Kyoto (City of the Typhoon)

We headed to Kyoto using public transportation again with our giant bags...again.  It is definitely an experience to lug around 20 kilo bags in trains full of working businessmen and school children. I definitely can't wait to be home again and not need to lug around my bag everywhere I go!  We arrived in Kyoto and met up with our couchsurfing host!  We decided in Kyoto we would have the real Japanese experience, also Kyoto is very expensive and this is a great cheap way to travel!  So far we have loved couchsurfing and Kyoto was no exception!  Our host was a friendly 26 year old guy who was born and raised in Kyoto, he had just spent 9 months in Australia and wanted to keep working on his English!  So we traded English speaking for a free bed for two nights!

We only had one full day in Kyoto so it was packed.  Lots to see and do in this city.  But not only that, we also had a  Typhoon that was rolling through.  We were not deterred!  We put on our rain jackets and grabbed an umbrella and headed out the door to our first stop Nijo Castle.

Nijo Castle

Unfortunately Nijo Castle was closed due to weather AKA Typhoon Halong!  Our next stop was Kinkakuji Temple.  We took a hop-on-hop-off bus for the whole day.  This was a nice way to see lots of the sights in one day and stay somewhat dry!

Golden Pavilion 

Kinkakuji Temple in an a beautiful area surrounded by lots of amazing trees, mountains, and gardens.

Pretty Cool Waterfall!

Nice Stairs 

Our second stop was Ginkaku-ji.  Another very famous sight in Kyoto.  This was built by the grandson of the guy who built the last one so it is somewhat similar but this one has the Silver Pagoda and not the Golden One.  This had a really cool forest track that lead into the hills where you got a view of the city!

Silver Pagoda!

It's Still Raining...

 After spending more time in the rain we headed to downtown Kyoto for lunch.  We found this great sushi train place online so we decided to try it out.  By the time we got there we were soaked because this was the worst part of the rain!  We headed into the restaurant enjoyed our free green tea to warm up and ate LOTS of sushi!

Sushi Train

After lunch we headed back to the route where our bus would pick us up.  This involved crossing a bridge, which was over a crazy flooded river.  The water was so high and the current was very strong.  It was fun, but a little scary, to watch, especially while on the bridge!

Look At That Water!

After crossing the river we wondered around the streets for a couple hours enjoying the sights and stumbling into some other temples and towers.

Tall Tower!

More Amazing Architecture

 We finally hopped back on the bus and ended up at the Kyoto train station.  Here we were going to catch the JR line to Fushimi Inari Taisha unfortunately due to weather the train was not running.  This was quite a bummer!  Luckily we were on time to catch a bus which takes longer, but still takes you there!  This was a really amazing shrine.

Quick Selfie!

 The Shrine is a walk up a hill with lots of these red things:

It Was Still Raining

Lots of Red Gates (AKA Torii)

After spending some time walking through literally thousands of these gates we headed back into the city and then back to our couchsurfing home!  Once we got back we changed into some dry clothes and then headed out for dinner with our host.  He took us to a Japanese fast food place where you order the food through a vending machine and then pick it up at the counter!  Pretty neat stuff!  We then headed back to our bed for the night, tomorrow we take another long bus trip into the Japanese Alps to visit Takyama! 

Hiroshima

We arrived in Hiroshima at around noon after 6 LONG hours of train transit.  We took public transit with our GIANT bags and had to transfer 4 times.  It was pretty ridiculous, although in the end it all worked out!  Once we arrived we headed to our hotel which had an AMAZING view of Peace Memorial Park and the Dome.  We admired the view, took a nap, and grabbed some lunch from 7 Eleven!  Everything here we did not know what it was!

Interesting Lunch! 

After lunch we took a nap and watched a movie, all this transit really catches up to you!  Then we headed out to dinner, Joel wasn't feeling great so we walked around trying to find something to eat.  Soon we found an amazing Okonomiyaki place.  This is the traditional food for this are.  IT WAS AMAZING!

Making Okonomiyaki

 This dish involves a crepe, then cabbage, and your choice of meat (octopus and beef for us), then seasoning, and egg, and BBQ sauce (of sort).  Anyway it is huge and delicious!

Half an Okonomiyaki, We Needed to Share!

Making 5 at Once!

After enjoying our delicious dinner, where we got to sit and watch this talented chef cook and enjoying eating at the same time we headed back to our room for some sleep!  Tomorrow we explore Hiroshima!

Our first stop of the day was Peace Memorial Park.  We walked over there from the hotel and our first stop was Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.  This was an extremely informative museum with lots of information about Hiroshima, the Atomic Bomb, and nuclear war. We spent several hours walking around and reading all the signs and listening to the audio tape.

The Museum

A Watch From the Bomb (Frozen at Exactly 8: 15)

 This watch was one of the most chilling things I saw in the museum, not sure why but this watch really hit home for me.  Many of the stories were also chilling. One was about a young girl who was 2 when the bomb was dropped and later was diagnosed with cancer, she made cranes to help fulfill her wish to get better.  Unfortunately she passed away, but ever since thousands of cranes get set to Hiroshima in remembrance as well as people wishing for peace.

One of the Amazing Crane Signs

So Many Cranes Set in Goodwill

 After the museum we headed over to the dome, this is where the bomb was dropped.  The building is the remains, one of the only things that survived.  It was really shocking to see.

