Chanel Adikuono 6/8/16 Chanel Adikuono 6/8/16

Thirteen Days in Japan- Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, and Hiroshima

My Japan trip was intended as a graduation present to myself in 2015 for defeating Graduate school, and getting my Masters in International Relations (IR) at one of the top IR school's in the world, School of International Service in Washington, DC. More significantly, this trip was my "coming home" trip to my homeland of Jakarta, Indonesia. I immigrated to the US when I was nine years old. Due to my green card status, I did not have the opportunity, and privilege to visit back home. By the time I was able to obtain my citizenship, and I was old enough to travel, college came around and took up most of my time to do leisurely things. Then my first full-time job kicked-in, and you know how the pattern of "adulting" takes place.

The initial travel plan was to go to Indonesia. Recognizing the over than eighteen hours of flight I decided to maximize the cross country trip. At this time, my good high school friend Xyryl had been in missionary with her church in Hiroshima. She kindly offered for me to stay with her and her church housing in Hiroshima! Naturally, I decided to make a stop over to Japan before heading over to Indonesia.

As I was planning for Japan, serendipitously a good coworker of mine, Alex was accepted into the Malaysia-Indonesia abroad Graduate program. She wanted to travel before her program, and I lured her to join in the Japan adventure! We ended up overlapping a few days, and did a few days of travel throughout various parts of Japan together. In summary, Japan was a trip of a thousand steps. I am pretty sure I took fifty thousand. Who knows? I don't own a fitbit. Therefore, I will breakdown this blog into each city I visited.

A few ground rules in Japan Overall:

People walk and stand on the opposite side of the road as the US would. So stand on your left, and walk on the right!
Japanese people also take their lines seriously, I have never seen the most organized subway entrance during rush hour. They actually form single lines on the train platforms, theres none of that US barbaric clumping on the sides of the door situation
Japanese citizens are very polite, bow, and say "thank you" frequently. In general, they have a code of good citizenry. When you are lost, although their English is not as good using non-verbal language goes a long way. They will walk you to your train station no matter how many times you insist that they get back to their schedules. Do not be alarmed, they want to help you, and unlike many other countries do not be wary; their intentions are good
Food carry out does not exist, do not bother asking to take your leftovers to go
Japanese people also do not believe in modifying their dishes. It is an insult to request for certain parts of the food to be taken out. They do not understand that you are vegan, vegetarian, and/or could possibly die from peanut allergies (not sure how they manage this)
Eating while walking is frowned upon. Street foods are hard to come by, and if you do find one they often encourage you to stand and eat around their stalls before you conclude your journey
Expect to keep all your trash in your bag, because you will hardly see the sight of trash cans. As this is part of the culture of discouraging polluting
Bring a coin purse, because they only have paper currency for big bills, and everything else are coins

Tips

Purchase your JR Rail Pass in advanced. I bought a 7-day JR Rail Pass, which allows unlimited access to the JR Express, JR Bullet Trains, and JR Local, which will get you to all of the key destinations across Japan
In addition to the JR, there are also local Japan trains in each major city. Each station has their own automatic machine, and generally you buy this at the time of travel
The Ghibli Museum, is the famous Japanese Animation studio, and features the creators of Totoro, Spirited Away, and all other famous Miyazaki animation film, and the like. I encourage you to book your ticket months in advanced, and this requires you to go to the Japanese embassy to obtain. Read on their website thoroughly
Most amusement parks i.e. Disneyland after 5pm have discounted tickets of 50%. You probably didn't go to Japan to go to Disneyland or Harry Potter World, but if you did save money
Japanese hostels are the way to go. Japan is known for efficient and compact room, and boarding. You can choose between your Western style hotels or the Ryokan style housing or the ultra modern capsule rooms. The options are endless.
1. Tokyo- I choose the Anne Hostel, four-shared room in the Tatami Mat style (sleeping on the floor, but don't let it fool you they are quite comfortable)
2. Kyoto- I choose a budget hotel, Daiwa Roynet through Japanican.com for a decent price, and I JR trained over to Osaka for a day-trip, and JR trained back. Kyoto to Osaka is only an hour-ish away
3. Hiroshima- Courtesy of Xyryl, but I would have stayed in a hostel or AirBnB otherwise. You can also go to Miyajima from Hiroshima (3 hours trip)
As for sight-seeing, I did the bulk of mine solo. I like to explore around on my own, and not feel rushed. I had to compromise in Kyoto as I was limited on time. The one tour I do recommend is the Kyoto Morning Tour, and you can purchase other tours/ events, and even lodging through Japanican.com.

