Japan – the first few days

We have had such a great start to our Japan trip! For the first leg of our flight from Edmonton to Vancouver, Lleyton and Adalynn sat together two rows behind Jarett and I and they did great! We weren’t able to change the seats as we were in the emergency exit seat but they were so big and did great on their own.  From Vancouver to Osaka the flight was good too.  They only got a couple of hours of sleep but were happy and great.  The Carson kids slept even less but were also awesome!  When we arrived in Osaka we had a list of things to do and it all went quite smoothly thanks to our planning.  Before long we had our train passes and were off to our hotel.  After checking in we ended up heading to 7-11 and getting some yummy sushi, skewers and other take-out to bring back to the hotel before getting to bed.

Our family did pretty good with the time change.  The kids woke up at midnight and 2am but were able to fall back to sleep pretty well.  We took the train to Kyoto, dropped our luggage off at our airbnb and were ready for our first day of exploring.  We first walked around the grounds of the Imperial Palace which was beautiful.

 

After that, we explored the Nijo Castle and then let the kids run around the nearby playground.  We came back to our place here and then went out for a yummy supper.  We were all in bed super early!

 

This morning we were up early (partly on purpose and partly still jet-lag) to go see the Fushimi Inari shrine.  This was high on our list of places to see and we wanted to go early before the crowds got there.  We were so glad we did. It was so beautiful.  We were able to walk and see so much get a sense of peace there.  The kids all did great especially as so much of it was up hill.  Afterward we enjoyed some matcha green tea ice cream!

From there we headed to the Nishiki market which is a known as Kyoto’s kitchen. We sampled lots of yummy food and wandered around the beautiful area.

After this we went back to our place for a little break.  We then headed out to the Arashiyama area of Kyoto. We went up to the monkey park. Again, this was an uphill walk for a good distance and the kids all did so well.  The hike up the mountainside was breathtaking and the monkeys that we got to see at the top were so cute.  It was a really neat experience.

After that, we walked and saw the beautiful famous bamboo grove that was nearby.  It was busy at the time we visited but still beautiful.

We took the train home and found ourselves a great little restaurant nearby for dinner and then came home and got the kids ready for bed.  We aren’t too far behind them.  Yesterday was 15km of walking and today was about 20km.

Tomorrow we have more plans for exploring this beautiful city!