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Rhine River Cruise Day 10 (December 22nd, 2024)

Today was a lovely last day on the ship. I had a hard time falling asleep last night but once I actually fell asleep I slept pretty well. And I woke up today. Feeling better. Liz is still not feeling super great, but neither of us have felt totally awful. This morning we left Cologne and started sailing into the Netherlands. And we weren’t going to pull into our port until the afternoon. So we both tried to sleep in a little bit today and have breakfast a little bit later. We had breakfast with these two older ladies who were traveling as friends. One of them has been on the Viking Antarctica cruise and loved it. After breakfast, we went back to the room and listened to the departure information on the television while we packed. Everything that I purchase seems to be fitting as planned into my roller bag, my expandable duffel bag that I brought, and my backpack. We then spent some time relaxing this morning. It was really nice to have some downtime given how busy of a day we had yesterday and how we weren’t feeling all that great. And before we knew it, it was lunchtime.

After lunch, we docked in Dordrecht, Netherlands. This is the oldest city in Holland. Which we learned that Holland is comprised of North Holland and South Holland, which are two states or provinces of the 12 in the Netherlands. So Holland was never actually a country. So it would be like calling the United States just Dakota. So that was an interesting fact. We got off the boat to start our tour around 2 PM. We learned that the city started and around 900 A.D. The Romans were never really in this area because apparently they thought this area was too swampy. The city was also spared by the World War II bombings. So a lot of the historical stuff is still here. There are several rivers that go around this area. So the city has been prone to flooding. This area of the Netherlands is also affected by the tides and has brackish water. Apparently around like a third of the other ones is technically under sea level. We learned at this area throughout history, had importance for treating and political importance for this region. There are a lot of little canals going through the city. We got to see a lot of historical buildings and historical boats. There were some interesting bridges. We learned about whale killing. We also learned about a period of time in the 1600s where it kind of trial out democracy a little bit. I’m unfortunately throughout the tour it was on and off raining, hailing, and lots of wind. So it was actually the coldest day that I think that we’ve had. And probably the wettest day. So we weren’t super happy campers. So it was a little bit hard to pay attention to the tour when I was trying to fight with my umbrella. We still enjoyed the town, but it wasn’t our favorite stop. They also only do a Christmas market for three nights over one weekend in December and it was last weekend. So there were no Christmas markets in the city. So after the tour was over, we walked around the city a little bit. We stopped in a bakery, and I bought some Stroop waffles.There was lots of live music and Christmas carolers walking around. But because it was Sunday, a lot of the shops were closed. So it was significantly more quiet than Cologne yesterday. Which was kind of nice. We walked over to the main Catholic Church, but couldn’t figure out how to get inside. Apparently they were trying to build a giant tower on top of the church, but it was making the church sink so it’s not as tall of a church as originally intended. 

After about 2 1/2 hours of walking around, we made it back to the boat. We were cold and wet and ready to be done. So we came back to our room and changed and got some hot tea and a cookie. I packed a little bit more. We then went up to the lounge for our last evening and farewell cocktail party. They came and brought us some bubbly drinks and appetizers. It was a really lovely cruise overall and we both had a great time despite catching colds. But both of us are ready to go home and sleep in our own beds. After the farewell party, we went down to dinner and had our last dinner with our friends. It was really nice to find a couple of other people who are around our age. We enjoyed a white bean soup, beef brisket, with a baked potato, and some sort of almond cake, dessert. Our friends were unable to find the troop waffles in the city so I busted some of mine out to share. After dinner, we headed back to the room to finish our packing. We have to put our bags out tonight so they can collect them to be ready for our 5:45 AM shuttle tomorrow. Our flight is at 9:40 AM. So I think we’re probably wake up at 4:45 AM to finish getting ready grab a quick bite to eat and then head on to the shuttle to the airport. And then we have an 11 hour direct flight to LAX. We should land at around 11:30 AM. Hopefully it’ll be a good flight. We both decided to upgrade our seats to get four extra inches of legroom. So hopefully we’re a little bit more comfortable than we were flying over here. And then hopefully we will stay awake for the afternoon and get to bed at a good time. And hopefully we’re feeling even better tomorrow.And then before we know it’ll be Christmas. Liz and I both had a lot of fun traveling together this year. And maybe there will be some more adventures for us in the future.

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Rhine River Cruise Day 8 (December 21st, 2024)

Today was quite a long day in Cologne! We woke up around 7:30 this morning. I slept all right. Feeling about the same as yesterday. Unfortunately Liz isn’t feeling too well today. We both got ready for the day and headed to the restaurant for breakfast. And our tour of cologne started at 9:30 AM. We docked along the river very close to old town. So thankfully, we didn’t have to take any bus buses; we could just walk right into town. we were going to be docked in town all day. We did our walking tour for the about an hour and a half. I love these included walking tours because we learned so much about the city that we are in. Cologne is apparently the fourth largest city in Germany. It is also a popular destination for religious pilgrimages too. Like Koblenz, Cologne was also highly destroyed during World War II. So it is very few really historical buildings. Amazingly the big cathedral was spared during World War II. Like many other cities in the area this city has Roman roots. I had no idea how wide of an influence the Roman empire had in this area of the world. In fact, we even got to see the base of an ancient Roman Road here. In 1709, I believe, a man invented the perfume, cologne and named it such after the city. We got to smell it today and it’s a very fruity floral smell. During World War II, Cologne was heavily bombed because it was the area where a lot of the German and Nazi supplies were coming through on the railways. I believe that the cathedral was mostly spared because it was used by air pilots as a point of reference. We walked through some of the Christmas markets before they opened. And we finally ended in front of the big cathedral. I think it’s the largest cathedral in Europe. And it was the tallest building in the world for a while until the Washington Monument was built. But the cathedral was built because the archbishop had brought back the remains of the three wisemen from Constantinople in the 1100s. Supposedly the actual three wise men/3 kings that witnessed the birth of Jesus Christ. So they built this cathedral to house these relics. So the cathedral was started in the 1100s and finished in the 1800s. And apparently took over 600 years to build. And the cathedral itself is absolutely stunning. Amazing Gothic architecture. The actual relics are located in basically solid gold combined three sarcophaguses. The gold reliquary apparently weighs over a literal ton. And it’s the biggest piece of gold art anywhere in the world or maybe created during just that time. And it’s behind the altar in the cathedral. So after the tour we went into the cathedral to walk around. It wasn’t super obvious where the reliquary was. So I realized after the fact when I could Google a picture. We couldn’t actually get that close to the reliquary. But it was an absolutely stunning interior of this cathedral. And it was cool to be in the final resting place of the three wise men. 

After we finished walking around the inside of the cathedral, we stop by the bathrooms and also a pharmacy. Liz picked up the German equivalent of NyQuil. And we both picked up some cough drops. We then started walking around the Christmas markets. The Christmas markets in cologne are large and very busy. But they are very nice. It was a very crowded day which I’m not surprised given that it’s the fourth largest city in Germany and it’s a Saturday. All over the city there were just tons of people. Thankfully, we could get around that earlier markets pretty easily. We started off by getting some hot chocolate. We did a little bit of shopping. We walked through the gnome themed market. We also got some potato pancakes with applesauce. They were very good, but just very greasy. I did not feel so well after eating it. But it was very tasty. Especially with applesauce. I also got some chocolate covered strawberries as well.

We then decided to go and try and find the history of cologne perfume museum. And we found it just as it was starting to rain. Unfortunately, you had to book tickets ahead of time and we missed all of the ticket opportunities for today. So we just walked around the museum store. So we smelled the original cologne perfume, which has been purchased and worn by The emperor Napoleon and Princess Diana and tons of people in between. After they failed museum attempt, we decided to walk over to the angel market. It was a long walk through the more modern shopping district. It was around this time that we noticed it started to get significantly more crowded. Once we reach the angel Christmas market, it was packed. I did buy an angel ornament that I’m excited about. And we did wander around the angel market. But there wasn’t really space to just hang out. At about that time we started to get tired so we headed back towards the ship. We decided to take a quick break on the ship to have a cup of Tea And warm up. It was on and off sprinkling and very cold this afternoon.

After our little break on the boat, we headed back out down the riverbank to another Christmas market. This other Christmas market is right next to the chocolate museum. So we decided to buy tickets in the chocolate museum, which is sponsored by the Lindt chocolate. We started off in the chocolate shop, which had tons of different chocolate options. We both bought some chocolates to take home. We were given chocolate when we entered, and then when we started the museum tour. We learned all about how chocolate is made, and how the cocoa beans are grown and harvested. They did a good job explaining all the different aspects, including the poverty cycle around the farmers of cocoa beans. We also watched chocolate being made. They also had maybe the biggest ever chocolate fountain. We had some wafers dipped in said chocolate fountain. And they also gave us a ton of chocolate as we were leaving. I would say that it was a successful museum tour. We then decided to walk around the Christmas market outside and walk to the last Christmas market that we had missed earlier. However, by this time it was still on and off sprinkling, and it was absolutely packed. We could barely walk at all in the last Christmas market, which had an ice-skating rink. So we decided to leave since we couldn’t really hang out there. And we headed back to the boat, we were cold and wet. We warmed up on the ship and I got to FaceTime with my mom and then we had dinner at the restaurant. The two couples that we’ve been having dinner with both had nice long days. Everybody did their own thing throughout the city. It was fun to hear about what they did as well. I enjoyed a nice warm cheese soup and a risotto for dinner. And they gave us chocolate lava cake for dessert. And now I am super full again. Both Liz and I are exhausted from a long day/not feeling the best. We’re both hoping that a good night sleep will do us well. Tomorrow morning we have scenic sailing before we land in the oldest city in the Netherlands. Hopefully we’ll do some relaxing tomorrow as well as in packing. Because the next day we are on our way home!

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Rhine River Cruise Day 7 (December 20th, 2024)

Today was a chill and low-key day. We knew that we had scenic sailing in the morning and getting into the city in the afternoon. So we had a little bit of a lazy morning. We still woke up at 7:45 AM and had breakfast. I got to have multiple cups of tea. We started down through the middle of the Rhine River. There are at least 40 castles still remaining along the hills that line this part of the river. So we sat in the lounge for a while. They gave us a map to see which castles we were going to go by. We also stood on the roof of the boat to get an ice panoramic view for a while. It was pretty decent weather today. A little bit on the cold side, but thankfully no rain. It’s just a really beautiful part of the river. I would imagine that it would also be very beautiful in the summer and then also with fall foliage. Third at 11:45 we had lunch. We have not gone hungry at all on this cruise. In fact, I am so full right now. And after lunch, we relaxed in our room and watched some more castles. I’m still not feeling the best. I don’t have the flu or anything, but it was nice to have a little bit of more relaxing day. 

