So when I said I had travel plans the weekend I posted my last blog post… I was in Japan!
Japan had been a huge bucket list place for me to visit this semester, and I’m so glad I managed to figure it out. In spite of my East Asian Studies major, I am definitely the least familiar with Japanese language and culture compared to Korea and China, and most of what I’ve learned about Japan since the Edo period has been through the lens of Korean history. Knowing so little about modern Japan was super intimidating, and I hadn’t been to a country where I didn’t speak the language since I was 12 years old – and I was solo traveling, which was yet another first for me. While it was definitely a little stressful trying to figure logistics out on my own, I am glad that I got to do everything at my own pace, which made the actual tourism of my trip a lot more relaxed.
I was in Kyoto for 3 days and 4 nights, and I stayed in a capsule hotel in the Shimogyo ward of the city which was a very central location. My travel logistics were kind of too stressful to even think about recapping, but I managed to make it to my capsule at around midnight, and managed to figure out some of the facilities before I went to bed. The capsule hotel was definitely an experience, but I actually enjoyed it quite a bit, especially since I was traveling on my own!
Continue reading “– a weekend in kyoto”