What the what, Japan?! (Part One)

So, before our move to Europe, Charlie and Kiefer were Japan-crazy. They had graduated, as many young kids do, from Ninjago Legos to Nintendo Smash Bros to Manga and Anime (Naruto, Full Metal Alchemist, and Demon Slayer), then, at last, to Ramen noodles. If they were going to move anywhere in the world, the momentum in their impressionable minds was pointing toward Japan, which they told us repeatedly. Even then I thought, what if we could somehow pull that off--I don't know, like on the way back to Colorado, or something? Might not one big leap beget another, I guess--same tempo? I may have even said to the boys, "If we stay a second year, I think it might be possible to visit Japan," and I wasn't just trying to give them a sweeter deal or some sense of agency; I actually believed we might be able to do it. Well, I kept checking Google-flights last fall, and the fare kept staying out of reach--especially when we hoped to go at the end of March, which, with April, is one of the most beautiful seasons in Japan--cherry-blossoms, of course. Suz and I figured it was a no-go, and started rethinking our Spring Break plans. But then I considered a week-long break we had at the beginning of February, and, well, we took the leap. Yep, 14 hours there, 16 hours back, not including layovers in Helsinki, a couple of weeks of wrecked sleep-schedules, all for an obviously off-season trip to Japan. Santa brought it down the chimney, along with some Pocky, wasabi peanuts, ramen and some Japan-oriented Wordle puzzles (Suzy's great idea), and it was easily the best gift that jolly old elf ever brought us!

After a DeStefano-caused delay in Berlin and some pizza from a pizza vending machine in Helsinki,

we luxuriated, each in our own row of seats, on the sparsely filled flight to Narita Airport in Japan.

Excitement and the unusual chance to watch movies, and the fact that even a whole row of airplane seats isn't really that comfortable, kept sleep to a minimum,

at least for me, but when we arrived, we went right at our plan: 8 days divided between Kyoto and Tokyo, with a night in Hakone and a day in Hiroshima. Those cities aren't really that close to each other, but we had the Shinkansen, the famous bullet trains of Japan--fastest in the world. Hakone was our first stop, a place recommended by a colleague, mainly for its onsen--natural hot spring baths. After a good dinner, Charlie joined Suzy and me for a bath, and then we slept int the traditional Ryokan-style beds on the floor in our "tent".

Hakone, I have no doubt, must be a beautiful place, especially in the spring or fall, but we were just passing through--and pushing through our jetlag while we were there. Kyoto was up next,

and we started things right: 100 Yen Store, 7-11, and a sushi-conveyor-belt restaurant. That last one was when I knew we had arrived.

The kids even bought some plastic sushi keychains from vending machines outside the restaurant. Suzy and I had been to Kyoto once before, and though we were excited to share it with the kids, we actually ended up doing brand new things for us, too: the Arashiyama Temple and the Fushimi Inari Shrine. The temple was beautiful, even in the winter.

We walked around its perfectly manicured gardens, and "meditated"--or chilled out on the floor of one of its buildings.

Then we put our shoes back on and hiked through an adjacent bamboo forest,

and then also up a mountain to "chill out" again with some crazy monkeys.

I suppose sitting on a giant banana wasn't the best idea, but we survived. Now, for the shrine--that is the place with all those orange gates.

Maybe you have seen some pictures before.

That was another good hike, followed by two well-deserved giant cotton candies for the boys,

and Suzy's second favorite meal of the trip: Curry Udon Noodles. (Oh, man, just writing the words makes me hungry.) It was good. (Reminded me of a dish I often ate in Korea...) Still pushing through our jetlag, we went to the Gion district, which is a traditional town center where you still might see a geisha walking around. We didn't, but we did stretch our day until another sushi-belt restaurant.

The blue fin nigiri there was delectable, but the best meal was yet to come... Finally, I had my first solid night of sleep, and I needed it, because we hit two more shrines the next day, along with the famous five-story wooden pagoda Suzy and I loved on our first trip to Kyoto.

We did all that before jumping on the Shinkansen for a there-and-back trip to Hiroshima. Hiroshima was also a place Suzy and I visited many years ago, and we went there to share its Peace Memorial and Museum with our three.

But it was a surprise, nevertheless, for the two of us. They had updated the museum since we were there, and it was hard to take. Macabre. No pictures. The kids, understandably, skipped some displays--mind you, that's even after having experienced many Holocaust, World War II, and World War I museums here in Europe. But it was what it ought to be--even for them, I felt, and even though we might have hesitated before taking them, I'm glad we did. We also saw the "thousand paper cranes" of Sadako (a young girl, who died of cancer at a young age, a generation or so after the bomb--Japan's Anne Frank equivalent, I suppose)

and the A-bomb Dome, one of the only structures that survived the blast, because it was at its epicenter.

I understand the argument for the use of such bombs in the war against Japan, but before you give your own breath to it, I suggest you visit Hiroshima, both for its history, and for how it has made itself an emblem of peace since that terrible day. "Never again," I think we can all agree upon. Anyway, we bulleted back to Kyoto, and ate a great dinner (--Charlie's favorite of the trip): okonomiyaki--Hiroshima style.

Then we got our rest for the next day's journey--to Tokyo. Suzy and I had never been to Tokyo, and we saved it for last, figuring we would all be caught up on our sleep by then and ready for three nights in the largest city in the world. It was awesome, start to finish, and I'll be posting about it soon. Stay tuned...