TR(tdl/sdl/hkdl)-> This Is Where Your Dream Begins; A New World in Every Chapter. COMPLETED 12/8!!!

[katt789]

Those Dream Lights pictures!! That parade looks so phenomenal.

It's SO CUTE! Like, I love my some DEP, so it's awesome that it's like an incredibly upgraded version of that parade!!

Oh no! You take the most beautiful pictures. I definitely can relate. A few Disney trips ago I was playing with the settings trying to take really cool pictures of the fireworks and I deleted the pictures by mistake. Not just a few but the whole trips worth. Like 400 to 500 pictures. I just stood there and cried. When we got home I took my camera to a camera store to see if there was anyway they could recover the pictures. Nope, they couldn't. At least you have some and hopefully Kara will be able to share with you what she took.

I'm still holding out hope that you will find the memory cards as the trip goes on. You just need a really good dose of pixie dust.

Thank you so much!!!! OH NOOOOOOO!!!! Losing pictures is legit the worst, thankfully Kara was there and also took a TON...or those first few days of the TR woulda been REAL boring, baahahaha! I was MOST sad about the picture I took at the wishing well being gone. Ugh. I knew I should've been careful, we'd even talked about lost photos all the time, Kara & her cousin went to Europe & her cousin got her DSLR stolen! They posted everywhere in the hostel they just wanted the memory cards back, anonymously but nothing ever turned up! Hahaha.... spoiler alert...they never turned up, everything that's prior to the Villains show in the TR is from Kara...

Omg... first this and then after the trip the problems with your computer.... I agree with Grumpy's Wife, you are in need of some pixie dust!

RIGHT?! Ugh, it SUCKED, though the computer issues I had were bound to happen, the hard drive's just SHOT from all the photography work I was doing on it, the same thing's happening with Kara's computer right now so we're both kinda stressed. I'm just thankful I got the photos edited & uploaded before that happened!

 

[katt789]

HI Friends!! Happy Victoria Day/early Memorial Day/whichever holidays are celebrated in not North America...? Baahaha! Okay, so as I've had a lot of time to work on TR updates and get photos sorted out, I'm going to be posting a lot more at once, just to get through the country/cities sections a bit faster because I feel like most of us are here for the Disney stuff!! I'm also headed to Disney World for a birthday trip the 27-June 5th, and am not sure if I'm bringing the laptop or not, so I may be on a break over that week!

Happy reading!!

********************

Saturday October 15

There was still a little funk in the air in the morning as we got up and did the last of our packing, making sure the place was clean & we had everything we'd brought with us. Dante hadn't come home, but had emailed Kara about "check out" so we were quickly on our way to the bus stop. Just before our bus pulled up, Dante did! We thanked him for the stay & hospitality, and he wished us the best on our future travels through Asia!

Our first stop was the JR office at Tokyo Station to redeem our JR passes and book tickets to Matsumoto, which was pretty simple. Our train would leave from Shinjuku in a few hours, but in the meantime, we were STARVING! Starbucks was just around the corner, so we got breakfast from there, and I was super impressed to see they gave me a card to notify that my drink was soy milk, I'd exchange it with the barista for my drink to ENSURE I'd gotten the allergy friendly drink! WHAT EVEN?!?!? I couldn't tell you how many times I've been given real milk in drinks in Canada/US, it's insane!!

k18 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

Our train ride was about 2 hours, we used the time to catch up on blogging and sleeping & were pulling into Matsumoto before we knew it! Before we could even check where to go for our hotel, Kara spotted it directly across the street from the station! Bonus! The night was pretty chill, it would be dark soon, and we were both so wiped we decided to leave the sightseeing for the morning. We picked up some dinner at McDonald's (not the brightest idea..) and some snacks & beer from the convenience store and laid around in our tiny bed while we did some laundry & took turns showering. Seriously guys, that's it. Productive day, hey?

v21 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

k19 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

We stayed at Ace Inn Matsumoto, for anyone that's wondering. It was suuuper cheap for the one night, suuuper small room, but had everything we needed. There was laundry & vending machines on our floor (machines also had beer in them... Didn't need ID for that... Interesting). Bathroom was SUPER stocked, we didn't need to unpack our toiletry bags! Shampoo, conditioner, body soap, razor, comb, body cloth, towels, everything!! Hotel staff were super friendly too.

 

[katt789]

Sunday October 16th

One big added bonus of the hotel, FREE BREAKFAST!!! Kara & I got up around 6 and headed down to find a large variety of food laid out for the guests. The usual pastries, rice, miso soup, breads (INCLUDING WHOLE WHEAT BREAD WHAAAAAAAT), YOGURT AND FRUIT, hot dogs, and something I dubbed to be cold pizza. It was super nice to have a few heathier options today a relief from the white bread & Disney treat lifestyle we'd been having!

Our sightseeing adventure took us to Matsumoto-jo, the castle in the area. We had seen signs for it the previous night, and just followed them through the town to find it. It was a super nice, quiet walk with practically no one around, we both really enjoyed it; and managed to find our destination without needing Wi-Fi! Yay! Lol.

v8 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

IMG_1264 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

IMG_1270 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

IMG_1271 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

IMG_1283 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

The castle was certainly beautiful, I'm glad we went so early, so serene & calm, no large tour groups around. I couldn't tell you the amount of times I would turn to Kara & say "I'm so glad we're not part of a tour bus". Lol.

IMG_1297 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

IMG_1308 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

v6 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

A photoshoot was had, as the castle was gorgeous, the grounds beautiful, the morning still, and there was even some wildlife out to play!

IMG_1314 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

IMG_1316 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

The calm was coming to an end as we were wrapping up our time, so we headed back to the Station. I suggested we go pick up our tickets to our next destination now, while we were NOT carrying our weight in luggage, and we found a nice little bakery that had ALL THE PUMPKIN THINGS to snack on later! Checking out of the hotel was a breeze & we were back at the Station waiting for our train after a brief tea refill!! The first train was about an hour, then we transferred to another train & were SUPER EXCITED BECAUSE IT WAS A BULLET TRAAAAAIIINNN!!!

v19 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

So fast!!! We arrived in Kanazawa about an hour later, and then came the struggle of figuring out where the heck to go. A guard at the station attempted to help us, at least he got us onto the right side of the station!! From there we hoped we were going in the right direction, took a couple of circles & eventually found our Guest House.

v16 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr



...it was closed...



