JAPAN!

I still cant believe that Ive been in Japan for the last week. It was honestly a blast. Outside of being dead tired from the heat and all the busses and trains and walking - it was seriously so much fun every single day. Many people have been asking me - why japan? Well first of all why not? second, its been fairly high on my list of countries to visit I just didnt realize it was going to be a reality so soon. Third, cheap tickets! Thats definitely the real reason it was made into a reality. Early this year my friend madi texted me a screenshot of 600$ roundtrip flights from LAX to Tokyo. I immediately said yes and within 24 hours had them booked. Skip to a couple months ago... Madi got a new job and found out she wouldn't be able to make the trip which meant I was going solo or just out 600 bucks. Luckily a friend I've recently met through my Orem ward found out about the situation and booked the trip to come with me. Crazy! but I'm so glad she did. I was seriously contemplating going alone, but I just knew it wouldn't be as fun and I wasnt sure it would be worth it. So Im super grateful Karee ended up joining me for this fun adventure. Ok now that the background is done... now for the fun stuff. 

Back at the airport! and another flight right after work. Karee picked me up and even brought me dinner, so sweet. 

Somehow blessed with exit row seats - even though this flight was just a short one to LAX. It was nice because we split up the flights with a night in an LA hotel. 

After a good nights sleep we were back at the airport for our long haul. Honestly it flew by. I think the flight was about 11 hours. I watched two movies and then just listened to music and slept the rest of the way. 

Made it! and we even survived our first time navigating the train system. We stayed in a capsule hotel the first two nights in Shinjuku (one of the outside cities of tokyo). I was expecting it to be pretty bad based on what I had heard, but it wasnt terrible. I think though we were so tired at this point we just needed a bed and we were happy. Each reservation comes with a locker and one of these pods. the pods literally just have a bed, pillow, blanket and an outlet. Nothing crazy. They do however give you a bag with pajamas, slippers, toothbrush etc. And there is a shade that pulls down to give you privacy. The only thing that really sucked was there wasnt airflow in the pod so when you pull down the shade it just gets really hot. 

After checking in and getting settled we found our first dinner spot - Ramen kikka. Super good and super quick service. 

I wasnt feeling noodles so I ordered the rice and pork bowl - yummy and much needed protein after flying all day. 

Next up headed to harajuku, another outside city of tokyo known for its crazy fashion and treats. Takeshita is the famous street that we walked down and found the popular humongous cotton candy. There is also bubble waffles, crepes, gelato shaped like little anime characters, boba and tons more goodies. After this we were pooped. Yes it was only like 7pm, but we were ready to call it for the day. Plus we had a big day ahead of us. 

Well I had set my alarm for around 6am but jet lag got the best of us and we were both up and at'em by 3:30am. We hung out in the lounge for a little bit before we packed up our stuff and headed for the bus station. We took a bus about an hour and a half to the fifth station of Mt. Fuji! ahhh easily the most epic day of the trip. So there are tons of different trails up the volcano, but we chose the busiest, most popular (because thats where the busses take you), the yoshida trail. The busses drop us off at the fifth station which is Im guessing about halfway up the mountain. There are souvenir shops, eateries, bathrooms, lockers and tons of outdoor sitting areas at this point oh and TONS of hikers. Me and Karee get off the bus in our tank tops and shorts to see everyone and I mean everyone else in pants, hardcore hiking boots, huge backpacks, poles, hats and straight up layers of long sleeves and jackets. We had been told that it gets cold and windy up top so I packed a wind breaker and figured Id do some jumping jacks or run if I got cold. Well when I saw all these people I thought for sure we had screwed up by not bringing more clothing. But we were there and there was no turning back at that point so we shoved our other bags in a locker and took off up the mountain in our skimpy clothes and little hydration packs. 

The very bottom of the trail you are hiking through forest but only for maybe a mile. The middle portion is lava rock with some bushes. and the top is just straight up a volcano with no coverage at all. Thankfully we had the clouds to cover us. 