Finally the journey!

Tokyo (4 Days)

Ueno Park with Alex

Cute carousels themed after Japanese children shows.

The park had many temples and shrines located throughout the park.

Shinjuku Gyoen National Park

Meiji Shrine

Shibuya Crossing

The calm before all the pedestrians on the periphery start to cross simultaneously from all directions.

Senso-Ji

This was one of the more impossible places to take pictures without tourists photobombing. The energy was fun here, because there were so many activities going on- hundreds of souvenir stalls, and street food stalls.

Tsujiki Fish Market

Japan set the highest of standards and bar of eating sushi for me for the rest of my life. Here is the raw tuna with seared fatty tuna.

Ryogoku- "Sumo Wrestle Town"

I made a new friend during my hostel stay! Meet Chloe pictured below. Alex had already gone to her next destination in Japan, and I needed an extension in my hostel. I opted for the 12 shared female dorm. Chloe was my bunk mate, and she's from New England. She's super rad, and was totally down to go see a Sumo, and eat raw fish with me. Even if she didn't like sushi or she thought she didn't. Until she tried Tsujiki fresh sushi!! Unfortunately, the Sumo matches were all out of season when we were there, and we happen to run into these Sumo wrestlers taking a break in the alley. Like creepers we asked for their pictures hoping they wouldn't beat us up.

Chanel Adikuono 4/27/16 Chanel Adikuono 4/27/16

Five Days in Espana, Madrid

I embarked on my journey to Spain and Morocco during my Spring Break in March of 2014.

Here's how it went...

Buenos Dias! I returned from my trip to Spain, Madrid a little over two weeks ago. It felt like I woke up from a dream. In five nights I was able to pack festivities from free museum admissions (Mondays-Saturdays after 6pm) at Reina Sofia to eating light snacks of tapas at Mercado de San Miguel.

I arrived to a warm Spain morning to Nikki’s front door located at the heart of downtown Spain, Calle Pizzaro also known as the gay district of Chueca. All around I see beautiful European architecture - apartments with mini balconies and double windows covered in vibrant pink, yellow, and green paint. The sun kissed across my face was the refresher I needed after buried in the long winter of DC.

We walked around Gran Via to check out the buzzling city shops, and walked across many quaint cafes. The aura of the town was relaxing, and you can feel that everyone was enjoying life. Its easy to get caught up in the fast-paced American life. The sitting down and chat over cafe con leche (to later find out I am a fan of cafe bonbon aka coffee with a lot of condense milk. If you aren’t like me, and actually like coffee stir clear) was the perfect remedy.

After our cafe we went and walked over to see more of the city, and passed by Palace de Madrid, and this was when I was confronted by the death of my SD card. Perhaps this was the universe's way of telling me to capture and enjoy my moments organically. I survived in capturing some of my moments using my Iphone.

Of course in every European city, low and behold some majestic cathedral. Mainly in Spain there was more than an average number of Cathedrals, as a predominantly Catholic community. As a non-practicing Catholic I can still appreciate, and will always be impressed by the ceiling and window embellishments of Catholic cathedrals.

Onwards to our next journey towards Mercado de San Miguel for a lunch stop. I loved Mercado de San Miguel. Mercado is Espana for market. In my four days I probably went here three times, and still would not mind going to try the different patisseries and tapas.

The next few days followed the same pattern of seeing different sites/ attractions with eating and drinking in between. It was extra special on the third day when a good friend from college Elaine joined us. The museums I visited were Museo De Reina Sofia, Museo de Historia de Madrid, and Museo Nacional Del Prado.

One of my favorite parks after a long stroll through the city, and rest was Parc Buen Retiro. It is one of the largest parks located in the city of Madrid. They have a nice sculptured fountain, and you can ride a paddle boat for a cheap cost. I opted out for that, and opted in for a classic stroll through the park.

From Spain, we flew a short 2 hour flights flying with a budget airline, Ryanair to Morocco, Marrakesh costing a total of approx. $267 round-trip all-inclusive of taxes, and fees.