*sigh*



We traipsed back to the station with all our luggage to hang around for another nearly 2 hours until it would be open again & we could check in. It was a little bump in the road but hey, if we'd re-read the confirmation email, the whole thing could've been avoided! Lol.

Once 3 o'clock did hit, we walked back and were welcomed very warmly into Guesthouse Pongyi! Our hosts were in the middle of checking in a guy from Israel at the same time so we kind of went over some stuff together. The place was super small, but there was still so much space! It used to be a kimono shop & factory, and was suuuuper old! Lol. There were super steep staircases & nooks & crannies everywhere! Super adorable!! The main floor was the check in desk, a little living room, small kitchen/lounging area & a full kitchen that was private. There was a mixed dorm at the bottom of the stairs, and 2 steep windy staircases leading up, one to a private area, and one to our dorm! (And our bathroom). The dorm had 2 bunk beds, that the bottom was a traditional mattress on the floor style, with lights, plugs & a privacy curtain, it was like a little fort & Kara was in LOOOVE with the entire thing, so was I, it was awesome!!

While we were checking in, our hosts, Maru & Masaki, said that they were planning on a little outing to a sweets festival & a Shinto shrine & asked if we would like to join? Yay!! Group activities!!

v9 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

The sweets festival was something comparable to food & wine, but ALL desserts! I got a little pumpkin treat as we walked around & we all ended up getting some ice cream too! It was all super delicious!

IMG_1317 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

They had a little indoor section where they had these gorgeous flowers that were MADE OF CHOCOLATE. LIKE WHAT?

IMG_1318 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

While our group headed back to the car, we had parked in the garage for an art museum across from the Festival, and our Host got distracted and started to show us around the place a bit as most of the rooms were free of charge! The one we first went into had this super weird vibe, it was mainly white, and lit weird, it felt like something out of the Hunger Games, bahaha. Pictures really don't capture how creepy it was!

IMG_1322 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

IMG_1325 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

IMG_1326 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

The last thing he showed us was this area, it was free to see from the top, and looked like the people in the bottom were on the bottom of a pool, but walking around, so weird!

IMG_1328 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

Our next stop was to explore into the Geisha district! Our host led us through the winding streets, where we walked past some locals playing something like the "ball in a cup" game, but there was a hole in the ball you had to land on a spike! One of our group asked to try & we all joined in on the fun, everyone was cheering & excited it was just super neat! It took me AGES to finally get the ball in the cup so it was all cheers & excitement when I finally got it! Lol… The Geisha district was just teeeeeny winding roads, and there are dark stairs; to go down in the evening, and light, to come back up in the morning. We didn't see anyone out and about, but everyone is rather private. Still cool to see!

v2 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

v3 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

v4 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

Now that I'm going through pictures I remember something about the two rivers, one was the female river & one was the male and they never intercepted? I'm not sure. It's been months. Lol. It's also super cute to note that there were little baby canals throughout Kanazawa, and our hosts said that if we were ever lost, the canals could lead us back to Pongyi lol!

We made a quick stop back at the house to pick up another guest before we headed over to a neighbouring Shinto Shrine, where we enjoyed a ritual all about harvesting crops & the like. We even got to try a little bit of sake afterwards!! The embarrassingly hilarious moment when Kara had it go down the wrong tube & inhaled it and had a coughing fit bahahah! When we got back to the house, the other guest asked our host about where that conveyer sushi place was. I overheard the word "Hamazushi" and perked up like no tomorrow, grabbing Kara. Surprise! Field trip number 3 as we all piled back into the car & went out for some dinner!!

v11 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

v12 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

Mochi's!!

v13 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

k1 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

Man oh man do I miss that place, bahahah!

After that, we were pooped, and it was time to settle in to our insanely cozy beds to rest up for our next adventures!! Though our host did make ONE last stop for us at a 7-11 on the way home and showed us his favorite ice cream, of the mochi variety, so we picked up some of that to try later on!

 

[katt789]

Monday October 17th

Y'all….I somehow didn't write an update for today….and I definitely don't remember details, even DURING our trip there wasn't much I could remember #sleepdeprived I'm working from memory/photo order lol!

Kara & I probably slept in a little bit, those beds were SO comfy, and headed downstairs after getting ready. Pongyi sold bus tour passes for around 500Y, so we got those, some maps, and headed back to the Station to catch the bus. Our first tourist destination was the Kanazawa Castle!

IMG_1332 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

IMG_1337 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

v14 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

IMG_1339 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

IMG_1349 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

It was really pretty, and the grounds were all lush and green!

IMG_1350 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

v17 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

IMG_1356 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

IMG_1356 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

I low-key wanted to go up into the tower to get the birds eye view of the grounds, but you had to pay another fee on top of the gate fee and I was NOT about that life!

IMG_1360 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


We found our way back to the bus stop and hopped back on to hop off at some park/garden area….I'm so sorry but I have NO idea what it was called. I even just dug through my keepsake box to see if I still had the map…I found the bus pass but it's all in Japanese…bahahaha!

v15 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

Y'all…bless Kara….she had the pictures labelled on facebook, it was Kenroku-en!

IMG_1376 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

IMG_1377 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

IMG_1388 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

It was pretty enough, but it was also super busy, we were bummed we weren't there when the leaves were turning, it would've been so beautiful. That seemed to be a theme of this trip a "this would be SO GORGEOUS during autumn foliage/cherry blossom season" bahahaha. Excuses to book a second trip, am I right?

IMG_1395 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

Well, we had accomplished 2 things so far off our trip plans, and we were hungry, not really feeling anything else on the bus loop, we found some Wi-Fi, and googlemapped where Hamazushi was, as it hadn't been that far from where Pongyi was. We favorited it on the map, and compared to the bus loop, and found the bus stop closest to it. There was still about a 15 minute walk on the other end, but we made it with HUNGRY BELLIES.

v22 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

I also noticed this go around that there was HAMBURGER SUSHI!? I'M SORRY WHAT?

k2 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

It was surprisingly tasty, though Kara hated it because of the onions in it….sorry girl… GUYS WE ATE SO FREAKING MUCH. Seriously, plates on plates of sushi, multiple desserts, udon/soba noodle bowls, ugh, it was amazing.

k3 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

That's JUST my stack. Also in the back you can KIND OF see the little like, calculator looking thing. When you were done, you pushed a button for a server to come around and they'd total up how many of each price plate you had, and print of a little bill for you to take to the front to pay.

