Day 15- Hakone

*Sorry, pictures will be posted asap!

It is our last full day in Japan and we are sad to see our trip come to a close. We want to thank everybody who has been keeping up with our posts and would like to thank the comments and emails of support! We hope to take more trips like these- we learned a lot, ate a lot, and had a lot of fun.

Last night, we spent a lot of time in the busy street of Tokyo, enjoying the shopping and activity of the town. We thought for today, we would end our trip on a relaxing note and head to Hakone for the day to catch a glimpse of Mt. Fuji! (Thank you Jen Jen for the suggestion)

We woke up this morning to head to the Ebisu train station to get to the Romance car train that takes us to Hakone. There are a few modes of transportation you can take to get to this small town- we heard that the bullet train was pretty cool, but after our extravagant meals we were thinking of going the cheaper route (which isn't really cheap to begin with- thanks, Tokyo).

After an hour and a half of train ride, we finally arrived to the chilly, small town of Hakone. We were looking to go to Mt. Fuji, but unfortunately, we were told that it was too foggy and it wasn't visible today! Boo!

We decided to head to our Hot Springs Bath house- Tenzen Tohji-kyo, one of the best bath houses (recommended by our hotel). We took a public bus and within 15 minutes, we were at our relaxing spa getaway for the day!

Tenzen is beautiful. Quiet, serene, isolated, Tenzen is a very traditional bath house that has multiple open air hot springs! Before we spent our day at the spring, Eric and I decided to get a traditional Japanese lunch. With small, refreshing bites of tempura, soba noodles, miso soup and rice balls, we were quite full and ready for a day of relaxation. It was amazing. We first got a couples massage and then headed for the bathhouses...

Be warned.. in these traditional bathhouses, you are not able to wear any clothing- yes, everybody is fully nude! The men and women are always separated and they have their own spring baths. If you are able to get over the nudity, you will have one of the most relaxing times of your life!

Eric and I separated and set up a time to meet back in the same lobby. After 4 hours of relaxation, we headed back to the city of Tokyo to get our last amazing dinner! Eric stated that it was the most relaxing day he's ever had!

We were very excited for our dinner. It was our last night in Japan, and of course, Eric wanted to end it big. We made reservations at a small, traditional sushi house where everything was a chef's omakase. We REALLY wanted to go to Jiro, but unfortunately we weren't able to get reservations, so we asked the hotel to make us reservations as someplace similar! It was delicious!

We had out own sushi chef, named Kenji who catered our meal to our likes and dislikes. He watched us as we ate each bite of sushi and gauged our reaction to what he would prepare next for us. It wasn't necessarily the meal that was amazing, but the experience itself. How many people can say that they have had this catered experience in Tokyo!

After this great meal, we were absolutely stuffed. We decided to walk it off and head to a Belgium bar (guess who's idea that was). After observing a drunk Japanese couple have a lovely nap at the bar, we headed back to the hotel to rest up and get ready for our trip back home.

We can't believe that our trip is already over- it has flew by! Thank you all for reading, and we hope to have more trips like this to continue the adventure!

Back to the USA!

Day 14- Culinary Journey

It is our first full day in Japan, and let me tell you- it made up for our awful day yesterday. We had the best culinary journey today.

We woke up bright and early and headed to one of our most anticipated stops of the trip- tsukiji fish market! For those of you who know Eric and I well, you would know that we love sushi and is one thing we have deep interest for. So you can only imagine how excited we were to take a train from Ebisu station to the Tsukijo station on the Hibya line to go to this fish market!

When getting off the train, we quickly spotted a ramen shop. What is interesting about Japan is all the vending machines they have to sell anything and everything! So of course, we ordered some ramen from the vending machine for our breakfast- yum!

After scarfing down some ramen, we were eager for some sushi. We walked 10 minutes to the fish market and were surprised by all the shops and different seafood all around us!

