The Blonde Squad in Auz: JAPAN - TOKYO, KYOTO, HIROSHIMA

When we first moved to Sydney, we made a list of all of the places we wanted to visit while living here in Australia. Japan was NOT on the list because I had already been there and Tom was not the intrigued by it. However, for the last two years in school Grace has been taking Japanese and was lobbying for us to visit this AMAZING country she had been studying. After further encouragement from a colleague at Stryker, we took the plunge and booked our tickets to Japan.

With the help of family and friends who have lived in Japan at one point in their life, I got to planning the trip. It was going to be quite a bit different then our normal holidays filled with lots of relaxation mingled with cultural experiences. We are going to be in full-on travel mode as we moved from Tokyo to Kyoto to Hiroshima over the course of our ten-day adventure. We were going to be using planes, trains, buses, streetcars, taxis and our feet to see all that we could of the Japanese culture. With our happy, eager attitudes we tried to remain claim and open to what awaited us. It was a wonderful trip full of many, many highs and the family was quite happy to say that they could see themselves living in Japan. They LOVED it. Our highs and lows were.....drum roll please :)

Jane:
High - the Japanese toilets (she loved them!)
Low - the accommodations were very small in Japan

Grace:
High - Japan is an extremely clean country and has fantastic stationary
Low - some of the places we went were very tight

Claire:
High - the food (every cuisine we tried was AMAZEBALLS)
Low - communicating with the Japanese people at times was frustrating

Steph:
High - Japan is such a SAFE, CLEAN, and easy to NAVIGATE country
Low - communicating with Japanese people sometimes was difficult

Tom:
High - Japan is an EXTREMELY organized society (he loves order)
Low - small rooms/accommodations

Here are some pics to highlight the trip - ENJOY!

DAY 1, 2, 3 - Tokyo
Tsukiji Fish market - holy BIG tunas
Tokyo Tower - aerial view
Imperial Palace, Gardens and Moat - gorgeous grounds
Shibuya Crossing - gigantic crossing of many streets
Omotesando Dori - the Champs Elysees of Asia
Meiji Shrine
Yoyogi Park - great park to people watch and eat soft serve ice cream
Takeshita Dori - packed street with teens dressed in entertaining outfits
Bullet Train to Kyoto

Vending Machine are everywhere!

No waste with anything

Claire said they were tasty and quite salty.

Moats for days or 6 KM.

The cat-man with TEN kittens - WOW!

Meiji Shrine

Teen Street - so interesting to see!

The girls prefer bullet trains to planes

DAY 4, 5, 6 - KYOTO

Kiyomizu-dera Temple
Gion District (geisha)
Nishki Market
Nijo Castle
Golden Temple
Fushimi Inari Shrine (Red Gates)
Imperial Palace

Bullet Train to Hiroshima

Gold-leaf Temple - my mom (Goldie) would love it!

Our tub/shower in one of the apartments we stayed in....so little!

Our dinner from 7-11, it was quite delish....surprise, surprise!

WE LOVED JAPAN!

DAY 7, 8, 9 - HIROSHIMA

A-Bomb Dome - humbling experience
Peace Memorial Park
Crepes- eating lots of them....
Shukkei-en Garden - beautiful Japanese garden it was lovely!
Hiroshima Castle
Miyajima Island - Ferry to the Island
Karaoke- Big Echo is a MUST!
Bullet train to Tokyo