Thursday, June 18, 2015

#tbt - traveling though the heart of Japan

In the fall of 2009, I joined two of my college besties on a trip through Japan. It was, for all practical purposes, a trip that shouldn't have happened in the first place - I had JUST moved to New York about two weeks beforehand, I had basically no money due to having recently written two giant checks to both my new landlord and my broker who found me the apartment I couldn't really afford in the first place, and my next gig wasn't going to start for another month, leaving me completely unemployed for my first full month of living in one of the most expensive cities in the country. But, give me any sort of recognizable free time and even the slightest suggestion of the possibility of a trip, and you can bet I'll be on the first flight out of town. Which brings me back to Japan - Brian was spending the year teaching English about two hours south of Tokyo, Rachel was looking to clear her mind of a recent death in the family, the three of us hadn't seen each other in a while, and why not catch up over some really good sake? What resulted was one of the best and most memorable 9 days of my life - fish markets and imperial gardens in Tokyo, conveyor-belt sushi and a soak in the local onsen in Shizuoka, a bullet train past Mt. Fuji, and a long weekend of bike riding and temple viewing in Kyoto. We laughed, we reminisced, we caught up on each other's lives, and we remembered that travel is good, but travel with friends is great.

I didn't have this blog back then. Heck, my first iPhone wouldn't show up on my doorstep for another two full years. But I did recently find an old jump drive containing the (gazillion) pictures I took on my old and trusty Sony Cyber Shot, and realized that this trip down memory lane would be even more fun if I were able to share it with you all - I hope you enjoy it!



women shopping / chef searching / students training / photo making / window gazing / bike riding / temple viewing / maiko sighting / ramen cooking / ladies walking / sumo wrestling / architecture  recognizing / bullet training / mountain toping / prayer scrolling / sun protecting / leaf peeping / funicular driving / pachinko playing

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