We basically ROLLED out of there, and found our way back to the bus loop, making one last stop at a little mall that was on the loop to explore a bit. I found some sweet potato ice cream that despite having eaten so much already, I still had to try.

k4 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

It was pretty good! The mall was decent, Kara found an entire floor of sewing supplies/scrapbooking crafty things & fabric that she wanted to buy ALL of, she said it was way cheaper than the stuff at home too, bummer we couldn't buy any. We also found a little pharmacy/Daiso section of the store where we picked up a few toiletries and I FINALLY BOUGHT SOME ALOE VERA! Guys, I'd gotten a WEE bit burnt like our FIRST day and still hadn't managed to find any until now!

The bus was doing its final loop soon, so the two of us hopped back on and headed back to Pongyi, we showered, packed, and got ready to leave in the morning, but not before some more group fun! We were learning how to make paper cranes! Well…I was….Kara was a PRO, I got a lot of help from the Japanese woman beside me….

k8 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr
(excuse my hot mess of pajama choice that day, bahahaha)

We didn't have any big plans, though the rest of the group was going out to an Onsen, we weren't sure if it was one that allowed swimwear, AND we both have tattoos, so we chose to stay at home, where we had our ice cream mochi's for dinner because we WERE BROKE FROM SPENDING SO MUCH ON LUNCH.

It was to bed after some work on photos/blogs at that point!

 

[katt789]

Tuesday October 18th

Goooood morning! Our wake up call was around the same time this morning & we laid around in our comfy beds for a little bit, not wanting to leave our forts behind! I showered again, everything got packed up, and we took our linens downstairs to get checked out!

Maru was quick to ask how everything was and make sure that our stay was comfortable & that we had gotten everything we had needed. (Obviously it was all amazing). She checked us out & even took some pictures for us on the way out! She said they would update their facebook page next month with all of this months photo's!

k5 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

k7 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr
She also made sure to get a picture of Gelatoni on the side of Kara's bag, she'd just found him super adorable!! We said our final good byes & made our way over to the station. We picked up some breakfast & found our platform.

k6 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

The train was fine, there was a winy kid that was annoying, and I was getting hungry which was making me hangry, but we survived all the way to Kyoto!!!! We found the directions to our AirBnB fairly easy to follow, a couple subway stops later we were at our station. Things got a little confusing here, they specifically said to MAKE SURE we took the Tazao exit 2 & NOT the Keihan line, but from where we were there was ONLY one exit 2. Hoping it was the right one we exited (up a million stairs) and when the directions matched the landmarks, we knew we were in the right place.

The house was close to the station, key was easy to get, and we were in our room in no time! It was a larger 3 story house, the first floor was a bathroom & bedroom, 2nd floor the common area, with a kitchen, bathroom, shower & laundry. Up on the top floor was our room, and another bedroom. The house had a/c in each room, fans & locks on the bedroom doors! Our room actually had 3 single beds, and 2 large closets! This was AMAZING since our plan was to COMPLETELY unpack everything since we really needed to re-organize our bags & we were here for 6 days!

I studied the map they had left for us and noticed there was a grocery store nearby & said I NEEDED TO GO! Google maps took us around the back & we ended up walking an extra block out of the way but hey, we made it there in the end, and were greeted by THE MOST GLORIOUS OF SIGHTS!! ALLLL OF THE VEGETABLES!! And fresh produce!! We had fun looking through all the isles looking at stuff, picked up some fruit & veggies, ramen, bread, what I thought was peanut butter, and some sake & beer & tea/coffee drinks for mornings! The evening was spent just chilling at the BnB and heading to bed early, all that travel made us tired & we had an early morning ahead of us!!

 

[MomoMama]

And the great TR continues!

First of all, so sorry to hear you lost your memory card! But Japan really is one place you might recover any lost items, so wishing for you!

Looks like you did not pack your travel schedule too tightly, and that is smart. Sometimes trying to visit everywhere and do everything would leave you with nothing but exhaustion. I like reading that you enjoy the food you can get from convenience stores or grocery stores. How was that soft green tea flavored pocky?

The pics of Matsumoto castle are beautiful. But you did not go inside? I hear the waiting line can be long on weekends and holidays, but if you were there early in the morning, you probably would not have had problems getting inside.

I think this is the first time I see the pic of Kanazawa castle. It looks pretty neat! And seems there isn't many people there?
it would have been so nice to see the fall foliage photos since you take amazing photos!

 

[katt789]

And the great TR continues!

First of all, so sorry to hear you lost your memory card! But Japan really is one place you might recover any lost items, so wishing for you!

Looks like you did not pack your travel schedule too tightly, and that is smart. Sometimes trying to visit everywhere and do everything would leave you with nothing but exhaustion. I like reading that you enjoy the food you can get from convenience stores or grocery stores. How was that soft green tea flavored pocky?

The pics of Matsumoto castle are beautiful. But you did not go inside? I hear the waiting line can be long on weekends and holidays, but if you were there early in the morning, you probably would not have had problems getting inside.

I think this is the first time I see the pic of Kanazawa castle. It looks pretty neat! And seems there isn't many people there?
it would have been so nice to see the fall foliage photos since you take amazing photos!

Yes!! Happy I'm back!!

Ugh, I'm SO BUMMED it never turned up, to my knowledge at least! It didn't turn up in the few weeks after so I'm sure I'll never get it back!!
Yes!! We had originally planned some days a bit crazy, but also knew we didn't know 100% train/flight times or the check in/out times so we planned it pretty well! Hahhaa! ITS SO GOOD, the stores here SUCK compared to them! I assume it was great? Lol, that picture was Kara's food!

Thank you!! No, either there was a cost? Or the line was forming before we realized and was too long for our morning!

Nice! It was pretty! I honestly don't remember a whole lot of details of that day at all, but it was pretty, and there wasn't a lot of people around, it was pretty large grounds too! UGH I'm so bummed, BUT we have plans to go back next year for cherry blossom season, so we're all REALLY excited about THAT!

 

[katt789]

Hey Y'all! SO, again, thank you for reeeeaaading! Come comment! I promise I don't bite! Lol. It's the night of the 25th right now, and I am getting all ready and doing the finishing touches to be able to leave for Florida BRIGHT AND EARLY 6 AM FLIGHT on the 27th!! I at this point, think I'm leaving the computer at home, hence the BUTTLOAD of updates before I leave. I'm going to polish off Kyoto now, and finish up with Hiroshima when I get home on the 5th.

