Big Adventures: Honeymoon in Japan

A note: I started writing this blog post shortly after Jason and I returned from our Honeymoon in 2017.  Apparently I got distracted halfway through and didn't finish.  I have now attempted to finish it.  Here's what I've got.

When Jason and I started talking about marriage, I started brainstorming honeymoon destinations.  By the time we became officially engaged, my heart was absolutely set on Japan.  Not just anytime Japan, but specifically the end of March and beginning of April, in cherry blossom season.  This actually dictated our wedding date in the end.

(Very) early morning view of Tokyo Tower.

So, just about a week after we tied the knot, we hopped on a plane (woohoo, 11 hours flight) for Narita International Airport.

The first half of our trip was spent in Tokyo, specifically Roppongi (based off of a recommendation from my boss).  It wasn't until later that I discovered how absolutely serendipitous that neighborhood, and the spectacular placement of our hotel) was for us.

For one, we were within spitting distance of the Tokyo Tower (though the Tokyo Sky Tree has eclipsed this tourist destination for architecture, height, and view, the Tokyo Tower remains iconic for me and a visual fixture in the imported media that made me fall in love with the country and culture in the first place).  Pictures didn't accurately capture how warmly it glowed in the darkness.

Second, we happened to be within (sorta) walking distance of a very specific shrine that I had wanted to visit.  The Hikawa shrine in question was the inspiration for the one of the same name in an extremely iconic and classic piece of animated television from Japan (lest I reveal the heights of my nerdiness).

Due to some pretty prodigious jet lag, Jason and I took the WAAAY early morning walk to this shrine (our feet and legs regretted that decision days into the trip).  We were there well before anyone else, and definitely before the main shrine itself was open. Once we were there, though, the magic inherent in sites like these was apparent.

On my list of things to do in Tokyo was to visit a science museum.  For my part, seeing a familiar concept through another culture's eyes is a lot of fun.  This museum was FILLED with all sorts of specimen of various creatures, and frequently there didn't seem to be a ton of rhyme or reason to it.  But it was pretty enjoyable.

Disney fan that I am, Tokyo DisneySea and DisneyLand took up two days of our trip.  DisneySea was gorgeous.  The world that they'd built inside the park was so lovely.

Part of the park was made to look like classic Cape Cod, pictured below.  Somehow, despite being so many thousands of miles away from my semi-native US East Coast, here was a pretty convincing view (you know, for a small area in a theme park).

Wacky churros were also a thing.  The first one below was a potato churro--sort of an extruded mashed potato that was then fried and covered in seasoning.  My newly minted husband wasn't a fan, but I was totally into it.  The second churro was slightly more conventional, except that instead of cinnamon sugar, it was covered in melon flavored sugar.  I wasn't quite as down with that one...

One of the things that most fascinated me about our trip into the world of Japanese Disney was something that became apparent day one as we were waiting to get into the park.  Apparently it's a thing that groups of people (usually girls, but sometime guys and couples) would plan a unifying outfit for their Disney day.  They'd all come wearing the same outfit and same hat (sometimes it was the same outfit and each had a unique hat).  At some point, I was just trying to collect pictures of each group and I've included some below.

The Disney hat game is strong in Japan.

So, besides horrendously long lines (we waited something like 3 hours for Indiana Jones), aching feet, weird churros, and huge masses of school age people that made me wonder how so very many students could be skipping school on a random Tuesday, our Disney chapter of Japan was it's own kind of magical.

Dun dun da-da-dundun daaaaaah (doo-doo-doo-doo-dooooo)!

Adventures in the city were fun.  Stumbling upon random gardens (not to mention the Imperial Palace) makes for beautiful scenes and really nice pictures.

And the food!

Maybe not so much this food...

We spent some time in Kyoto as well.  Had kind of a rough start in the city but things evened out and we started to enjoy ourselves.

I think taiyaki (a pastry filled with sweet red bean paste, pictured below) may have been the husband's single favorite thing the entire trip.

We also hiked up Fushimi Inari, semi-world famous for it's long tunnels of orange-red tori gates.  It was a rough climb on our already kinda beat up feat and tired legs, but I'm glad we stuck it out and made it to the top.  So much along the way was absolutely beautiful, and we hit plenty of hidden little gorgeous areas on the way down--so worth it.

Before leaving Kyoto, we picked up one of our favorite omiyage (sorta like souvenirs) of the trip, though this one was a gift for my father.  There's a knife shop in Kyoto that's something like 200-300 years old.  The elderly gentleman running the shop cloud just barely speak any English, but he showed us several kinds of knives.  He said there were some that were manufactured, but many he'd made himself.  We were super on board with taking one of his and he seemed so pleased and "signed" the blade (that's what he's up to below, tapping out the characters) before wrapping it up for us.

The last significant leg of our trip was in Nara, the truly "honeymoon" portion.  We stayed at a very nice ryokan in the mountainside of Nara (lovely view down on the city from their parlor below).

Below are our tatami mat floored room and little closed patio...

...aaaaaand our private open air bath with our little private garden.  This.  Was.  Wonderful.  This was easily my favorite part of the trip.  I think I used the bath something like 5-7 times in the two-ish days we were there, it was so wonderful...

Of course, I got super sick our first morning there.  We arrived and rested and my body clearly decided that the overwhelming exertion and activity of the week and a half preceding was finally too much.  But that wasn't going to keep me from taking a million baths and eating our fancy kaiseki meals in our little private dining room (RIGHT?! IS THIS NOT AWESOME!?)

Or going out into Nara, apparently.  One of the neato things that Nara is known for are the parks full of deer that will bow to you in exchange for treats.

So, all in all, Japan was freaking awesome.  And we want to go back.  Like.  All of the time.