Japan Day Three: Kyoto Tour

Kyoto is the ancient capital of Japan and served as the seat of power from 784 – 1869 when the capital was moved to its present location in Tokyo.  As the site of over 1,000 years of history, Kyoto is littered with cultural sites and heritage.  Over 2,000 shrines and temples are here as well as 17 UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

We took a morning tour to help us get our sense of the city.  Our first stop was the Nijo Castle where the first Tokugawa Shogun ruled Japan during a tumultuous period of time.  This UNESCO World Heritage Site features the castle and palace of the Shogun as well as the gardens.  It is famous for its “creaking floor” which was built so that no one could enter without being noticed.  Though no pictures were allowed inside the building, it was truly a unique experience to walk through its halls.

Our next stop was the Rokuon-ji Temple, better known as the Golden Pavilion.  It was originally built as a retirement home for a Shogun in the 1200’s where he came to mediate and study Buddhism.  After his death in the 1300’s, it was converted to a zen temple in accordance with his will.  A truly breathtaking site.

Also in this complex is one of the oldest living bonsai trees (possibly the original), which is over 400  years old.

Our next stop was the Kyoto Imperial Palace.  This multi-building complex had many spectacular gates and entrances along with a set of beautiful gardens.

Our final stop was the Kyoto Crafts Market where Kate was able to purchase a kimono.  On the walk home, we were able to snap a quick picture of the Kamo River (which runs through Kyoto) with the mountains in the background.

Japan Day Two: Travel to Kyoto & Observations

On Sunday, we took a 3-hour train ride to Kyoto, Japan.  We had only just arrived in Tokyo but since our Japan rail passes started on Sunday we wanted to start using them.  We will have more time for Tokyo at the end of this week.
Once we arrived in Kyoto, the rain seemed to be coming down even harder than it was in Tokyo.  Luckily our hotel is right by a subway stop. After checking in, we headed out for our first sushi meal in Japan.  Kate ordered her usual favorite sushi but Chris went a little more adventurous.  He tried: white bait, sea urchins, herring roe, surf clam along with his favorite sushi. After lunch, we wandered around a huge market full of shops and food. The food was really fresh, too fresh for Kate as she saw some fish still gasping for their last breaths of air. This market was a bit more overwhelming then the one in Tokyo.  It was larger, with more people, more stores, and even a cat fight (with actual cats). But it kept us out of the rain and entertained us so we strolled through it for an hour or so. Tonight we will probably get to bed early as we have a tour set up in the morning to take us around Kyoto.

We don't have any pictures for this post but here's a random list of observations during our first two days in Japan.

• It's a very clean city yet there's not many trash cans around on the streets. Coming from another big city, NYC, Kate finds this quite perplexing.
• Most people are dressed business formal or at least business causal, even on the weekends.  Even our cab drivers were in suits with white gloves.
• It seems to be fashionable for the girls to wear short shirts or shorts with over-the-knee socks or tights.  This is very late 90's / era of Clueless for us in the U.S.
• The subway cars play an upbeat Jamaican/child-like music to warn that the doors are closing.
• Everyone is really nice and tries to help or answer your questions.  Even if they don't speak English.
• The streets, at least in Tokyo, are non-smoking but you can still smoke in restaurants.  
We've tried twice now to order Sapporo beer and received confused looks and an unidentified light draft beer - which actually has been quite tasty.
• As you may expect, there is lots of bowing.  Chris is really enjoying participating in this custom.
• For breakfast, they have ketchup out for the eggs.  They also serve sushi and rice.  
• There's a huge love for cartoons and arcade games here in Japan.  There's a surprising amount of arcade games where the player directs a large claw to pick up stuffed animals and drop in the chute for the player to receive.  We literally saw dozens of these in one store today at the market an,d unlike the U.S., adults and kids were actually playing this game.
• There's a surprising amount of Italian restaurants here.  There's other cuisines as well, of course, but Italian food seems to be pretty popular.
• Instead of street food and drink carts, there's vending machines everywhere.
• The toilet seats are very high-tech and have more features then expected.

Thanks for checking in with us.  Now that we have free Internet in our Japan hotels, we'll continue to tray and keep this blog up-to-date.

Japan Day One: Tokyo

For our first day in Tokyo, we went on a morning tour of 4 city attractions: the Meiji Temple, the Imperial Palace and its gardens, the Asakusa Kannon Temple and the Nakamise shopping arcade.  Waking up early has not been a problem for us since we are still adjusting to the time zone.  We're waking up at 5:30am with no alarm which puts us to bed rather early each night.

The tour was a great way for us to get a feel for the city and culture.  It's very clean and peaceful with many beautiful gardens and temples of worship.  Even the shopping arcade wasn't as overwhelming as it could be (then again, we're used to Chinatown in NYC so maybe we have a higher tolerance).

Meiji Temple:
Barrels of Sake

Prayer requests

The Imperial Palace Gardens:

Asakusa Kannon Temple:

Nakamise Shopping Arcade:

Asakusa Kannon Temple:
The area where you wash your hands and face before entering the temple

Incense... possibly for more prayer requests?  We didn't ask but know the symbol on the incense meant reincarnation.

Many shrines...

After the tour, we stopped in the Ginza area of Tokyo for lunch - delicious roasted dumplings and noodles.   We then headed back to the hotel to get out of the rain and also to look into how to get to Kyoto the next day.  Due to the rain and our jet lag, we stayed in and updated our blog and passed out early.

