Ohhhh man it's been a while!
This year marked the first year of my life I was not with family for Christmas, and I gotta say, it was pretty strange. I certainly didn't experience the same lead-up to Christmas that you get in the states; no Christmas tree, no snow, no three days at home lounging with family decorating and baking and listening to Christmas songs. Christmas sort of snuck up on me, and the day itself was a full eight-hour work day. We were all in it together though and made the best of it, and a handful of us went out for Christmas dinner at... TGI Friday's. It was a unique Christmas to say the least, but a happy one nonetheless.
I started to feel a cold coming on just before Christmas, and Christmas day I could tell my voice wasn't at 100% but I pushed through. The next morning, it was pretty much gone. My voice sat about an octave lower than usual for the next couple days and I couldn't sing any notes in the top half of my range, so I had to miss out on the next couple days of work. It worked out pretty well though, as my dad, step-mom, and little bro flew into Tokyo on the 26th and then took a train to meet me in Osaka the following afternoon. So while I spent Christmas without family, I did get to see them just after, and that was close enough!
I was honestly a little worried about them spending a night in Japan and traveling on several different trains without me but they managed to make it to Osaka with no real problems. I was thrilled they were able to come all that way and happily played host and tour guide for the next week and a half despite being sick for pretty much their whole stay. I wasn't super good about taking pictures with them, partly because Jessie took a ton on her camera and her phone, and partly because I was preoccupied with coughing and blowing my nose all the time.
The first day we took it easy and I stuck to showing them Tempozan, the little island I live on. Part of the fun of coming to a foreign country is not just to see the big sights and tourist spots, but to check out ordinary local spots like malls, grocery stores, parks, etc. At least, I hope it's fun, because that's what the first day consisted of. Browsing the mall, getting a little lunch there, going to the grocery store, convenience stores, etc.
Ethan learned to fold origami cranes before the trip, and then learned to make little boxes on the train trip to Osaka
Lunch at a local ramen place
E in some samurai garb in front of Osaka Castle
These Korean tourists asked E to take a picture with them
For our first day trip out of Osaka, I took them to Kyoto and hit up the spots I had previously been to, starting of course with Monkey Mountain!
We took a couple of these....I don't honestly know what they're called...human-drawn carriages? Anyway, we got on these things and these dudes walked/ran us about a mile down the road to the bamboo forest.
When evening came around we tried to walk into a couple ryokans (traditional Japanese hotels) to see if they had any availability, and none did, of course, being right near the new year's holiday and pretty late in the evening), so we headed back to my place in Osaka and planned to come back to Kyoto another day, this time with a room in a ryokan booked in advance.
New Year's Eve was again, another uniquely spent holiday. I had work, yes, at midnight, in a special Hogwarts New Year's Eve Countdown celebration. The park was open all night, and the fam spent the evening/early morning in it but unfortunately could not get into Harry Potter world; the special Harry Potter countdown was sold out well before I knew there were even tickets for it. I rang in 2015 in costume on set with my castmates, and in a weird way it was really fun and kind of a perfect way to celebrate. The countdown was followed by a 20-minute long photo/meet-and-greet session with every single Frog Choir and Triwizard cast member on stage. I was home and in bed by 2:00, but my fam didn't get back til past 3. It was a long, weird, fun night.
We started 2015 by heading back to Kyoto, and as soon as we got there, so did a big ass snowstorm. We checked into our ryokan (which was run by a really sweet little old couple and their son), got lunch there, settled in our room, and then tried to ask them to call a cab for us so we can get in some more sight-seeing before sunset. At first they told us it would be a bit of a wait because of the weather, but that was okay, so we waited. Then they said it would be a long wait, but that was okay too, I guess, so we waited some more. Then they said that there weren't any cabs available, and we were stuck in the ryokan for the night. And then, just when we were about to give up for the evening, a cab did finally show up. Go figure.
We went to The Golden Temple (Kinkaku-ji), which I had previously seen surrounded by gorgeous autumn foliage. This time, covered in several inches of snow, it was equally beautiful in a winter wonderland sort of way.
By the time we left the temple it was getting dark and cold and we were worried about finding a cab home (which we did after a panicky 15 minutes of trying), and we headed back to the ryokan for dinner and bed. The ryokan was beautiful but cold as BALLS, y'all. It didn't help that this was probably the coldest Kyoto had been in a long time, but the only way I stayed warm throughout the night was a bunch of thick blankets.
In the morning we had breakfast before heading out and straight from Kyoto all the way to Hiroshima. We got there in the early afternoon, went to the Peace Memorial and museum, and then got a late lunch in town before taking a cab to the ferry to Miyajima. The snow followed us from Kyoto to Hiroshima, and between the weather and the rush hour traffic, the cab ride to the ferry was looooong. We didn't get on the island of Miyajima until well after sunset. We walked through the town and main row of shops (most of which were closed by now) before finding our bed and breakfast to check in and dump our stuff before heading back out for a view of the floating Torii gate of the Itsukushima shrine. It was high tide and all lit up, a really pretty sight in the evening.
