Japan for the first time

Three years ago, the man and I went to New York City with his college buddy Brandon and his girlfriend, Tara. It was their first time to the Big Apple and we went during the Christmas season where they saw The Tree for the first time. That experience never gets old for me. And neither do travel experiences. Like New York City, Japan is a very experiential place, where you make memories with others...the more, the merrier.

This trip was nearly a year in the making as we decided that if the three of us were going to Japan for the first time (it wouldn't be the first for Garett), we'd go during cherry blossom season. We were able to find very good airfare on Hawaiian Air back in May of 2015 - about $600 per person...what a steal!

Tara, Brandon, me and Garett in Osaka where we had the most amazing takoyaki from a street vendor.

So, let the planning begin. Lucky for us, Garett is a planner and he had been mapping out our trip over 11 months - even arranging to buy our JR Rail Passes from JTB here in Hawaii. Did you know they don't sell them in Japan? So you HAVE to get them here in Hawaii and bring them with you - don't forget!!!

When he booked our airfare, Garett knew we would fly into Osaka, go to Kyoto, Hiroshima, Miyajima, then make our way back up to Tokyo via shinkansen (bullet train) and fly out of Haneda. 

On the first night we landed on Thursday, April 14, we just took it easy and checked into the Hotel Nikko Kansai Airport - very close to the airport and the train station. We needed a good night's sleep for the next eight nights. I'll detail the days in upcoming blog entries, but if you plan to go to Japan and cover as much ground as we did...just remember two things:

1. Bring the JR Rail Passes with you  - especially if they're for the Green Car, which is first class (or else you have to buy them a la carte there).

2. Look into a luggage transfer service - that was awesome to just take an overnight bag to Hiroshima and have our luggage transferred for us to Tokyo without having to take our heavy suitcases on the shinkansen.