Coming down from my Japan High

I had THE most fantastic trip to Japan - i am slowly coming down from the high, but I don’t want to! I want to remember and remember, every little detail! It was my first time in Japan and I had 13 whole days there, Tokyo, Nikko, Kyoto, Yokohama, Kamakura and more Tokyo... Could easily have had 13 more. I was non stop full time tourist, along with 1000s and 1000s of others, both Japanese and foreign visitors.

I must admit I felt very lost and very confused at times, but research and help from a friend made things easier. Mostly I was on my own, finding my way around by myself and I had a blast! From getting from Narita to my hotel the first day, to finding shops I wanted to go to in Shibuya, to getting on the wrong train to Yokohama . And on a couple of occasions I felt totally overwhelmed, for example standing on a street corner at GION in Kyoto waiting to cross the road on Saturday afternoon, worse squash that rush hour in Tokyo. 

However my friend in Japan was a great great help and guide, and without his help I would have missed out  a lot of the things I saw. He directed and guided me to places I would not have found on my own and took me out to eating places I never would have dared go into on my own.

Finding places in Tokyo was  difficult. I studied ad studied maps before going anywhere. Bigger tourist attractions were easy to find, but recommended shops and restaurants had me walking and walking!! One day I spent over an hour looking for an electronics shop that I could have actually seen from my starting point! But everyone I asked was so helpful. The guy at the ticket booth to the entrance of the inside of the great Buddha in Kamakura came running after me after I came out with a little map he’d drawn directing me to the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu shrine were the large ginko tree had fallen a few weeks earlier.  I’d asked him on the way in, in extrememly broken Japanese,  what the name of the shrine where the tree had fallen was.

Now I start saving for my next trip! I WILL go back! Already I am thinking, why didn’t I do that and that and that! even though my days were full to the brim from morning to late at night:-)

When I get the time to blog  I will blog about the attractions , the food , street scenes, SAKURA,  (ofcourse - but WOW they were everywhere, and so so pretty), my shopping goodies!:-))) But first  I need to sort through my pictures and my memories:-)