At around 2 PM, we docked in Koblenz, Germany. This is a uniquely situated city at the confluence of two rivers. And it has held great political and military importance in the region for centuries. It has actually also been the capital of Prussia. There’s also a Fortress overlooking the city that was built in the late 1800s that is fully intact. The city itself has been through a handful of different regimes. The history in the area dates back as early as the Roman empire. Sidenote, we also saw lots of vineyards during our seated, cruising this morning. Apparently the Romans are who introduced wine to the area. And the predominant grape here is Riesling. But it’s a dry riesling compared to the sweeter riesling in the US. We also got to hear a little bit about World War II today and post World War II. About 87% of the city was destroyed during World War II. So there is very minimal historical sites throughout the city and it is mostly a little bit more modern. We did get to tour a basilica which did survive World War II. All of the churches have been so beautifully decorated for Christmas. This particular Basilica was not very dark like a lot of the other Gothic churches we’ve seen. The actual downtown area of the city is all pedestrian. It’s really nice to be able to walk around without any cars. And a lot of the buildings have been built in the last 80 years. So the city itself is a little bit more modern. We spent about an hour and a half with our walking tour. And then we had some free time to roam around. There are seven small Christmas markets in the downtown area. So after the tour was over, we wondered through all of the small markets. Oh also during the walking tour, we got to try roasted almonds. Those were pretty tasty. Most of the markets had a lot of food and drinking options. There were less shopping options. But that’s OK. I did end up purchasing some gingerbread to bring back home and I got another hot drink. This time I got a hot apple cider, which felt good on my throat. I also made Liz do a Photo Booth with me. I made her do one in Japan with me so now we’ve come full circle. 

After a while, walking through all the Christmas markets, we decided to walk over to this gondola. This gondola is stationed right next to our ship and it takes you over the river up a hill to the Fortress overlooking the city. We were on the gondola right after sunset so we got some really pretty views. And they deck out the Fortress in Christmas lights during this time of year. So we bought tickets to walk through their Christmas garden. It was a lot of different lights and music and festivities. Lots of opportunities for pictures. We also got to see some of the history of the Fortress, including some cannons. Since the fortress is on top of the hill, it was significantly colder up there. The Fortress decorations actually reminded me a lot of the teamlabs museums that we saw in Japan. Again, a full circle moment. The fortress was expensive and had lit up walkways going every direction. We actually got a tad lost. It had a hard time finding our way out. They also had a very beautiful advent calendar on the side of the building. We also had a very beautiful views of our ship and of the city down below. 

After walking around the Fortress for a while, we were both very chilled and tired. So after the gondola ride down, we headed back to the boat. We changed and warmed up and had another cup of tea. Teatime is our favorite time. And we headed to dinner at 7 PM. Dinner was fantastic as always. I had a nice warm cream of pumpkin soup. There was some sort of like pot roast with potatoes, au gratin for the main. And we both had carrot cake for dessert. I am so full. The last couple of meals we’ve been eating with our young friends. The couple from Texas and another couple from Colorado. They are both very nice couples. Now we are back in the room and getting ready for bed. Tomorrow is going to be a long day. We are going to be in Cologne, Germany all day. And I think it might rain tomorrow evening. But hopefully we’ll be back on the boat before that happens. And tomorrow is Saturday. So I imagine that the Christmas markets in Cologne will be very busy. But we are both looking forward to seeing this city with the magnificent cathedral.

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Rhine River Cruise Day 6 (December 19th, 2024)

Today was a lovely, low-key day. Unfortunately, I have caught a cold. But thankfully, we have a couple of calm days that aren’t too busy. We both got up this morning at around 7:45 AM. We had breakfast in the restaurant. And we got ready to go into Mannheim, Germany. Mannheim is a big city off of the Rhine River that has one of the largest Christmas markets in Germany. Mannheim is also home to a US military base as well.

At 9:45 AM they bust us into the city for a walking tour. We walked around the city center. This particular city was pretty heavily damaged during World War II. So a lot of the buildings are a lot newer. Mannheim is also interesting because the city are a lot of perpendicular streets and city blocks. And there are no street names. Each block has a different letter and number. We walked around and saw some of the buildings that were built in the late 1800s, including an old protestant church. In the middle of the old town is an old water tower with the surrounding park. In the surrounding park is where the Christmas market is located. The walking tour ended just as the Christmas market was opening at 11 AM. And we had about an hour to wonder around. We both got hot apple cider and meander around the market. Manheim is definitely a more modern city, and the Christmas market had more tchotchkes and more imported goods. There was definitely not as much locally made goods. So we actually didn’t enjoy this Christmas market quite as much. At first, we thought that it wasn’t going to be enough time in Manheim. But it ended up being the perfect amount of time.

At about noon, they bust us back to the boat. The boat had sailed a couple hours up the river so we had to go back a little bit further. When the bus was dropping us off at the boat, our driver backed up into it, and I swear they backed up in a very skinny straight line the distance of about a football fear of field. It was very impressive. Once we got back on board the boat we had lunch in the restaurant. I enjoyed a pasta for lunch and salted caramel brownie for dessert. During lunch we also got to watch as the boat was sailing to our next destination. We then spent some time relaxing in the room. And at around 3:15, we went up to the lounge for a tea party. They had a full on afternoon tea set up. With tea sandwiches, desserts, and a gingerbread making station. It was a lot of fun. And we are definitely not going hungry on this ship. After the tea party, they talk to us about other Viking vacation opportunities. And of course it just makes me want to go to Antarctica even more.

At about 5 o’clock, we talked in the next city Rudesheim, Germany. It was raining a little bit for us, but it wasn’t that bad. We got here and got off the ship and walked into the center of town in the Christmas markets. It was so magical to see the Christmas market at night. Everywhere so wonderfully decorated. It’s also a lot older and smaller of a city and so has a lot more charm. We both got gluhwein and walked around. We did some shopping. They had a lot more cute locally made items. We also tried Brandy filled chocolate. After about two hours of walking around, we decide to walk back to the boat. We sat down for dinner at about 7:30 PM. I tried a traditional Wienerschnitzel for dinner. And it was pretty good. We finished dinner a little bit after 9 PM. And now we’re getting ready for bed! Tomorrow we have a lot of sailing in the morning and we’re going to get into Koblenz, Germany in the afternoon. The scenic sailing should be very beautiful. We should be going between lots of rolling hills and apparently tons of castles. I would appreciate everybody’s prayers and thoughts to hopefully feel better before that end of the trip.

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Rhine River Cruise Day 5 (December 18th, 2024)

Today we were in the capital of Christmas, Strasbourg, France! We both got up this morning at 7 AM. Unfortunately, Liz didn’t sleep super well last night. I slept a little bit better., but still not super. We got ready for the day and went to the restaurant for our buffet breakfast. 

We then headed out for our tour of the city at 9 AM. Strasbourg is the capital of the Alsace region in France. We were docked in more of an industrial area of the city, which wasn’t all that pretty. But it was a quick bus ride into the center old town part of the city. The Christmas markets didn’t open until 11 in the morning, so we got to do our guided walking tour of the city before there were crowds of people. We had a lovely walking tour of some of the different neighborhoods of the city. We got to learn all about the history. This is a really interesting region of France because it’s on the border of France in Germany and it has actually passed hands between France and Germany several times throughout history. So there’s a lot of both French and German influence in the culture, cuisine, and architecture. In fact, our guides grandmother was born when it was a part of Germany and lived through it, turning into France and then back into Germany and then back into France. There was a mix of different architectures. There were a lot of half timbered houses similar to what we saw yesterday. There were also a lot of buildings that were built in the 1800s. It actually gave me similar vibes to Vienna. Overall, the old part of the town is very beautiful. They had a lot of large Christmas markets spread out throughout the city. They also have one of the largest churches. This church that we saw at one point was the tallest structure I think in Europe at the time when it was built. The church is also interesting because it only has one spire. The church was originally designed for two, but apparently couldn’t hold the weight of two spires. So it’s not a very symmetrical front of the church.

After the completion of the tour, we decided to climb the tower of the church. It is 336 steps in mostly a very narrow spiral staircase up. It took a long time to wait in line to get into the church because apparently there was a clog somewhere along the stairs. We surmise that it must’ve been either a scared person or someone with more limited mobility just moving very slow on the stairs. It was definitely a more tough climb up. The stairs were rather steep and the spiral was rather tight. So I ended up getting pretty dizzy. And Liz Has a fear of heights so also wasn’t thrilled. But we made it to the top and we had a beautiful view overlooking the city below. I think it was worth doing. I think Liz would argue otherwise. We also got to learn more about the history of the church. We then made our way back down a different narrow spiral staircase. And we did it very quickly so by the time we were at the bottom, both of our legs were shaking a little bit, so we decided to treat ourselves immediately with a hot chocolate. At that time, the Christmas markets had opened. We decided to take the rest of our free time to wander around all the Christmas markets. We did some ornament shopping. And admiring all the handcrafts. I also got a Nutella crêpe for lunch, which was delicious. We also split a raclette baguette. This was basically an open face sandwich with cheese and onions and bacon. I enjoyed it very much. 

After several hours of wandering around and shopping, we decided to head back to the boat. We got back to the boat at around 3:15 PM. And the sun had poked out during that part of the afternoon. So we both made ourselves a cup of tea and then sat on the roof of the boat to watch the sunset. Also, there are a lot of swans in this area. So several times during the day I was able to watch the swans swim. We sat on the roof for about an hour to enjoy the fresh air and peace and quiet. We then headed back to the room for some more relaxation. We listen to the port talk about the itinerary for tomorrow. When we leave in the morning, the boat is going to move ports and we’re going to meet the boat in a different city. We then headed to dinner, which was a German feast. They had out on the table, pretzels, cheese, and charcuterie. As we walked into the dining room, they also handed us pear schnapps and a beer. They had a buffet style dinner with lots of German food. We also had wedding soup. It was a great dinner. I enjoyed my bratwurst, something that tasted like mac & cheese, and some sort of meat dumpling. Still don’t like sauerkraut though. We sat with our friends that we made last night got to chat about our days. They also had several German cakes for dessert. They also came and brought out some sort of fried German pancake thing that was also very good. And we are now getting ready for bed! It was a lovely day and we are both looking forward to spending time in Germany tomorrow.

