This post has been overdue.
Some of you know that we went on a short mini moon to Palm Springs to get away from the cold SF weather and enjoy the warm desert weather immediately after our wedding. (We highly recommend Palm Springs for any getaway)
We decided to postpone our honey moon until December because most places don’t have good beach weather in the fall: hurricanes, monsoons, etc.
We’ve decided to blog about our travels in hopes to share things that have blessed us, and tips to help others not make the same mistakes we’ve made. So here is our first post.
ITINERARY
Our original plan was just to go to Vietnam and Taiwan. Taiwan was to see my Grandmother and relatives. Vietnam was to learn more about Cat’s mother’s culture and enjoy the warm weather, and relax on a beach. Although, after researching prices, I found it to cost the same price to fly round trip to Japan from SFO, and have small connecting flights from Japan instead of flying leg to leg between locations. Here is our insane Itinerary.
SFO to SEA
SEA to NRT (Japan)
NRT to SGN (Vietnam)
SGN to NRT
NRT to TPE (Taiwan)
TPE to NRT
NRT to Portland
Portland to SFO
BLESSINGS
Every moment of our trip has been a blessing from God.
Tip #1: Give yourself at least 3 hours time to travel to the airport (You probably already know this). In our case we needed more time because it was raining, and in SF people don’t know how to drive in the rain. Also, flights can change. In our case it did, and this was a blessing. Our original flight was supposed to leave at 8:45 am. It ended up being delayed. If not we would of missed this flight since we were already an hour behind schedule. By God’s grace we were rerouted to LA. We took the last two seats on the plane, and made it to Seattle for our connecting flight to Japan. But if we were just 10 minutes later to the ticket counter, they would not have been able to reroute us. So our tip, be extra early and be ready for changes in the itinerary.
JAPAN
This was Cat’s first time to Japan. Even thought I’ve been to Japan three times before, it is still fresh and fun for me. We both love Japanese culture, people, the food! I think we had like 3 bowls of Ramen in our first couple days. Most places will serve a really good bowl of ramen for only $5-7 opposed to getting ramen in Oakland at Ramen Shop for $16.
In Japan for places to stay, I would choose between three options: AirBnB, www.agoda.com, and the hostels. They are all about the same prices, but they offer all different amenities. We picked this awesome AirBnB near Asakusa station which was a custom built, classical Japanese apartment. It was only $70/night. The also stayed at a really nice Hostel in Japan. It came with a private bathroom, nice cushions, towels, and tons of free information. It was the nicest hostel both Cat and I have stayed at. Agoda.com is best for booking hotels, so the last place we booked in Japan was the Asakusa View Hotel. The website had a special deal so it was only $70/night. We both highly recommend staying here. They have a rooftop restaurant and bar with view of one the Tokyo Skytree Tower. Its very romantic. They also have free luggage storage. So we have been storing our luggage their for the past week.
Shopping
We found that most of the shopping is around Shibuya, and Harajuku, but also at the Airport! We actually spent 5 hours at the Airport shopping. Mainly, because of convenience. They have a lot of cool stores there. So if you have time before your flight go shopping. Only one thing, you can only go shopping out side of the security. So plan on that. You can easily spend 6 hours here.
Internet
They have wi-fi almost everywhere in Japan, but I think if you have internet access just for GPS, its worth it. So I found out that at the airport they rent out a wi-fi hotspot unit for only $12/day.
Transportation
It can be a bit expensive traveling to and from the airport. Wish I found this website earlier.
http://tokyocheapo.com/travel/transport/cheapest-transport-to-and-from-narita-airport/
Next up Vietnam and Taiwan
To be continued….