Vacation
Well I guess you've all been wondering where I've been for the last two weeks....or maybe not because I hardly ever update this journal XD.
I guess if anyone is interested, I was on vacation for two weeks to Japan and Taiwan. Now I have a couple of words to describe it.
Fun but exhausting.
So yeah I left on the 11th after going to Avenue Q with some friends, which was awesome by the way and I would recommend if it's playing in your area to see it. Anyway after that got home late and just stayed up with my brother until 3 am, as that's when we had to get up and get ready. Our family took a taxi to the airport where we had to wait two hours for the flight to Chicago. Then from Chicago on we finally flew to Tokyo. It was such a long flight, almost 14 hours >.<. And sitting in the middle sucks, especially when you want to go the bathroom.
So we're finally in Tokyo and we meet our tour guide and get settled into our first hotel, which was pretty nice. It had and AMPM there and I bought triple berry Kit Kats ^^. But the next day, we checked out of the hotel and all piled into the tour bus for the tour to actually start. The first city we visited was Tokyo itself which was pretty cool. I got to visit a nice busy market that sold a lot of interesting things in Asakusa and looked around Ginza which was nice. But the one thing that disappointed me was the fact I never got to go to certain places that I always wanted to go to, like Akihabara, Shibuya, and Tokyo Tower >.<. Seriously Tokyo Tower has been one of my dream places. Oh well, I guess that's what happens when you go on a tour.
But the tour wasn't that bad, we got to see so many different places in Japan. We went to Hakone the next day, and we got to eat black eggs which are boiled in the sulphur rich springs, stayed in a hotel with tatami mat rooms, and had to wear a yukata for dinner. The next day we got on the bullet train to Osaka which was really fun; the train moves so fast ^0^.
Osaka had a lot of interesting stuff to see and we went to Osaka Castle, which my brother told me he invaded in Samurai Warriors XD
The next few days we're sort of a blur for me all I remember is going to Kobe and visiting this market where I got some cute souvenirs for friends.
The one thing I do remember is Kyoto ^^. It's such a fun place, and there's so much history there! Not to mention my brother and I bought a lot of Shinsengumi related stuff, like the jackets ^^. Also we stayed in a five star hotel that night, the Kyoto Hotel Okura, which is pretty nice, and one of the best hotels we stayed in during the trip. Kyoto was also the place I got to try tonkatsu for the first time. We wen through this secluded alley way to this really nice restaurant which was pretty packed so we had to wait in line. But when we finally got settled in our food came by pretty quickly. And it is so good =w=, seriously the sauce is amazing and I had fun grounding up my own sesame seeds ^^.
That night there was also some parade going on, though I'm not sure what for, and I got to see priests and horses on the streets.
We finally ended our tour on Friday and left Japan at the airport in Osaka on Saturday.
It took two hours to fly to Taiwan and so we arrived in Taipei around 2 or three. When we got settled into our hotel our family took taxis to visit the Huaxi Street Tourist Night Market which was an interesting experience. There were so many things there and so much interesting stuff to see. There was even a guy holding a snake. After looking around for a bit we stopped to get some dinner. and found a really nice seafood restaurant, Tainan Peddler Noodle. The food was amazing and really fresh and the service is excellent. After dinner we took cabs to visit the famous 101 which is really cool. We rode on the world's fastest elevator to the observation deck. And the elevator really goes fast, so fast my ears popped 0.0. But the view from up the tower is so pretty ^^.
Sad to say that I really don't remember much of Taiwan, because I don't remember much the names of the places we went to. Except for Kaohsiung, and Hualien, which is a pretty nice small city. But there is one thing I remember seeing a lot of in Taiwan and that is temples, SO many temples @.@. I think that's what most of our tour consisted of, that and Kenting National park and Marble gorge in Hualien, but mostly temples. On our last day we took a train back to Taipei from Hualien and stayed in the same hotel as our first day. That night we went to another night market, I forgot the name, but it was so packed! I mean really packed, and it was a lot bigger than the other night markets we went to. So many interesting shops, and there are especially a lot of clothes stores there. My dad said it's very popular with young people and I can see why.
The next day we packed up our things and left for the airport. The plane trip was a lot shorter only about 10 or 11 hours and I kept myself busy playing with my DS XD. So we left Taiwan on Friday afternoon and came back to the states on Friday morning. I still don't really get timezones and it seemed to me that we went back in time XD.
