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Well, here we are, at the end of our trip. At the beginning, it seemed like we would be here forever, but now – in hindsight – the time has flown by. Ayami asked me where was our favourite place in Japan and the answer actually was that each place had a “best” aspect to it.

Tokyo, obviously, for the wedding, but also for the cute district that surrounded our hotel. We loved wandering around there and watching the kimonoed women and other characters wander by. Kyoto was special because we travelled there and stayed as a family in our little rice paper house all together. We watched sumo on the t.v., Cam made us breakfast every day, Ayami made us many dinners, and we shared so many stories and so much laughter. Kobe was a good stop because of the onsen in the hotel, but also our day at the Arima Grand Hotel onsens. And memorable because of the flat tire debacle, which has since been resolved with us driving on the spare for the rest of our trip and the company apologizing for the inconvenience and not charging for the ruined tire. Then last night at the dinosaur robot hotel with Jenn and Cam – that was a unique and entertaining check-in experience! So, all in all, a wonderful and heartwarming family trip, with the highlight of highlights – David and Ayami’s wedding.

Enroute back to Tokyo, we stopped in at the Fushimi Inari red tori gates. I had seen photos of these in my trip planning, but we hadn’t managed to get there while we were staying in Tokyo. The one day we were close, we all drank too much sake and forgot all about it. Anyway, they did not disappoint.

From Fushimi, we headed to where we needed to drop the car off – Ayami dropped the rest of us and our luggage near a restaurant and went to drop the car off. She returned to the restaurant with the good news that we were not going to be charged for the ruined tire after all. So we had a good lunch, then boarded the bullet train headed back to Tokyo.

We kind of snuck on the fast train (there are non-fast bullet trains that stop at every stop) – even though the return tickets we had bought in advance were for the slow bullet train. This is how we know Ayami is one of us – it was her idea! And saved us over an hour of travel time, which we truly appreciate at this point in our travels.

We had to get off at the stop before they did, so we said our good-byes on the train and hopped off on our own to find a taxi to our hotel near Haneda airport. Jenn and Cam picked this one – the Henn Na – a dinosaur robot hotel. Sure, why not?

Cam and Jenn weren’t too far behind us (they had come from a different starting point after visiting Hiroshima, the Kawasaki Museum and Universal Studios Japan) and their room was just down the hall. We headed out to find dinner that wasn’t from 7-11, but none of us wanted to venture far, so ended up with fried chicken, which is a bit hit here in Japan. Good enough. Hit up the 7-11 for some drinks and had “cocktails” in our room. In our matching (supplied) pajama shirts.

Right now I am enjoying a glass of red wine in the departure area, while our plane is being cleaned and restocked for our flight in about half an hour. It has been amazing, but we are looking forward to our own beds tonight.

See you all on the flip side . . .

Our second to last stop was a two night stay right in the middle of Nara National Park. We are staying in a (very) budget friendly hostel/hotel called The Deer Inn. It is very cute – in a hostely sort of way – and there are deer everywhere. Hence the name.

David figured out how to make the deer bow.

That last photo shows the communal kitchen, stocked with “emergency” ramen.

These are the communal washrooms – complete with toilet shoes. If you see them there, you know no one is in the toilet. You change your slippers for toilet shoes to go in.

Well, that’s me told.

While Ayami took a very well deserved nap, the rest of us went to check out the largest bronze Buddha in Japan. It did not disappoint.

Due to covid, you are no longer allowed to kiss any of this guy’s body parts for healing prayers. Whew.

Did I mention there are deer everywhere? You can buy special deer crackers to feed them and they an be very persuasive if they know you have them.

After dinner we walked to the temple where the light the lanterns at night.

This morning David and Ayami left bright and early to join Cam and Jenn at Universal Studios Japan in Osaka. That left Don and me to our own devices. We had a list of the shrines and temples in Nara, as well as a walk in the older area of town, and a place in mind for lunch. Don took his turn at asking the deer to bow, but he pretty much did all the bowing.

There are a lot of temples and shrines – but this next one had a special room with flickering lanterns that was pretty amazing.

These amazing trees are all around.

With all the templing, it was time for a snack. I had read about the hand pounded strawberry mochis here, so had to try one. Don chose a cracker thing instead.

PS – the mochi was delicious!!

So, we are templed and shrined out pretty much. Ready to get back on the bullet train tomorrow and stay our last night near Haneda Airport. It has been a wonderful trip, full of special moments, lots of laughs, a few puzzlements, and a new-found confidence that anything is possible, even if you don’t speak or read the language.

