Well the past two weeks have gone by in a hazey blur and we are finally starting to resurface for air! Because we are insanely crazy and often can’t restrain our brains from drifting off into daydreams of travel, Dave & I made the decision to visit Japan on the way home to Canada from Australia...I mean its practically on the way anyways...right?!
Well this would have been a brilliant idea sans 5 gigantic bags of luggage and an illegally huge carry-on bag each, but those minor details were not going to get in our way, nope. So we hauled over 300 pounds of our Aussie life on board and jetted off to Osaka.
We landed at about 9pm in what felt like 40 degree heat...maybe it seemed worse with my arms dislocating from their sockets, Im not sure. Donning our brightest smiles and waving obnoxiously exaggerated hand gestures we made our way closer to the hotel, one train line at a time, trying not to get stuck in the doors as they automatically shut whilst we were still getting each piece of luggage out, one at a time. We met some gorgeous people along the way, from a young couple who purchased our train tickets for us and picked the coins they needed out of Dave’s stash, to this sweet 72 yr. old lady who didn’t look a day over 50 giving us the most loving marraige advice, and an even older lady who didn’t speak a word of English who tramped all through the stations trying to find us an elevator, bless her. As if that wasn’t enough help, she tried to pull one of our big suitcases to lighten our load, but it wasn’t even budging on wheels...so Dave & I pulled on! We were so touched by the people in our very first few hours in the country, we knew we were going to love it here.
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| Real life Harajuku girls! |
We wandered from temple to temple in the ancient city of Kyoto (you know...the kyoto accord! No? No, me neither. All I could remember was the name and nothing about its content...i should wiki that later). Anyways, the cities here are just oozing with history and traditional charm. We saw real Geishas and Kung Foo figthers in their traditional get up (think sumo man thong, boots and a wicked headband) walking the streets. I was totally going to take a picture for evidence, but then I remembered that Im so much more mature than that, so i just giggled and stared and went on to paparazzo the Harajuku girls instead with my big zoom lens....so culturally refined.
This temple was covered in gold and is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. All the surrounding gardens are immaculate and you forget you are in a bustling metropolis when the calm and serenity of these places engulf you.
I have SO many more pictures to post of our crazy Japanese adventure so stay tuned for more goodness to come!
