Back to reality…
Reflecting on these past three and half months, it’s crazy to think that we’re now departing our last country as we make our way back to the states. Truly bittersweet. Nearly a quarter of a year has gone by and we feel as if it was just yesterday when we headed out to our first stop in Spain…
Mixed-emotions aside, we couldn’t have picked a better place to end our adventure. While we’ve both been to Japan before, we were excited to go back and experience it together as our last hoorah. A few of our MANY highlights below:
Tokyo, Japan:
– MARIO KART. We started off strong by doing a city tour dressed up as our favorite Nintendo characters and driving around in yep… go karts! By far one of the funnest things we’ve done. About four hours of racing through the streets and highways of Tokyo with occasional stops to check out some well known sites (Tokyo Tower, Rainbow Bridge, Shibuya Crossing, etc.). Highly recommend.
– Sushi, sushi, and more sushi. One of restaurants we checked out was right in the heart of the Tsukiji fish market, which was just as delicious as Anne-Marie remembered.
– Matt’s first experience eating Kobe beef. Definitely did not disappoint.
– Robot Restaurant – not really a restaurant but one of the quirkiest places we’ve been to. This place was a mix of neon strobe lights, alien robots, samurai, Taiko drummers, and more. Pure entertainment.
Hakone, Japan:
En route to Kyoto, we decided to spend a night in Hakone and enjoy some Japanese onsens (hot spring baths) with views of Mt. Fuji. We stayed in a traditional ryokan along Lake Ashii which was a fun and relaxing experience in and of itself. We rocked yukatas (pretty much a casual kimono) and had our first 10 course kaiseki dinner of the trip. 
View of Mt. Fuji from our room
Kyoto, Japan:
– Visiting some of the cities main attractions such as the Arashiyama Bamboo Forest, Fushimi Inari Shrine (famous for its red tori gates), the Golden Pavilion, and Nijo-Jo Castle.
– Day trip to Nara where we saw the world’s largest bronze Buddha in addition to other shrines and temples; but Nara’s main highlight was the plethora of deer roaming around the area that you could feed and interact with.
– Whiskey tasting at the various bars of Pontocho where one of our bartenders revealed his dream of becoming a magician and even performed a few tricks for us.
– MEAT. From the all you can eat shabu shabu or sukiyaki spots, to our fancy Kobe beef teppanyaki dinners, we definitely had our fill of beef for a while.
And that does it folks… we’ve officially completed our mega honeymoon around the world. It’s been an epic journey for sure and we can’t believe it’s over. That said, we are very much looking forward to getting home and seeing our family and friends… just in time for the holidays 🙂
Thanks for following along and stay tuned for our next adventure 😉
– AM & Matt
For more pictures from our trip to Japan, check out the image gallery page or click on the links below: