Japan - Day Zero!

Yesterday we packed our bags (one 35L backpack each), got on a bus, took that bus to the Metro, took the Metro Silver Line to Dulles International Airport, and flew 5 hours to Seattle!

This is Alex's first vacation off of work since he started this job, and we will be spending 3 weeks in Japan (2 weeks vacation, 1 week WFH)! Our hotels are booked in Kyoto, Osaka, Hiroshima, Kinosaki, and Tokyo, and we have one bike tour booked, but besides that our options are wide open! We purchased a 3-week unlimited JR Pass which gives us free access to all bullet trains, express trains, local trains, etc on the national railway in Japan. It even includes some ferries and busses. 

This morning we will shuttle over to Seattle airport from our hotel, and then begin an 11 hour or so flight to Tokyo Haneda airport. For the sake of time, we decided to fore-go a Tokyo hotel the first day, and get directly onto a bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto where we will stay our first night. Due to the timezone changes, we will be missing a real night of sleep. We leave 10am Saturday Pacific time and arrive 2pm Sunday Japan time, so our only hope is to get some sleep on the plane. When we arrive, we need to exchange our JR pass at the airport train service station to get the real magnetic card that we can use, then make a reservation on one of the ticket machines, and then go to downtown Tokyo and then transfer to a bullet train to Kyoto! That's alot of things to do for people on a 12 hour jet-lag, but I'm sure we'll be fine.

Wish us luck,

Alex and Macy