Japan for the first time

Last year there was a graduation trip planned. Jr. was finishing her masters at UCI. My in-laws were visiting for the graduation and the plan was to go to two national parks in Colorado. My dad passed away. The trip was cancelled. We did manage to literally come back after the rituals were done and go straight for the graduation ceremony.

This spring we decided to do that grad trip. Unfortunately the little one could not join us. She was interviewing for jobs and was trying to finish her 4 year school in 3 years.

My BFF wanted to go on a trip together and we combined everything. So six of us went on a week long adventure to Japan. My friend has traveled to Japan a dozen times in his early Intel years but had selective memories of only Tokyo. A lot of stuff was new to him as well.

Most of the planning was done by Jr. , San and my friend. I gave a few inputs using copilot and found a few gotchas in the plan and found two Viator tours to save us a day. Other than that my contribution was a big zero. Did play photographer for the entire trip.

We covered Osaka, Hiroshima, Kyoto, Tokyo, Mt. Fuji all in that week. We were welcomed to Japan with an amazing view of Mt. Fuji from the plane. All the passengers came to the windows on the right and that must have made it difficult for the pilot as the weight shifted!

A short highlights video..

As soon as we landed in Osaka airport, Jr. told us to get the SUICA app and cards loaded to our phone. We did not listen to her. To this day we regret not taking her advice. We had enough Yen, we told her!

We took a train from the Osaka airport to the Osaka Namba area. Quickly checked into the Tokyo Inn at the Osaka Namba. There were kiosks to check in. It was interesting that the staff just watched as we were asked to scan passports and credit cards etc.

After a quick freshening up, we came back down for our first sightseeing within a few hours of landing. Did I mention this trip was planned rather meticulously?

Bear Creek (கரடி சிற்றோடை) trail hike

There are no bears .. or creeks for that matter at Bear Creek trail. There are no view points that go as far as the eye can see either. Giant redwoods everywhere, the sunlight filtering through those trees, moss, ferns and lichens, paths that curve around to add to the mystique, a final loop that has the clouds condensing and making rain on one half of the loop and you walk into nice and bright sunshine on the other half !

A lavender meadow being created by the park authorities on the knoll high up.

We spent this morning doing an 8 mile+ hike in this beautiful place. It is our second visit.

As usual, we did have chai and biscuits after starting our way back.

Here are the photos..

and a video highlights reel..

A morning well spent!

Del Valle Regional Park

It has been a busy 10 days. A quarter of my pre-molar broke off. An attempted filling by a backup dentist saw me eat the filling within a few hours of it being done.

Then a gum infection that has threatened the existence of two teeth, pain, pus, antibiotics, repeated visits to the dentist and staring at gum surgery in the near future.

In spite of all this and pulling out of a conference that I really looked forward to going since November, the last 10 days had their moments. Did manage to finish a 60 day challenge just before all this happened. There was a lot of music in my life, thanks to SIFA and Paadarivom Padipparivom. To add a highlight to this, yesterday the hiking group pulled me into an almost 9 mile hike.

Had a bad cold the previous night but was giving a lot of support from the group and they said “you have hiked with us in worse condition. So this is not an acceptable excuse!”.

We left Cupertino at 2 and reached Livermore a little after 3 PM. Started hiking right away. We finished and came back down by 7PM. We did have a 15 minute Chai, Cookie and Vazhapoo Vadai break at the top.

It was nice and sunny and the sun was beating down on us. There is no tree cover for this hike.

Thoroughly enjoyed it. Initially it was a struggle for me with the stuffy nose, but once it cleared off, enjoyed the East Shore trail.

Here are the pictures..

and here is a highlights video reel..

We will most likely to on another trail in this same park next winter..