Japan: Part I

After a crazy past few weeks, my Chuseok trip to Japan really snuck up on me.  Typically before traveling to another country I would at least make a list of the main places I wanted to see.  This was not the case with Japan.  When Jen and I got on the plane to Japan, all we knew was where we were going (Kyoto and Osaka) and the hostels we were staying at.

Our flight from Incheon left in the afternoon, so Jen and I took the lovely 6:40 AM bus to Seoul to avoid any holiday traffic.  We ended up having plenty of time, so we got some lunch and wandered around a bit before making our way to Incheon.

Here we come, Japan! 

After my crazy long flights home last month, the 1 1/2 hour to Japan felt like a breeze. I'm usually a nervous flyer, but I think knowing the flight was short and having Jen there made me feel a whole lot calmer.

We had a smooth flight and by the time we got off the plane it was evening.  We then had to figure out how to get to Kyoto (we landed in Osaka).  We went to the information desk and found out we could easily buy bus tickets to Kyoto, so we went ahead and did that, ate a quick meal (ramen), and stood outside for the bus.

What we didn't realize was that the line we were standing in was supposed to actually be a double line.  We were actually in the line going to another part of Osaka, not the line for Kyoto, meaning that we literally watched our bus drive away without even realizing that it was our bus.

Taking a selfie while waiting for the bus...not knowing that the bus in this picture was actually the bus we should have gotten on. 

First meal in Japan...ramen! 

However, we were lucky because we only had to wait another half an hour for the next bus, which just meant that we had time for an ice cream break.  I'll never complain about eating ice cream--I'm actually pleased about how the situation worked out.

Missed our bus...guess that means we need ice cream! 

Once we knew where we were supposed to get on the bus, we hopped on the bus, and embarked on our 1 1/2 hour bus ride to Kyoto.

Once we arrived in Kyoto things got a bit more complicated because it was raining and we didn't exactly know how to get to our hostel from there.  Eventually we found the correct city bus and made our way to our hostel.

We stayed at Sim's Cozy Gueshouse and highly recommend it to anyone heading to Kyoto.The staff was awesome, and everything there was great--from the bathroom setup to the rooms, it was definitely my favorite hostel I've ever stayed at.

We stayed up a bit longer to figure out a plan for the next day, then it was off to bed to get some rest before a full day of sightseeing!