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?