There sushi shops after sushi shops and we really didn't know which one to go to. We decided to turn a random corner and go to one that was offering three different kids of toro- toro, Chu-toro and O-toro! Mmmmm

After our quick snack, we explored some more and quickly realized how rich the Japanese are. Things here are very expensive (as if we didn't figure that our from yesterday's cab ride) and just simple household items were insanely priced!

As we walked around the fish market, getting ready to leave, we came upon the highlight of our morning. A restaurant had recently just purchased a huge tuna from the market and was showing it off to all the locals! They cut the entire tuna (that took 5 men to carry) and showed off the beautiful flesh! The locals were cheering in excitement and congratulating the restaurant chefs on their new prize. Yes, fish are prized here.

It didn't take long for us to decide that we had to eat at this sushi restaurant- so off we went!

What was the best part? We got to eat the tuna that they were showing off to the locals! They cut the fish in front of the crowd and just handed it to the sushi chefs inside. They had the freah fish on the counter and just sliced off some pieces of it for our nigiri. I don't think you can get fresher than that.

The sushi was absolutely indescribable. The regular toro was better than any o-toro I've had in the US. The Chu toro was so divine and pure. And then when we got to the o toro, we really didn't know what to say, except that we NOW finally understand what melt in your mouth means. Heck, it melted in our hands!

After this great start to the day, we got back on the Hibiya line and went to the Imperial Palace.

The bonsai trees in the surrounding the garden was beautiful and the palace itself was so majestic. I wish I could live there!

After our trip to the Imperial Palace, it was time to head to the bustling city! We took the JR line to Shibuya first and walked around this busy city. Boy is Japan crowded!

We saw some cool plinko looking machines in a parlor.. But we weren't really sure how to play, so we just watched! I wonder what they were doing....

We walked around town and stopped at another arcade parlor. We still had no clue what people were doing but we decided to join in this time. When it Tokyo! We lost all our coins pretty quickly since we were completely clueless. :(

Then it was time for a new town, Shinjuku! Shinjuku, although only a few train stops away was completely different. Shibuya was more like Times Square while Shinjuku was more like.... Penn Station- a lot more quieter with business buildings all around.

We got the best dinner at Shinjuku! Eric commented how he's always wanted to do Shabu Shabu in Japan, so we searched for a good place, and oh, we found it. Yes that is the best wagyu Kobe beef you have probably ever laid your eyes on... Look at that marbling!

After our amazing dinner, we walked around, stopped at a Belgium bar (yes, this was Eric's idea) and decided to call it a night. After all, we are heading to Hakone bright and early tomorrow!

Day 13- What A Day!

What. A. Day.

So we woke up this morning and started heading to tokyo- our last stop for our trip. And then it started..

We had a flight booked with a one hour connection in beijing,china. Our first flight got delayed and upon getting to beijing, we had to run through the airport, through security and barely made our flight. The only reason we made it was because an airport security man driving a buggy saw we were running so he picked us up and drove us to our gate. He then of course lied and told us his services cost money...oh and then i twisted my knee.

We finally got to tokyo and as we were getting off the plane, we were greeted by a very cute japanese girl holding a sign for 'mr.eric bruner'. On our first flight to thailand, we were greeted in the same way because of our first class tickets, and we were given a special buggy ride through the airport to a VIP immigration check in. However, this was different.

We find out that our bags didnt make it and we had to stay in the airport for an extra 2 hours sorting the situation out.

During these two hours, we learned that our hotel had lost our reservation and had no record of our stay. Perfect.

We finally were able to leave the airport, and learned our biggest lesson of the trip. DO NOT take a taxi from Narita Airport into Tokyo. Period.

So after our awful day, we finally checked in to our hotel after midnight and needed to find a way to make our day better... So we decided to walk (i limped) to a nearby sushi restaurant.

The best ending to an awful day.

Fresh, delicious sushi in japan. What can be better?

Well it can only get better...right?

And off we go to bed, in our kimonos because we don't have our suitcases with us!

Day 12- Eric is feeling better!

Good news! Eric is feeling better and we are ready for our day in Hong Kong!

