We arrived in Kyoto before noon, put all of our luggage in lockers and then set out for a 43 minute walk to the Samurai Ninja Museum. It was an interactive guided experience where we moved as a group through a series of rooms filled with artifacts. Our guide, Nobu, was great, peppering his presentation with many self-identified corny jokes. We learned a lot about the hierarchy of Japanese society throughout history. We also learned about the duties, armour, clothing and weaponry of the Samurai and Ninja.
Nobu then passed us over to Nami who showed us how to throw Shiruken (Ninja Stars – but ours were rubber).
The final activity was dressing up in samurai costumes. A great time was had by all.
Aubrey and I went to sleep around 12:20am and tossed and turned a bit, but we got up for good just after 6. We gather everyone by 8, checked out of our hotel and walked about 20 minutes to Shinagawa station to catch our Shinkansen (bullet train). Navigating a busy morning train station with an entourage of 8 people is definitely different from my last trip where I was alone all of the time.
We scouted out the multitude of prepared food options at the station, bought a smorgasbord of items, and then broke with Japanese convention and had a floor picnic before we headed down to our Train platform. We were a bit ahead of schedule, shockingly enough.
The Shinakanasen here are amazingly efficient, clean, and roomy – quite a pleasant experience. The ride from Tokyo to Kyoto was only about 2 hours. We managed to get some nice views of Mt Fuji on the way. Can’t wait to see what adventures we have next!
We were happy to arrive – the plane landed at least 30 minutes early. We got through customs smoothly, and met up with the BC contingent who had arrived an hour earlier than their expected time. We managed to get the tap cards for those who could not get it added to their phone wallet, and purchased our train tickets. The journey from Narita Airport to our hotel was about an hour and a half. We checked into our 4 hotel rooms, dropped off our things and then ventured out to find food.
Erez took up the challenge of finding a sushi place nearby, and boy, did he deliver! He found a place that didn’t even have a sign out front. It was called “Sushi Bar Cozy”. We had to go into a tiny elevator (we didn’t all fit at once, we had to take two trips), and went into a nondescript door that looked like someone’s studio apartment.
When we walked in, this is what it looked like:
There were 10 seats at the bar, one table for 4, and 4 “stand up” tables that fit 3 people max, each. There were three people making sushi and two servers All of the seats were taken, so we took up three of the “stand up” tables. There was a minimum order of one drink and one food item per person. Food was good, it was a good first meal in Japan. The downside was that the food came out slowly, as it is primarily a bar, that has sushi to go with your drinks. It was a fun experience. I loved eating the “kosher options” Our favourite was the fatty tuna – ( it got eaten so quickly, no pictures were taken), and the horse mackerel. Yum!
Although it was a great choice for the fun factor, it was not an efficient enough choice to fill up the boys (also known as the walking stomachs), so on the walk back to the hotel, we stopped at a family mart for the boys to try the famous “Famichiki”. After filling up with some fried chicken and snacks, and of course, buying some Japanese Pokemon cards, we headed back to the rooms to chill out. The hotel was 11 floors of 8 small rooms per floor, all along one side of the hallway. The hallway outside the elevator was outdoors, as were the two staircases on the other side of the hallway from the rooms. Aubrey and I took advantage of the small deep traditional o-furo (Japanese tub) and each had a soak before bed (definitely no room for two!) The rooms were small, but very clean and convenient, and came with pyjamas that we could borrow 🙂
This trip has been at least 5 years in the making. We have been dreaming of going to Japan with our boys forever, but started really thinking about making it happen at least 5 years ago. In their own ways, the boys have been dreaming of going to Japan for many years: they have heard many stories from my previous adventures in Japan, and they have been eating sushi since they could eat food.
For months I have been researching and planning every detail. I really enjoyed my time here in May, and I was researching a bit for this trip when I was here in the spring. I have planned many things, but also have left quite a bit of room for flexibility as we are travelling with 8 people with different interests and needs.
The best laid plans…
I had purposely not booked a direct, non-stop flight from Toronto to Tokyo, so we could all meet in Vancouver and arrive together- 5 from Ontario and 3 from BC. Our trips home would be separate, but I wanted us all to travel there together and arrive in one group to make it easier.
Fast forward to last night… around 9:30, the Toronto-Vancouver leg of our flight was cancelled due to some kind of “mechanical issue”. Air Canada decided to cancel our whole flight and reroute us through Mexico City with a 12 hour layover, resulting in us arriving in Tokyo a whole day late. I couldn’t reach a person quickly enough, so 20 minutes later we jumped into the car to go to the airport to talk to a real person while still on hold on the phone. We were hoping to get a flight to Vancouver straight away, so we could make our connecting flight to Japan.
I will spare you all of the boring and frustrating details, but the “Coles notes” version is this:
Air Canada was not helpful. Pleasant…but not helpful. I spent many hours on the phone, as well as with a lady at the check-in desk for Air Canada, running countless scenarios that would not involve us losing a whole day, as well as the money for several hotel rooms in Tokyo.
Needless to say we turned around and went home, and I continued to talk to Expedia.
The solution involved us requesting a refund for our whole Air Canada flight, and booking a new, not non-stop flight, routing through Calgary both ways with West Jet. We were very lucky. The flight was leaving around the same time as our other flight and is arrived only a half hour after the Vancouver flight, so we could all head to the hotel together from the airport. The five of us secured 5 middle seats sprinkled around the plane, but beggars can’t be choosers when you are booking a flight less than 7 hours before it takes off.
By the time I got off the phone with Expedia and then West Jet, I got just under 2 hours of sleep before we had to leave for the airport. So much for the six hours sleep I was supposed to get as part of a plan designed by this app I was trying out to prevent jet lag. Unfortunately, the airport was predictably crazy and we ended up having to sprint to catch our flight. We splurged for valet parking but in the rush of the sprint, we did not leave keys in the car (the curse of keyless ignition keys), so the car is getting towed! At the suggestion of one of the security officers, we also got a lift in one of those buggies to help get us about halfway there. Our gate was really on the complete other end of the terminal, and they had started boarding before we even reached security.
We made it, but then there were some problems on our plane and we ended up leaving over an hour late. Luckily we had a 3.5 hour layover, so it gave us some breathing room. We ate, recharged our devices, and stretched our legs. I spent a lot of time trying to work out logistics for the trip, including unfreezing our credit cards due to the “suspicious” remote Japanese transactions.
All in all, the journey has been much more eventful than I had hoped. I am looking forward to getting there and starting our real adventure, one filled with food and fun and family, rather than phone calls, frustration and forms to fill out.
Ja-a-neh!
Koren
The Ontario Contingent finally boarding the plane in Calgary:
