Japan!

This post is months and months late but I have finally worked up to posting about our awesome experience! I had written most of this right after our trip, but it just took me this long to finish it.

To start at the beginning...

...In June, Kent was asked to go to another work conference, this time in Japan! At the beginning of July! And he decided to take me with him! Such a nice guy. :) In total, from the time we found out we were going to the time we left, we had about 3 weeks to prepare. Not a lot of time when neither of us had valid passports. Acquiring such a document on short notice, is not the BEST idea, per se. But it honestly was not that tricky. We had to put in our time (a total of about 10 hours) at the passport office in L.A. but, it was pretty smooth and so worth it. Obviously. (You'll have to ask Kent if he thought so.)

So, with our passports and some Japanese yen in hand, we left for Japan on July 4th. Very patriotic. Wah Wah! :( When you fly to Japan, you miss out on an entire day in the air. So we lived through about an hour of the 4th of July (inside LAX) and then the rest of it disappeared. Poof!

We had a very smooth (and long) flight to Tokyo and then on to Kobe. We were able to get a few hours of sleep on our flight, but were still super tired when we got to the hotel. Unfortunately, we had about 5 hours to kill before we could check in to our room. So, we took the hotel shuttle into the city center and did some exploring.

We made it! (Waiting in the Tokyo airport for our flight to Kobe.)

Buying our train tickets at the Kobe airport.

On the train heading to our hotel

I was starving at this point and my stomach insisted that it was about 3 o'clock in the afternoon and that it desperately needed a hamburger and french fries. But, alas, it was only 10 o' clock in the morning! We found a McDonald's, but it was still serving breakfast so we got some hashbrowns and sausage. (Using our non-Japanese-speaking ordering method of pointing at the menu and smiling.)

Honestly, by FAR the best McDonald's I had while we were there. I really struggled with the food.

We walked around the shopping center for a while, bought a few snacks, but we were just too tired so we headed back to wait it out in the lobby of our hotel. We finally got into our room and forced ourselves to stay awake until about 5 p.m. and, when we couldn't take another second, shut our curtains, turned off the lights and called it quits. We slept from 5 pm to 7 am. So, that was a lovely hibernation.

3 hours of sleep + 15 hours of travelling. Really ready to be sleeping right now.

Cool Japanese beetle.

Monday was our only day that we really got to do any exploring because of the conference the rest of the week. Since we just had the one day, we decided to explore around Kobe as much as possible. We found a cute little trolley that took us to different spots around the city.

Our cute little trolley

On the trolley

 Our first stop (and both of our favorite) was Nunobiki Falls. We hiked up a little trail for about 15 minutes to a glorious waterfall. That morning I had been super frustrated and annoyed with my hair not doing what I wanted it to. Well, no need to do your hair in Japan. Ever. It is the humidest!

Kent pointing to some Japanese words on a cement block.

On the way to the falls with my carefully styled hair

Kent is such a dork! <3

Sweet Japanese snail that we saw on our hike

Random shrine in the forest

Nunobiki Falls and Robyn!

After Nunobiki, we hopped back on the Trolley and it took us to the Earthquake Memorial. We only spent about 20 minutes there, but it was neat (and sad) to learn about. Some of the old structures have been left to show the damage the earthquake had done.

Giant fish sculpture

I call this one, "Thirsty Kent".

Kent and the Harbor

Some of the earthquake damage behind me

Then, we went to Chinatown. I loved this part. It was a fun experience to walk through together and look at all the crazy food and trinkets. We ended up trying some Kobe beef burgers. They were...interesting. I wanted to love it, but it just wasn't that great! The meat was fine but too much fat and it was awkward eating situations where we were sitting on a bench under a gazebo and people were basically sitting straight across from us and staring at us. I don't do well with people watching me eat. Eh, not really my thing. Then, we couldn't find a trash can to throw away our wrappers and cups. We literally walked up and down every alley-way of Chinatown! Are you kidding me?! Where is all your garbage?!? We finally found some tied-off trash bags on the side of the road that we slipped our well-handled garbage into. Gross!