It was a pretty rad trail. 

along the trail were the other stations that sold coke and other drinks, food and some of the stations were also huts where people could spend the night. I think its funny because to so many people we probably looked super unprepared (I even felt that way at the bottom), yet I feel like every single hiker stopped at every station to take a break while me and karee just blazed through them. Growing up in utah and hiking/running in zion every weekend I guess just trains ya to be a badA. Dont get me wrong, this was a TOUGH hike, but Im glad that Im in good enough shape to be able to do things like this on a whim without training for it and still being able to crush it in a decent time. 

The top! not sure exact time up but I think around 3.5 hours. Online it says to expect 5-10 hours to summit fuji. Just to summit it! WHAT?! 

The view looking into the massive volcano

And the view looking out into the clouds. 

As you can see I was completely fine wearing my skimpy running outfit. But one thing I learned in Japan is they don't wear a lot of clothes to keep warm, they do it to protect their skin from the sun. So maybe I am still the stupid one, because my shoulders did get burnt. 

super good nutrition brought to us by 7/11 the night before. They don't have turkey sandwiches to pack... all they have is seaweed rice balls and nasty egg and shrimp sandwiches so lets be real - chips and candy were my only options. 

We did put our jackets on in the beginning of the down hill, but we quickly took them back off. I will say I don't think Ive ever done a more painful downhill. We are talking 50 switchbacks of STEEP decline. My toes, knees and quads were all screaming out in pain, but we did it. We ran down a good section of the mountain and finished in a time of 5 hours 49 minutes ( not stopping my watch while chilling at the top for probably 20-30 minutes). Id say we crushed it. round trip 10 miles and an epic mountain to check off the bucket list. Fun Fact: the only time of year you can summit Fuji is mid july through september because there is snow on it the rest of the year. so how lucky of me that we just happened to go at this time?!

Ice cream to add to the great nutrition I had for the day. 

Cant forget a feet pic! I haven't had any toenails fall off yet, but I had a few that were sore for a few days. We got on the bus back to tokyo - supposed to be 1.5 hours - well there was some type of hold up and 4 hours later we got to our hotel. Worst bus ride ever. I was stinky, exhausted, dirty and starving. By the time we got to tokyo I was so tired all I wanted to do was sleep so we skipped dinner and went straight to bed. Seriously tho, it was such a sick day. I remember thinking I would never hike it again while I was on the downhill, but Ive already changed my mind - Im ready to go back and hike it tomorrow. 

Couldn't really see the whole mountain from the fifth station so this is the best picture I got from the bus - not the best, but still a dope mountain. 

Saturday morning we rode the bullet train to Kyoto. First stop in our new city - the monkey park. Mom texted me saying my location looked like I had been taken hostage into the mountains... I sent her this picture. Nope just chillin' with monkeys. 

Are we kidding?!? Got to feed the monkeys and hold hands with these sweet little babies. 

This is the feeding room. Outside this room the monkeys were roaming free and walking all around us. We got to seem the babies playing with each other, swimming in the pond and climbing trees. Pretty awesome. and yes we hiked 30 minutes up this mountain the morning after mt fuji - the downhill is what killed ahah. Karee loves monkeys and she kept saying how her dreams came true this morning. This is why I love traveling - its where dreams and bucket lists come true. 

Soda pop gelato - had these weird gummies in it, but it was good. 

Lots of train riding. I could tell you all the names of our train stations and the different lines but Ill spare you the crazy japanese names. 

We were both craving meat so shake shack it is haha. See family - theres more options than just sushi and ramen in foreign countries. Balance in everything, a little authentic food one day and a little american food the next. It works. 

We stopped by the local food mart and 7/11 to try some snacks. Found a lot of good ones and even tried some nasty mochi, bean paste crap. Honestly a lot of the food out here I wouldn't even try though. Lots of shrimp stuff. For instance there were these chips with a dried shrimp in the middle of them. GROSS! 