We woke up a little late so that Eric can get some more rest and we were ready for a brunch in beautiful Hong Kong. Eric was craving for some sushi so we went downstairs to the ICC plaza (our hotel is connected to this beautiful shopping area!) and to our luck, we found this nice and cute sushi restaurant that had the traditional moving conveyor belts!

After stuffing ourselves, we shopped around Central on Hong Kong Island for a little while and then headed towards the temple-Man Fat Tze. Or.... At least we tried to. Our hotel conceirge told us to stop at the Sha Tin train stop, but after getting out and walking around for 30 minutes, we couldn't find it!!!! We gave up and decided to head to Lady Street Market. Eric had a blast!

We shopped around and took in the bustling activity all around us! Eric had his first smell of smelly tofu and couldn't stand it!

After an afternoon of shopping around the market, we headed over to Nathan Road to grab dinner and do some more shopping.

We went to a beautiful Cantonese restaurant that gave us a great view of Victoria Harbour!

Right as we finished dinner, the light show at Victoria Harbour started and we had first row seats!!!

After a great meal, we did some more shopping around Nathan Road and then headed back to our hotel- we were exhausted!!!

What a fun day in Hong Kong! I'm glad Eric is feeling better and we got to do so much in just one day!

Its our last night in Hong Kong, off to Tokyo tomorrow!!!

Day 11- Eric is sick

It is official. Eric is sick.

We woke up in Macau this morning and it turns out that Eric was not getting better. He thinks it was all the sick people on the plane.

With my obsessive planning and schedule making, I was eager to head out into the town to explore Macau and show him a few things I saw when I recently paid a visit. Eric, however, was not feeling up to it.

He decided that we could walk around the Venetian and get some breakfast and see how he felt after some food. It turns out he didn't feel any better and we went back to the room so he could sleep in until we had our late check-out. But at least we got to walk about Venetian and see the biggest casino in the world!

Now, a lot of you may have noticed that there aren't many pictures of Eric and I together on this trip. Eric wanted me to point out that this is my fault because I am paranoid about people stealing our cameras if we handed it to them... oops.

We stayed in our room until our ferry to Hong Kong. We are staying at the W Hotel in Tsim Tsa Tsui- it is very swanky and modern! One of the cooler hotels I've been to by far.

We got dinner at the nearby steakhouse and soon after Eric fell even more ill and is now experiencing a fever, bodyaches and nausea. Poor Eric!

I was hoping to bring him to Nathan Road tonight to do some sight seeing and shopping, but I guess that's out of the question. Hopefully he gets better by tomorrow so we can go to some temples!!!

Day 10- Macau

It was our last morning in Singapore- we are headed to Macau, China!

We woke up and headed straight to the Singapore airport (it is so beautiful).

We had a full day of travel today. We had to take a connection in the Bangkok airport (yes, we went back to Bangkok!), so really the majority of our day consisted of airports and airport lounges!

Thanks to Eric's United status, we were able to access the International Star Alliance lounges. So really, don't feel too bad for us- we had a full day of unlimited food, drinks and Haagen Daz ice cream!

We finally got to the Hong Kong airport and then took a ferry to Macau where we are staying at the Sheraton on the Cotai Strip.

It was pretty late into the night, so we just took a stroll around the various casinos on the Cotai Strip and headed to bed. Eric is feeling a little under the weather- I hope it's not too bad!

Day 9- Big Spender

It is our first (and only) full day in Singapore.

We woke up and headed straight to the Singapore Botanic Garden which was a 10 minute walk from the St. Regis.

The garden was huge and had beautiful and exotic flowers. We got brunch at one of the organic restaurants and it was absolutely delicious. I think we can get used to a life here in Singapore!

After lunch and a nice stroll around the garden, we spent the majority of our day shopping on the famous Orchard Road. There were a ton of stores and a lot of them were hidden underground!

Singapore is such a bustling city with so many different people. In Thailand, Eric stood out like a sore thumb. But here, we blended right in.