Chinatown!

It is always time for Chinatown ice cream

Our last stop of the day was the Ikuta Shrine. Very cool to see all the different rituals that went on there.

After the Ikuta Shrine, the trolley took us back to the bus station, where we caught our shuttle back to the hotel.

Because Kent had to attend the conference, the rest of the week was spent mostly at the hotel during the day and then in the shopping center at night. We had a really nice banquet dinner one night. I tried some octopus. When I say try, I mean I chewed and swallowed it. The chewing part literally took about 5 minutes. TMI? Sorry, but I want you to understand what it was like to eat actual octopus tentacle! It was, for lack of better words, disgusting. (No. Just, don't do it.) Overall, the dinner was pretty good, and...adventurous. Aaaaaand we may or may not have accidentally, tried some sake. (It was in the form of sorbet, so it truly was an accident!) :)

Fancy

Our nice table

The list of courses. I spy with my little eye...Sake Sorbet. Oops!

First course...delicious!

The handsomest

It was such a fun week. I loved how nice people were all the time. So respectful and friendly, and always willing to help you out. No one was ever annoyed with us asking them questions. It was always smiles and laughter when it was sometimes difficult to figure out what we were each trying to say. Just so nice. I loved it.

I still can't believe we got to go to Japan! It went by in such a blur, but it was such a fun experience! I love being able to travel with Kent! It is my dream come true!

My delicious breakfast

If you know me, you know how desperate I was for English TV.

Frequent Fliers

Hi, Mom! (I think we are the only two left on this blog.) :)

We have had the most travelly of summers. So many trips, that I am going to split it into a couple of posts.

May! The best of all the months! My parents and Brianne got to come visit for my birthday! I was so happy to have them here and we had a lot of fun. Of course, we went to the beach. (Duh!) Brianne, my Dad, and I all wanted to try skimboarding so Kent helped us all out. Oh, Kenty. He truly is a natural at life. He makes it look so easy when, in fact, it is NOT. At all. All three of us took pretty hard falls. And my poor Brianney broke her foot in her attempt. (Which took us about 3 weeks and miles of walking on it to figure out. Oops!) Since Brianne would kill me if I posted her try, here's my attempt. An example of what all of us went through.

And here is what it is supposed to look like:

My parents stayed for a few days, and then had to venture on home. But our little Brianney got to stay for 2 whole entire weeks! It was the best! I have missed my sister time, so it was delightful to live in the same house for a while! We had a lot of fun while she was here and we even made her walk around Magic Mountain for 8 hours on her broken little foot. (Sorry, lady!) :(

Dinner with the roomies. :)

You little cuties!

Magic Mountain!

Zuma Beach

My matchy ladies

After those two weeks were up, I got to fly back to Utah with Brianne for two MORE weeks! Kent had to fly to Tennesee for a work conference, so I got to go to Utah during that time. It was so nice. I loved being able to see my family and hang out with those cutie kids! It was some much-needed bonding time!
Kent did not enjoy Tennesse TOO much, but he said the conference was pretty cool. (The hotel was about all he saw.)
I hadn't seen Jordan, Sarah, Alison, Cody, Taylor, Wyatt, or Maximus since Christmas. Well, I hadn't seen ANY of my family since Christmas besides those three guys! ;) My heart was so happy to see everyone. It was truly a magical visit. (Now we need to come back to see the Hartley people!)

While I was in Utah, my poor Alison sister was on partial bedrest with the third Allen little. Because of this, she, Taylor, and Wyatt stayed at my parents house almost the entire time I was there! The best! I got to feel and SEE my littlest buddy moving around in there, which was so lucky. Unfortunately, and fortunately, little Jace did not make an appearance while I was there. So I have yet to meet this cutie guy! But I cherish our little snuggles through the womb.

That Poppy is sure a fun guy. (I know from experience.) :)

Just watching some Chuggington. I love her so.

Hammock buddies.

Then, we got to go to Japan...