But after a couple nights in this cute hostel, Castle Currie is looking pretty damn fine . . .

Putting the previous day behind us, we headed for the famous Himeji Castle. It was glorious in the beautiful sunshine.

The castle complex is massive – and there are stairs inside to go to the top of that building behind us. I found a bench on the fifth floor and read the information brochure while the rest hiked to the tippy top. Once difference between these castles and ones we have encountered in Europe is that the rooms are all empty. So far, in the ones we have been able to go in, there have been very few displays, no decorative art, or furniture. So that’s a lot of walking when the money shot is on from the outside!

As we were leaving, walking along the sidewalk, I looked up to see a camera pointed right at me. I leaned and stepped to my left to get out of the way of whatever the photographer was trying to photograph behind me, only to discover that he was trying to take a photo of me!! He looked up from his camera and gave me a big smile and a thumbs up. I can’t imagine my expression on my face, as I was trying to dive out of the way, but ok . . .

Have I mentioned the important role that the 7-11 plays over here? They are everywhere, together with their sister stores, Lawton’s, and contain everything you could want, at good prices. The hot food includes curry potato croquettes, spring rolls, baked sweet potatoes and a bunch of other exotic items (not a hot dog on a rotisserie in sight). There are also bento boxes, take and heat items of all sorts, and fresh sandwiches. The egg salad is to die for, having been made with Japanese mayo, on good old fashioned white bread, with the crusts cut off. Just like Mom used to make. So good. And booze! Seems like most countries can be trusted to have booze in their corner stores – take note Canadian government!!

This particular area is apparently known for their squid balls (takoyaki), so Ayami got some of those and David was feeding her the squid parts out of his while she was driving.

One thing about travelling with your kids is that there are different budgets to consider. This evening, our dinner cost about $9 for both of us, plus the less cheap bottle of red wine. Definitely a budget booster! Tomorrow we feast!!

There was one shop close to our hotel that I had to go in. They sell these celebration dolls. I asked if it was ok to take photos and he said yes, but please don’t touch! They are all hand painted and painstakingly made – priced in the thousands of dollars.

Then it was goodbye Kobe, and on to Nara National Park. The tire is still holding out – so far so good. Ayami makes sure we eat, even from the driver’s seat. The gyoza like delicacies are also from 7-11.

Last morning in our cute little 100 year old house made of rice paper – Cam made us all breakfast and we all were packed up and ready to go. Jenn and Cam were going their own way for next four nights, riding the rails with their JR train passes, and the rest of us were renting a car for that time. Our last night in Japan we meet up again at the Hotel Henn Na near Haneda Airport – couldn’t leave Japan without a dinosaur robot hotel experience!

This is our little car for the next four days – Ayami got us a great deal and is our driver, because David forgot his license in Tokyo.

First stop was the little onsen town of Arima. The natural hot springs here, and the little village surrounding them, are some of the oldest in Japan. There are two types, “golden” (or red) and “silver”. Each pool is a different colour of water and they have their own restorative properties. After doing a little research online, David found that we could get a day pass at a swanky hotel that had many pools on both sides of the building (one side being for girls and one for guys). For $42 each, you could spend all day in the hot springs and surrounding relaxation areas AND got a $20 credit towards a delicious lunch (basically the whole cost, including beer). We’re in!!! Only catch is that this will be Don’s and my first naked onsen experience (no option on that). Sure, why not?

The parking lot was filled with expensive cars, including this showy Lamborghini

Lunch was some of the best tempura yet!

This is a photo of one of the onsen pools in the ladies’ area from the brochures, no cameras allowed (thankfully!).

One of the pools – this one I think, was open to the outdoors and I sat at the edge and let the little rain drops sprinkle down on my head – it was truly lovely.

No a bit about the “being naked” thing (because I know some of you are wondering). It’s really not that bad. Think walking between the shower and your locker in any pool changing or locker room. You have a little towel that you can hold in front of you as you walk or sit on the edge, but by the end, I wasn’t worrying about it. It may just be the stage of life I am at, but I realized that I didn’t really care and neither did anyone else. No one is openly “looking” at you and we all have more or less the same bits anyway, so I think we have over-thought this one by quite a lot. The Japanese have it right. And as a way to ease into it, the golden pools are virtually opaque, so when you sit down, you don’t feel so exposed.

So after a lovely and relaxing couple of hours, we piled back into our little car and headed for Kobe. Less than five minutes down the road we all noticed a weird noise and vibration.