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Rhine River Cruise Day 4 (December 17th, 2024)

Today was a lovely day! Unfortunately, I still didn’t sleep all too well last night. But if a feeling that tonight, I will finally get a good night sleep. The hum of the boat is very calming. We apparently went through about four locks last night and I didn’t even feel any of them. Our tour this morning was leaving at 9 AM, so we plan to wake up at 7 AM. We got dressed and we headed to the restaurant for breakfast. All the food on board is absolutely fabulous. Breakfast is a buffet, and there are also other hot items that you can order from the menu. We both enjoyed an omelette this morning and a tea. I think today was the day that I was most looking forward to. We booked this extra full day tour of two cities in the Alsace region in France.

By 9 AM we were walking off the boat and heading onto a bus to drive about 30 minutes to Colmar, France. We arrived in Colmar before the Christmas markets were open. So thankfully, there weren’t very many people around as we began our walking tour of the city. We had a really lovely guide today who is from Thailand, lived in the US, and now has been living in France. We walked around the gorgeous half timbered houses. So many of the houses were built in the 1300s or later. Many were decorated very nicely for Christmas. The whole town had great Christmas decorations. There were lots of Christmas trees everywhere. This region of France borders Germany. So it was interesting to see that German influence on these French towns. We had about an hour and a half walking tour of the city and then we were let go for some free time before lunch. So we walked over to the only Christmas market in the city that had mugs. We ended up getting there a little early so we waited for about 10 minutes for the market to open. The bar that had the Christmas mugs was actually a rotating carousel bar. So that was really neat. It was 11 in the morning and so it was a little bit early for alcohol so we both got Nutella hot chocolate. It was my first ever Nutella hot chocolate and it was very good. Highly recommend. We then walked around and took some fun pictures and then headed over to the restaurant they reserved for us for lunch. The restaurant had a prefix menu for our large group. They were going to serve a duck salad and a salmon main course. Neither of which we were all that interested in. Thankfully, they had a vegetarian option as well. So we both had some sort of vegetable salad and lasagna. It was nice to take a break and warm up for a short period period. After lunch we had about 50 minutes to then shop around the Christmas markets. The streets are not straight in Colmar so we got lost a little bit. So unfortunately, we didn’t really have much time to do much perusing or stop in any of the stores. But we had so much fun admiring the medieval architecture and all the Christmas decorations. I did have enough time to buy a couple of ornaments at least. I feel like I could’ve spent a whole day in Colmar. It was absolutely magical and I would definitely come back.

After heading back to the bus, we then drove through wine country to get to Riquewhir, France. The small city is at the base of the local mountain range. And it’s a very small city, but absolutely adorable. It’s also home to a lot of wine tasting rooms. There are miles and miles of vines in this area of France. And I think if they said like 95% of the grapes grown in the region are white wine varieties. We had a quick little tour of this small town. Again they had the beautiful medieval half timbered houses that were colorfully painted. After the quick little walking tour, we had about an hour and a half to meander through the small town, which was a perfect amount of time. We walked into many stores and walked through many little alleys. We went down into a cheese store. And we tried self roll cheeses, and we both ended up buying a unique herbal cheese to bring home. And of course we couldn’t leave this wine region without doing some wine tasting. So we went into one of the oldest wine tasting rooms in the city. This winery started in 1574. I tried one bubbly wine and four other white wines. I ended up purchasing a Pinot Gris. So I left with wine and cheese today. I call that a win. 

We then headed back to the boat at around 4:00 PM. And we got back to the boat right before 5 PM. We were docked in Breisach, Germany, which is a very small town on the other side of the Rhine river. We quickly dropped our things off and walked back off the boat to go to the local Christmas market here. It wasn’t much of a Christmas market. It was mostly some food stands and an ice rink. But it was still cool to see. This town has this absolutely stunning church on top of a hill. Liz and I agree it kind of looks like Hogwarts. We then headed back onto the boat to change and relax a little bit from our long day. We also enjoyed an afternoon or early evening, cookie and tea. We then headed to dinner at 7 PM. We sat at a different table tonight with two younger couples. And it was a very nice group. One couple seems to be in their 30s from Colorado. The other couple maybe 30s maybe early 40s from Texas. I enjoyed French onion soup and a braised beef for dinner. And then we also enjoyed a German chocolate cherry cake for dessert. Apparently tomorrow is German night and so I’m expecting a full party with lots of beer, brats, and pretzels. After dinner, we decorated ornaments and hung them on the tree in the lounge on the boat. And we are now getting ready for bed. Tomorrow we are going to Strasburg France. This is apparently the capital of Christmas. We’re both having a ton of fun on our Christmas market river cruise so far.

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Rhine River Cruise Day 3 (December 16th, 2024)

Today was a lovely day! Unfortunately, neither Liz nor I slept all that well last night. I slept for a couple of hours, but once the unisom wore off, I was kept waking up. I’m kept going back to sleep and then waking up and I’m pretty sure I was wide awake by 5:30 AM. Liz slept for a total of maybe three hours last night. That wind up actually getting out of bed around eight in the morning and getting ready for the day and having breakfast in the hotel. I I forgot to include in my blog post from yesterday that I straightened my hair with an adapter at the end of it. And the adapter got stuck in the plug in the bathroom. And I ended up having to ask for hotel maintenance to bring their pliers to pull it out of the wall. Super embarrassing. Did not stick the adapter back in the wall after that. After breakfast, we finished packing up all of our stuff and left it outside of our room. The hotel Porter came to pick up our stuff and store it for the day until we were going to leave for Basel. 

There were five of us from the group that signed up for the Mount Titlis tour. A giant bus came to pick the five of us up with our tour guide to drive us about 40 minutes to Engelberg. This means angel city. It was a stunning drive through the Swiss countryside over to the base of the mountain. Landscape is still just so green and it’s green all the way up the mountain until the snow line. It was absolutely fascinating. Once we got to the base in the mountain, we were already passed the snow line. I was a little bit worried about it being very cold at the top of 10,000 feet. So we had brought all of the layers. We hopped out of the bus and we hopped onto our first gondola ride. We rode the gondola about 2/3 of the mountain and then switched into something called a rotair. Which was a spinning gondola. This spun 360° very slowly so that it didn’t matter what side of the gondola you were on you could see views of every direction. We then made it to 10,000 feet and it was an absolutely stunning day. The guide kept saying how lucky we were to visit on a day like that. We could see 4 miles in each direction and there were no clouds. It was absolutely beautiful to be at a very high mountain in the middle of the Swiss Alps. It’s also a ski resort. So we saw lots of skiers and snowboarders. We also saw some paragliders, which was really fascinating. We went outside and took a lot of pictures. It wasn’t nearly as cold as I thought it was going to be. Particularly because we were standing in the sun and there wasn’t much wind. I ended up having to takeoff one of my four layers. We then walked over to the highest suspension bridge in Europe. And we crossed this see-through bottom suspension bridge 150 feet to the other side and then back. It actually wasn’t as scary as I thought it was going to be. but it did do a lot of swinging back-and-forth when people were walking really fast. We got lots of fun pictures and enjoyed the stunning views. After that, we then headed inside for lunch and had a beautiful view of the Swiss Alps while we were eating. Both Liz and I had goulash for lunch. Unfortunately, I managed to get it on my scarf and my sweatshirt. So the end of my sweatshirt is a little orange. And I tried to wash my sweatshirt in the sink when I got to the boat today. We will see if the stain comes out. After lunch, we walked into a cave drilled into the middle of an ancient glacier. That was pretty neat. They also had some ice sculptures in the cave as well. We then walked to the souvenir shop and then headed back down the mountain. We then took the 40 minute bus ride back through the countryside to Lucerne to pick up the rest of the people from Viking, who were going to be on our boat that did not join us for the tour today. We made sure that our luggage made it onto the bus and took a bathroom break, but then we headed out for Basel. I really enjoyed our time in Lucerne. Switzerland is very beautiful. There are lots of random Christmas trees out in public and random places and almost every business has an advent wreath. Everybody here is very nice. And a lot of people speak English, which was helpful. The Christmas markets are not super grand at least in Lucerne. But it’s still a very beautiful country. I would definitely love to come back.

The bus ride took us about an hour and a half to get from Lucerne to our ship in Basel. We got to the ship at around 5 PM. Because we got here so late we didn’t have time to explore the city or the Christmas markets here at all. But that’s OK cause we’re going to see so many great Christmas markets on this trip. Once we checked in, we got our luggage and unpacked in our room. We then had a safety drill. We also learned about that amenities on board and a port for tomorrow. We then headed into the restaurant for a lovely dinner. We sat with the most interesting couple at dinner. It was an older gentleman in his 60s from Australia and his 28 year-old Australian girlfriend. He owns some sort of billboard advertising business in Australia and is into a lot of different business adventures. It was quite the interesting dinner conversation. And I tried to beat and feta quinoa salad. We also had a spinach, ricotta ravioli. And dessert was a plum cake. Dinner ended up taking about two hours. During dinner the boat also went through the first lock so that was cool to watch. We are now in our room getting ready for bed. Both of us are exhausted after the full day today and not having had much sleep last night. Tomorrow will be another full day. Our excursion tomorrow will be about eight hours. But we’re both very excited.

[laurenetuttle]

Rhine River Cruise Day 2 (December 15th, 2024)

Today was our first full day in Europe! We spent all day today in Lucerne, Switzerland. Both Liz and I slept pretty well last night. I slept from about 10 o’clock to three in the morning, woke up briefly, and fell back asleep. I woke up maybe a few more times but we finally got out of bed around 8 AM. We then got ready for the day and we headed downstairs to the included breakfast from the hotel. The breakfast offered by the hotel is a breakfast buffet and it was really nice. We had eggs, potatoes, fruit, and toast. At about 9:45 we met in the lobby for our tour. Right before heading out on the tour, we decided to sign up for the 5 1/2 hour tour tomorrow to mount Titlis. We were told that we were the only two who signed up for the tour and they needed a minimum of five people to go. So we didn’t know if we were actually going to go tomorrow.

We then started our two hour walking tour of Lucerne at 10 AM. There’s approximately 23 people in our Viking group at this hotel. Liz and I are by far the youngest ones in this group by several decades. So the walking pace was quite slow and meandering. We walked by the train station, which is close to the hotel. The original train station burned down in the 1970s. So the current train station that is there is pretty modern. But they did save the original arch from the train station because that was made of stone. We then crossed one of several bridges and started walking around old town. Lucerne cross the bridge back to the other side cross the bridge back to the other side. We did a lot of bridge crossings. We learned about some of the local cuisine in our guide pointed out some good places to eat. We saw a really beautiful Catholic Church that it’s just very beautiful and light and bright inside. We saw the chapel bridge. Which is a famous bridge that burnt part of it burned down in the 1990s and was rebuilt but there’s still some original wood from the 1300s. Lucerne is an interesting town because there’s a lot of different architectural influences from different countries around the world. We found some Italian style architecture and Austrian architecture. After spending about two hours on the walking tour, we decided to take some more pictures at certain spots, we wanted to go back to and then find lunch. We ended up going to an Italian restaurant that was recommended by our guide. Liz got a margarita pizza and I got some spinach ricotta tortellini, which was really good. And it was nice to sit inside and warm up. Thankfully, it was not raining today and the cold was manageable. 

