Mount Fuji and Hakone

Third day of the trip…. Mount Fuji and Hakone! Definitely the highlight of our short time here in Japan so far. It was a beautiful experience and we were lucky to have clear skies to not impede our view of the mountain.

Definitely owe our entire great experience to our guide Taki, he was incredibly informative, fun, and interesting. Thanks Taki!

We took a tour that lead us up to Point 4 of Mount Fuji, and then to the surrounding lakes. Eating an authentic Japanese lunch at a cozy and quaint café near one of the lakes. From there, we then headed to various viewing spots around the Mount Fuji national park for different breathtaking views of the mountain.

After that we then headed to Hakone, where we enjoyed a boat ride on Lake Ashi. After the boat ride, we took a cable car ride up to the top of the 2nd tallest mountain the Hakone area for an awesome view of the lake below and Mount Fuji. There was also an old Shinto shrine a top the mountain that we got to investigate. Overall, it was an amazing experience and I hope the pictures give a glimpse to the epic scale of the mountain.

Some of the first Cherry blossoms to bloom in Japan

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Day Ni

We woke up at 5am today, still adjusting to the time difference…. Went to bed at a decent time the night before, but still couldn’t get that full night’s rest. We went and got breakfast (for free from the airline, by the way) and then grabbed our bus to the airport.

We arrived at the airport and saw this in the waiting area for our next flight and instantly knew we might be having some issues….

Joking aside, after a slight delay – our flight did finally get off the ground and we successfully arrived in Japan with little further trouble. Side note – Incheon airport was awesome. It was huge, very futuristic and had a lot of cool stuff going on.

Incheon Airport – Awesome mirrored dome you could enter

Once we finally got off the plane at Narita Airport, we then headed to our hotel and the culture shock already started to set in…. It was basically like we were on an alien planet but we had finally made it!

The crazy toilets are a true story by the way…. Anyhow, more to come later!

Day One…. Whew…

The first day started off pretty smooth… We boarded our American Airlines flight and reached LAX in California with no problems. We even managed to get our Korean Air tickets pretty easily and made it to our gate with little problems…. However, once we got there we had to wait, and wait and wait.

It turned out our flight to Incheon near Seoul, South Korea was delayed due to connecting flight delays. We didn’t worry much and boarded our flight for the oncoming 13 hour flight.

We got served a full course meal, the first of two! It was actually pretty good. I got some beef dish and Kyndra got chicken, it came with all the fixings… Including some amazing hot sauce that I loved called Gochujang paste. I’m a huge fan now. I observed the lady next to me using it indiscriminately and I definitely followed suit. On top of that, I saw someone in front of me watching Back to the Future with Korean subtitles. Score! I’ve never been on an intentional flight before and this plane was HUGE, plus had awesome touch screens filled with brand new movies. I watched Coco and I think that just came out like yesterday. Coco was only okay by the way….

The touch screens on our seats also included cameras where you could view live stream from the tail, bottom, and front of the aircraft. It was awesome!! The second picture above you can see we still had 6 and a half hours left… I already felt like it had been forever.

Eventually we arrived in South Korea and we instantly knew something was up when they asked large amounts of the passengers to stay behind in the lobby outside the gate. Eventually we found out that our original flight had left and they offered free accommodations for us for the night and would have a bus take us to the airport to catch a new flight to Tokyo tomorrow morning.

So here we are, staying at a nice Hyatt in Incheon, South Korea… We’re pretty tired now, so time to hit the hay… Delays aside its been a fun adventure and we made the best of it. More to come….

Japan, We Go!

Kyndra and I will be heading to Japan starting Wednesday the 28th, 2018. We’re heading from Sky Harbor airport to LAX airport in LA, from there we then head on a 15 hour flight to Seoul, South Korea. After a layover in South Korea, we’ll then be heading to Tokyo, Japan… Where the adventure really begins.

We hope you’ll all come join us in a digital landscape while we scamper around a foreign country in probably the most outrageous experience of our lives.

“We Go!” in a reference to my favorite Japanese anime One Piece, and the intro song for the show for many years… So in spirit of that, We Go!!!

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