What is amazing about Singapore is how clean and developed this city is. Eric loved looking at all the architecture and new buildings. Plus, everybody here all has high end luxury items and prices of goods here are at least twice that in the US! $7 for a Starbucks coffee! The only thing I bought from Singapore was some ointment for my mosquito bites. I'm such a big spender!

After our day of shopping (window shopping), it randomly started pouring rain on us (apparently this is common) so we ran back to the St. Regis to get changed. We took advantage of our beautiful amenities (jacuzzi, etc.) and even did the complimentary wine tasting in their wine room.

We grabbed dinner at the hotel and headed for the Marina Bay Sands! We got to see the Singapore Flyer and walked around the Marina Bay Sands casino and shopping area. We didn't do any gambling, but it was interesting to see how intense people in Asia are about gambling!

Of course, the shops and hotel were beautiful and all very high end!

We ended the night with a drink at the Marina Bay hotel. What a relaxing, yet gorgeous day at Singapore. I can see why there are a lot of expats here!

We are sad that we booked such a short trip to Singapore- we want to stay here even longer! Who knows, maybe I'll join the J&J in Singapore one day...!!

Day 8- Singapore!

Today was a pretty relaxing day. It's so sad that our Thailand adventure is coming to an end. I can't believe it's been over a week since we've been traveling around this beautiful country.

Today we decided to have a relaxing morning and spent our time at the hotel before our flight to Singapore. We rented kayaks and ventured around Siray Bay and then ate and lounged by the pool for the remainder of our stay at our resort.

The weather has been very hot and humid here in Thailand. However, the worst part about our trip thus far is our really bad bug bites! As usual, I am allergic to mosquito bites so my bites were huge and swollen while Eric's were just weird looking.

But besides that, we had a blast in Thailand. From the beautiful temples, the delicious food and the friendly locals, we can't believe we did so much in such a short amount of time! Eric and I agree that the Grand Palace and elephant trekking was the highlight of our time here.

What was interesting about Thailand was that a lot of people thought I was a local. There were many times where people would approach me and speak to me in Thai. There were times where that came to my benefit- especially because locals get charged less for food at the night markets!

We headed to our afternoon flight to Singapore and got to our St. Regis hotel fairly late into the night.

The St. Regis is beautiful. By far the most elegant hotel room I've stayed in, the St. Regis is perfect in so many ways! It is located right off of Orchard Road (where all the shopping plazas are) and so we took a midnight stroll to check out the vibrant, clean city of Singapore.

We then headed back to the hotel to enjoy a few of the amenities before calling it a night. 

We are very excited for our exploration of Singapore tomorrow! But why does everything have to be so expensive here?!

Day 7- Phuket Town

It is our last full day in Phuket- I can't believe we are leaving Thailand tomorrow!

It's been a crazy adventure here and so far, we've been learning a lot and have been having a blast.

We slept in this morning only because Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 1 was on. It is such a bad movie, yet so addicting at the same time!

Today, we decided to visit the rest of the sites in Phuket and go into Phuket Town to visit the local shops and markets. We wanted to make sure that we saw as much as we could before we left this beautiful island! From our villa, we can see the big buddha, even though it is one hour away! It is the only site that we couldn't see in Phuket- maybe next time!

We realized that we had a blast with our motorbikes in Patong Beach so we asked the cab driver to drop us off at a motorbike rental shop where we rented a bike again! We got to see so much and drive all around town- we would never have been able to go around to these places on foot.

We first stopped at the main shopping plaza in Phuket, it's called Central Festival. There were a lot of shops but even more food courts- boy do Thai people know how to eat! As mentioned, we are now so sick of Thai food (as great as it is) and we are craving for a hamburger! So of course, we ate lunch at a McDonalds.

We walked around the plaza some more after lunch and then decided to take an adventure all over town. We found a local market and got some snacks and even got to see a local pet shop- yes those are puppies behind me! I miss my Zeusy Bear!