Maui Day Three: Snorkeling and the Fisk Family

Our last day in Hawaii was filled with lots of beach time, snorkeling and friends.  As luck would have it our college friend Matt was also in Maui with his family.  In fact, they're condo was just down the street from our hotel.  We meet up with them on the beach to hang out and Chris and Matt went snorkeling off the beach together.  Kate opted for a sushi lunch and lounging on the beach to snorkeling.  Later that evening, Matt and his parents volunteered to take some celebratory engagement photos in the sunset with their fancy camera.  We'll post those photos later but below are some photos from the beach and snorkeling.

Day two in Maui: Our Engagement Story

There are two sides to every story.  Here are both Chris and Kate's view of their engagement.


Chris:  Waking up knowing that "today's the day" made getting up at the crack of dawn the easy part of my day.  Getting everything ready to go in a one-room hotel room was harder and finding the right time and place in an unfamiliar locale was more challenging.

The plan was to propose shortly after the sunrise on the top of the volcano and then come back down to a breakfast of pastries and Veuve Cliquot champagne waiting in the room.  I had badly mis-calculated. 

First, the top of the volcano is cold.  As much as I should have expected this, I did not.  It's hard to be romantic when you're wrapped in a hotel towel and wearing 3 layers of t-shirts.

Second, it's crowded up there.  I figured - 1) it's the crack of dawn, how many people could there possibly be up there? and; 2) it's a mountain, surely there are plenty of desolate places to have a private moment.  I was wrong on both counts.  There are literally hundreds of people up there, and they have the entire place barricaded off to protect the park so there are only a few places accessible to tourists.

Even so, the "equipment" was burning its way through my pocket so I was desperately trying to figure out how to salvage this deteriorating scenario.  I would linger around a picturesque location waiting for other tourists to vacate.  This lasted no more than a few moments before Kate would point out that we had already taken all our pictures, it was cold outside and she was going back to the bus. 

I resigned myself to the reality that I wasn't going to be able to force the moment and I would just have to manage the situation at the hotel when we returned.

Kate: I noticed at the hotel that morning when we were packing up our bag of extra clothes that Chris was acting weird, a little anxious.  I honestly thought that he was tired and feeling rushed to get out the door. 

On top of the volcano when Chris was lingering - this was not usual behavior.  Chris is the one who has to read every plaque at the museums, asks the guides additional questions, and take lots of photos. 

I also didn't notice that Chris was nervous or "up to something" because we both slept on the bus on the way up and down the volcano.  I did not know what was supposed to or about to happen.

Chris: Returning from the trip to the hotel made my day no easier.  We returned a full 2 hours earlier than the trip was supposed to.  The champagne would be arriving at the room literally any minute. The worst possible scenario was that we were there when it arrived, but I hadn't had the opportunity to pop the question.  Two words kept going through my head:  "Epic Fail"

I was able to rush her through a quick clothes change and get her down the hotel restaurant for breakfast.  While were were waiting at the omlet bar, I rushed over the concierge to confirm the status of the champagne, only to discover that it had just been put in the room.  Now I have only a couple hour window before the champagne is no longer good.  Eating breakfast was the day's biggest challenge so far.

Kate: I had already mentioned to Chris on the bus that I was starving and ready for breakfast.  So there wasn't much he had to do to rush me to change clothes and head to breakfast.

Chris: After breakfast ended, we started heading down the shoreline to find a place to lay down.  I suggested taking a walk, hoping to find a secluded section of beach, but exhaustion was setting in for Kate (mine was tempered by anxiety) so she emphatically wanted to find some lounge chairs.  I agreed, but only if we could find some away from people as "I would probably pass out the moment we laid down." 

We found the perfect spot just a few yards down the shore at a small covered cabana with two chairs overlooking a volcanic cliff into the ocean.  We sat down and I immediately realized this was the spot. 

Kate: We had only just gotten seated when Chris started proposing to me.  I didn't realize what was happening until he reached into his pocket. 

After the question was asked, the answer "yes" was exclaimed, and we embraced, I didn't really know what to do next. Do you snuggle closer in your lounge chairs or leave the beach and start celebrating aloud?  I was really glad when Chris suggested we go back to the room but I couldn't believe there were more surprises to come.  The Veuve Cliquot, my favorite champange, on the balcony of our hotel room was the perfect private celebration. 

We then proceeded to call our families to share the news before returning to the beach with huge smiles on our faces.  Despite waking up at 2:30am, we didn't need naps.  We were too excited about being engaged to sleep... that is until about 8pm when we both passed out without dinner.

The cabana where Chris proposed:

Our view:

The ring:

The celebratory champange-filled breakfast:

Day Two in Maui: Haleakala Sunrise Trip

Waking up at 2:30am is never an easy task, even when you're in Hawaii and still running on New York City time.  Even so, we were up before the dawn so we could ascend 10,000 feet to the top of Maui's volcano, Haleakala, to watch the sunrise over the island.  It was a bit of a shock to go from the humid 80 degree weather on Maui's beaches, to the arid 30 degree weather just a short hour later, but the views were worth the adjustment.

With the sun, finally risen, we were able to see into the volcano's crater.

We then proceeded up the the rest of the mountain to the summit.

The Silver Sword Plant, which only grows at the top of Maui's volcano.  This plant lives for 30 - 60 years, and it only blooms once in its life.  After it blooms, it dies.

After visiting the summit, we drove to another location on volcano and were able to get a different perspective on the crater, which allowed us to see the "new" lava flows which are only 400 years old as well as the "ash mounds".