"Kyoto"

In 2015, my youngest moved to Japan. Sad as I was.. my inner traveler was elated that I now had a new destination spot! To be honest, I'm not sure if Japan would have popped up on my radar as a place to go had she not moved there. I've always been so drawn to the mountains and cold weather that this was a bit out of my comfort zone (if out of my comfort zone means not freezing in a tent in the snow).  So.. off I went. It was quite the feet to even reach her as it took 2 planes, a bus and 25 hours to get to my final destination. We hit the ground running with our train cards and vending machine drinks (yes, thats a big thing in Japan).  The trains can be very confusing at first, we jumped on and off (and back on) more than once. Thankfully, the people of Japan are the kindest I've met in any country I've ever traveled to.  Missing trains themselves just to guide us as we had that pathetically lost look on our faces. Getting that down was the ticket to freedom however as the trains can take you just about anywhere. We traveled to Kyoto for the Sakura festival and Kawasaki for the Fertility Festival (sorry I can't post any photos from that on here.. Zenfolio would ban me for life).  We traveled to Hakone and went into the natural hot springs and too many temples to list. The food was top-notch, the people as amazing as one can imagine and the adventures were plentiful.  Sakura season was a very busy time to travel to Japan, but worth the trouble. It only lasts for about 7 days, but if you can hit it just right.. you will have sweet dreams of little pink blossoms for a long time to come :)