Japan Itinerary

Japan was a 10 day trip and I think I wanted to move there for good after the first day. The love affair was that bad. I can repeat again and again just to force people to go see Japan. That’s how awesome it was and I haven’t even seen the whole country.

Anyways, this was my Itinerary. Attached is also a PDF for the itinerary but I will put it in HTML in more details as well.

 Day             -      Activities

1 – Land in Tokyo at night. Walk around Ropongi District, go to More Towers to city the city view

2 – Walk around and acclimatize to Japan time/weather/people. Go to Asakusa Temple, get JR pass activited.

3 – Go to Hakone, check in at Prince Hakone Airport. Relax at the Onsen Bath in Hakone and enjoy the property.

4- Do the 1 day Hakone cruise/tram/cable car to see all the views and take train in evening to get to Kyoto

5 – Get a bike rentail and to the tour – Nijo Castle, Kinkakuji, Kyoto Imprerial palace.

6 – Go to Geisha Destrict and hunt down a Geisha.

7 – Go to Hiroshima – See the Hiroshima Bombsite

8 – Back to Tokyo and hang out in Shibuya District

9 – Go to Kamakura to see the Big Buddha

10 – Fly back to USA

here’s also a PDF version:

Japan Itinerary

Countries I have been to

Excluding US of A ofcourse since its my home base and there are in random order

1. India
2. Thailand (can’t blog much about it, since its been a couple years and I forgot)
3. Malaysia (can’t blog about it again, same reason as above)
4. Japan
5. Spain
6. Brazil
7. Peurto Rico (although its technically US but I love it so much there has to be some blog posts about it)
8. Jamaica (although it was the worst vacation of my life – there was a tornado
9. Canada (can’t blog much about it yet cuz I have always just gone to ottawa and back)

In US i have seen

1. New York (mostly just NYC)
2. New Jersey (northern NJ mostly)
3. Connecticut (a lot of friends houses in CT, so it doesn’t really count)
4. Massachusetts (just Boston)
5. Utah (Salt Lake City, Park City and St. George – everything else is just small towns)
6. Florida (Miami only)
7. Vermont
8. Delaware
9. Philadelphia

Other fun places have been Yellow Stone National Park. OMG. Need to so blog about it. ofcourse NY, NJ and CT are missing since East Coast is almost home to us and its “so not cool” per the husband to take pictures of our own city. Heaven forbid, we look like tourists (not to throw him under the bus but I do agree with him)

Wedding in Vegas? really?

New York, New York in Vegas

I understand that Vegas is so pretty and shiny and the pictures you can take here so awesome but still it’s so fake. It boggles my mind that I saw like 10 brides and people who weren’t eloping but actually had come all the way to just get married here. Vegas despite its pretty lure is still such a fake place. The strip is so fake – with the Statue of Liberty and the Fake Venice and the Fake New York. I don’t understand why someone would start the most meaningful thing of their life, the most beautiful and true step in a place like the Vegas Strip. Like shouldn’t your marriage be at a place that’s a little more grounded in reality?

I understand the lure of destination wedding, I myself had one almost like a destination wedding since I lived in New Jersey but I actually went back to India to get married. I also understand people getting married on an Island/Beach, In New York but all these places are still not fake. They are pretty because of both the orignality of those places or the structures. But nothing in Vegas, atleast on the strip is orignal.

Even if I lived in Vegas, I would still not get married or get pictures in the strip. All I wanted to do when I saw all those brides were was yell, “seriously? you want a fake marriage?” but thankfully my husband, the realist realized that I might get killed by the crazy brides if I said that.

Here’s my Itinerary for Vegas

Bellagio, isn't it so pretty?

Day 1

Travel from SLC to St. George. Stay overnight at Seven Wives Inn.

Day 2

St. George to Vegas. Hang out by the pool, get tickets for the show O at Bellagio, walk around the strip. (also see the fountains at Bellagio)

Day 3

Look at different Casinos (Paris, New York, MGM Grande, Monte Carlo, Luxor and Excalibur during the day.

Evening watch the show “O”

Day 4

Look at Venetian and Palladio. Gamble away some money. And then head back to SLC.

