We Wander… We Wonder!!

What to do on a long weekend in this new country we call home.

As a family we always try to spend long weekends in a special way to build memories, see new places, experience new things. Now that we’re in a new country, weekend at “home” is a new experience, new memory. After all, everything is still new for us.

Following advise from our destination service provider, it’s time to explore Japan before the government open the floodgates to tourists. And so we did, we went to Kyoto!

Sounds so so exciting isn’t it? 🙂

As with every journey we take in this new country we live in, we had no idea about time and distance of going from one place to the other. We rely heavily on Google maps, and may I advise all of you who are also new to a place and traveling with family to double the time Google maps estimate.

We took the Shinkansen/Bullet train from Shinagawa to Kyoto. 2.5hrs in a train 🙂 and this train travels at a speed between 200-275MPH. I do not know about you, but it’s not a good speed to look out the window and enjoy the view, it’s way to fast, my eyes can’t keep up. Here’s a sample video of how fast it goes in our perspective as a passenger

There are moments when we knew we’re far from the city, like this video.

At Kyoto, we are so impressed by the crowd. It is alive. We were one of the handful of tourists/foreigners wherever we go.

First stop is to visit and train like a Samurai at the Ninja and Samurai Museum of Tokyo. We have learned so much about the Samurais and their calling to protect and respect their duty. How much they train, they run as much as 30mi a day! There’s a weight requirement, and they need to be able to walk on a rice paper without making any noise. Wow, these Ninja’s are truly stealth.

Our training was longer than expected. I guess our Sensei enjoyed giving this family a lesson, probably enjoying company after long years of hiatus from the pandemic. We enjoyed every bit of it!

Once we finished our Samurai and Ninja lessons we head and walked along with the crowd. Mind you, we have no idea which direction, so we just follow the crowd. The crowd lead us to the main street. And there were gathering, commotion, people organizing themselves in front of this temple. There must be a show or something. We were so intrigued, we were curious, we thought, we should find out what this is. We sat our luggages and used it at our chair along the side walk. We watched and watch as people get ready, their kimonos changing color as the minutes progressed. An hour later, we found ourselves burried in the crowd. We were front row seat of a big festival. Next to us was a lady in wheel chair, behind us are 2 grandmas. All of us were friends by the end of the celebration. It was impressive to see the tradition continues. Especially after 2 years of being postponed.

The celebration ended at almost 8pm. It was dark, we’re so tired, we have no more patience to find the train and go to our hotel. We/I picked this hotel from the great location. It has a great view of the Lake Biwa. We hailed a cab, showed the address, the driver asked if it’s in Kyoto. For all I know, it is in Kyoto. I put in the search box, “hotels in Kyoto”. To my surprise the driver said, no, not Kyoto. After many hand gestures, and words spoken on both sides, which both sides did not understand, it took an hour to get to our Lake Biwa hotel. And large sum of Yen 🙂 We are happy to find a driver that took us that far, I am still wishing him the best. The hotel did not disappoint, the views are great, the service wonderful.

So many places to see in Kyoto, we truly underestimated the time it takes to visit the many sites. We did however went to see the Arashiyama Bamboo Grove. Popular for its densed bamboo forest and gardens. It is as beautiful in photo as in person. I can only imagine the crowd if it had not been open for tourist. It is serene, it is peaceful, it is zen.

We wander, we wonder, you wonder and wander with us. For this post here are some key points for families

1. Unless you are familiar where you are going to, it’s good to assume it takes 2x longer than what Google say so 🙂
2. Bring snacks. Lots and lots of snacks 🙂
3. Sometimes it is ok to not have a plan, we wanted to visit so many places, but we ran out of time. And that is ok

For future posts, we will talk about our food journey. This is one of the most asked on my updates.