[Preface 1: The following journal writing of a two week journey in Japan in September of 2016, is presented here completely unedited, as it is written directly from my Eighth journal book. It is [11] hand written pages.]
[Preface 2 & Commentary Notes: This [11] page journal write up on Japan is quite personal for me, and one of my favourites. Although it may not necessarily be one of my best writings, or so exciting/adventurous, it means a lot to me since Japan was suppose to be my very first international travel nine years ago in the Summer of 2007, and on this journey my wife Elin and I had our 10 month old son Anakin with us.]
Part One:
[An Introduction/Set Up]
In the Summer of 2007 I had the plan to take what would have been my first international travel - to Japan. My good friends - Adam and his wife Teresa were living there. I was planning on being in Japan for about a month. That journey never happened. The job I had at that time - running the photolab at Camera Hut - came to an end. Camera Hut went bankrupt and out of business. We closed down and my money quit coming in. Instead, I ended up taking a road trip to Circleville, Ohio. I spent one month in Ohio with my good friend Matt and the Sleezy Skates crew.
(The stories of the road trip, Ohio, the Sleezy Skates crew and Skatopia from my Second journal book never got finished).
Part Two:
Nine years later. September 2016.
My wife Elin and I along with our ten month old son Anakin spent two weeks in Japan. It was the first two weeks of September and my last two weeks of my "Pappa Perm." - dad leave time from work to be with Anakin. Our flight was scheduled for 9:45 A.M. on Friday September 2nd. We decided not to drive to Gardermoen airport - we didn't want to pay for the long term parking.
Thursday September 1st - The 3:15 P.M. bus from Son center to the Sonsveien train station was ten minutes late, when we got to the station we watched our train leave. We had to wait an hour for the next train. Then it was forty minutes to Oslo central station, transfer trains, and twenty-five minutes to the airport. We had booked a room at the Radisson Park Inn airport hotel, when we got there and went to check in, they somehow messed up Elin's name and at first couldn't find our reservation.
Friday September 2nd, the day we flew out was also the day Anakin turned ten months old. Our flight was delayed thirty minutes. We had a layover in Zurich, Switzerland - it was suppose to be for only fifty-five minutes which is not so long - (we've been through Zurich before, it's a big airport) - yet with our flight from Oslo being delayed thirty minutes, we landed in Zurich only ten minutes late. We had to run to our connecting gate, and we made it just in time as the plane was boarding. It was a twelve hour flight from Zurich to Tokyo. We landed at Narita airport in Tokyo around 8 A.M. Saturday September 3rd. As we got off the plane, airport staff were waiting for us with a sign with our names - our luggage didn't make it to Tokyo, which included our baby stroller for Anakin. The airport did have a stroller we could borrow. We had rented an apartment but we couldn't check in until 3 P.M., so we took a room at the Narita Gateway hotel for the early part of the day. We slept for a few hours.
It was evening time and getting dark by the time we got to the Tokyo neighborhood of Morishita where the apartment we rented was. The building was called L. House. We had the apartment for six days - until Friday the 9th. The next day - Sunday the 4th - I called the airport to find out when our luggage would get delivered - it wouldn't be until around 6 P.M. So for the afternoon, we took the subway to Ueno and went to Ueno Park. When our luggage did finally get delivered, we tried to get the delivery guy to take the other baby stroller that we loaned from the airport back to the airport, but he refused. So, for the two weeks we were in Japan we had to drag that extra stroller around. The following four days of being in Tokyo - Monday the 5th to Thursday the 8th - we explored, taking the subway to the Tokyo neighborhood areas of Ueno, Asakusa, Ginza, Shinjuku, Shibuya, Harajuku, and Omote-sando. We hit up Ueno Park a couple of times, in Harajuku we went to Yoyogi Park and the Meiji shrine, in Asakusa we walked through the Kaminarimon Gate through the street markets to the Senso-ji temple. We ended up getting the subway lines dialed in.
