Perhaps since the first time I heard Jpop music in 6th grade, or from the first time I watched an episode of anime in 7th grade, I have wanted to visit Japan.  This desire reached a peak towards the end of high school, and went into a sort of "something I want to do eventually" area of my brain sometime in college.  I wanted to spend some time in Japan, but I had things I needed to accomplish first.  Thus, this desire was left alone for almost 10 years.

At the beginning of August, I found a deal for cheap tickets on TheFlightDeal.com for Japan.  I asked my brother whether he was interested.  He said, "Yes", and so I bought the tickets (ended up being about $900 per person).  Just like that, I was going to fulfill this old, childish dream I had back when I was young and naive.

So, we started planning.  Much rather, I should say, my brother made a Google Doc with some ideas and points he had, and I took it the rest of the way to completion.  My brother had pointed out that we should buy a JR pass, which is sort of a ticket for unlimited rail transportation for a set number of days.  They had them for sale for 7-day, 14-day, and 21-day increments.  As we would be in Japan for 14 days, I bought the 14-day pass.  This may have been the best move for the whole trip, as the bulk of our travelling would be on these trains, which would end up saving us a lot of money (estimated savings of at least $600 per person), considering how much of Japan we ended up exploring.  Now, all we had to do was find the cities we wanted to see, book hotels or hostels in those places, make sure that there were rail lines that would take us there in time to make it, and calculate how much cash we would need (my brother ended up taking out around $1k in cash which we basically spent; and I would pay in credit card the places that accepted credit card).

OK.  Anyways.  So, we got on the plane (Virgin America to LAX and Singapore Air to Narita; both very good experiences with the food and staff).  A few hours later, we were in the airport.  First thing we did was exchange our JR Pass ticket to an actual JR Pass, which we could use.  That was when the clock started ticking.  The pass would be good for 14 days.  We then reserved seats on the Narita Express, which would take us from the airport to Tokyo Station in about an hour.

At Tokyo Station, we took the first Yamanote train to Uguisudani Station, which was the closest station to the place we would be staying at that night.  We then walked about 30 minutes to the Capsule Hotel.

The next morning, we woke up at around 4AM.  We got ready, checked out, then visited the Tsukiji Fish Market (where my brother was not impressed).  There, we walked around and ate some sushi, and bought some matcha.

We then made our way to Nagano, and stopped by Annakaharuna and Karuizawa along the way.  Annakaharuna was a bit of a rural area with nice scenery and plenty of vegetation.  Karuizawa was a massive shopping area corresponding roughly to an outlet mall in the U.S.  In Nagano, we stayed at a typical hotel, which, aside from being small, was very pleasant.  It was clean and the restroom worked well.

The next morning, we walked to the Zenkoji Shrine, where we soaked in the atmosphere, and had breakfast at the side of the road.

Then, we made our way to Matsumoto.  There, we stayed at a hostel, where we had some very entertaining conversations with fellow travelers staying there for the night, and visited Matsumoto Castle the next morning, which was quite a sight to behold.

We then rode the train down to Kyoto, where we walked around the Nishiki Market (where my brother was not impressed), the Imperial Palace (we couldn't actually go in because of time), and the Gion Historical District (where my brother was again not impressed).  That night, we stayed at a hotel (where my brother was impressed).  It was clean and comfortable, and the provided us with yukatas and a public hot spring bath, which we utilized.

The next day, we took the train down to Osaka, where we visited Den Den Town (where my brother was not impressed), bought Ayumi Hamasaki cds, visited a maid cafe, and ate some delicious ramen (where my brother was impressed).  Here, we stayed at a ryokan, which is more of a traditional Japanese hotel, with small rooms that consist of just a futon on a tatami mat floor, and common rooms where people can eat, watch tv, respond to calls from nature, etc.  I also did our laundry here.

The next day, we took the train to Himeji, where we walked around the famous castle, and then to Kinosaki-Onsen, which was the hot spring village we would be staying at that night.  We were treated as kings in the hot spring hotel.  We had a massive room all to ourselves, with windows overlooking the street.  We dressed in yukatas, and walked around the street, buying and eating grapes and apples, and had kobe beef for dinner.  When we got back to our room, they had already set up our futons.  We then went to the hotel hot spring bath, and relaxed from all the strain we had from walking around with luggage on our shoulders the last few days.

