We left Kobe a few days ago, it felt our visit was too short. On the first day, we went to Kyoto as a family. Our first stop was the Golden Pavilion in Kyoto. When we got there it started snowing, it was stunning. After we had finished the loop, we got ice cream to eat in the snow. We finished up at the Golden Pavilion, and we were all tired. My little brother wanted to go to the Pokémon Center, which is a store that sells anything and everything to do with Pokémon, except for Pokémon cards.

On day two my mom and I went to Hiroshima, and along the way made a quick stop in Himeji to see the castle. It’s 300 hundred miles to Hiroshima from Kobe, although that can be done in a little over an hour if you ride the Shinkansen [bullet train]. The Shinkansen travels at speeds of up to 300 kilometers an hour. It is also more expensive than flying to Tokyo from Kobe.

Himeji is a city named after the castle that sits in the center. Himeji Castle is the largest wooden building in Japan. We got to climb all the way up the keep, the stairs were very steep, and my dad may not have fit under some of the beams. We finished the castle then had a fabulous lunch at a small restaurant. Then we continued to Hiroshima.

We got to Hiroshima at 4:15, but by the time we got to the park it was 4:30 and the museum had become one way. Out only.  They did not let people in after 4:30.  They closed at 6.  We still got to see the park and the A-bomb dome. Seeing, Hiroshima I was disappointed that we [being the U.S] had come to the decision that total destruction was our only option.

On day three our whole family went to our Airbnb in Osaka. We got there a little after noon, so we decided to go to the aquarium. The main exhibit was a large tank with two whale sharks, rays, trevallies, and other fish. Overall this was one of the best aquariums I have ever been to. The variety of animals was astonishing.  I have been to many aquariums, as I am always interested to learn more about sea life and animals.  Now that we live on the ocean, most of the time, I am very interested in what is happening under the water.

The next day we spent in Universal Studios Osaka. I had never been to Universal Studios before so I was quite excited. The entry fee for our family was $600! It was totally worth it. We all had a great time. We got the fast pass, so we got to skip a lot of the lines on some rides. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter was awesome, even though I knew nothing about Harry Potter. There was a huge castle and a small town full of Harry Potter shops. We got Butterbeers to acompy our lunch. One of those is all the sugars you would need for a month, but they were gooooooooooooood!  Now, I have started to watch the Harry Potter movies.  I am interested, now.

On our last day, we went to the Osaka Castle. I have to say it looked cool from the outside but on the inside nothing was original, it was all a museum. On our way in some of my dad’s students from 2009 recognized him. They were visiting Osaka from Portland, Oregon. Small world, but I didn’t know the world was this small.

Travel tips for Japan.

• It is expensive so  be prepared

 

• People are very courteous, and things are very orderly

 

• Know how to say thank you it will come in handy, it is Arigato. By the way don’t be that dumb American who says Konnichiwa in the morning. Ohio is the standard greeting in the morning. Konnichiwa is only for the afternoon

 

• Getting from place to place is a piece of cake after a day or two. Everything is also written in English, and the trains are very simple.

• Japan is a very safe country it scored a one on some international safety rating.

 

One night my dad and I went on a quest for mochi. Which is a ball of ice cream with a delicious dough wrapped around it. We had noticed a small dessert shop down the street from our Airbnb, my dad and I walked in to see if they had any. My dad asked the man working there [he is almost fluent in Japanese, this made traveling even easier]. They didn’t have any, but the man got on his phone and looked for a place nearby that sold mochi. He found one and noticed the were closing in five minutes, so he proceeded to call them and ask them to stay open a few moments late. Even now we don’t know if we found the right store. Anyway, we walked for a little bit, and we walked into a small restaurant. Then my dad asked if they any. They did, but it was a fancy kind of that didn’t have ice cream in the middle. So we think that was the right shop, but we aren’t sure. On our way back we stopped at a mini-mart to pick up a snack and tada the had mochi. This mochi was not fancy at all, but it suited my needs.

Just a little customer service story, even though we didn’t buy anything, he still helped us. He went far out of his way to help.