We found a big warehouse market where the locals do their shopping- Super Cheap. They had everything. Everything and anything you can think of! I saw a packet of envelopes that my family used to use in Burma- it got me pretty excited. I'm a dork.

We then cruised around some more and just caught some amazing views of the island of Phuket. Beautiful!

After our day cruising around town, we returned the bikes and got some dinner at the local shopping plaza (KFC Chicken mmmmMm) and then got another massage- I think this makes it #4 on our trip.

I also got to get my IT geekiness out at the IT World section! :)

And that's it for Phuket! We are heading to Singapore late tomorrow evening so we are planning to do a late check out tomorrow afternoon and just lounge around our private villa before we head out.

We are staying at the St. Regis in Singapore so we have some high hopes for our room- I hope it's better than our room here at the Westin!

See you all in Singapore! 

Day 6 - Elephant Trekking

Elephant trekking day! Boy was it exciting!

We woke up this morning to have some breakfast at the hotel and FaceTime with some family before our day with our big friends.

We couldn't wait to start our new year with a day of elephant trekking! What a unique adventure.

We had a car pick us up from the hotel and we took a 30 minute ride into the wilderness to meet up with the elephants.

When arriving to the safari area, we saw a dozen elephants and 2 little babies! The elephants were very large and such majestic animals- they were eating a ton of food and were bathing themselves!

We had a one hour elephant trekking ride awaiting us and we got to view the jungle from a new perspective. The elephant got off track a few times and went down a steep cliff- Eric got a little afraid!

After 30 minutes, the elephant trainer hopped off and gave us the option to ride on the elephant's head on our own! Eric went first and after a little while, I got on!

 

I almost lost my balance a few times but in the end we both made it safe and sound!

After the ride, we got to feed our friends some bananas and watch a short show with the baby elephants. Elephants are very smart creatures and the two baby girls even knew how to pose for pictures and stand on their hind feet!

 

After our day with our buddies, we went back to the hotel to rest for the remainder of the night. We lounged by our pool and got dinner at the hotel as well- who knew riding elephants could be so exhausting!

Tomorrow is our last night in Phuket so we want to make sure we are rested enough to catch some last minute sights of Phuket.

Off to Phuket town tomorrow for a day of exploration around this resort town! We miss you all!

Day 5- Happy New Year!

It's our 5th day in Thailand and time has flew by so fast!

We had our first full day at Phuket today and decided to take advantage of our villa and sleep in and rest before our day out.

We decided to head to Patong Beach for the day. I do have to say that our hotel is beautiful but it is very far from Patong Beach and the cab fares here are very expensive!! The prices here are literally ten times what it is in Bangkok- crazy huh!

Anyway, Patong Beach is awesome! There are lots of people and it is a very busy town.

The beach is beautiful and the shopping is cheaper than the other places we have been to. Yes, this means more souvenirs!!!

The best part of our day today was that we were able to rent motorbikes and ride around the busy streets of Patong City!!! It was the best idea we had all day.

 

  

 

We rented one bike and Eric drove it since I was a little nervous with all the congestion. In retrospect, I probably should have got one myself as he put my life in danger a few times (is anyone really surprised about that?)

Nevertheless we had a blast! We wouldn't have been able to see as much of Patong as we did without some wheels!

After our day of exploring the city via motorbike, we got another massage. Yes. Another one.

We then grabbed some drinks at their main shopping area and headed home for our special New Year's Eve dinner!!

We are now sick of Thai food. It's been curry and noodles all day, every day and we are really craving a hamburger. Or maybe some pizza!

We thought the best thing would be to have our New Year's dinner at the Italian restaurant at our hotel- anything but Thai food!!

We had a very special dinner and we went to Westin's private beach to countdown the New Year. There were a lot of people and the vibe was exhilarating!

We rang in the New Year together on the beach and it was a great start to the year. The fireworks on the beachfront were beautiful and the view of all the fireworks off the entire coastline was an experience in itself.

We are missing our family back home and hope that everybody had a great new years eve as well!

Tomorrow we will be riding some elephants! Happy New Year!