For anyone with social media, feel free to follow along on our adventures "live style"
Instagram:
kattwyllie
magickingdomprince

Snapchat:
kattwy
sbmorasch

It''s sure to be a fun time, we've got a few dining things booked, TONS of first times for us (new stage show, new welcome show, new fireworks, new projection show, new star wars stuff, an elephant tour, rivers of light, and pandora, AND Disney Springs) We'll be at Art of Animation in a mermaid room for the entire time and celebrating BOTH our birthdays (which actually DO fall on our trip) Hope to see ya along the journey!!


Wednesday October 19th

Today was one of the days that I was MOST excited for during our whole trip!! I was really hoping that it wasn't going to disappoint!! We got up SUUUPER early & had to take a couple trains for nearly an hour to reach our destination. To try and cut down on Transportation costs we looked for routes that were covered by our JR pass, which led us to a station on the opposite side of where we were going, but it was a multi entrance place, so we were totally fine!

Where was this magical destination, you may ask? Well, we were at the Arayshiyama Bamboo Grove! All the pictures and vlogs I'd seen looked truly magical, and it lived up to my expectations!!

IMG_1400 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

IMG_1409 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

v1 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

v10 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

k1 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

The place was beautiful, we took SO many photos, and I played model for Kara for a bit when she got bored of taking pictures of just bamboo! Lol

v11 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

v12 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

v13 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

v6 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

v7 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

v8 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

#mermaidlife since I was in my Ariel bound.

v9 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

v4 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

IMG_1454 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

One of us has clearly held onto more of our dance skills over the past few years…

v3 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

One of the nicest things was that because it was so early, and so far out of the city, there was practically no one around, so it was easy to get empty pictures!! It was just so serene, quiet & calming. Which really is one of my favorite things about most of the places we explored in Japan, everything was peaceful, about appreciating where you were in the moment, blocking out the real world. It was glorious.

IMG_1410 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

v2 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

v5 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

Kara & I photographed our way through the grove & continued to wander around the area. There wasn't much to look at, we found some cool looking buildings, some signs about watching out for scammers, and eventually looped back through the grove.

IMG_1415 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

IMG_1443 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

IMG_1460 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

IMG_1462 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

 

[katt789]

We had a plan to stop at a Temple that was on our list. Well, I called it, by this point in the trip, we'd seen so many temples, and this one cost money, and that was too much at this point, bahaahhaah, so we skipped it! Back out on the main road, we came across a bunch of little shops & eateries that had all been closed earlier. It was about time for second breakfast, and there was one place that had Bamboo Udon!! YUM! And fun to try!!

IMG_1477 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

It was DELICIOUS!! Seriously, I wish I could have some more right now!! While we ate we pulled up Google Maps to try & see if we could find the Monkey Park & decided that it looked like it was a straight shot down the road we were on, so that was our next destination! The road had TOOONNNSSS of little shops filled with souvenirs, food, trinkets & lots of overpriced things, it really reminded me of Banff the way it was all set up, and in a valley! At the end of the road we found the entrance to the Monkey Park & paid our fee to get inside.

v15 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

v14 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

IMG_1483 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

IMG_1485 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

What we DIDN'T know, was that we were ABOUT TO CLIMB A MOUNTAIN to get up there! We were both in skirts & not good climbing shoes, but it had to be done, right?!?! Bahaha. I was also SUPER nervous about the monkeys being loose, which in turn made me more nervous because I figured they could "smell fear" bahahaha!! Luckily, our hike didn't involve getting attacked by any monkeys! After our climb, we emerged into a little playground & rest area, unsure of whether it was for little chans or the monkeys, we stayed on the path and headed to the tippy top, WHERE THE MONKEYS WERE ROOOOAAAAMING EVERYWWWHEERRREEE freely!

v19 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

v18 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

Freaky.

v17 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

v16 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

The view was also STUNNING, Kyoto is HUGE!! The view of the city alone was worth the mountain climb! And then there was the added bonus of slightly controlled wildlife, lol. There were keepers(? Sure. Lets call them that) and the top with us, who kept an eye on the animals, and a little building we could go inside to rest. Inside they also sold drinks, snacks, and small trinkets, AND the BEST PART!! They sold apple slices & peanuts that YOU COULD FEEEED THE MONKEYS WITH!! AND the best part of that was that it was US that were in the cage!

v20 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

In place of windows was a wire window! The monkeys would climb around on it, and stick their hand through when they wanted to be fed!

v21 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

v22 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

IMG_1500 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

IMG_1503 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

We bought a couple bags & spent a while feeding them & chilling out with them, it was so fun! They were so polite & would take the food right out of your hand with theirs! And once they knew you were all out, they'd hop right over to someone else, lol. ADORABLE.

k5 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

k4 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

k3 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

k2 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

Kara was braver than I and ventured further up a pathway past the building but I was seriously uneasy around the free unsupervised monkeys so I hung around with the keepers & took in the views.

v24 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

v23 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr


After we had been up there a while & recovered from the climb up, it was time to climb down! Lol, it was easier going down so that was good! We continued along the way we had been going but after a bit thought it might not actually lead anywhere. Kara was looking for a baby kimono for her cousin's baby, so we walked back through the main touristy street to see if we could fine one! Naturally, we got distracted, and surprise, it was by an ice cream shop! I always like to see if they have any fun flavours, and THEY DID!! Cherry blossom!!

k6 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

It was good!! I'm pretty sure Kara got green tea, seems like something she would do again! Lol. We had no luck finding kimonos at a price she wanted to pay (everything was a bit overpriced since it was a tourist area) so we found ourselves back on the train home.

Our comfy beds were calling us after an early morning & climbing a mountain we were not prepared for! It was also our first encounter with our Host! All the reviews said they had never seen the host during their stay, but it became obvious they weren't tourists who came home midday! Lol. After a little rest, we looked up where the Donki store was, and figured out how to get there. It was about 40 mins away, but we really wanted those onesies! #commitment The train was more than easy enough to figure out, but once we were out of the station we were pretty much lost. I had the directions still open but Google wasn't registering WHERE WE were, and it was super frustrating & making me angry! Lol. Eventually, and with Kara's calming, we did find it!

Unluckily for us, they had no onesies that were Disney, just some crappy ones mixed in with their Halloween costumes. Waaaahhh! I was able to replace my lost memory cards though! Got 2 new ones, some face masks, beer, candy, instant coffee & instant milk tea packets & possibly some other small things for around $60!! Mega awesome since that was two 32gb memory cards!! No onesies in hand, we walked back to the train & made our way home. The night was young, but we're gramma's who had an early morning, so it was maybe 1 beer and then bed!

