Since I stayed in China for last year's New Year celebration I wanted to use the chance to travel. Kara and Veronica are leaving me next year so we decided to take a girls trip to Japan. We invited sweet Kimberly to join in on the fun. It was an amazing trip. We went to Tokyo, Kyoto, and Hiroshima, spending two and a half days in each city. It wasn't long enough, but we had to get back to China for two reasons...one being work and the other we would have run out of money. Japan is so expensive, but it was nice to see a clean country that values their culture. I could go on and on about every little thing we did, but I'll just leave a couple pictures, a top ten list, and a story about our trip home.
Top Ten in Japan
1. Dinner in Kyoto...both nights. Amazing food, but more importantly fantastic people. I will never forget Tamura and his love for life.
2. Peace Museum in Hiroshima. No words for this. You truly have to go to understand.
3. Dressing as geishas in Kyoto. Scary to see the transformation and be unrecognizable to myself.
4. Watching the Japanese live the ancient culture in their daily lives.
5. Shibuya! This intersection was crazy...the cars would take turns and then all of a sudden all the pedestrians would go for it, crossing in all directions.
6. Miyajima Island to see the "floating shrine". We went at low tide so we could walk through it, apparently in Japanese culture it is good luck to walk through.
7. Seeing God's beauty all around...
8. Making friends with some locals in Hiroshima. These girls were a blast and a proof that good comes out of bad...I couldn't get over how friendly they were and didn't hold the bombing against us.
9. Exploring the many temples in Kyoto.
10. The food! We did a cooking class with a Japanese woman in her house...she made us the most delicious food. It was so neat to be in her house and try homemade traditional food. (I can't find those pictures...so this one will have to do. These restaurants are all around, giving you a preview of your food. :)
Now for our trip home. Veronica and I were taking a different plane back to Dalian. Our flight was Saturday morning at 5:30 am. We took the train back from Hiroshima and then ate dinner with Kara and Kimberly before heading to the airport. We went to buy our tickets and the woman behind the counter said "oh no". She said the Narita Express had stopped running, but we could catch a subway to Narita. We bought our tickets and ran...with our heavy luggage (I always overpack) through the crazy Tokyo station. We made the train and were on our way. We got out at the Narita station and caught a taxi to the airport. As we arrived at the airport we were stopped before going into the parking lot. The guards checked our passports and questioned us about our flight. In the best we could with the language barrier we explained we were leaving at 5:30 and were just going to sleep in the airport. After about ten minutes of them talking to each other they came over to repeating something. We were so confused. Finally he pointed to our itinerary and showed us we were at the wrong airport.
Well it was now 11:25 and the last subway back to the city had left. We kept trying to ask what other way there was to the airport and how far it was. The only way we could get there was by taxi. The taxis in Tokyo are exorbitantly over-priced...it was over an hour ride to the other airport. We didn't have a choice so we had the taxi driver take us to a 7-11 and were on our way. An hour later and $350 later we arrived at Haneda Airport...the correct one. We got there at about 1:15 in the morning and laid for about 2 hours. We checked in and slept a little longer. At 5:00 we boarded our plane back to home.
IT was an expensive lesson, but it could have been worse. Both Veronica and I agree God was watching over us, had we not been stopped at the Narita airport we would have gone in and slept until check-in. Then it would have been too late and we would have missed our flight. This way we only had to spend the money on cab fare, rather than buy a new flight. So always remember check your ticket. :)
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