From Tokyo, our plan was to take the Shinkansen bullet train to Kyoto. We had booked an apartment rental there as well. On the evening of Thursday the 8th as we began to organize and pack - we were checking out of our Tokyo apartment the next morning - Friday the 9th - I double checked our itinerary and discovered that we had screwed up our booking dates for both apartments. We were leaving Tokyo that Friday the 9th, and our check in for our apartment in Kyoto was for Saturday the 10th. We had no place to stay for that first night in Kyoto. Elin jumped online on her iPhone, we had to find a hotel or someplace last minute. We ended up booking a two story [townhouse style] house.
Friday September 9th - we left our Tokyo apartment, (of course dragging along that extra stroller), took the subway from Morishita to Tokyo station, and bought our tickets for the Shinkansen bullet train to Kyoto. Tokyo station was another mess and hassle. First we were told that the next train for Kyoto was going at 11:10 A.M., that gave us about ten minutes to make that train, but we were told the wrong track, so we got on the wrong train. It was the train for Nagoya. Luckily we found out before it was too late and got off before it left the station. We ended up getting told the wrong track three times. When we finally did find the correct track for the Shinkansen to Kyoto - it was for the 12:18 P.M. train, the conductor told us that our tickets were reserved for the 11:10 A.M. train that we missed. He didn't want to let us on the train. We pretty much had to almost beg. Now we were finally on our way to Kyoto. The Shinkansen bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto takes around two hours and fifteen minutes, so we got into Kyoto around 2:30 P.M. Again, our check in time for the townhouse we rented was for 3 P.M., we walked to the rental office to pick up the key and see if we could check in early - we couldn't. We left our luggage at the office and headed out to start checking out Kyoto. It was around 6 P.M. when we got to the townhouse. The place was awesome, real nice, on "baller" status. Elin ventured out to see the area - what restaurants, cafes, and stores were around. I stayed at the house with Anakin - he fell asleep in my arms and I watched T.V. I found a channel that showed old (1960's/70's) Woody Woodpecker cartoons - and it was in English, no over dub or subtitles.
Saturday the 10th - we checked out of our "baller" two story house, hopped in a taxi and headed to the neighborhood area of Nijo in Kyoto where the other apartment we rented was. We had that apartment booked for four days - Saturday the 10th to Tuesday the 13th. In Kyoto we hit up the neighborhood areas of Gion, in Nijo - we went to the Kyoto Imperial Palace and Park, and the Nijo-jo castle. We toured the Nijo castle and as we walked on the old hardwood flooring the creaking of the boards sounded like birds - chirping and singing - (it was designed and built this way). We saw the Kinkakuji temple (A.K.A. the Golden Temple). We walked the pathway and steps of the Fushimi Inari shrine. We went to Arashiyama and took the half hour train ride on the Sagano Scenic Railway - "the Romantic Train" - through the mountains and along the river. Also in Arashiyama, we walked the path through the bamboo forest park. Now, our original plan - we had to check out of our apartment in Kyoto on Tuesday the 13th, and we had planned on going back to Tokyo, but we really liked Kyoto better than Tokyo, so we took a hotel room for one more night and stayed in Kyoto - in the Gion area.
Wednesday the 14th - we took the Shinkansen bullet train back to Tokyo. Our last night in Tokyo we took a room at the Mercure hotel in Narita. Our flight left Tokyo at 11 A.M. Thursday September 15th. The layover on the way home was three hours in Dusseldorf, Germany - it was an eleven hour flight from Tokyo to Dusseldorf. In Dusseldorf our flight was delayed about forty-five minutes. We landed in Oslo at Gardermoen sometime between 9-9:30 P.M., and had just enough time to catch the 10:03 P.M. train to Oslo central station. At Oslo central we had about forty-five minutes to wait for the [11:18 P.M.] train to Son. As we waited we ate french fries from Burger King. By the time we got home it was 12:30 A.M. Friday September 16th.