And that’s when our day went south (not literally) . . . apparently we had a flat tire. No problem, the Currie men are on it. Get the spare out, an the jack . . . Wait, where’s the jack?

No jack. Really. We all looked.

There was a worker nearby on a big rig so Ayami spoke to him. He came to have a look, but alas, had no car jack. He said some guys were coming, and maybe they could help, so we waited a bit more while Ayami contacted the car rental company and then their insurance company. But flat tires are apparently not their problem.

So the three new guys arrive, with a tire jack – Yay!. Alas and alack, none of their things to remove the lug nuts were the right size (who knew there were different sizes). More head scratching, before decided that there was nothing they could do and so they all drove off.

By this time, the triple A equivalent was on his way. The rental company kindly agreed to pay at least to get the spare on, because there had been no jack. Unfortunately this particular rental company has no affiliates here in Kobe. When the guy got there with the right tools, the spare was on in no time.

So at least we could limp to our hotel in Kobe. Needless to say, all of this took hours and the rest of the day (evening) was pretty much a write off as Ayami phoned around and even got a guy to come out at 9:40 to assess the tire – all to no avail. That guy wanted $300 to fix it! The next morning they took it to a garage nearby, where they were told that the tire is a write off, but it should be ok to drive on the spare for the three more days we have left, as long a we took it slow and didn’t go on the speedy toll roads.

So that’s what we’re going to do – cross your fingers for us everybody!

Good night from Kobe, where our hotel has it’s own onsens, free ramen after 9:30 pm and – most importantly – free ice cream after 3:30 pm!! We feel a little better now . . .

So today was a shopping day for Don and me because the kids all went to Osaka to attend the Sumo Festival. We walked one way (straight shot) but were determined to brave the bus system for the journey home.

Don was very patient while I walked through all the little shops . He was rewarded periodically with street food skewers and ice cream for along the way.

Apparently I am an angel, not a geisha . . .

This next gallery of photos is from the Gion area. Everything is closed up tight during the day here, so it probably looks even more amazing at night.

I found one little artisan watchmaker shop that was open and chose a watch with a sakura face and custom band made for me while I waited. I love it!!

These are the rest of the photos, taken as we did a four square tour of the shopping streets in Higashiyama.

Don’s mask continues to be a source of great hilarity – this guy asked if he could take a photo with Don.

So that’s about it for photos from yesterday. The bus journey went really well, we found our stop, waited for the No. 12, got seats (a rarity), enlightened another couple about how you pay on the way out, not on the way in, and got off at the right stop! Yippee!! Feeling quite proud of ourselves, I must say.

The kids had a blast at the sumo festival – cheering for certain wrestlers and even coming home with a trading card of their favourite guy. Here is a short video and a few of their photos:

Tomorrow morning we split into two groups, with Cam and Jenn heading out on their own to Himeji and Hiroshima, and the rest of us renting a car for a trip to an onsen (hot springs) town, Kobe, and Nara National Park. We will meet up for the last night at a dinosaur hotel in Haneda before heading back home on Sunday. What a trip this has been and the adventure isn’t over!

One must do in Kyoto is to visit the Kinkaku “Golden” Temple. And the name pretty much says it all.

It is absolutely majestic and David and I immediately decided that we needed to paint a room inside our house this burnished gold colour.

The sun was shining and the weather was perfect for walking and walking. When we got home, we met up with Ayami, Jenn and Cam and spruced up a bit to head out for our sake tasting at Fushimi Sake Village. These are sake barrels:

Cam and Jenn are getting good at figuring out the trains so they lead us on the two train rides to get to our destination. That and Google Maps – a godsend to travellers everywhere. Found it with no problems and it is so cute!

There are not a lot of tourists in here – if any – so we got a lot of stares, a couple of smiles, and one thumbs up. It seems that the 18 taster flight is the way to go, so four of us ordered that, Jenn ordered a flight of three, and someone ordered a beer.

According to David, they serve the cheapest sake to us in Vancouver and maybe he’s right, because we have never really enjoyed sake before, but 17 of the 18 tasters were actually really good! But the one most of us liked the best was one that Jenn got in her flight of 3, and was not included in our flights of 18. So we had to order an additional glass of that one – very appley and delicious. They put a glass in a lacquer box and then over poured, so that you drank from the glass and then from the box. You can kind of see it here in this little video.

We had some little appetizers, but the kids decided we needed to have some authentic sushi, so ordered this platter:

Aiyeee . . .