The bed and breakfast was also cold as balls, but otherwise it was lovely. In the morning we explored more of the town and shops and then went back to the shrine, which was open during the day so we went inside.
You know, I'm still not sure what these little paddles are for, but they sold them everywhere in Miyajima, and you can buy ones for specific wishes
Very specific
On the ferry back off the island, we sampled one of the Miyajima home-brewed beers we bought. Not bad!
We found these in a convenience store and decided to try them while we were traveling. I gotta say, I was surprised at how accurate the flavor was. Corn Cream Stew chips really did taste like corn soup, not just corn. They were pretty sweet, and I'm not really sure what corn soup has to do with Christmas, but I didn't hate them.
We headed back to Osaka, unforunately skipping Kobe and Himeji-ji on our way home due to time and back pain I had from sleeping funny the previous night. The next day I had work and the fam went into the park, and they were able to get into Harry Potter world and see all three of my shows that evening, and it was great having their faces in the audience. One more morning of work the next day while my family chilled out in Tempozan, and then that afternoon we were off to Tokyo! This was the first part of their trip that was new for all of us, not just for them. We got there in the evening and checked into the hotel, which had an amazing view. Now, we only had one full day in Tokyo, which is a huuuuuge city, but we did our best trying to see a bunch of key places.
Siiiiick view!
First thing in the morning, we watched a Sumo wrestling practice! There was a tournament happening four days after my fam left Japan, so we were just a bit too early for that, but seeing the practice was awesome anyway. We had to stand outside and watch through a window. There's a sumo tournament in Osaka in March, I'll be sure to go to that.
Walking around after the sumo practice we found a park with this little foot torture obstacle course. I guess it's supposed to improve your muscles or bones or something in your foot, but mostly it just hurt like whoa.
There were also other structures designed for exercise/self-improvement
The instructions were a little unclear- I'm pretty sure the last one you're just supposed to dance/wiggle your butt back and forth, right?
We then went to check out the grounds of the Imperial Palace. It was a big, beautiful park, pretty much. We knew the actual palace is closed almost all the time, but I sorta thought you'd still be able to see more of it, or maybe I thought that there just was more of it.
We headed to the Odaiba area, pretty much only with the knowledge that there was a big robot there. We found it, it was cool I guess. But the area was mostly just a bunch of malls, and we had lunch at one of them because it was mid-afternoon by then. Apparently there was some sort of WWII museum there we totally missed, but it was raining and we weren't too keen on wandering around, so after lunch we hopped in a cab and headed to the next sight to see.
We went to a shrine, for the life of me I can't remember which one. It was still raining but despite that the shrine was big and beautiful with a large park area around it.
Barrels of sake wrapped in straw with different pictures/designs on them
As the sun went down we decided to head into the more city-ish, Tokyo-esque, nightlife areas, starting with Shibuya and then heading to Shinjuku after that.
Shibuya is known for this huge, confusing, six-way crosswalk, known locally as Shibuya Scramble
We we walked around Shinjuku, tried to find a Teppanyaki place for dinner, realized it was a fancy shmancy $100-200 per person kind of place in the business district, went back to the big bright-lights commercial-y area, and got dinner somewhere there in Shinjuku before heading back to the hotel.
We had the morning left to check out the sights right near our hotel, which included Senso-ji, a well known temple near Orange Street, a strip of little shops and market stands.
We wanted to go up on the Tokyo Sky Tree, but it was farther away than we realized and we ran out of time, and at that point we had to head back to the hotel, get our luggage, and then head to Tokyo Station, where I made my way back to Osaka and the fam went back to the airport to fly home. Their trip was over so quick, I couldn't believe they were already heading back, but it was a fantastic time, and I was so glad I got to show them around Japan and share at least part of what I've been experiencing for the last seven months with them in person.
Now to make up for the time I took off while my family was in town, I'm currently done with eight out of thirteen workdays in a row before my next day off, which is why this post is coming over a week after they left. Now that the holidays are over, though, the park is less busy, our workdays are getting shorter, and weekends less shows, which is great news for us. For the rest of January I'm focusing on getting back to the gym (had a good run for a while there, but the holidays/sickness/family trip kept me out for a few weeks), reading plays (got a whole bunch for Christmas, thanks family!), and of course having fun with friends. I'm realizing that the end of my time here is coming pretty soon, and I want to make the most of the time I have left. I'm definitely itching to see more of Tokyo, so expect a post about that in the next month or two, as well as the Sumo tournament. Other than that, we'll see!
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