[chapter 3]

Japandering.


Where to begin...

For starters, we stuck to one city in Japan: Kyoto, which I really liked because we ended up getting to know one city really well, rather than skimming the surface of a few different places.

Kyoto is very cool. Here are my top 6 favorite things/memories:

• Japan dances to the beat of it's own drum. Their electric and totally original sense of style, the anime thing, the geisha thing, the food thing...the whole package: they've got it goin' on. 
• The temples were spectacular with their awesome ancient energy and architecture. Plus, I got to do some real quality Buddha nerding out (I think about 1/3 of my photo's I walked away with from Japan are of Buddhas). 
• The bicycle culture. We rented bikes for 2 days and had an absolute blast. We saw every type of person on every type of bicycle: older folks on their bikes from 1935, the cute 20-something Japanese girls in heels on their perfectly shined and sparkly beach cruiser bikes, the college hipsters, the moms with child seats mounted on both the front and back of the bike effortlessly hauling through crowds of people; we even found ourselves in a school girl pelaton at one point! Plus bike riding is officially the best way to explore a city, hands down.
• The bamboo forest. Words cannot describe, I will just post a picture.
• The family marts (aka convenience stores for non-Korean residents). I thought they were pretty righteous in Korea, but Japan takes it to a whole new level for sure, there's something for everyone. You've got the massive magazine corner (aka Japanese porn that the teenage school boys spend some quality after-school time in), the "practical" section full of all needs ranging from disposable underwear to men's hair gel, the amazing ice cream section that has my most favorite green tea ice cream waffle snacks that I'm currently having withdrawals from, the lunch section with everything from fresh salads to inari to barbecued everything, and the copious amounts of snacks and treats. The first time we went to one we ended up spending a half hour just looking and laughing at all the bizarre things we found. Good times.
• The entire city of Kyoto hasn't been updated since the 70's. Yep. That means all the stop lights, signs, subway system, architecture (urban, not temples), and even taxi's are from 30-40 years ago. The amazing thing is that they do such a good job of keeping things clean and working that the stuff nearly looked brand new.

If your feeling inspired to travel to Japan, you should be fully aware of these three things:

1. It is really, really, really expensive. No like really. A lot. Maybe too much. This is where I say Japan is the France of Asia, but I think it might actually be even more expensive than that. You don't get a break either: everything costs so much money. Let's just say that one night we got one pizza, a small salad and 3 beers (granite it was a nice restaurant and good food) and the bill was $80. I cried.
2. You cannot fly by the seat of your pants. Japan does not like it when you just show up like "Oh hey there, I'm super cool traveler dude". Nope, that 'ish don't fly in Japan. When you land on their soil, you cannot leave the airport until you give customs an address of where you're staying (which means you need to reserve a hotel or hostel in advance, unless of course you're staying with a friend). 
3. They couldn't really care less about speaking English. Or making things remotely easy for English speakers. It's not like a lot of places where there's some desire or need to speak English, they just kind of do their own thing. So be prepared for not being able to communicate with a lot of people and not knowing what most signs say.

Here's a link to our Ryokan (Japanese style hotel where you sleep on the floor, very simple and less expensive than your typical hotel room in Japan) www.kyoto-ohto.com

The place we rented our awesome bicycles from was called "Rent-a-cycle" just 6 minutes away from Kyoto Station. Highly recommend this place, the guy was awesome and our bikes worked super well.

Alright, picture time!

 Kyoto

 A temple fit for a Giant  :)

 Everyone rides scooters.

Japanese gardens.

 Scariest Buddha

Family photo at Japan's version of the Yuba River.

 Geishas are surprising hard to find and capture. We finally caught one towards the end of the trip!

Mom slayin' it on the bike through the bamboo forest

Shortly after the bamboo forest...let's just say she brought the Cindy Martin to Japan.

Meet Gnome-y. He is my most trustworthy and pint sized travel partner. I had lots of photo ops in Japan. I realize I'm the only that's really obsessed with him, so I'll limit the number of photos I post of him, but don't worry, his appearance will be made again.

Gnome-y with the very friendly/adorable cafe owners.