 

[katt789]

Thursday October 20th

Hey guys!!! So, what do you think? Were we up early, AGAIN! Yup.... We were. Luckily we didn't have quite as far to go today, and arrived at the Fushimi Inari Shrine faster than I thought we would! Unfortunately, it was already a bit crowded even though it was still early. It was MUCH more IN the city than the bamboo grove was, bummer? Bahahah.

v1 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

IMG_1506 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

At the entrance there was your usual shrines, temples mixed in with gift shops. We knew we would come back through here later, so we headed to the mountain trail of Tori Gates! They were GORGEOUS! (This was another thing I was crazy excited about!)

IMG_1521 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

IMG_1522 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

IMG_1524 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

IMG_1526 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

IMG_1531 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

IMG_1532 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

It started with a small hill lined with smaller gates, where we took a bunch of photos. I was standing, camera ready to take a picture, Kara waiting for the people to pass by so I could take said picture of her, when this foreign couple pushed their way in front of us, set up their tripod & then asked me to move because I was in the way..



*le sigh*

I couldn't tell you how many times I said "effing tourists" on this trip. I get that we were ones, but at least we are polite, knowledgeable about the culture & ethics of where we were going and such. Ugh. Rudeness aside, we continued climbing, thinking the further we climbed the less people there would be. The smaller Tori gates ended and there was a clearing & separate path of gates leading back down, or a path of larger gates leading up the mountain.

IMG_1541 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

v3 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr



You can guess which one we took!


It was seriously such an incredible sight, all these gorgeous red gates, lining the pathways, surrounded by this gorgeous forest & nature. Again, super peaceful, relaxing and quiet. Every so often it would open up to a clearing and it was all "choose your own adventure" to which path you'd take lol.

v4 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

v6 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

IMG_1543 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

IMG_1548 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

IMG_1556 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

We did eventually make it all the way to the top before we started our descent.

k3 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

k4 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

v10 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

IMG_1580 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

IMG_1587 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

v9 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

The thing that I really love about all the touristy things in Japan is that they're all so spiritual. You don't have to have any specific type of beliefs to feel the spirituality either. It's just something there. They're majestic, calming, respectful places to be able to visit, and I'm so happy I was able to visit so many of them!

As we neared the bottom of the mountain, it was starting to get CRAZY! I can't imagine what this place is like on weekends!! There were people EVERYWHERE!! We browsed the shops for a bit & I FINALLY found some post cards!! Yay!! Down a corner, we found rows upon rows of street food and other vendors! I got a little pastry with some custard inside:

k7 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

It looked way better than it tasted. Womp womp.

Kara found a hurricane potato!

k6 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

And upon seeing that, I realized how much I was craving something salty, and was super happy to see sweet potato fries right beside us! I was disappointed when they turned out to be covered in sugar, not salt, but they were still good.

v11 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

Since we had Wi-Fi, and were in (what we figured would be) our last city with Hamazushi, you can figure out where we went for lunch.


...oh...and it was half an hour out of the way...



BAHAAH!

Yeah... We're crazy.



BUT ITS SO GOOOOD!!

We were both SO glad Alicia told us about it, as it obviously ended up being our favorite place. I mean, the quality was great, quantity was awesome for what you paid, the screen to order was awesome (and in English) and IT PLAYED THE SONG for your food, like, what could be better than that?!? Neither of us ate as much as we had the previous time, in fact, our plate stacks were PITIFUL, but we both had filling beer, filling soup & multiple desserts, bahah.

Home was calling our names after lunch, and we were quick to collapse in our beds. It really seemed like we'd only done one thing, but we were super tired by this point, and still had another 2 countries to get through!!! We were both also super bad at remembering everything we had planned for our days this late in the game, I'd open up the PTR to remember what we were doing since my plans were at home most days! Lol.

Today, we took it easy, climbing into bed, catching up on our blogging/trip reporting, and of course Netflix while we drank some of the beers we had from Donki. When it was time to start thinking about dinner, ALL that we wanted was PIZZA!! I knew Domino's existed in Japan & decided to see what I could manage. GUYS! Turns out you don't even NEED to input an address, you can let your GPS tell them where you are!!

So duh. We ordered pizza & spent the evening watching YouTube videos! There's a channel that has "kids react to____" and we did a bunch of those, including kids naming classic Disney songs, adults try to guess the song by one note, kids react to Miranda Sings, Miranda Sings reacts to kids reacting to Miranda, bahaha. It was a GRAND time. The pizza was also DELICIOUS, and nothing like American Dominos! The cheese wasn't heavy, the crust tasted lighter & the sauce wasn't as full of sugar! Eating the entire thing didn't even leave us bloated and full! THANK YOU JAPAN!



Best. Night. Ever.

 

[katt789]

Friday October 21

So. Freaking. Tired.

Seriously.

'Cause like, 3 weeks of straight travelling is supposed to be relaxing or something? Bahaha. And it was a HECK of an early wake up call today, a nice 6:00 am alarm time! Luckily, we don't take long to get ready!

Our destination today was Nara, a smaller town outside Kyoto you might know as the "place with the deer" lol. It was covered (mainly) by our JR Pass to get there, and took about 1 hr and a half. We arrived, and I stopped to pick up a coffee and ended up picking up a Milk Tea Crossoint! Yum!! There were a few tourist maps around, so it was easy enough to get our bearings and head off to Nara park! Kara has a thing for Pagoda's, so we got distracted…

IMG_1613 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

v2 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

v6 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

v1 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr


Our first glance was at a smaller edge of a park with a handful of deer wandering around!!

IMG_1624 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

We ventured further in & saw one playing around in the mud, we took some pictures of it & Kara went closer to say hello, which is when it shook like a dog & got mud EVERYWHERE, including some on Kara lol.

IMG_1626 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

IMG_1627 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

When we ventured further into the field, there were a TON more deer! We picked a friendly looking one laying down around the edge & hung around with it for a while.

v4 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

IMG_1631 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

IMG_1643 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

IMG_1648 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

We saw a baby hanging around by itself, and since the deer were all pretty used to people we hung out with it for a while, IT WAS SO SOFT!

