The Munce Family: Japan: Kyoto and Nara

We embarked on one of the biggest adventures of my time when we took the kids and my dad to Japan for a two week vacation. Planning for this trip was really educational and took me out of my comfort zone, I had to start with the basic, like where in Japan is Tokyo? After a couple of Barnes and Noble trips and a lot of online research, we had a starting point. We decided to fly into Tokyo and make it all the way to Kyoto on the first day, a big undertaking, which at the time maybe felt too big, but in hindsight, it worked out pretty darn well.

We left Sioux Falls at about 9am with a connection in Denver and then all the way to Narita, a 12 hour flight and a 14 hour time change meant we left DEN at noon on Saturday and arrived at 2pm on Sunday. I was fortunate to sit first class with my dad while Dave managed the kids just behind. Everyone did really well, Sully suffered from some motion sickness, but all in all, it was about as good as it could be. We then went through a dreadfully long customs line, just when we thought we were making headway, we would turn a corner and realized the distance to the officers had doubled. Yikes. We eventually made it through and down to the Tokyo Express (50 minutes), which took us to the Tokyo Station and then had to figure out how to change trains to the Shinkansen (bullet train/nap train- we slept so hard) which took us to Kyoto (2.5 hours), where our hotel (Kyoto Granvia) was conveniently located in the station (good job Dave) I had loosely assumed that we would arrive in Kyoto at 7pm, but it wasn't until about 9pm by the time we arrived, we were absolutely beat from a massive travel day. We checked in and grabbed some dinner from the nearby Seven Eleven, a couple of beers, and had a little smorgasborg in our hotel room. We were so happy to climb into bed.

Kyoto is the former capital of Japan, known for its thousands of Buddhist Temples and Shinto Shrines. It was largely spared during World War 2, saving these generations old sites. It gets hot and humid in the summer because it is surrounded by mountains on three sides. It was really hot and humid for us, but we took a/c breaks and drank lots of water, so managed as well as we could.

On our first full day, we ventured out to figure out the train station which is nothing like anything else we have experienced, but we did it! We took the train to Saga-Arashiya Station where we walked about 15 minutes and then wandered through a bamboo forrest, we continued and took a hot walk to the Adashino Nenbutsuji Temple, a quiet Budhist temple and bamboo forrest known for its approximately 8,000 stone statues that honor souls who died without family. We meandered a bit through the grounds and found some much needed shade. We made our way back the train station and stopped at Mimi's Kitchen where we enjoyed traditional ramen, curry, a beef bowl, and a matcha smoothie. The kids loved the never ending vending machines along the way, the adults tolerated it. We returned to the hotel for a bit of recovery time before heading to the Gion neighborhood, a tradional Japanese part of the city where we looked for Geishas, wandered around the most beautiful Kennin-ji Temple, and walked through the downtown area before making our way back to the train station (and the famous LED stairway), we had a bit of a goose chase, before finding a place for dinner, Le Temps in our hotel of all places. We had burgers and curry and shrimp and salad and everyone was satisfied and ready to bed after a full but great day of figuring things out. A notable mention, I loved how the crosswalks have birds chirping to indicated when it's safe to cross, a different bird for different directions.

We attempted to hire a guide for the following day but ended up with some technical difficulties and a later than planned departure which would have been ok, but the afternoon brought downpours, limiting some of our options. The girls and I spent the open morning shopping at a high end department store, Kyoto Isetan, in the train station. I stumble upon an Itoya stationary store on the top floor and could have spent alll of my money there. Textiles galore. It was awesome. We met our guide before lunch and explore the Fushimi Inari Shrine, famous for its endless trails lined with more than 10,000 Tori Gates, each donated by Japanese business in hopes of good fortune in return. We learned so much about Buddhism and Shintoism and the symbolism around so many of their rituals, it was both interesting and fascinating. The rain came just as we were leaving the shrine. We made our way to the Nishiki Market for some samplings (tanghulu!!) of food and more culture. We returned to the hotel and picked up food for the kids at McDonalds (any port in a storm) before going for sushi with my dad at Ganko, near the station. We barely navigated the language barrier, but had great food.

We ventured to Nara on our final day. Nara is known for being Japan's first permanent capitol and its 1000s of roaming, sacred and bowing(!!) deer. We took a 50 minute train ride followed by a short bus ride to Nara Park where we bought deer snack and were immediately inundated with dozens of (pretty aggressive) deer looking to cash in. It was hilariously hysteric, we couldn't get rid of the snacks fast enough. Sully had so much fun taking selfies with the deer, when we didn't have snacks in hand, they were incredibly tame and peaceful. We found a quiet Japanese Garden for my dad and the rest of us found some ice cream, walked through the tourist shops, and checked out the Kasuga Taishi Shrine, Nara's most celebrated Shinto Shrine, known for its thousands of stone and bronze lanterns. The girls loved finding deer and bowing to them and watching them bow back. We reconnected with my dad and Dave asked him if we could take a look at the map and my dad quickly reported that the deer were relentless and quite rude and kept snatching it (and his newpaper) out of his back pocket, so he finally had to let them have it. We all got a kick out of that. We made our way back and to a Chinese restaurant recommended by our tour guide the previous day. She raved about the food and the prices. All six of us at dinner and drinks for a total of $27!! And we were full! A notable mention goes to the loud group of Japanese men sitting next to us laughing and hollering through dinner, a stark contrast the usually very disciplined Japanese culture.

The following day was a travel day to Hiroshima, and some much needed quiet time in the train.