After lunch, we continued meandering around. We walked into some shops including a Rolex shop. Apparently Lucerne is a popular spot to buy high end watches. So many people buy Rolexes here that one store had to put a limit at 8 watches per customer. Hah! We decided to walk to another old church and took a peek inside there. We walked to the famous Lyon monument. This monument was carved into stone to commemorate the Swiss guards who died fighting for France in the 1700s. We then walked over to a spot where we could hike up a hill and get a pretty viewpoint over Lucerne. Up at the top of this hill there was also a little café that we popped into to get some hot chocolate and warm up. after coming back down the hill, we slowly made our way back to the hotel to take a little break. When we got back to the hotel, our tour guide that she was able to get three more people to sign up for the Mount Titlis tour tomorrow. So yay! That tour is a go! So this mountain is pretty close to Lucerne. And we’re gonna get bust over there and take multiple gondolas up to around 10,000 feet. Per Google apparently it’s only gonna be maybe around 3° up there. So I hope I brought enough warm clothing for up there. I am also not sure if I’ve ever been at that high altitude before so I hope I feel OK. But will head up there hopefully get some pretty views because it’s supposed to be a clear day. Go on some sort of suspension bridge walk and go into a glacier cave. And apparently there are a few restaurants up there too. At the end of the tour will swing by Lucerne to pick up the people who didn’t sign up for the tour and then head over to Basel Switzerland to board our boat! 

After a little break at the hotel, we headed back out to a restaurant for dinner that was recommended by our tour guide. It was this cute little place that had traditional Swiss cuisine on the menu was a lot of veal and pork. There were some beef and some freshwater fish. Both Liz and I ended up getting vegetarian options. Mine was some sort of potato hash with vegetables and Liz got a tangerine and mascarpone cheese risotto. After dinner, we headed back through the Christmas markets. Some of the stalls were closing up. But it was still fun to be in the Christmas market vicinity. I ended up stopping by the Portuguese stall at the one Christmas market and getting a pastel de nata. We then headed back to the hotel and we are showering and getting ready for bed and packing up our stuff to get ready for tomorrow!

[laurenetuttle]

Rhine River Cruise Days 0 & 1 (December 13th and 14th, 2024)

We’ve made it to Europe! Liz and I booked this trip way back in January so we both have been waiting almost a year for this trip and we’re both very excited. Our flight left LAX yesterday at 7:10 PM. We got a ride to the airport around 2:30 PM. We were a little worried that there was gonna be a lot of traffic around LAX and inside LAX But amazingly there was minimal traffic on the freeways and there were no problems getting in and getting dropped off at the international terminal. The line to check our bags was also not very long and was very smooth. In fact, we were there so early we didn’t even have a gate for our flight yet. But I’d rather get there too early than too late. There was also no line for TSA pre-check going through security for me. We then decided to go to P.F. Chang’s and get some appetizers as a snack as we knew that we probably weren’t going to get fed dinner on the plane until after 8 o’clock. After our snack, we headed over to the gate and waited for our flight! 

We were really hoping that it wasn’t going to be a full flight that maybe we would get lucky and have some empty seats near us. We when we checked in we ended up changing our seating arrangement so that we were closer to the front of the plane and that Liz was against the window and I was on the aisle the same row. We were hoping that nobody would pick the middle seat and that would remain empty. But alas, that was not the case. The plane was definitely full and the seats were all very close together. When we got on the plane, I ended up at the window and Liz was on the aisle. A bigger guy ended up sitting in the middle of us. Liz ended up being super nice and swapping with the guy so that he wasn’t in the middle of us. So then Liz was in the middle. Which I think would’ve been OK except these seats were just very close together. As soon as the person in front of me could recline she did recline. and when it was at fully reclined, I think the screen was within 12 inches of my face maybe less. I definitely felt like I was in a very small confined space. The dinner they fed us was pretty good. We had a vegetarian, curry dish, coleslaw, cheese, bread, and a brownie dessert. We also both had some wine as well. During the first part of the flight, also started a movie. Also, it was very hot the entire flight. I feel like that’s not very common when it’s too hot on flights, but we are both sweating. This just added to how uncomfortable we were. Eventually, I took a Unisom and decided to try and get some sleep. But when I reclined my seat all the way the person behind me complained. Saying that her knees were getting jabbed into the seat and that my seat must be broken. But that’s how the person in front of me was. So then I felt bad raised my seat and it was almost in the full upright position. So that sucked. I did get approximately 5 1/2 hours of not good sleep. But at least enough to get me through the rest of the day. I think Liz got around 3 1/2 hours of sleep. But it was very uncomfortable and I couldn’t stretch out my legs and my knees kept bumping into the seat in front of me. Overall, we both agree that this is probably one of the most uncomfortable flights that we’ve been on. We’re gonna look into maybe upgrading and getting a little extra legroom on the way home. But also we’re flying a different airline and maybe that airline will have more space. But we survived! Breakfast on the plane was good and we landed in Zürich with no problems.

Walking through Zürich airport, going through immigration, and grabbing our bags was super smooth. I think it was the shortest amount of time I’ve ever spent in crossing a border at an international airport. I think that we were out with the Viking representatives like within a half hour of landing. We put stickers on ourselves so that the Viking representatives could find us. And they found us very quickly. Viking is the river cruise company that we chose and they arranged all of our transportation. We waited for one other pair who is actually on our cruise as well and doing the same pre-trip extension in Lucerne. It was a pair of friends who are probably in their mid 60s and the guy was very chatty and very nice. So hopefully it’ll be a good group of people on the boat. It took us about 50 minutes to get from the airport to Lucerne and we were driven in a really nice van.

Once we got to the hotel, there was a Viking representative at the hotel to give us some more information about our tour options and how to stay at the hotel works. We both didn’t realize that we were going to be spending almost all day in Lucerne on Monday and not heading to the boat in Basel until around 4 PM. So we’re considering doing another tour. They offer a 5 1/2 hour tour to Mount Titlis. So I think we might sign up for that. But after we checked into our hotel room, which seems pretty nice we changed and then headed back out to find dinner. We decided to walk through the Christmas markets in Lucerne. One of the Christmas markets had an ice-skating rink. It’s also been raining the whole time that we’ve been in Lucerne but very light. We ended up finding a fondue chalet and we had cheese fondue for dinner. It was very tasty! It was a cheese, fondue with served with bread, potatoes, and meatballs, and we also had a glass of wine. Fondue is very popular in Switzerland. So I’m glad that we got to have this experience today. Plus, it was nice and warm and dry inside. We decided to do some more walking around walk through the rest of the Christmas markets. The Christmas markets in Lucerne are actually pretty small compared to what I remember other parts of Europe when I was on a different Christmas market river cruise in 2019 but I did get a nice hot mug of mulled wine. And we listen to live music in the Christmas markets. We can tell that even in the dark Lucerne is a very beautiful city. Tomorrow morning we’re gonna get breakfast in the hotel and head out for a walking tour of Lucerne and spend the rest of the afternoon wandering. We’re both hoping that we get some good sleep tonight though given the minimal sleep on the plane last night. But we’re so excited to be here!

[laurenetuttle]

Japan Day 10 (September 15, 2024)

So today was our last day in Japan! decided not to plan anything for the morning and just relax, and pack, and enjoy the air conditioning while we can. So we both try to sleep in as much as we could. But of course we woke up super early. I think that we may have both been awake before 7 AM. So we just laid around and looked at our phones and chatted. Our breakfast got delivered at 8:40 AM. Yesterday they had asked us which breakfast sandwich he wanted today and so we told them we wanted the pastrami sandwiches because they were so good the day before.Much to our surprise, they brought us more hotdogs. we are not a huge fan of the Japanese hotdogs. They’re like tiny sausages in a bun again with all the toppings on it, including mustard, relish, lettuce, and ketchup all over the hotdog. The catchup is on the outside of the bun too. It’s very messy to eat. of course it came with potato chips and potato salad. Definitely not my favorite breakfast but it wasn’t horrible once I picked off all the toppings so I ate it anyways. You laid around quite a bit more and then finished getting ready for the day. I realized that traveling back home we were probably going to be outside for a time and anytime you’re outside instant sweating. So I decided not to wear my plane outfit to the airport. And I didn’t pack any extra outfits!! So I had to put on a stinky shirt and shorts set. It was gross. But worth it to not be stinky on the plane.

Right before 11am, we checked out of the hotel, and walked 3 blocks to the bus stop. The bus came within 5 minutes and it was a 15 minute ride to the train station. Our bullet train was at 12:01 pm so we had a lot of time to make sure we were in the correct spot. We walked through the large station to find the bullet train/shinkansen area. We sat in the waiting room until it was time to go to the platform. We both picked up some food for lunch. I tried some sort of chicken and rice seaweed wrap and a strawberry sandwich. The strawberry sandwich was amazing. It was strawberries, whipped cream, and a cream brûlée spread in between two slices of white bread. It was great! We got the food to eat on the train!

We went up to the platform about 10 minutes prior to departure and boarded the train no problem. The bullet trains are really nice. There is tons of space between all the rows of seats. So lots of leg room and room for a bag or two. Good air conditioning too! We both enjoyed the two hour ride and ate our lunches. Liz read a book and I listened to a podcast and looked out the window. I saw parts of the Pacific Ocean during some segments of the ride! We got off in Tokyo and went to transfer to a local train ride to get to the airport. But we could not figure out how to get out of the Shinkansen area. I knew from before that I had to scan our train ticket to get out, but it wasn’t letting us out. We talked to several workers who spoke very little English. I’m not sure what we did differently, but eventually it scanned and let us out! We then huffed it to the local train part of the station. I was sweating bullets again at this point. We boarded a very crowded train to the airport. Thankfully it was a short ride. Once we got to the airport, I was able to check my duffle bag really easily. I returned the pocket WiFi. It worked out so nicely!!! It was like $60 for two weeks to get unlimited Wi-Fi for up to six devices. So we didn’t have to pay for service through Verizon. it was a device that I had to carry around with my purse, but it was worth it. Then got into the line for security. Unfortunately, that line is very long thankfully, it moved very quickly. Of us had any problems getting through the passport control or through security. We entered the international terminal huffed it to our gate which is at the end. We got to the gate about two hours before the plan is supposed to takeoff. We decided to use up to our yen and buy some last-minute souvenirs. we also changed into our airplane clothes. I’m so glad we did that! I felt so much better in clean clothes.