The Dome

We also walked by the Dome and headed to the exact location where the Bomb was dropped.  I definitely got goosebumps standing there.  It is the location where history changes, forever.  And thousands of people died.

Epicenter 

View of Peace Memorial Park

After walking around Peace Memorial Park we headed to the Hiroshima Castle to see some of the older history in the area.  It was really nice, and very peaceful.  Definitely a very different feeling to early in the morning.

Rammy Ram Came Along Too

After the castle we headed to another Okonomiyaki place, this one if three stories high and has about 30 different little restaurants all serving Okonomiyaki.  You choose one and sit down.  It was pretty cool to see so many different restaurants serving the same thing and still being busy!

Rammy Ram Joining Us For Dinner!

After dinner we headed back to the room for a movie, we also spent some time looking at the Peace Park in the dark.  Tomorrow we head to Kyoto to explore another city!  (Another 6 hour train ride!)

Osaka! (via a LONG time in KL!)

We left Vietnam early in the morning, once again.  The airport in Hanoi was probably one of the oldest airports I have ever seen.  It even had signs up that told you to bring your VHS's in your check in.  Could not believe that was a thing!  Also our tickets were hand written.....by a person!  Not a computer (shocking I know!)  Anyway we got to KL around 1 pm and had about a 12 hour wait till our next flight! Lots of time and not a lot of things to do. KL is new, but not a great airport.  There is almost nowhere to sit and lots of people were sleeping or hanging out on the floor.  And most importantly no food place takes VISA or American Cash, so you need to either go pull out cash or exchange your money for Malaysian currency....  This was not convenient at all!  Anyway after spending 12 hours there we checked into our flight, 7 hours later we arrived in Osaka!  Welcome to JAPAN!  It was clean and quiet!  So refreshing 

One of Our First Stores in Japan

After figuring out train tickets, which was tricky, we headed into the city to check into our hotel early and take a nap! Joel figured out an amazing train ticket that lets you travel 5 days on any JR line for only 120 dollars.  Although it takes longer, it is going to safe us hundreds of dollars!  But back to Osaka, after checking in we headed for some lunch/dinner!  Our first stop was some drinks, we also discovered that no one in Japan really speaks English.  This is going to make everything very interesting!

Frozen Beer Slushy!  First Drink in Japan

After some drinks, I had the frozen beer, we headed to lunch/dinner.  And shockingly we had sushi!

Japanese Restaurant!

Sushi! AKA Sashimi!

After eating we headed back to our hotel for some R and R.  Went to bed around 6 pm, which was awesome, so much sleep!!!!  Unfortunately we woke up at 6 am to head to Hiroshima!  Another 6 hours of train for the next city!

Halong Bay

During our time in Hanoi we spent two days in Halong Bay which is east of the city.  It is by far one of the most famous things to do, and probably one of the most beautiful in the area.  We decided to take a cruise using Galaxy cruise lines, although this was a little more expensive we were told the splurge was worth it!  And it was!  I bought the tickets (Joel's was his birthday gift!) and we headed to Halong!  We got picked up in a mini-van with around 14 other people, our cruise companions for the next two days and drove the four hours to our ship.  Around noon we hopped on the ship and started our adventure!  The weather was great and the ship was amazing!

Enjoying Some Time in the Sun!

The Food Was Amazing 

The crew that we were with were truly awesome!  The food was great, the company was great, and they really went out of their ways to make it a good experience for others!  A couple on the ship had a birthday for example and they bought a cake for them and sang Happy Birthday which was so sweet.  (Plus we all got cake, so that was definitely a bonus!)

Our First View of the Amazing Ship

Wearing Life Jackets to be Safe!

 Our first stop after lunch on the ship and dropping of our stuff were the caves.  It was this really cool location where underground caves had been discovered.  Very impressive and extensive!  We actually liked it WAY more than we thought we would.

Heading to the Caves in Our Smaller Boat

Cool Formations!

Really Big Caves!

At one point you climbed up stairs in the caves and ended up at the top of one of the rock formations looking out on the water!  What an amazing view!

View From the Top!

 After the caves we spent some time hanging out on the ship while it sailed to the next location!  It was definitely hot, and I had to spend some time in the shade!

Suntanning?

 We then made it to our second location where we could hike or swim.  Well both Joel and I chose to "hike" and I use this world loosely as we timed our 'hike' and it only took about 8 min!  So not too hard.  But cool views from the top!

View From Our 'Hike' Location

All the Ships in the Water

So Many Rock Formations!

Taking A Break After All that Hiking!

 We then headed back to the ship for the sunset and some delicious dinner!

View From Our Room!

Sunset in Halong Bay!

 After dinner, night had fallen so we spent some time on the top of the ship looking at all the other ships!  There were tons out there and the lights were beautiful!  We also tried our hand at some squid fishing, which was cool, although we didn't actually catch anything!

Blurry Night Photo

 The next morning was early as we awoke for breakfast and then some more sailing around, this time even Rammy Ram came out for some fun in the sun!

He Was Looking A Little Pale, Some Sun Will Be Good!

We then hopped into some kayaks and played in the water for a while!

Some Sort of Cave!

Pretty Cool!

Finally as lunch approached we headed back to the dock to catch our ride back to Hanoi!  But not before seeing some more beautiful sights!

Halong Bay, Really Amazing!

Couldn't Have Asked For Better Weather!

We still had two more days in Hanoi and then it is off to Japan!