Golden Week Sprint

Needless to say, this post has been a long time coming. I don't deny a combination of procrastination and simple laziness on my part, but also it has been relatively hectic here as of late (by which I more or less mean the last 2 months), but I'm already getting a head of myself.

In the end of April/beginning of May, for a week, is a period in Japan known as Golden Week, basically a week, mainly comprised of National Holidays, in which a large portion of Japan has off of work. During this time my parents made the trek to Japan! We spent a bit over a week together traveling and seeing the sights that we could reasonably fit in during that short stint. This was a great and amazing time, not only for the places that we went (of which I planned and was careful to include as many new things for me as I could) and things that we saw, but it was really great being able to see and talk with my parents again, (Skype is great and all, but it's not the same either) not to mention the things that I was able to show them and introduce them to.

The first few days of our journey together we spent in Tokyo, or at least relatively so. We went to Akihabara, Harajuku, Shinjuku, Shibuya, Mt. Fuji and Hakone. It was a very busy three days! To say that I saw much of Tokyo when I was there for three months is and absolute joke, but to try a general tour of it in about two days (Fuji and Hakone are further away and took a day trip) and say that you saw the area is borderline ridiculous!

Hereafter we took the two hour train ride to Matsumoto and I got the next five days or so to show my parents my current haunts and surrounding areas. I spent some days solely in Matsumoto to tour the castle, shops, my work, and other aspects of my daily life, as well as introduce them to a couple of friends and even a few students, albeit unplanned. Then we took a couple of day trips out to some really cool areas surrounding Matsumoto.

First we went to Takayama, which is a site of one of the old 'snowy villages' (the houses with really slanted and thick roofs). One of my favorite parts of that trip was the shops and morning markets in the town. The morning markets were the closest thing to a Farmers' Market that I've seen in Japan, and they had some pretty good eats! The snowy village was beautiful and I loved seeing the houses, but a really cool part of that was our luck of catching a Taiko group performance (the drummers).

The next day we went to Kamikochi, a very large National Park in the mountains (which is actually closed off to every one for almost half the year or so due to the small and winding roads being covered with snow and ice). The Kamikochi area was beautiful and a really great thing to see. Besides the wilderness we also saw a rather large group of monkeys hanging out, that was really cool!

Soon here after we had to return to Tokyo for a few days before my parents return flight. During this time we were able to spend some time in Tsukiji, Asakusa and even take a trip to Nikko! Tsukiji is always a great place to go. It's an amazing place to see, but beyond that they have really great (and fresh) sushi for a good price. We took a day and went up to Nikko and toured the shrines there for a while. Even though it rained it was a fun trip and we were able to see some really amazing buildings!

The departure was a bit tough. The main problems were the trains. Trains in Tokyo are seldom late at all, but of course on this day they were. almost all of the trains to and from Narita airport were about fifteen minutes late, except for the ones that we were to catch from one train to another. Basically we go to one place, arrive fifteen minutes late, thereby just missing the next train and having to wait another 30 minutes or so. By the time we got to the airport I had to run back onto a train to 'maybe' be able to get to Shinjuku just in time to catch my last train to Matsumoto. I had barely enough time to buy my ticket and say goodbye to my parents before having to run, and the train got to Shinjuku with just enough time for me to find and board my next train about a minute before the doors closed and it took off.

All in all the trip was a blast. It was an odd feeling introducing them to the areas that I have come to know so well, or not, over the previous seven months, but it was really cool too.