It was a short trip and you see how I didn’t have gambling at all planned in the trip. My friends would have hated going with me cuz I would fuss about gambling but actually after I won 135 bucks on Day 2. We did gamble for like 2 hours on Day 3 and I won another hundred bucks. Yup, I know I am lucky and no I still don’t like to gamble.

Related articles

• Las Vegas – One Big Circus in the Desert – Las Vegas, NV (travelpod.com)
• Vegas Baby, update – Las Vegas, NV (travelpod.com)

Other random stuff about Vegas

Point form. Shall we?

• We saw all the casionos but if I have to pick a favorite and you can only see a couple see Bellagio, followed by Venetian followed by Paris. I so wish we had taken more pictures at the Venetian cuz its so pretty. At the Venetian (where the shops are) and at Paris, the whole place actually looks like Venice and Paris during the evening. They have beautiful ceilings and the floor looks like those cool old walkways in Paris/Venice. New York has cool Statue of liberty etc on the outside but there was nothing in the casino that looked like New York. But then again I am a jaded New Yorked and don’t like imitations of New York
• The food is the same price, outside and inside the casinos. There are multiple fast foods in most casinos. Upscale restaurants are good anywhere/everywhere.  I am not a big fan of buffets but my friends who love going to Vegas say the Buffet at Circus Circus is the best. Hmm.
• Do watch a show or two. The Cirque Du Soleil shows are awesome but there are more playing at each.
• We got 25% off for the O at Bellagio – what I learnt was although you can buy your ticket for most of the shows at any hotel, the best prices, seats and discounts are only available at the hotel in which the show is playing. We went to Bellagio and just asked the guy if they have any discount prices and he’s like yeah, for tomorrows show I can actually give you 25% off the price. So just ask for discounts.
• Vegas gets really really really hot during the day. Stupid us decided to walk on the strip to check out the different casinos and literally got dehydrated and came down with headaches.

Vegas – Its a seduction

So anywho, from Kayenta we went to Vegas while arguing and then making up within the 2 hours of the trip. So since its my blog, I would say it was all his fault. Who gets so stressed about an iphone and then get irritated at me cuz I told him I don’t want to share his stupid veggie sandwich. oh men!!

anyways, it was my first time to Vegas although I do absolutely hate gambling. I was going there just so I can see some cool shows and cuz I didn’t wanna say I haven’t ever been to Vegas – it is embarrassing people.

So guess what the first thing we do the minute we get to the strip, we go to a MALL. who goes to a MALL? just cuz the husband wanted his iphone and he was so bumed the iphone did not arrive by mail. So we figured out that we can upgrade my phone and then we can switch the phone so the phone my mail becomes mine and the one we get at the store he can keep. Once he stopped jumping from joy and relaxed, we could continue with the vacation.

After checking in, we hung out at the pool. Chilled out and finally decided to go hit the strip. We were staying at Hilton and I wanted to see all the casinos (rather than gamble at one) so we hit Bellagio, specially cuz we have to get the tickets for the famous “O” from Cirque Du Soleil for the next night. The tickets were bloody 140 bucks per person can you believe it? well it was worth every penny. The show was the awesome. Too bad you are not allowed to take pictures or I would have shown you.

Anyways so we hit Bellagio, the decor there was AMAZING. Then we just walked around the trip and saw the pretty fountains outside Bellagio. it was so pretty. It was my favorite casino and some of that reason, may or may not be because someone put 2 bucks in that slot machine things and won $135 dollars. Can you believe it?

I literally had wished for my tickets to be free and gambling gods gave me that exact money for that ticket. Hmm, was the Secret at play here? I think so..

Picture Time

Guess what I saw

Guess what I saw while going to St George? Guess, Guess?

I was so tempted to just forget going to Vegas and check in right there…

SLC, Ut to Las Vegas via St George

So next day, after chillin out in the morning at St George, we went to Vegas except the owner at Seven Wives told us to take a little detour (like 30 minutes) and stop at Kayenta on our way.