IMG_1651 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

k2 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

IMG_1665 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

k1 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr


Kara knew she wanted to feed them (I did too) and she was dying watching all the people getting swarmed by deer when they had food, so she bought some of the specific "deer crackers" from a lady selling them in the corner of the park and went to town while I video'd/took pictures.

v7 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

v8 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

v9 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

It was SERIOUSLY hilarious! First just one or two would notice you had food, then out of nowhere you'd be SURROUNDED by them! Some of them would get antsy and start biting your clothes or nudging you when they wanted more, but the nice thing was when you were done, you held your hands up, and they knew you had no more! Hahaha!! I tried my hand at it too, it was super fun, kinda scary when they'd surround you but at least they knew when you'd ran out!

v14 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

v13 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

We hung around the side of the park with some chill deer for a while, took some selfies, lol, found a little baby deer too!! While we were hanging around a group of girls came up to us & a couple asked for some pictures with us, which we happily said yes to lol. So weird that they find foreigners just so interesting, or whatever it was! Lol!! I wanted to feed the deer again, so I bought some more biscuits, and this time, remembered to bow to the deer first, AND THEY WOULD BOW BACK and then take the food (well, some of them would) AND IT WAS THE CUTEST AND MOST WONDERFUL THING WE'D EVER SEEN!!

IMG_1676 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

We also noticed that the female deer were WAY nicer than the males, so we tried to stay away from the dudes. Kara warned me about one coming up behind me, I threw him a small piece, and fed the good ones the last of my crackers, then held my hands up to show I had no more. Then the little jerk decides to HEAD BUTT ME! Uhm NO SIR!! Right in the butt, and he had horns too! (They were little ones, but STILL) it was both traumatizing & hilarious at the same time!

IMG_1680 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

Our favorite moment came when we pulled out the vlogging camera to try & selfie with our favorite deer friend. She hung around for a long time even though we weren't feeding her! Kara had the screen flipped up so we could see, and we tried to take a few selfies, then we pointed the reflection out to the deer and she PERKED RIGHT UP, AND WE GOT THE GREATEST SELFIE IN HISTORY!

v12 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

v10 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

v11 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

Like, there's no way she DIDN'T see herself, it was BEYOND adorable!!

In total, we spent around 2 HOURS hanging around in that corner of Nara Park, watching the deer, people watching, making deer friends & petting them & feeding them. It was super nice & relaxing, one of my favorite memories of the trip!! And SO cute that the deer would bow for food!!

 

[katt789]

b]Saturday October 22nd[/b]

Sleep was crucial this morning, we both slept way later than normal! I rolled over at one point & since my phone was far from my bed, checked my IPod for the time & since it hadn't adjusted from last night, I thought we'd slept til 10! Kara was still out, so I rolled back over & eventually got up when she did, and it turned out to only be like 8:45! Bahaha. We had a super lazy morning before getting ready. There was a festival going on in Kyoto that weekend, all about the heritage, culture, and beginnings of the city. There was even a parade & it came right by the main road by the house! Awesome!

Despite having breakfast already, when we claimed our parade spots we took turns running to the store for snacks. I was finally able to get the green smoothie I had been CRAVING! The downside was that I was NOT feeling well this morning, my stomach was bothering me and just overall I wasn't feeling it! I managed to stick it out for 1/2 the parade before I told Kara I needed to go lie down.

IMG_1736 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

IMG_1738 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

IMG_1747 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


The parade was neat, but meh, kinda boring, but neat to see some of the traditional stuff!! Kara finished watching it while I had a little nap before she came back to the house to eat lunch. I told her I would do the laundry we'd been needing to do so I wouldn't feel completely useless! Lol.

v1 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

v5 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr


Kara had an adventure on the other hand! She wandered through Gion, and actually saw a Geisha!! She said it was kinda stressful watching since there were SO MANY tourists & photographers just acting like CRAZY paparazzi waiting outside tea houses, or SWARMING cabs the moment they would pull up. When she finally did see a Geisha she said the poor girl looked terrified and was walking super fast trying to get away from it all. I guess, neat to see her, but sad to see how obnoxious people have gotten it, like, just pay for the ceremony if you wanna see one that badly!!

v4 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

v3 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

v2 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

In her wanderings she was searching for Daiso (the dollar store) and came across a Disney Store which she snap chatted me from & I immediately insisted we go back the next day, cause like, you went somewhere Disney without me!!!

BUT

It was okay because she came back with presents.

k1 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

(I'd commented the day prior in Nara that I was SO SAD I DIDN'T GET A BAMBI TSUM in Tokyo, and she was awesome enough to buy it for me…find a best friend like Kara)

Kara also said that it was SO nice to be able to wander around a city at night completely alone, and feel completely safe! The route even took her along the river, in some cities that would mean the ULTIMATE of sketch! Oh Japan, you are WONDERFUL!! We both went to bed pretty early that night, I was still feeling meh, and I wanted to make sure I got as better as possible before we got to China, the land where you need a prescription for a Tylenol....

 

[katt789]

Sunday October 23rd

Today ended up being what was our extra day in Kyoto! We had added it in when we booked hotels because we felt we had too much to do, and that the festival in town would increase crowds. When we began looking at what we actually had planned we considered taking a little side trip to Osaka, maybe even going to Universal!

But we broke.

Bahaha. Okay, not broke, but trying to budget & we could spend that $80 on something better anyways, so we stuck around in Kyoto. Plus, a friend had posted a beautiful picture of Daigo-ji in autumn the night before so we decided we needed to go! Bahaha.

IMG_1749 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

IMG_1752 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

I was feeling a bit better today too! The bit of sleeping in helped!! It cost 600¥ to get into the temple & its garden, and it was gorgeous!There was another Pagoda that we stopped for

v4 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

v2 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

Kara was playing around with the vlogging/point & shoot camera & it's fun effects today, and y'all, this was just the START of something loopy…

v3 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

We both really wished we were in Japan for more of the autumn foliage, we kept holding out, hoping that the next city would be more colorful, but most were mainly green.

IMG_1772 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

IMG_1773 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

IMG_1774 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

IMG_1783 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

#autumn

We wandered around taking pictures, I lost Kara at one point, but she was just hidden by trees lol.

IMG_1784 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

v1 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

v5 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

IMG_1800 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

IMG_1816 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

IMG_1818 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

IMG_1826 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

IMG_1836 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

Once we'd found each other we found a nice little rock that (REBEL) was behind the rope, but Kara gave no cares, and I got one of my favorite shots!

