Land of the Rising Sun

Kinkaku-ji (Golden Pavilion), Kyoto

I feel bad, I've left it almost a month to blog about my trip to Japan. To everyone who has asked... IT WAS AMAZING. The whole trip was incredible. I'm not going to bother with a play by play but here are a few of my highlights.

Japan is beautiful! The culture is incredible and so interesting. We spent the whole time with a tour group, which is a great way to learn about the country and the history. I was jazzed to be able to see in life things that I had only seen in movies and on the internet. The Japanese are so proud of their history and it really shows.

     Traditional Japanese housing at 

         Sankei-en Park, Yokohama

I used to live in Japan. I loved my time spent there and would move back in a heart beat. It is a safe and clean country where people actually respect one another. My family is notoriously loud. In fact we are obnoxious. I know, I am the worst offender in my family, when we reminisce about family road trips, I am the common denominator who gets anyone around me in trouble. It was so much more obvious when we were in a country where no body speaks on the subway. Now being at home, I have noticed just how noisy Sydney Trains are, and I don't like it. The other day someone was playing RnB music so loudly I could hear it a whole car away.

Great Buddha, Kamakura

DEER! They were everywhere! Just chilling of the side of the road, at temples, at national landmarks... And they are not afraid of humans, or cars. Obviously they have never seen Bambi.
The food is amazing. Never going to be an understatement. I realised when I got home, that I didn't have sushi once in Japan. And I love me some sushi. It just goes to show that there is so much good food that a week is not long enough to enjoy it all. We were told to keep paper away from the deer as they tend to eat it, including passports.  

We were told to keep paper away
from the deer as they tend to eat it,
 apparently they even eat passports.
Dad chose not to listen.

The most exciting thing for me was getting to speak Japanese again. It feels like it has been forever, but it came back to me the more I got to speak. I had fun showing off to my family my mad skills with Japanese... they couldn't tell just how much I made up. I was having a conversation with a taxi man, laughing and having fun, then my sister asked me to translate. I just looked at her and shook my head saying;

"I have no idea what is going on right now." 

Honestly this was a trip of a lifetime. I can not believe I got to go back to Japan and share a part of my life with my parents and my sister. I am already planning my next trip. For anyone considering going, I promise I will work on my language.

Enjoying our Japanese robes, these are in all the rooms.