While Omi was settling down in Mashpee for the summer, Abby, Satkirin and I headed to Japan to celebrate Abby’s graduation from high school and her upcoming college fun at UCSB.

We flew from San Francisco to Tokyo on United. Here is a photo of Abby settling in to the flight.

After arriving in Tokyo, 11 hours later, we got off the plane, and Abby realized pretty quickly that she didn’t have her passport with her. Luckily it was quickly recovered from her seat and delivered to where we were waiting!

We spent the first two nights in Tokyo in the Shinjuku neighborhood. We went exploring for dinner the first night and found a very authentic ramen restaurant where we were the only tourists.

The next day we visited Akasaka for breakfast and then to the Hie shrine, a traditional Shinto shrine in central Tokyo.

The red gates are called Torii. They symbolize the transition from ordinary life to the sacred. We saw many more of these on our travels, especially at Fushimi Inari in Kyoto.

Me bowing awkwardly at Hie. I then clapped twice and tossed 50 yen in the container for good luck.

Next we took the train to the largest and oldest temple in Tokyo, Senso-ji. It was a clear sunny day – perfect for photos.

The temple dates to 645 AD, making it the oldest Buddhist temple in Tokyo. All of this was rebuilt since WWII when US bombs destroyed this and much of the rest of Tokyo.

Abby at Senso-Ji. We got kind of lucky with this picture, since this is one of the busiest tourist sites in all of Tokyo.

Abby and Satkirin at Senso-Ji.

A very photogenic place.

We found a Soba noodle restaurant nearby, with a lovely waitress who was very patient as we tried ordering in Japanese, or just pointing at the pictures in the menu!

As it got hotter in the day we went to the Shinjuku Gyoen national garden.

Afterwards taking in the view, we headed back to our AirBnB.

Later we took to the subway and managed to get lost temporarily in the Shinjuku train station which is the busiest in Japan and perhaps the world. The Shinjuku station has multiple levels and poor signage, leading to confusion, according to us and the internet.

But we eventually found our way to Shibuya where we braved the urban crowds, and found the busiest traffic crossing in the world. Later we found dinner at a sushi restaurant in a high rise overlooking the neon lights and the hubbub on the street below.

After all the excitement we were eager to get to Kyoto, where we imagined it would be more peaceful.

After arriving by bullet train. We settled in to our rental and then took to the nearby streets. We found some very beautiful temples nearby.

Sennyū-ji, a Shingon Buddhist temple, happily empty of tourists except us.

Part of the temple grounds were closed since it was late in the day. No matter, we had plenty more temples to see in the next few days.

In the next installment, we will describe our travels in the Kyoto area, beautiful natural areas, and hikes through verdant forests, gurgling mountain streams, and many more fabulous temples and shrines.