We then boarded the flight with no problems! And amazingly, it was also not a full flight! So both Liz and I had window seats (she sat right behind me) and we both had empty middle seats next to us! The flight took a little over 9 hours and felt like it went by very quickly! We both enjoyed a pesto pasta dinner with noodles, bread, and mochi for dessert. I watched a movie and then took a nap. We both slept for about 3-4 hours in the middle of the flight. I then woke up and watched another movie. We were served pretty mediocre omelet, sausage, and hash browns for breakfast (starting Sunday over again at this point!). We then landed early at noon at LAX! So we landed before we took off! Crazy how time travel works. We arrived into terminal 7, which has its own immigration/customs. And this area had basically no lines! It was so nice! I’ve never gotten out of LAX from an international flight that quickly. We breezed through immigration, I picked up my bag quickly, there was basically no customs, and out of the airport we went! My mom came to pick us up thank goodness! Also, when I got home, I weighed all three of my bags and in total, they weighed about 58 pounds! I’m glad to be home!!

Some interesting observations about Japan. The people of Japan apparently love gelatin. A lot of the things that we ate or gelatin based. They also love certain fruits, particularly grapes. A lot of the attire here is very conservative and covers a lot of the skin. We wondered how people were surviving and looked so calm and composed when we were dying of sweat. A lot of the clothing is very neutral is very few patterns; a lot of black-and-white and beige. Overall, the culture sees very respectful and considerate of other people. There is very little in public spaces, including the subway and trains and elevators. That public restrooms here are amazing. There are restrooms everywhere and all the train stations and a lot of the public sites. A lot of the toilets have bidets, lots of fancy buttons and may or may not be heated. They also have a lot of toilets have music so now one hears you do the deed. A lot of the culture is focused on self sacrifice for the common good. Also, the more sacrifice the more respect you earn. here in Japan they use wet napkins. Which I guess is used to clean off your hands before eating. But it was weird not to have any dry napkin options. Two people don’t usually put napkins in our lap because they are wet, they were conveniently placed vending machines everywhere. Lots of availability of drinks and sometimes other things like snacks and ice cream. Another fashion trend here are very tall shoes, like platform sneakers, and sandals. Everywhere we stayed had very firm mattresses as well. Also, it’s interesting that it’s a very conservative culture overall, but onsens are nude. I overall really loved Japan and would absolutely go back, just not in the heat of summer!

[laurenetuttle]

Japan Day 9 (September 14, 2024)

Today was our last full day in Japan! And we spent the whole day exploring different parts of Kyoto. Since we went to bed so late last night, we decided to sleep in a little bit this morning. But both of us were still up before 7 AM. we took our time to get ready in the morning and we did for breakfast to be delivered at around 8:45 AM. This morning for breakfast they gave us hotdogs with chips. The hotdogs were little sausages. So I believe there were two or three sausages in a hotdog bun. it was a piece of lettuce, Dijon mustard, relish, and ketchup. It was not our favorite breakfast. I don’t usually like that many things on my hotdogs. Let alone eat a hotdog for breakfast. We both had picked up yogurts the other day at 7-Eleven. So we were able to eat our yogurt this morning as well. We ate enough to start our day.

We decided to start our day by heading to the neighborhood of Arashiyama. We took the train and transferred to another train to get to the neighborhood. We are getting to be pros at mass transit. When we arrive to Arashiyama, we purchased tickets to enter into a temple and surrounding garden. at this point, we were very hot and doing a lot of sweating. We got to see the inside of this temple with the traditional to tatami mats and short ceilings. We also wandered through the surrounding gardens, which were absolutely stunning. The temple has been burned down and rebuilt several times over the last millennia, but the gardens are more or less the same as they were in the 1200s. It was so peaceful and I think we caught some of the trees changing color. we then exited the temple complex and wandered through the famous bamboo forest. There were hoards of tourists, taking pictures through this walkway so it wasn’t super peaceful, but it was still a beautiful sight to see. At the end of the bamboo forest was the entrance to this garden/villa that used to be owned by one of the biggest silent movie stars of the early 1900s from Japan. He built this absolutely stunning complex on the side of a mountain that overlooks all of Kyoto. None of the tourists were entering into this complex so it was nice and peaceful and serene. I think this is the spot where we enjoyed the most of all the things that we saw today. Right near the entrance of the villa was a little tea house that had air conditioning and some free drinks. it came at just the perfect amount of time because both Liz and I were dying of heat exhaustion. So we sat inside for a while and drink apple juice and orange juice and water and iced tea. We drink all the fluids! It’s so important to take breaks in this kind of weather to be able to recharge to deal with the weather. After refueling in this, we walked through the gardens. As I mentioned previously, they were absolutely stunning. And we got some pretty views of Kyoto. We saw some Japanese maple trees. And we also saw lots of other beautiful vegetation. After finishing our walk around the garden space, we went back into the tea house to drink more fluids and again enjoy the air conditioning before continuing on. After finishing in the complex, we decided to head back towards the river to see a beautiful bridge and get lunch. At this point it was very very hot and there were hordes of tourists everywhere. This sidewalks were all very crowded and a lot of the shops and cafés were also very crowded. There was a restaurant that I wanted to try that was near the beautiful bridge overlooking the river, but it had a 90 minute wait. so we found another café a couple blocks away from all the tourists to grab some lunch. The restaurant used to be the mayor’s house. It had a traditional Japanese architecture with a thatched roof. When we were brought inside to eat, they had us takeoff our shoes and walk around the restaurant, barefoot. This is a pretty common practice and traditional establishments in Japan. Even in the temple earlier in the day, we had to take our shoes off to wander around the temple complex. But in the restaurant, they seated at us at one of the traditional Japanese style dining tables, which means that we were sitting on the ground. They did give us little pads to sit on that did have a backrest at least. But we got to try out on the ground while we were eating! It was a cute café that offered Panini sandwiches and lots of different drinks and shaved ice. So we both got a pastrami and mozzarella sandwich which we both really enjoyed. We also got iced tea and drank more water. to use the restroom we had to borrow sandals from the restaurant to walk to the bathroom and then change into the provided bathroom sandals to the use the toilet. Then you could put your sandals back on when you were leaving the restaurant. Both of us 1 million times better after having eaten lunch lunch and cooled down in the air conditioning.

After lunch, we decided to take the the train to a bus stop and then take a bus to another temple. This next temple that we saw is well known because the top two floors of the temple are gold plated. and it’s set on a little lake/pond. And it was very picture very beautiful. And again I think we started to see some of the trees change colors and so it was just a very beautiful setting. After through that temple complex and surrounding gardens, we got some cold drinks and try to stop in a couple stores to refresh on air conditioning. we initially thought we might go see another temple, but the bus that went to that temple was taking too long so we decided that we were done for the day. So we walked to a bus stop to hop on a 45 minute bus back to our hotel. Both of us are tired of being hot and gross. Once we got back to the hotel area, it was after 5 o’clock so we decided to just stop for an early dinner and then go back to the hotel for the night. We found a restaurant overlooking the main river in Kyoto , and we both enjoyed some Italian food and drinks as we looked along the river as the sun was going down. Although it wasn’t traditional Japanese food, we both really enjoyed the meal and enjoyed the setting. We are back in our hotel room, showering, and re-organizing our things to leave Japan tomorrow. our game plan for tomorrow is to take the bus to Kyoto station, then take the bullet train into Tokyo, then transfer to a subway to the airport, then check a bag, return the pocket Wi-Fi, and go board our 10 hour flight!

[laurenetuttle]

Japan Day 8 (September 13, 2024)

Happy Friday! We went to sleep super early last night since we were so exhausted from our day. I think I fell asleep around 9pm. So not surprisingly, we were both up before our alarm clocks this morning. This hotel does not have a kitchen, so they bring everyone breakfast in the morning. The earliest they will bring breakfast is 8:40 am. So we relaxed this morning and took our time getting ready. Then they brought us breakfast, which consisted of a pastrami sandwich and chips and orange juice. It was more like a boxed lunch. Despite not being an American style breakfast, we both actually really enjoyed the sandwiches.

After breakfast, we headed out for the day. I mailed some postcards at the post office on our way to the bus stop. We took the bus to Kyoto station to then take a train to Nara. We got a little confused by the regional train system here in Kyoto. Apparently, we had to buy separate tickets for this regional train. So we boarded the train without tickets! As soon as we realized this, I purchased tickets as quickly as I could on my phone. But I purchased tickets for a different time. When they came to check our tickets, either they didn’t notice or didn’t care, but it worked! There were hardly any people on the train so it was ok if we were sitting in random seats (the seats are otherwise assigned). We then had to transfer trains to get on the train that actually goes into Nara. The whole journey was about an hour. Nara is the famous city that has a bunch of free-roaming bowing deer! Basically as soon as we exited the train station, we saw the deer! I swear there were thousands of them. All roaming around the city. We had to dodge all the deer poop. But the deer come right up to you looking for cookies. We did not buy any cookies to feed the deer because I did not want to be harassed by the deer. But we did bow to the deer, and they did bow back! It was kind of cute. We took some pictures with the deer and then headed to the famous temple in the city, Todaiji temple. We started to overheat during this walk, so we decided to buy a ticket to the museum so we could take a break in the air conditioning. The museum housed a lot of the artifacts from the prior iterations of Todaiji temple. Many of the artifacts were from the 8th century which was pretty cool! The temple itself has been burned and rebuilt several times over the centuries. We very much so enjoyed the air conditioning. No talking and no photos were allowed in the museum. There are a lot of no talking situations in Japan, we noticed. Almost no talking on the trains. No talking in escalators. Everyone is very quiet and mindful of the people around them.

After wandering through the museum, we took a break at the museum cafe and had an iced tea and a soft serve ice cream. After this lovely break, we continued through the complex to the actual temple. This temple is the largest wooden structure in the world! It was so cool!! It also houses the largest bronze Buddha in the world as well! It was quite magnificent to see in person. After admiring the temple, we made our way back into Nara. We stopped by a famous mochi shop to try some of their homemade mochi. I have no idea what flavor it was, but it was very good. After that, we needed another break from the heat. So we took respite in a nearby Starbucks. Had a similar, but very different menu than in the US. We both got iced teas and quiche for a light lunch. After this, we walked back to the train station to head to Osaka!