So Kayenta is like a cool upcoming mostly arts community a couple miles from St. George and the houses there are built of the same red color that the mountains behind are of so when you look at it, the houses just merge with the background and its all a rustic red view. There are some cool artist living there so you see a lot of stores with beautiful art work and sculptures that just take your breath away. I met this cool artist (ofcourse forgot to note down his name or take a picture of his art work which was ofcourse my favorite – need to remember I need it for the blog) But anyways, he was painting a naked woman lying on a mattress that we can sculpting in terracotta so it was again that beautiful red of the mountains in St. George. The lady had her hair covering her face and it was as if she was reluctant to leave her bed (almost what I feel everyday) Too bad it wasn’t ready or I would have bought it right there. But anywho, anyone who goes to St. George so needs to check out Kayenta. oh my..

Ofcourse my picture taking skills need some serious development and yet that might be one of my next year’s resolution.

And since the iphone was coming out that day, the husband did decide to fight with me at the cafe cuz I did not want to eat a sandwich but wanted soup and he thought he will get to share the soup and sandwich with me. Plus he was annoyed that his iphone didn’t arrive that day and I was irritated at him for talking on the phone for 4 hours with stupid Customer service

Cafe at Kayenta

More pictures of Kayenta, this was the pretty little cafe by the tiny art shops

The houses that so match the background

The cute little cafe where we had yummy lunch

The art work and the mountain in the background

The View before you enter Kayenta

More cool art stuff

Salt Lake City, Ut to Las Vegas, NV

So we just came back from a trip to Vegas. I am in Salt Lake City for the past year and hopefully will be back home to New Jersey pretty damn soon by early next year. So while we are in Utah, we figured we might as well take a couple road trips around. We did Yellowstone last year and this time it was Vegas. I am one of those people whol don’t consider a vacation a vacation till I actually sit on a plane but I have come to realize these trips are really fun quick getaways.

So anyways, we went from SLC to Vegas with a pit stop the first night in St. George. I wouln’t have mentioned much about St. George if I wouldn’t have fallen in love with it. So let’s begin there there, shall we?

We left SLC Thursday evening (after work) and we decided we will stay the night over in St. George than get super tired and go straight to Vegas. St George is the second largest city in Utah after SLC, and a lot of my colleagues absolutely love it there. Like every single on person in utah loved it so i figured we will stop there and see what the deal was all about.

We stayed the night over at Seven Wives Inn in St. George. It was AWESOME. too bad, they didn’t have seven wives but its actually owned by a really nice young couple. We met the wife and she was awesome and told you to check out this place called Kayenta (will show you pictures and details later)

So to give some details, its a historic site. In the late 1800 when polygamy was recently outlawed in Utah, the previous owner of the house used to hide other polygamist families in this house. Its a really old house and it’s really pretty, although it did get spooky at night. Each room has one of those diaries where people leave comments and the room that we stayed in (Rachel) had a lot of spooky stories in it which scared the crap out of me. To say I slept fitfully is an understatement, with all the creaking and all it was scary but would I stay again at the place, abso-freakin-lutely. Its so cute. Below are some more pictures and you can read the history on their website. I promise they didn’t give me anything to mention them. Not that I have many followers yet, but still. oohh and yeah their breakfast was so so yummy. Got myself a crepe (pictured) and hubby got baked eggs with bacon and he said he loved them. I was glad they had 2 veggie options for me – crepe and a parfait.

 

Japan

Image via Wikipedia

I don’t even know how to describe the country. The resilience the country has, the silent determination of the people to build it, the love they show for their country on a daily basis is what I admire, what I covet.

I can’t remember where I read it but after the Tsunami and the devastation last year, someone said that the only country who could have come back so fast and so determined from this could only be Japan. There were no thefts after the destruction, people whose lives were destroyed, whose memories and the remaining precious stuff was on the roads, nothing got stolen. They recovered what little was left to be recovered. There was no body trying to on up another country men, but silently building the nation back.

For me it was love at first sight with the country.

Their affable manner -the politeness and the smiles

The work ethic that effused from their pride

The way they take care of themselves and their country

Everything about Japan is beautiful and I cant wait to move there for atleast a couple years till I can get it out of my system.

Will post more about why I am in love with Japan and all things Japanese in the next post… and the three above.