Sunday started off walking around the imperial palace. The archways are not meant for tall people - thats for sure!

Walked to church and hit up one of the many vending machines that japan has. Im telling you they have vending machines on every corner and in the most bizarre places. Another thing that i think is crazy is no one carries around hydroflasks or reusable bottles. Everyone just buys their drinks out of the vending machines. BUT another crazy thing is there are NO garbage cans anywhere! maybe like one or two you'll see in a day, but literally no garbage cans. Everyone has to carry their trash with them all day. People will literally be carrying a plastic bag full of their trash for the day. Its weird! and very inconvenient. 

oddly good aloe drink

Church! didnt understand anything, but oh well. As long as we take the sacrament right?! The industrial sized air conditioners were a plus for sure. There was also a set of missionaries in front of us and I kept staring at the one because he looked so familiar! I asked him where he's from and I knew it - stg! I don't know him, but I know of his older siblings and he looks just like them. Love all the connections you make around the world with people in the church. 

Headed to Nara - a town just south of kyoto. this is how I felt about 99% of the time outside in japan. So dang hot and just drenched in sweat...

So obviously whenever I see a fan this is what I do. 

I want to say this is called the grand central palace?? there is a big gold buddha inside - no pictures allowed though. 

Next the famous bowing deer. Really the only let down of the trip. These deer are known to bow to you when you feed them. Well I guess tourists - like myself - have ruined that. First, the deer get fed so much that they don't even want the food. Most of them were just sitting under a tree in the shade and didnt pay much attention to anyone (I don't blame them). And if they do eat the food they don't bow. I had one that actually did, but thats it. Oh well - we did it and got this super ugly selfie haha. 

Weird asian stores. This place was filled with these toy coin machines and these only. We then stopped at a pizza place for lunch and it was delicious. 

A very busy day - stopped at Fushimi-inar shrine

this mountain walk-way is covered in these arches with prayers on them. It was so cool. Miles of them. I just want to say... my quads were still struggling this day and we still hiked so much. We walked about 12 miles every day even on tired legs! 

Look how pretty. We hiked fairly deep into the forest and it got kind of eerie. There weren't as many people and I just felt like a samurai was gonna pop out of the dark trees and kill us hah. 

You thought we were done... Nope! Still sunday... we then headed to the bamboo forest. We did a ton this day so we didnt get here until after sun down, hence the terrible photos, but you get the idea of how cool it was. 

more hiking. Definitely not mad though. It was super cool hearing the trees hit each other with the wind. This is also usually a really busy touristy spot so it was kind of nice to go later in the day when not many people were there. 

Good way to end the night! 

Monday morning started with the coolest temple grounds. We hiked (again) 45 minutes up a mountain to this hidden, very quiet, serene temple. So hidden that while walking all that way I was just praying there was actually something at the end because we were in the middle of nowhere with no one else around. It ended up being one of the highlights. 

No clue what any of these mean, but the temple was surrounded by these mossy faces. 

And to make things even better I found my favorite little bug. 

Pure joy in japan - loved kyoto and would totally go back if anyone wants to go! We then headed back on the bullet train for Tokyo, checked into our hotel and then headed straight to TeamLab. Its an interactive art museum - seems like it could be lame, but it was actually super cool. 

This room was just mirrors and bright lights. 

The lights would change to music and it was so trippy!

This room was color changing huge bouncy balls

This room was moving flowers?? There was also rooms full of water and rooms where you would lay down and the ceiling made you feel like you were floating. Anyways - pretty cool little activity and it was indoors which was nice. We then headed to shibuya for dinner at a place called Toritake. It was a very authentic place. We walk upstairs to little nursery looking tables and chairs. The whole room is full of Japanese men. there was maybe one or two other women, but it really looked like guys night out at this place. The menu included horse meat, chicken neck, chicken tendon and many more just like that. I ordered chicken and rice yakitori. Pretty much just a bowl of rice, chicken with egg and some onions. Pretty dang good. 