That morning, coincidentally also the morning of my birthday, I felt like I had won in the game of Life; I felt like a king.  I was very happy.  We got a ride from the hotel owner to the train station, and headed off to Yonago, where we looked at some old warehouses (where my brother was not impressed), built by rich merchants centuries ago.  At that point, the plan was to keep going to Matsue for a foot bath, but we decided to cut it out and go directly to Hiroshima, instead.  At Hiroshima, it was raining.  Despite the rain, we still went to visit Miyajima Island, and managed to take the most unflattering of pictures of it.  On our way back home, in the rain, we bought a slice of cheesecake as my birthday cake, which I ate in the quiet, dark, small room.  In a day, I went from being a king to being a beggar.

The next day, we rode the Shinkansen all the way to Fukuoka/Hakata, where we ate some raw squid sashimi (the squid was still alive and squirmed when I poked it).  We then went to Kumamoto to take some pictures of the pretty scenery there.  Then, we went back to Hakata, where I ate some Tonkotsu Ramen (while my brother waited, unimpressed).  Then, we went to Beppu, where I stayed up all night, drinking sake, and chatting with the travelers who were staying there.  I met a French guy (who also spent his recent birthday while in Japan), an Israel lady (who also spent her recent birthday while in Japan), and a Japanese lady (who was from a nearby city, and was just taking a vacation, but probably also spent her most recent birthday in Japan).  Unfortunately, we eventually said our good nights, and I never got their contact information to keep in touch.

The next day, we rode the Shinkansen back to Marugame.  Originally, we planned to go as far as Matsushima, but because we were suffering from fatigue, we decided to just relax in the hotel room.  We walked to a nearby supermarket and bought some food, which we ate back in our room.  Then, we called it a night and went to sleep.

Early the next morning, we took the Shinkansen to Nagoya, where we would stay that night.  Because my brother's source had told him that Nagoya was modernized and industrial, we didn't bother to go out to walk around.  Instead, I did laundry at the hostel (for the second and final time that trip) and we chatted with the travelers who were staying there.  We then went out and got some ramen (which my brother was not impressed with), and I bought some sake, and we went back to the hostel and drank it there.

The next day was spent mostly on the train, standing with our luggage on our shoulders.  Unfortunately, most of that week was a national holiday, and so everyone was going some place.  That meant that the trains were packed.  It was not fun.  We took the Shinkansen up to Fukushima, where we got off, and took a train to Shiroishi, and a taxi to Zao Fox Village, where we walked among foxes and watched them sleep and look for food.  Then, we took another train to Sendai, where we stood in line to reserve seats for the Shinkansen going to Hachinohe, where we would stay that night.  Once we got there, we dropped our luggage, went down to the convenient store, bought dinner, went back, plopped down, ate, and went to bed.  It was a tiring day.  Luckily the room had a comfy bed and a private bathroom we could use to shower in the morning.

The next day, we took the Shinkansen up to Aomori (where my brother was not impressed), where we bought apples, and I ate ramen and horsemeat sushi.  We then reserved seats for the next day's train ride back down to Tokyo, went back to the hotel room, and spent the evening there.  According to the original plan, we would have taken the overnight train up into Hokkaido, and then back down the following night, but all the seats were booked, so it wasn't worth it to get into Hokkaido this trip.  Too bad.

The next day, we took the Shinkansen back to Tokyo in complete comfort.  We then dropped off our bags at the hotel we would be staying at, bought some Taiyaki, ate it, then went to explore Akihabara (where my brother was unimpressed).  After that, we went back to the hotel, and I came back out at night to explore Shibuya, Shinjuku, and the side streets of Akihabara, where I found ladies who were dressed as maids, passing out flyers for their maid cafes.  I watched as they stood in a dark street, talking to people who ignored them.  I felt a little sorry for them, so I walked up to them, and took their flyers with a wide grin, which was met with a little bit of initial surprise, then what seemed like gratitude and happiness.  Unfortunately, maid cafes are expensive, so I just went back to the hotel and slept.

The next day, we went back out to check out Shibuya (where my brother was unimpressed) and Harajuku (where my brother was still unimpressed).  I found a 100 yen shop there, where I bought a bunch of souvenirs and useful things.

It was about noon, but my brother already wanted to go home.  So, we headed for the JR Tokyo Station, where we reserved seats for the Narita Express (NEX), and waited, got onto the train, got to the airport, waited something like 3 hours for the plane, got onto the plane, and flew back to L.A., where we stayed for a day.  We ate ramen at a place where I used to go when I was living in L.A. (where me and my brother were both unimpressed), then I drove my brother around the places where I would frequent in L.A. (where my brother was unsurprisingly unimpressed).  We went back to the motel, slept, woke up at 2AM (probably due to jet lag), returned the rental car, walked to the airport, waited for our plane, got on the plane, and went home.  As this post seems to be already plenty long, I'll just leave it at this, and make my conclusions from the trip in a separate post later.