Don and I immediately stole the prawns, but then Don was feeling brave so we shared the raw scallop one. It was actually pretty tasty and had a silky texture. That was about it for my desire to be adventurous, but Don actually does like fish, so the kids convinced him to try one He needed a little help getting it in there, but declared it “not too bad”.

Not having had enough to drink yet and still being hungry, Ayami suggested a nearby okonomiaki place. This is a Japanese cross between a pancake and an omelette, filled will varying things and topped with bbq sauce and Japanese mayo. In this restaurant the table has a grill in down the centre where they place the items to stay hot. They are all delicious. The boys ordered “mega high-balls” – it was great fun.

We managed to find our way home with no problem and then the kids headed off to do some karaoke. Don and I were bagged and headed directly for bed – and I didn’t even hear the kids come in! Even in our hundred year old house with rice paper walls – that’s how tired we are at the end of the day. Although I did hear the lady who goes up and down the street every night at a certain time, clapping two sticks together to scare away the demons.

That’s it for now – tomorrow is a shopping day for Don and me because the kids are heading to Osaka for the Sumo Festival. That should be interesting!

We are really enjoying our little Japanese house, now that the construction has been put on pause on the outside wall of the master bedroom. Woke up yesterday to banging and crashing as the metal siding was being removed. The first thought that entered my brain as I woke up was, “What the Hell is Going On!?!”

Other than that, and the decidedly not up to code stairs, it is really nice to be able to make home cooked breakfasts and dinners. Cam and Jenn have taken charge of eggs and toast in the morning, and Ayami has made us dinners that are better than many we have had in our travels so far. Don and I are the clean up crew. David thinks he has done enough babysitting his parents all day . . .

Today we left Ayami to have a few hours of peace and solitude while the rest of us ventured off to explore the Arashiyama Bamboo Forest and Monkey Park.

We passed some shrines along our route

I saw a lot of posts in my travel japan facebook group saying how crowded the bamboo grove is and to get there at 6:00 am if you want it to yourself, but even though there were lots of people there, it was possible to get photos without them in and to enjoy the majesty of the huge and endless bamboo forest as you walked the path and listened to the rustling of the leaves.

David lowered the angle of the camera and all the other people disappeared!

On our way to the monkey park – where the monkeys roam free and the people who want to feed them are in the cage – we saw some river boats, more shrines and a very quaint little tea house.

By now we were all hungry, so we stopped for a little street food and found an actual table to sit at (these are few and far between outside for some reason).

Good thing we ate before we headed up the mountain to the monkey park, because it was straight up!

As we neared the top, we started to see monkeys all around us, playing, fighting and grooming each other. At the top, we saw this guy, just enjoying the view.

And the view of Kyoto from here is pretty spectacular.

Monkeys, monkeys everywhere

If you want to actually feed the monkeys, you had to go into a building with caged windows – I kind of like the reversal of fortunes of this.

What a fun day! We have ticked a lot of our “must see and do” things off the list, but we still have a sake tasting lined up for tomorrow afternoon and will try to fit in the Golden Pavilion before that, as well as the red Fushimi Tori Gates that are near the sake place. Then the kids are headed to Osaka to see the sumo festival on Monday, so Don and I will be left to our own devices to get ourselves to the Gion area and Philosopher’s Path along the river. That should be interesting, so stay tuned . . .

But first, our bullet train experience. As in – when the fast turns out slow. Turns out it doesn’t feel like a speeding bullet on the inside, especially when our particular train stopped at every stop between Tokyo and Kyoto. Add to that an additional delay of some sort, and the ride was about 3 hours longer than originally anticipated. But it was kind of fun, we had loads of snacks and some drinks, and even caught some views of the infamous Mt. Fuji along the way.

Our airbnb Japanese house was only a 15 minute walk from the station, so – armed with Google Maps – we set out to find our home away from home for the next 5 nights. It is so cute!

We ladies headed to the nearest supermarket to pick up some fixings for dinner and beverages, and Ayami made us a delicious Japanese curry dish and fresh salad for dinner. This traditional home has Netflix and YouTube, so we had a great time watching more of the local sumo festival and also some dog agility trials. At some point we all crashed and were having the most wonderful slumber until construction started on the outside wall of our bedroom the next morning.

A quick look outside showed that the metal siding was being removed and I guess replaced. Ayami spoke to the worker and he said that he probably wouldn’t be working on it tomorrow (Saturday). So we emailed the management company, but didn’t hear back until the afternoon. Turns out the work can wait until after we are gone.

That’s the master bedroom wall right there.