The funniest thing was all these men were noticeably staring at us and some straight up laughing (they were probably laughing at something else, but it seemed like they were laughing at us). Especially because they only gave us chopsticks so before dinner came out we were practicing our chopsticks skills - so yeah they probably were laughing at us. I will have you know - I ate my whole dinner with chopsticks only! I actually got pretty good at them. Those men better have been proud of these white girls! 

Shibuya crossing... this picture does not do this intersection justice, but its the busiest pedestrian intersection in the world. Its crazy! there are crosswalks going in every direction and they all turn green at the same time so its just a huge free for all with thousands of people. 

And thats a wrap on our Monday! We love matching japanese hotel pajamas. 

Tuesday morning - Go karting on the streets of tokyo. This was freaking epic. I know Ive said that about everything, but its true. Literally driving the streets of downtown tokyo along side massive trucks and other cars. Kinda sketch if you think about it, but super fun!

 I have a million pictures like this of our tour guide forcing us to do weird poses haha. 

We chose the route called rainbow bridge which let us drive over one of the main bridges in tokyo and into downtown around the tokyo tower. Driving across the bridge was the best part. Its just like a free way so we got up to speeds of 75 km/hour on these go karts and on each side of the bridge the road is a big circle spiraling up or down depending on the way you are driving so you just feel like you are on a race track. ah so much fun. except my face was black afterwards from all the road getting thrown up into my face. 

Our cute tour guide Mai - another example of people out here covering up from the sun. 

Straight from ripping around the streets of tokyo to a session in the temple. It happened to be P-day for the missionaries out there so the whole district was in our session. Super strong spirit and just amazing to know that people around the world do the same thing that I do in the provo temple. Doesn't matter where I am or what the people look like or what they speak... the church is true! So glad we were able to fit in a temple session into this busy trip - its always worth it. 

Senso-ji temple

Ended the night back in shibuya for dinner and then tried some boba... by my face I think you can tell it was a 0/10. definitely just threw this one away - oh but not till I got back to the hotel because remember... no trash cans anywhere! The next morning we did some souvenir shopping and bought some snacks for the flight home but other than that nothing crazy wednesday morning. We were at the airport around noon and made it to SLC around 2pm the same day. Crazy how the time difference works. Flights were good, nothing to complain about besides just being super tired and ready to get home. I didnt want to leave Japan, but once the traveling home starts you just want to get home and be done. love love loved japan. highly recommend - but maybe learn some japanese. I mean we got around ok, but no one really knows english so... that was fun. Im grateful as always for experiences like these. Im grateful I have a job that allows me the finances and time off to explore the world. Im grateful for my love of trying new things that helps motivate me to go so far out of my comfort zone. Im grateful for a friend who is willing to travel across the ocean to hike a mountain and eat bizarre food for a week with me just so I wouldn't be alone. My love for asia started with thailand, but now I know its more than just thailand. I love how insanely different it is than the US  - and thats why I want to keep going back! Well Im home now and fairly jet lagged. I woke up every two hours last night and finally got up for good at 5 am and ran some errands. around 9:30 this morning I was ready to go back to bed, but I've resisted so far. Instead Ive been blogging for the last three hours to keep me awake haha. yes, this has taken me three hours. I also completed my new student orientation this morning so the only thing I have left to do is start class on aug 29! crazy! This summer has been non-stop, but I'm looking forward to things slowing down. To focus on school and getting back into a routine. ALSO seth left for Ohio today! He's a big boy in the real mission field now - miss him so much!  As a big sister I don't feel like any of my brothers are old enough to handle these things in life. Like seth isn't old enough to be in ohio alone!! I just want to go help him out haha but I know all of them are more than competent enough to handle everything thats thrown at them, I guess its just the inner me wishing they were still little boys. Well I think thats it folks. Wish me luck going to work the next couple days as Im getting used to real life again!