such as Armani, Coach, Tiffany's, etc. I went to Sanrio World (pretty much Hello kitty world) and seriously, you can find EVERYTHING Hello Kitty. Shoes, socks, clocks, lunch boxes, hair products, food products, towels, clothes...all Hello Kitty. It's amazing. There's also a Godzilla statue in the middle of nowhere, as well as a huge toy store with the weirdest things! I wish I could give you a tour of it. They have toys, but also a lot of weird items that would be found in infomercials. 

More adventures to come! I'm still not done :)

xoxo,

kay