The train ride to Osaka also took about an hour. It was a nice break from being outside and on our feet. Most of the trains in Japan are air conditioned with comfy seats. We took the train to the Dotonburi neighborhood. It was quite an overwhelming neighborhood with tons of bright lights and street food. Osaka is known for being a big foodie city for Japan. I got vibes that were similar to Vegas. Lots of lights and tourists. We walked up and down the streets and the river. We stopped to get cold drinks and a strawberry mochi. We took a sitting break to people watch. We then headed to the neighborhood of sinseshi (?) to start our food tour of Osaka! We booked three hour tour through viator to try some of the local foods! We stopped at a total of five different restaurants and tried thirteen dishes and two drinks. Our tour guide told us about some of the history of the neighborhood. It was designed after Coney Island in New York. So it has a boardwalk vibe with carnival games. We also learned that Osaka is pretty “lawless.” The drinking age isn’t really enforced, gambling is prevalent, the police don’t really give out tickets for much. It definitely had a party atmosphere. The first restaurant we stopped at, we tried two different types of chicken skewers. I also had a beer while Liz had plum wine. The second stop was a standing only little hole in the wall place. We split a bowl of udon noodles. It was delicious!! The third spot, we tried takoyaki, which are octopus balls! I dug out the actual octopus bits and just ate the deep fried dough haha. The fourth place was also standing only. We tried mushrooms, a Japanese omelet, cold noodles with a dipping sauce, and lastly, Liz tried sting ray jerky. I passed on this. We also tried some sake at this location. At the last location, they brought out for us Japanese chicken wings, fried yams, fried shrimp, and some fruit! I passed on the chicken and shrimp. I was definitely fading at this point. We both really enjoyed the tour. We got to know these sisters from Austin and a girl with her parents from Germany. Everyone was super nice. The Germans gave Liz and I some food recommendations for our trip to Germany in three months. We’re leaving for that trip three months from today actually!

After the end of the food tour, we took a train to another train to get back to Kyoto. The whole ride was maybe an hour and 20 minutes. Unfortunately, it was apparently the busiest time for the trains! So they were all pretty full. We stood for the first train and half of the second train until enough people got off for us to get seats. My feet are definitely hurting today!! That was definitely a bummer. Thankfully we got to sit for the second half of the ride. We then hopped off and walked 15 minutes back to the hotel. We got back at around 10 pm and are now getting ready for bed. I’m definitely exhausted. I think it was one of the longer days we’ve had. And maybe one of the hottest. It’s hard to say though because the weather has been miserable every day. We’re both excited to go back home Sunday and leave this humidity behind! Tomorrow should be more relaxed. We don’t have any booked tours. We’re just going to take our time and explore a few other parts of Kyoto.

[laurenetuttle]

Japan Day 7 (September 12, 2024)

Today was a lot of fun! It was our first full day in Kyoto. We woke up pretty early. Around 6 AM. We ate our 7-Eleven breakfast in our hotel room. We then left for the day around 7:30 AM. Our plan for the day was to see some of the cultural sites and Kyoto. Then later in the day we had a workshop scheduled. We took the train over to Fushimi Inarii. This site is also known as 1000 Torii gates. it’s very long pathway lined with vermilion gates. Written on the gates are the names of different Japanese companies that donated money in hopes of receiving good fortune for prosperity with their business. There are also several shrines and temples in the area as well. The path whines through a forest up a big hill overlooking Kyoto. It’s one of the most popular tourist spots in Kyoto, which is why we wanted to get there early in the day to avoid the crowds. We got there around 8 AM and there were definitely people there, but thankfully not hordes of crowds. We were able to take some pretty pictures and we also enjoyed the shade and the peace. Overall, I think today may have been the hottest day that we’ve experienced in Japan. We were sweating before even getting to this cultural site. Both of us were relying on our fans while we hiked up all the stairs along this path. The whole path is very long and goes up the side of a mountain. I had heard that the view from the top wasn’t necessarily worth all of the effort. So once we got about halfway, we decided to go back down. we decided to take another way down the mountain then we came up. Unfortunately, this other routes did not have any of the gates really on it. We saw a couple of shrines and maybe mausoleum as we walked down but none of the pretty gates. Near the bottom of the mountain, we decided to take a break and go into a café to get something cold to drink. We sat on the back patio of this café and enjoyed iced drinks as we overlooked a little river. It was rather beautiful and serene. I enjoyed an iced Matcha latte and Liz enjoyed an iced chocolate. We also enjoyed a chocolate banana muffin. As we were sitting there enjoying our break we also got to see a turtle. After our nice pitstop, we continued our walk and ended up at the beginning of the path through the gates. Because we didn’t get to walk down through the gates, we decided to walk back up a little bit and then turn around and walk back through the gates. At this point it was around 9:30 and there were tons of people. I was so thankful that we got there a lot earlier in the day.

After enough meandering in the area, we decided to take the train and then a bus over to a UNESCO world heritage site called Kiyomizu Dera temple. The bus stop was pretty far away from the temple so we had to walk up a rather large hill to get to the base of the complex. It was around this time that it started to get even more hot. So we kept having to take breaks and pop into different stores to get some relief with the air conditioning. about halfway up the hill we also stopped at a vending machine to get some cold drinks. What’s really nice about Japan as they have random vending machines literally everywhere. Most of the drinks are also only around a dollar. The street went up to the temple was lined with really adorable handcraft shops. So about every minute, we would take a break and pop into a shop. Once we got up to the temple complex, we were able to see a beautiful entrance gate, a pagoda style building, and lots of surrounding worship buildings. Unfortunately, we were very hot. So we took a break sitting on some steps for a little while and we fanned ourselves. we then continued up to the main temple area. There was a building to the left of the temple where we paid $.66 to go into an underground tunnel, which is said to have a rock that grants wishes. I was also hoping that this underground tunnel would be cold. We had to take our shoes off and we were told that it would be a pitch black tunnel. And they were not joking or exaggerating about. We took some stairs down and entered a tunnel where you could literally see absolutely nothing. We followed the edge of the wall and a rope guide as we very slowly took small steps forward. Liz was behind me and had her hand on me so that she could better navigate so she wouldn’t lose me. We eventually stumbled into an illuminated giant rock with a Japanese character on it. We made some wishes and then continued through the tunnel out the other end. It was definitely cooler in the tunnel, but I wouldn’t say cold. We then walked around the temple complex a little bit more, and we purchased tickets to go into the main hall and surrounding garden area. From the main hall, you could overlook a lot of Kyoto so it had some really great views. We were pretty miserable at this point. The heat was very oppressive and we were sweating bullets. we took a couple of breaks in the shade but continued walking around the UNESCO world heritage site and surrounding gardens. We saw another pretty pagoda building and then walked down the hill to the beginning of the complex again. We then decided to continue walking down this hill through these winding ancient streets of the neighborhood called Gion. It was an absolutely beautiful old neighborhood. Supposedly it’s where the geisha are. Then we didn’t see any in person. But we did see a lot of people who had rented kimonos to get dressed up and also wear wood sandals. The idea of wearing a with wood sandals sounded absolutely terrible in this in the weather. We wondered in and out of more handy craft shops trying to take in all the air conditioning. I bought myself a hand fan as well to supplement the airflow. At one point, we were really overheating and so we just went into the next café that had indoor seating to get a cold drink. Both of us enjoyed iced teas and sat inside for maybe about 45 minutes to try and cool off. I was so hot and sweaty that my face was stinging. And I was much too sweaty to even consider reapplying sunscreen. And we were honestly a little bit too hot to even consider eating much of a lunch. Lot of Japanese food is hot, which did not sound super appealing.

We wondered through the streets of Gion for a while. We did stop to pick up a potato croquette. It was surprisingly amazingly good. It was like deep-fried twice baked potatoes. After enjoying this little snack, we decided to head back to the hotel to try and cool off and relax for the afternoon. before going into the hotel, we stopped into the next-door 7-Eleven to pick up some ice cream sandwiches. Then we came inside the air-conditioning. Enjoyed our ice cream sandwiches and cooled off for about an hour. We then took the bus up a couple of streets to go to our jewelry making workshop at a store called Glanta. We sat in a workshop booth in the store and we picked out the size, metal, texture, and finish of the rings that we wanted to make. We both chose thin silver rings with two different texture patterns. We both heated up our rings and then polished them. We then hammered them to add the texture and make them the correct size. we then polish them so that they were both a shiny polish. After that, they took the rings from us to finish the polishing and engraving on the inside. The whole process took about an hour. And now we have some friendship rings! It was a unique experience. And now we have a cool souvenir. after the ring workshop, we had a couple blocks down the street to a dinner place that we picked out. We decided to try out a highly rated shabu shabu restaurant and it was absolutely delicious. It was a tiny restaurant where they made us takeoff our shoes at the entrance. There were only eight seats in the room that we were in. I’m not sure if there was additional seating on the floor above or not. we both got Wagyu beef shabu shabu. Our waiter spoke English and explained us the Japanese style for shabu shabu. He gave us a bunch of uncooked, Wagyu beef and vegetables for us to cook ourselves in a hot pot in front of us. We also had bowls filled with some sort of sauce and onions to dip the vegetables and meat and to eat. It was absolutely delicious. Afterwards, we were given some noodles to Cook and eat as well. At the end of it, they gave us some hot tea. It’s really interesting to be a restaurant without my shoes on. I had to use the restroom afterwards, and there were a pair of provided sandals so that you didn’t have to go into the restroom, barefoot. As we were leaving, they had lined up our sandals so that we could just easily step into them and walk out the restaurant. All the people there were so nice. In fact, everybody in Japan is really nice. When you enter in their establishment and also say thank you when you leave. After this delicious dinner, we decided to walk back to the hotel. We were pretty spent for the day. About halfway back it started to sprinkle. A couple of sprinkles weren’t too bad. But pouring about three blocks away from the hotel. Then we were running to the hotel we were getting drenched. we finally made it back to the hotel and are now airing out our smelly clothes because they are soaking wet. And we have both enjoyed a well-deserved shower. And we are having a calm evening and our pajamas enjoying the air conditioning. Despite the heat, we both really enjoyed the day. Both of our feet are taking a beating. I think because of the heat and the humidity combined with all the walking we’re doing is causing a lot of rubbing and sores. We are both using a lot of Band-Aids. The shoes we brought don’t ordinarily caused problems, but I think the heat and the humidity in the walking are making it not great. We are both looking forward to our journey home in a few days, go back to Southern California where it is not humid. But in the meantime, we are both looking forward to our adventure that we have planned for tomorrow.