So soldiering on with the banging and the clanging, Cam and Jenn made us breakfast and then we headed out to see some sights. First were a bunch of temples and gardens.

While full bloom sakura is still a week or two away, every so often there is a tree in full bloom – the flowers are so delicate and beautiful.

After the Imperial Palace we took a bus to the Higashiyama area (with a bunch more temples and shrines to see), and as we were walking, Ayami spotted a geisha on the other side of the street. I hoofed it towards her to get my shot, not knowing if I would be able to catch up to her, when she stopped at a cross walk and it looked like she would be headed right towards me! My lucky day , that’s for sure. I couldn’t believe my luck, as they are not a common sight, even in this area (though Ayami saw a couple of them in the 7-11 later in the day!)

This capture really made my day. Here are some of the other sights from that area:

Had to get a Starbucks sakura cup latte . . .

Ayami thinks this woman was a bride because this is a wedding kimono, and different from the ones we have seen other women walking around in. She did have a couple of photographers, but I didn’t see a wedding general, so I’m not totally sure.

So that’s it for the last two days – you’re all caught up. At the moment we are settling in for the night and listening to the rain fall outside. We will see what tomorrow brings weather wise – but a little downtime would not go amiss at this point in our adventure of a lifetime, at least for these two old timers!

Who knew that the humble toilet could could be so vastly improved upon. Starting with the warm seat – omg. Though Don has opined that if he had to choose between the heated seat and a heated floor, he would rather his feet felt that most pleasing sensation. I’ll take both if offered, thank you very much. (No photo here, for obvious reasons.)

Then there are the cleansing options: spray with adjustable strength and position, front and back options, deodorizer (haven’t tried that one), and even music to block out any offensive sounds you might be making! And I’m sure I have missed a few options. Your choice: all or none. Oh and full or half flush – that is pretty much the only one western toilets have embraced so far.

You will see from this photo that I took at the zoo yesterday, even the public Totos have some great options. A little seat to put your baby in while you use the can, and a toddler seat. Just out of the photo is a sanitizing liquid that you can use to clean everything first if you want. The public ones have a manual flush, but still the same cleansing options.

There is even a squatty potty option for people who don’t want to sit on the seat, complete with instructional diagram. Though it doesn’t appear that there are cleansing options for this one.

The one in our hotel room doesn’t have music, but check out the options:

One final note of caution – don’t press any of the buttons if you are not sitting on the Toto – water geyser is not an intended outcome.

And now that I have gotten that out of my system, I would like to share the view from my office. From this height, the city creates a landscape of shapes and colours as far as the eye can see. Mt Fuji is there too, and we have been able to glimpse it twice during our stay once during the day and once at sunset.

And the night time view of the Skytree Tower from the other side of the hotel is magnificent too:

Yesterday Don and I went back to the park he and David had found the day before. It is called Ueno Park and includes a zoo. Now, I am not a fan of old fashioned zoos but the call of the giant panda bear mother and cubs (cubs being as big a her now) was strong. Now that we are seniors, we get half priced tickets – only $3 each to enter! And we only had to wait about 25 minutes to see the smiling panda cub enjoying his nap.

It was a timed exhibit though, and it wasn’t long before I felt a gentle tap tap on my butt. Which I ignored as long as possible while trying to get into the best position for the above shot, but the tiny lady was persistent and when I turned towards her, I saw that she was really only trying to nudge me forward (with a ball on the end of a long pole) a few inches, so that she could close the gate behind me to distinguish the next group. All of whom were giggling at this point.

We also saw the Sumatran tigers (they are huge!) and a polar bear who was seemingly playing a game of chicken with a bunch of tiny toddlers.

Ueno is also a beautiful park

One of the unexpected benefits of travelling in a country where sitting in the sun is discouraged, is that there is plenty of available seating in what we would consider to be the prime spots. Lunch was – in Japanese – potatoes fry, Frankfurt, and beeru!

Everyone was doing their own thing during the day and also for dinner, so we braved going to a tiny neighbourhood pizza place that is off off the beaten track. We had noticed it on the way to the park via the back streets and even though there were obviously no English menus, there were helpful photos. And it’s wood fired pizza!

What should we order?

I texted David to ask how to say “red wine” and his reply was “redo wuine”. So I tried that and the kind waiter asked “red wine?”. Yes!! Thank you!!

Best pizza this side of Italy, topped off with a crème brûlée that was to die for.

Today we are packing up and heading to Kyoto, where we will all be staying in a traditional Japanese house, complete with kitchen. But first – the bullet train!!! Stay tuned, this is going to be fun . . .