IMG_1843 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

IMG_1844 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

We also spent a good chunk of time trying to get proper pictures of both of us without them being selfies lol. We had the camera balanced on a bush at one point, lol.

IMG_1848 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

v8 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

v7 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

v6 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr (that's the bush one…..)


Twenty days in & we were getting majorly loopy. We joked about how poor Abby would be meeting us next week & be all "*** is wrong with you guys?!" Bahahah.

v9 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

Yup…that's ma bes fraaaan

IMG_1851 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

IMG_1853 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

Temple fully explored, I stated I wanted to go to the Disney Store (duh) so we trained back to the station by the house & walked down along the river to get there! I picked up a few more Tsums for myself, Judy Hopps, Boo in her pink pj's (the same for Abby) and Nick & Judy for Amanda! I also threw a Nick Wilde face mask in for Amanda & found a little cute change purse style bag with a Pooh Bear design to keep my memory cards more safe in! We spent a good chunk of time in the store & had to remind ourselves how much space we had left to buy stuff lol!

Next I knew I needed more setting powder, and Kara had seen a MAC, so we swung over there (it was more expensive than home, womp). The department store we were in ended up having a CRAZY amount of floors & we finally found the Pokémon store Kara had been looking for the day before, and then tracked down some lunch. The top floor was all fancier restaurants, and the cheaper stuff was down in the basement. Although it still took AGES to find a place to sit & eat. We ended up getting some cheap & nice curry at a little place & picked up some dessert from elsewhere on the way out. I was also ESTATIC to notice an all vegetarian place selling smoothies & pre-made DELICIIOUS LOOKING SALADS FULL OF VEGGIES & NUTS & BERRIES & AVACADO! I promptly bought one, and the cashier noted the expiry date before we left. It was only upon going to eat the salad the next day that I realized the expiry date WAS THE DAY I BOUGHT IT.

It was a VERY sad occasion. Bahaha!

We were still craving junk food, so for our last night in Kyoto, we stopped in the grocery store & bought all kinds of sweets & chips & ate them while we packed & cracked open the sake! Kara hates liquor, but I made her try it straight, just a sip then she mixed it with her Orangina. The evening was spent re-packing & re-evaluating what things we REALLY needed and what could be left behind in Kyoto. I ended up tossing a few toiletries & pairs of shoes. One pair were fake Toms that weren't worn in properly & pinched my feet if I wore them all day. I knew I wouldn't wear them, so they were done. The other was my LOVES, the teeny lace up style flat/runners, kinda like converse but they'd gotten wet too many times & despite being in decent condition, they were stiiiiiiiinky (and also had been super cheap so there was no worry there). With that, we made sure we had everything packed, sorted our garbage downstairs & called it a night!!

 

[katt789]

Here's the vlogs we have goin on so far!!

 

[katt789]

Tokyo City Vlogs

 

[MomoMama]

LOVE those deer selfies! How cute is that deer!!!
Butt heading deer does sounds funny, but seriously, glad you were not hurt!

It is kind of funny that you were asked to have the photos taken with locals. Nara is one of the most visited place, and it's not rare to see foreign tourists these days. I am wondering if they thought you girls were actresses or someone famous? Or maybe they were your social media followers... Or were you doing one of those impressive dance moves like you did in the bamboo forest?

Bamboo forest and Fushimi Inari...2 places I would looove to visit in Kyoto! They are so beautiful!

Too bad to hear ill-mannered tourists though. I think tripods are banned in most places in Kyoto. And it's common sense not to use them in narrow spaces or crowded place. But it's not like this is at Disney, where CM would be working around and checking offenders...

Hope you will have a magical time at WDW!

 

[katt789]

All this feeding was making OUR tummies growl!! So we headed back into town a little bit, and down a little side street in search of cheap lunch! The place we ended up at was good! I got breaded salmon with rice, it also came with a teeny pasta salad, some veggies, and miso soup! I think Kara got a similar one but with chicken, and she was even nice enough to pay! (Since I'd paid for the pizza last night lol)

k3 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr



While we were chowing down, I pulled out our touring plan so we didn't skip anything, and the map to try and figure out how to get around. There was a shrine directly up the main road, and a Buddha shrine off to our left, so we opted to visit them in that order and made on our way!



The first shrine had SO many pathways leading around it, and just as many deer as there were in the park! Though these ones weren't as tame and didn't want to hang out with us as we walked. Lol.

k4 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

v15 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr



The shrine was pretty, there were lots of kids all dressed up too! In like, little kimono outfits, so kawaii! The pathways of the shrine were lined with stone lanterns all throughout the area. We explored parts but when there got to be too many stairs we decided to say we'd seen enough! Lol. We were not up for unexpectedly climbing a mountain for the third day in a row!

IMG_1688 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

IMG_1701 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

IMG_1710 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

IMG_1719 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr



The Buddha Shrine was next, it was pretty easy to get to, and there were deer EVERYWHERE! Along with people, SUCH a cluster! We took our time wandering through the crowds & up to the gates, where we realized you had to pay, and it was more than we were willing to spend on temple seeing. Especially since you could see through the gates! Lol.

IMG_1728 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

IMG_1732 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr



Kara wanted to feed the deer again, so we picked up more crackers & she fed them again! They were going insane with the biting! (Just her clothes though) they kept grabbing the waistband of her leggings & snapping them on her! Bahaahha!! As we were just about to leave the area we got approached by a group of school children who were learning their English. They had a worksheet of a few questions to ask us & fill out; where we were from, our names, what we thought about their culture & something about where we were from. They took pictures with us & then gave us a little paper crane mobile to thank us for our time! SO CUTE!



Not even 5 minutes a second group stopped us and we did the same thing, lol. It was super cute & I enjoyed talking with them, they were all super polite & were excited when we said we were from Canada! Hahaha! Kara & I found our way back to the train station where I picked up a snack for the train;

k5 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr



& found our way back home; we updated notes & vlogs & called it a night. I mean, we were tired, it was the first day in Kyoto we'd actually stayed out ALL DAY, bahahaha!!

 

[missangelalexis]

Beautiful pics of Matsumoto-jo!

Your time in Kanazawa sounds awesome. It's great that your hosts were able to take you out to places and organize group activities!

Love the photos at the Bamboo Grove & Monkey Grove!

Those deer pictures are awesome (especially the selfies!!), what a fun experience!

I'm sorry you started to feel ill, how nice of Kara to bring you back a present!

The pictures at Daigo-ji are so beautiful!