So yeah that was my trip, a lot of fun but so tiring. And I really do want to go back to those places again, just probably not with a tour and visiting the places that I want to to go to at my own pace. ^-^
I guess if anyone is interested, I was on vacation for two weeks to Japan and Taiwan. Now I have a couple of words to describe it.
Fun but exhausting.
So yeah I left on the 11th after going to Avenue Q with some friends, which was awesome by the way and I would recommend if it's playing in your area to see it. Anyway after that got home late and just stayed up with my brother until 3 am, as that's when we had to get up and get ready. Our family took a taxi to the airport where we had to wait two hours for the flight to Chicago. Then from Chicago on we finally flew to Tokyo. It was such a long flight, almost 14 hours >.<. And sitting in the middle sucks, especially when you want to go the bathroom.
So we're finally in Tokyo and we meet our tour guide and get settled into our first hotel, which was pretty nice. It had and AMPM there and I bought triple berry Kit Kats ^^. But the next day, we checked out of the hotel and all piled into the tour bus for the tour to actually start. The first city we visited was Tokyo itself which was pretty cool. I got to visit a nice busy market that sold a lot of interesting things in Asakusa and looked around Ginza which was nice. But the one thing that disappointed me was the fact I never got to go to certain places that I always wanted to go to, like Akihabara, Shibuya, and Tokyo Tower >.<. Seriously Tokyo Tower has been one of my dream places. Oh well, I guess that's what happens when you go on a tour.
But the tour wasn't that bad, we got to see so many different places in Japan. We went to Hakone the next day, and we got to eat black eggs which are boiled in the sulphur rich springs, stayed in a hotel with tatami mat rooms, and had to wear a yukata for dinner. The next day we got on the bullet train to Osaka which was really fun; the train moves so fast ^0^.
Osaka had a lot of interesting stuff to see and we went to Osaka Castle, which my brother told me he invaded in Samurai Warriors XD
The next few days we're sort of a blur for me all I remember is going to Kobe and visiting this market where I got some cute souvenirs for friends.
The one thing I do remember is Kyoto ^^. It's such a fun place, and there's so much history there! Not to mention my brother and I bought a lot of Shinsengumi related stuff, like the jackets ^^. Also we stayed in a five star hotel that night, the Kyoto Hotel Okura, which is pretty nice, and one of the best hotels we stayed in during the trip. Kyoto was also the place I got to try tonkatsu for the first time. We wen through this secluded alley way to this really nice restaurant which was pretty packed so we had to wait in line. But when we finally got settled in our food came by pretty quickly. And it is so good =w=, seriously the sauce is amazing and I had fun grounding up my own sesame seeds ^^.
That night there was also some parade going on, though I'm not sure what for, and I got to see priests and horses on the streets.
We finally ended our tour on Friday and left Japan at the airport in Osaka on Saturday.
It took two hours to fly to Taiwan and so we arrived in Taipei around 2 or three. When we got settled into our hotel our family took taxis to visit the Huaxi Street Tourist Night Market which was an interesting experience. There were so many things there and so much interesting stuff to see. There was even a guy holding a snake. After looking around for a bit we stopped to get some dinner. and found a really nice seafood restaurant, Tainan Peddler Noodle. The food was amazing and really fresh and the service is excellent. After dinner we took cabs to visit the famous 101 which is really cool. We rode on the world's fastest elevator to the observation deck. And the elevator really goes fast, so fast my ears popped 0.0. But the view from up the tower is so pretty ^^.
Sad to say that I really don't remember much of Taiwan, because I don't remember much the names of the places we went to. Except for Kaohsiung, and Hualien, which is a pretty nice small city. But there is one thing I remember seeing a lot of in Taiwan and that is temples, SO many temples @.@. I think that's what most of our tour consisted of, that and Kenting National park and Marble gorge in Hualien, but mostly temples. On our last day we took a train back to Taipei from Hualien and stayed in the same hotel as our first day. That night we went to another night market, I forgot the name, but it was so packed! I mean really packed, and it was a lot bigger than the other night markets we went to. So many interesting shops, and there are especially a lot of clothes stores there. My dad said it's very popular with young people and I can see why.
The next day we packed up our things and left for the airport. The plane trip was a lot shorter only about 10 or 11 hours and I kept myself busy playing with my DS XD. So we left Taiwan on Friday afternoon and came back to the states on Friday morning. I still don't really get timezones and it seemed to me that we went back in time XD.
So yeah that was my trip, a lot of fun but so tiring. And I really do want to go back to those places again, just probably not with a tour and visiting the places that I want to to go to at my own pace. ^-^