[laurenetuttle]

Japan Day 6 (September 11, 2024)

Today was a great day! We woke up at 5 AM this morning in hopes of seeing the sunrise and Mount Fuji without any clouds obstructing the view. 5 AM was a little bit earlier than we have been waking up in previous days, but we were pretty determined to see Mount Fuji. And thankfully, our plan worked! The sun hadn’t quite risen all the way up by the time we woke, but we could see that there weren’t any clouds. We could see the lights of the hikers along the trail who were trying to summit Mount Fuji too. That was pretty cool. we were both super excited to be able to see Mount Fuji. We went one floor above to the rooftop onsen to hot tub and watch the sunrise with Mount Fuji. it was pretty spectacular. To start the day with a hot spring hot tub and get to see this revered mountain. Unfortunately, it was pretty hot. So we didn’t last very long. We went back to our room and sat in our own personal hot tub/onsen on the balcony of our room. We were able to make that hot tub a little bit cooler so it was more tolerable for a long period time. so we got to sit and relax and appreciate the views. It is probably one of the best experiences on this trip. After a solid while of relaxing, we rent off and changed into the hotel provided Japanese pajamas to head to breakfast. This breakfast buffet was mostly pretty traditional in regards to Japanese breakfast cuisine. Which means a lot of fish and savory items. There was a salad bar. I cannot emphasize how much fish there was. Thankfully, there were enough items for us to eat that weren’t fish. We both loaded up on fruit and omelette, and there are mini pancakes and even a little bit of Nutella. After breakfast, we still had about two hours to relax before we needed to leave and check out of the hotel. So we walked around the hotel more and spent some time relaxing in our big room and finish packing up belongings.

We checked out around 10 o’clock in the morning and the hotel organized a shuttle to take us to the Shinkansen station (the bullet train). we thought that the shuttle was going to take about an hour and a half. However, it only ended up being about an hour. So we had plenty of time at the train station to make sure we found the right platform for our bullet train. There weren’t a ton of food options at this small station. So we both ate a cliff bar that we had brought and tried a peanut butter sandwich that I purchased that a convenience store. we then boarded our first bullet train. And man do those trains go fast. I’ve never experienced anything like it before. It was really cool. Also a little bit nauseating thinking about how fast we are going. Whenever we passed by bullet train going the opposite direction it was like a flash. Both trains were going so fast and opposite directions. We were on this first bullet train for about 20 minutes. Then we had to get off to transfer and change trains. The station that we got off was so hot. Cannot emphasize how hot and humid. We were both instantly super sweaty. Thankfully, we didn’t have to wait for too long. Our next bullet train showed up within 20 minutes. And thankfully, it was on the same set of tracks so we didn’t have to change platforms. We boarded the second bullet train. This bullet train was about an hour and a half ride into Kyoto! We both just listened to some music and relaxed for the hour and a half. After we pulled into Kyoto, we decided to take the subway to a station closer to our hotel. So then we boarded basically our third train for the day and fourth leg of the journey. After the subway ride, we then had a 14 minute walk from the subway station to the hotel. This walk was a huge struggle. It is extremely hot and humid. And I’m carrying rather heavy backpack into tote bags that are totally full. It was worth it not to bring a roller bag because there are a lot of stairs and all of these train and subway stations. so a roller bag would’ve been a huge pain as well. But man was this walk a struggle. With only one break, we made it to the hotel. Of note, Kyoto is a smaller town than Tokyo. And interestingly, a lot of the streets are very narrow, one-way streets with no sidewalks. So it seems like you’re walking down little alleyways. But in fact, they are actual real streets that are heavily used.

After taking a quick 20 minute break in the air conditioning, we had to head out to our tour. And man were we drenched in sweat. I had booked us a tea ceremony tour in Kyoto. It was another 15 minute walk from our hotel. And the tour included getting dressed up in kimonos, learning about traditional Japanese tea, ceremonies, and making our own Matcha tea. After we checked in for the tour, we were quickly whisked away by a bunch of Japanese ladies and, we were undressed, dressed in kimonos, had our hair done, and given accessories, such as toe socks, flowers in our hair, Japanese purses, and Japanese samples. It was quite the whirlwind experience. And I felt horrible because I was totally wet, including my hair. But they were so nice. There was no hesitation about getting me dressed up into a kimono and doing my hair. I got to pick out a lovely blue flower kimono. Liz picked out a beautiful purple flower kimono. it was so much fun to get dressed up in traditional Japanese garb. We got to keep the weird toe socks and we continue to wear the fancy hair-dos the rest of the evening. For the tea ceremony, they took us into a little house with traditional tatami mats. We had a little lesson about Japanese culture in regards to ceremonies. Including how they date back to the 1600s. We learned a lot about the meaning behind the tea ceremonies. Including being present in the moment and meditation. we were provided with a couple of Japanese sweets. We learned that traditionally people have some sweet before Matcha because it’s so bitter. We then learned how to make our own Matcha. The instructor poured hot water into bowls that had Matcha powder already in it. We used a bamboo whisk to whisk the powdered Matcha into the hot water. We did this until it was nice and bubbly and frothy. After approval from the instructor and a couple of pictures, we got to drink our Matcha. Matcha is definitely very bitter. I don’t think it’s our favorite tea drinks. Both of us had so much fun learning about the history of Matcha and tea ceremonies. After the ceremony, we were able to take some fun pictures inside the little house and in the nearby garden. We went back to change into our clothes. Not surprisingly my clothes were cold and wet from all the sweating from before. It was really gross. It is what it is though.

After the tea ceremony tour, we wandered the nearby streets, looking for dinner. We found this really amazing restaurant where you order like breaded steak and you cook it yourself on a hot plate in front of you. We both ordered a tenderloin steak. It was some of the best steak that I think I’ve had in recent years. It was so lean and tender. it came with all of these dipping sauces as well. This included curry, soy sauce, egg, and a couple of other things I didn’t recognize. We also had some soup and rice and tea. Really hit the spot. It was a solid dinner. Would definitely recommend and do again. After dinner, we continue to wander the streets and popped into a couple of stores. Did a little bit of souvenir shopping. We then headed back towards the hotel. At check-in, they told us at the they don’t have a kitchen here at the hotel. So they bring breakfast sandwiches to our room every morning. But they cannot bring breakfast earlier than 8:40 AM , which is a little bit later than we were hoping for for tomorrow. So on our way back from dinner tonight, we stopped by 7-Eleven to pick up some breakfast foods. We have a microwave and a fridge in our hotel room. We are now back in the hotel enjoying the AC. We are both enjoying a glorious shower and getting into our pajamas to go to sleep. it was an absolutely lovely day. Albeit very hot and sweaty. But we are looking forward to these next couple of days in Kyoto.

[laurenetuttle]

Japan Day 5 (September 10, 2024)

Well, today was quite the adventure! Liz reported that she had the best night sleep of the trip. I personally am glad to be done with the firm beds of that first hotel. We both woke up before our alarm clocks sometime around 6 AM. We slowly got ready for the day and packed up all of our stuff. And we enjoyed one last breakfast at the hotel buffet. The hotel that we stayed at was very nice and I would highly recommend to anyone traveling to Tokyo. It was in a quiet neighborhood and right across the street from a subway station. And the hotel itself seemed very new with lots of modern architecture and spacious rooms. we enjoyed having the provided slippers and the heated toilet seat.

After breakfast, we checked out and grabbed all of our belongings and headed to the train station. We both packed all of our belongings in a backpack and tote bag so that we wouldn’t have to deal with roller bags cross all of the flights of stairs with public transit in Tokyo. I had done some souvenir shopping so I also now have a third bag so it’s a little rough all the walking around with all of our stuff. But it’s ok. #worthit. We took the subway over to the main Tokyo station. We had an idea of where the bus terminal was, but didn’t exactly know. We followed signs to the bus terminal. Unfortunately, when we got there, we realize that we were in the wrong spot. Apparently there are multiple bus terminals at Tokyo station. we asked a security officer for help and he helped direct us to the correct location. We were thankful that we built in extra time to our schedule just in case something like this happened. We gave her an extra 30 minutes to make sure that we found the right spot. so after making it to the wrong terminal, we finally made it to the terminal and thankfully it wasn’t too far away. And we pretty easily found the correct platform. The bus showed up maybe about 10 minutes prior to departure. And we had assigned seats and was very comfortable with a bathroom on board. Then headed out for the 2 1/2 hour bus ride to Fujiyoshida. Was a very pleasant bus ride through the countryside of Japan. We went through rolling hills of lots of trees and greenery. I listen to a podcast on the bus and Liz listen to some music specifically Taylor Swift.

Upon arriving in Fujiyoshida, we realize that there were multiple bus stops in the region. The hotel had told us to get to Fujisan station and they would send a free shuttle to come pick us up to bring us back to the hotel. Unfortunately, apparently there are more than one station with this same name. And I had booked the bus ticket to the other station with the same name. When we went through the correct station, it was actually named Mount Fuji station so we didn’t get off the bus there. Shortly after we’ve passed that stop, but we realize that that was actually the correct stop and we were heading past where we wanted to be. So we discussed, which do we want to get off at and the likelihood of us being able to find a taxi to take us to the hotel. of the bus stops we’re kind of in the middle of nowhere. We ended up getting off the bus at the stop where I had booked for us to get off the bus. Amazingly, they dropped us off on the side of the lake so it was beautiful. There was also a 7-Eleven there where we were able to go the bathroom and pick up some lunch. I tried my first egg sandwich, which are very popular in Japan. I also tried my first onigiri, which was tuna and mayonnaise flavored which was pretty good. Liz had cup of noodles. And we both enjoyed some apples. Even though we were lost in this region outside of Mount Fuji, we happen to be dropped off right next to a taxi station. So after we quickly ate lunch, we walked over to the taxi station. We were able to easily get a taxi to take us to the hotel. Thankfully, we weren’t lost for very long and didn’t have to struggle for very long. It can’t be memorable trip without some mishaps. We are very thankful that we ended up getting off the bus where we could get food, the bathroom, and easily find a taxi.