 

[katt789]

LOVE those deer selfies! How cute is that deer!!!
Butt heading deer does sounds funny, but seriously, glad you were not hurt!

It is kind of funny that you were asked to have the photos taken with locals. Nara is one of the most visited place, and it's not rare to see foreign tourists these days. I am wondering if they thought you girls were actresses or someone famous? Or maybe they were your social media followers... Or were you doing one of those impressive dance moves like you did in the bamboo forest?

Bamboo forest and Fushimi Inari...2 places I would looove to visit in Kyoto! They are so beautiful!

Too bad to hear ill-mannered tourists though. I think tripods are banned in most places in Kyoto. And it's common sense not to use them in narrow spaces or crowded place. But it's not like this is at Disney, where CM would be working around and checking offenders...

Hope you will have a magical time at WDW!

They were all so adorable!! (I also totally missed a Nara update when you read them! No tsure if you caught that1)

Hahahah, I'd heard it happened a lot, I know the last 2 were school groups who were doing projects that involved talking to tourists & taking their picture with us!

They're so amazing!! I'm so glad we got to see them!! THat wouldn't surprise me!! I had looked into a tripod for the trip but didn't end up having money for one, I think I'll end up getting one of those beanbag camera holder things lol for the future trips!!

Beautiful pics of Matsumoto-jo!

Your time in Kanazawa sounds awesome. It's great that your hosts were able to take you out to places and organize group activities!

Love the photos at the Bamboo Grove & Monkey Grove!

Those deer pictures are awesome (especially the selfies!!), what a fun experience!

I'm sorry you started to feel ill, how nice of Kara to bring you back a present!

The pictures at Daigo-ji are so beautiful!

Thank you!!! It was SUCH a great time, honestly I don't remember too much about the city itself but Kara & I will ALWAYS speak highly of the guest house, it was so amazing!!!

Thanks! It was SO fun, we loved hanging out with the deer, and the bamboo grove was stunning!!
I think my body just needed a bit of a break, I'm just happy it happened the day it did lol! Right? She's awesome!!

 

[katt789]

Monday October 24th

Today is the DAY! We are travelling to our FINAL destination in Japan!!! Ahhhh!! WHERE DOES THE TIME EVEN GO?!?!??



Kara & I headed down to Kyoto station, where we booked seats for Hiroshima. There was a bit of a panic when the agent said "its sold out". Thankfully, the English was a barrier, and there was one a few hours later, it was JUST the one right away that was sold out! Phew! We booked it, and hung around the waiting room for an hour or so before we stopped for lunch.

k1 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr



They had neat coffee things, which smelt SO GOOD, I had to get a coffee, lunch was good, then it was back to the waiting room for another hour or so before we FINALLY got to get on a train!! The first leg was a bullet train from Kyoto to Osaka & I KID YOU NOT WE WERE THERE IN FIFTEEN MINUTES!

k4 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

Man! We really could've gone to Universal for cheap!! Guess we know for next time!

k5 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr



We had a brief stop where we ate some ice cream & pretended we had visited Osaka before boarding the second train & soon found ourselves in Hiroshima! The hostel had sent us specific directions on various modes of transportation on how to get there from the station, and as I was pulling it out, a station...information... Worker(? Bahaha) nearly ran up to us to help us out! She gave us multiple maps & confirmed what we pretty much already knew, but it was just SO NICE!! We thanked her profusely & headed to the exit.



There were a few ways to get to our hostel & one was to take the sightseeing bus, and since it was FREE with a JR pass, you can bet which one we went for. We got outside & barely had time to look around before a random Japanese woman came up asking if we needed help finding anything! SERIOUSLY THIS PLACE IS WONDERFUL!! We said we were headed to the sightseeing bus & she pointed us in the right direction. I then saw her run over to the "out of service" bus to talk to the driver quickly before she ran all the way over to the bus stop to confirm with us what time it came & direction it went! SO NICE!!



Shortly after boarding the bus we arrived at Santiago Guesthouse Hiroshima. It was...interesting... A very basic hostel set up. We were in an 8 bed dorm, they were kind of capsule like beds, which at first Kara thought was super cool lol. The odd thing to me was that there was simply a code to get into the FLOOR of the hostel & then no locks on any of the doors.... So anyone on your floor could waltz into your room? Yup. AND the code for each floor was the SAME, so legit ANYONE could waltz into your room. I thought it was super sketch, but Kara said she'd stayed in worse in Europe & I definitely believe that! At least it was all super new & clean!!



Looking at the map on the way in we'd noticed multiple Daiso's and a Donki super close by, with ONE LAST CHANCE to get onesies, we went on our way. THE STORE WAS HUUUUGE! We're talking, like, 6 floors of cheap goodness!!

v00 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr



We both picked up some crazy kit-kat flavors, some face masks, I debated buying colored contacts for cosplay, and alas, we found NO ONESIES. (That were Disney) UGH! Kara wished she had bought the Stitch one at the first store we'd been at!! Sad about that, we ended up wandering around the streets for a while just checking things out. I was surprised to see that Hiroshima was a very big city, the area we were in was full of super tall buildings and neon signs! Eventually, we stumbled upon a super adorable Italian place & ended up having pizza & sangria for dinner! Bahaha! It was really delicious & the place was SO cute!

k3 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

k2 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

Kara got the "American pizza" which was pizza with French fries on it, she'd had it in….Italy? Somewhere in Europe, but we're like 999999% SURE that THESE FRIES WERE LEGIT FROM MCDONALDS! Like, actually. They were also just kinda thrown on top, she said the one in Europe was way better, though I could imagine McD's tasting fries on a delicious pizza crust would be the BEST drunk food. They also had wine bottle like, chandeliers here, I thought I had a pic, but I must've just snapped it!

Kara & I LOVED our dinner & headed back to our Hostel where we put some of our Donki Face masks to work!

v0 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

(I had no clue she took that picture) THOUGH, she creeped up into my bed space and I thought she looked like something from a horror movie, bahahha! I posted the pic to Facebook and HER MOM of all people was the person to comment "that's creepy" BAHAHAH

k6 by Katt McCluskey, on Flickr

Really tho…

Despite the horror movie villain in the bunk under me, I did eventually get to sleep that night. Both Kara & I thought at first that the SLIGHT "capsule" style beds were cool, and had no problems, and thought they were comfy…at FIRST. Like, halfway through the night, not so much, it wasn't the greatest sleep either of us had.