We subsequently made it to the hotel maybe around 1:15 pm. Our rooms weren’t available to check in until 2:30 pm. So we decided to explore the complex. There are massive gardens on the backside of the hotel. It’s all very Zen. Lots of Koi fish and water features and plants. We then went to the tea house for a tea ceremony. They gave us a sweet gelatinous snack and Matcha to drink. And we drink this while overlooking the river and hearing the rushing water. We then took another walk around the garden and explored further. We cross the bridge over the river. This whole area is so beautiful. we explored the inside of the hotel a little bit more. We walked around some of the ballrooms. I think that they host a lot of weddings here. Also the souvenir shop and walked down some of the hallways. We were able to check in and someone took us to our room and pointed out all of the important Spots. We’re staying at almost the top floor of this resort. We have a very spacious room. There are free drinks in the refrigerator, pajamas, sandals, for walking around the resort, and tiny towels. We then decided to put our bathing suits on and had to the pools outside. We put our feet in the foot onsen outside, which is basically a hot bath just for your feet. We then decided to go over to the pool and hang out in the pool for a little bit. Thankfully the pool was a little bit cooler. Everything that we’ve done so far is just been very hot. Thankfully, the area around here is a little bit cooler and Tokyo. Also, during most of the day today we did not see any other guests at the hotel. We were the only ones in the garden and the only ones in the pool. It’s all very zen. We then headed back up to the room and we have a hot tub/onset on the porch. So we both got in and had a relaxing afternoon overlooking the sunset and the fields. The porch also looks out towards Mount Fuji. Unfortunately, clouds obscure the view of Mount Fuji all day today. Tomorrow, we’re gonna try and wake up early to see if we can catch a glimpse of the mountain before the clouds roll in.

After our relaxing afternoon, we rent off and went and picked up free yucatas to wear around the resort. We then headed down to dinner. Dinner was a multicourse traditional Japanese meal. We sat in our own room for this multicourse meal. The meal was very heavy on fish both cooked and uncooked. There was also some soup and tofu and rice. One dish was Wagyu beef with mashed potatoes. I am proud of both Liz and I for having tried a lot of new foods today. Though I don’t think either of us left dinner feeling very full. The last dish was dessert which was a sweet potato thing and grapes in gelatin. Japan seems to be obsessed with grapes and gelatin. We have had a lot of both on this trip. overall I’m really glad for the experience for the dinner. Though I wouldn’t say it’s been my favorite meal here.

After dinner, we watched a Japanese drum show put on by the hotel. It was cool to see a cultural show here. After the drum show, they put on bingo for the guests. It’s hilarious to say that we came to Japan and played bingo. Unfortunately, neither Liz nor I won bingo. However, we still had a great time. After bingo, we went into the wine lounge. There they had snacks and wine all for free! So we had some cheese and rice, crackers, and chocolate, ice cream and free wine. It was the perfect end to a fabulous day. We are now getting ready for bed. We hope to wake up really early tomorrow morning to see if we can catch the sunrise with Mount Fuji. Fingers crossed there are no clouds tomorrow morning. And then we leave here to make for Kyoto!

[laurenetuttle]

Japan Day 4 (September 9, 2024)

We had another lovely day in Japan today! The weather has continued to be very hot and humid. We instantly feel gross and are sweating within minutes of being outside. It’s making getting cute and taking fun pictures challenging. This morning we enjoyed another lovely buffet breakfast at the hotel before heading out to explore more of Tokyo. We took the subway over to the most popular temple in Tokyo called Senso-Ji temple. is this beautiful temple complex. There are a bunch of little stalls and stores leading up to the temple. So we spent a while meandering through the stalls, looking at the little knickknacks that were being sold and snacks. We made our way up to the actual temple, and there were some beautiful gates and a pagoda style building. You can also buy incense and incense smoke, which is supposed to bring good health. There is also a tradition of fortunes at this temple as well. What you do is you go up to one of these booths and you shake a metal box full of sticks. Then you tip the box over to let a stick come out. Then you look at what number is on the stick and then you go and pull the fortune from the number door that matches the number that’s on the stick. Then you may see if you have a good fortune or bad fortune. If you have a good fortune, then you get to bring it home with you. If it’s a bad fortune, then you were supposed to tie it up in a tree and leave it behind. Both Liz and I got good fortunes. We then walked into the temple, which was very ornate and we paid our respects. We then did more walking around the nearby street, which was also filled with a lot of vendors. This is the main area of the Asakusa neighborhood. We stopped to get some cold drinks out of a vending machine. We also stopped to get a snack which consisted of very fresh strawberries stick with a hard sugar coating. They call this strawberry candy. It was very delicious and hit the spot as we were totally sweating.

After a lot of meandering, we decided to make our way to Kappabashi Street. This street is well known to be a kitchen tools street. So both sides of the street are lined with store after store all carrying various types of goods that you would need in the kitchen or in a restaurant kitchen. We went through loads of stores that were selling ceramics and knives and appliances, and any sort of kitchen tool that you might dream of. I purchased a ceramic canister for my kitchen to put some looseleaf tea and I’m really excited about. I also found pans that were the same size as my family’s potica pans and I purchased two of those to bring back to the US. We then spent some time in a knife shop. We got to learn all about the different types of Japanese knives. Then I purchased a couple of nice knives and they did free engraving, which was a lot of fun and we got to watch that process.

After we spent a while on kappabashi Street, we decided to take transit over to Asahi brewery. This is one of the major breweries in Japan. We decided to enjoy the air-conditioning, I got a beer, and we enjoyed some lunch. Also, by the way food in Japan is so cheap! Basically every meal that we have had has been $10 or under per person at the brewery was no exception. We got a pizza, edamame, a beer, and a soda for all under $20. after this late lunch, we took transit back to the hotel to drop off my loot. We also took a couple minutes break his again. It was very hot and humid and we had been doing a lot of walking so our feet were tired. Taking a short break to go to TeamLab Borderless. It’s the same company that put on the art museum that we went to on the first day. But this is a newer exhibit in a different part of Tokyo. We enjoyed the first museum so much that we decided to go and check this newer version out as well. The whole museum is a digital art, museum, different types of rooms and projected art. One of the rooms, we were able to draw our own fish and they scanned the fish into digital art and projected it on a wall in the next room. Both Liz and I drew turtles. And then we got to watch our sea turtles swim around in the next room. It was very cool. And definitely different experience than the other location. We’re glad that we did both. I think that we both agreed that we liked the other location better. This museum was located in the middle of a mall. So afterwards we just grabbed a bite to eat at a Ramen shop nearby. We decided to head back to the hotel pack up some of our stuff and get ready for bed. Tomorrow we are checking out of this hotel and taking a bus to the small town of Fujiyoshida, which is located just outside of Mount Fuji. we are both looking forward to a relaxing couple of days with less walking. And also hopefully more comfortable beds. We are also very excited to get out of the big city and a smaller town and subsequently head to Kyoto, which is more historical and has more cultural sites.

[laurenetuttle]

Japan Day 3 (September 8, 2024)

Today was a great day! I’ll be at very hot and humid. We both had probably at least eight hours of sleep. The hotel room is very nice, but the beds are definitely very firm and we both woke up with back pain. But the hotel overall is great. We enjoyed another buffet breakfast this morning. And then took off to start our day. Immediately, when we stepped outside, we both were just absolutely drenched with sweat. I cannot emphasize enough how hot and humid it is. We’re both really excited to be here, but I think the next time I come to Japan, I will avoid the summer.

We took the subway over to the imperial Palace this morning. I also cannot emphasize enough how amazing the mass transit is here. The whole subway system has been so easy to navigate so well marked. Everybody is so polite and consider of each other’s space. The subways and stations are all very clean. And the subway rides are always very quiet. Everybody’s keeping to themselves and being very mindful. The imperial Palace is where the Japanese royal family lives. Most of the palace grounds are not open to the public. this includes any of the actual buildings. But we had a nice walk around the outside and we explored the palace gardens. They offered a free audio tour so we both downloaded that app and did most of the tour. However, it was very hot and humid. Near the beginning of our tour we needed a break already. So we stopped to get ice cold drinks from a vending machine. Nice thing about Japan is that there are vending machines all over the place is very cheap drinks and they also have a lot of variety of drinks. We took our time to wander through the gardens and take lots of breaks. I was very grateful today for my electric fan. At one point today Liz got a paper fan which she is very excited about because it is also her favorite color which is purple.

After our lovely hot morning, stroll around the Palace Gardens, we decided to take the subway over to the neighborhood of Harajuku. Harajuku is also another Hoppin neighborhood. We spent some time walking around Takeshita street. This street was quite overwhelming with all the people. But it is known for their crêpes. We did decide to pass on the crêpes because it was overwhelming and we really wanted to find a place to eat where we could sit down and maybe cool off a little bit. We ended up finding a restaurant off the beaten path that is known for their gyozas, which are Japanese dumplings. They were absolutely delicious. We got several types of these dumplings plus spring rolls and a curry roll and garlic fried rice. We also both enjoyed a nice iced tea and enjoyed the air conditioning. Everything that we’ve had to eat so far in this trip has been fantastic. This lunch spot was no exception.

After lunch, we made our way to the Meiji Jingu shrine. This shrine was built about 100 years ago in honor of one of the emperors of Japan. This shrine complex is in the middle of a park which is a nice oasis in the middle of this big city. This whole park was covered in really big trees which provided some relief from the sun. Also sidenote during this period we also purchased these Japanese cooling wipes. Their wipes that you’re supposed to wipe across your body and then make you feel cooler for a period of time afterwards. I think they helped a little bit, but it was just so hot. I’m not sure that anything would’ve made us feel super cold. But overall, the shrine and the surrounding gardens and Park were beautiful. We also witnessed a procession of a Shinto wedding. I also acquired an amulet to help me find a good partner in life. We spent some time paying our respects to the shrine and taking in the scenery before walking back into the city. We then decided to take the subway over to the Tokyo metropolitan government building. It’s a 45 story tall building that has an observatory on the top floor. The observatory is free. We ended up walking around basically the entirety of the building before figuring out where the entrance was. It was definitely a hot struggle. But thankfully, we did find the entrance and there weren’t very many people there. to surprise, the observatory was indoors and air-conditioned. And had lots of seating. So we took a nice break in the air conditioning sat down for a period of time. We also enjoyed the views of the Tokyo city skyline. We saw a little bit of the outline of Mount Fuji. It was obstructed with some clouds. We then decided to take the subway to another neighborhood called Shinjuku we saw the famous 3-D cat billboard, highlight of the trip. After walking around Shinjuku a little bit, we stopped by a famous block of little alleyways and traditional Japanese hole in the wall restaurants called Izakayas. We ended up eating at Coco Ichibanya. We both enjoyed a lovely curry dinner, and the air conditioning that the restaurant provided.

We then decided to head back to the hotel because both of us were very tired and hot and gross. We have walked over 20,000 steps today which is more than yesterday. So when we got back to the hotel, we decided to take advantage of the hotel spa/onsen. It’s this big hot tub area where we went to go and relax. Unfortunately it was pretty hot so we didn’t stay very long. But it was nice to relax and soak for a little bit. Also sidenote. Bathing suits were not allowed. We are both now enjoying some quiet, relaxing time and letting our feet rest prior to going to bed. We are looking forward to another day tomorrow with hopefully slightly less walking and maybe a little bit cooler?