The Land of Temple and Tempuraby Emily and CK | |
|
This year, instead of going on a trip on our own, we were joined by CK's Dad and Mom, as well as Emily's Mom. Since we live in Washington DC and the parents in Hong Kong, it made sense to choose as our destination somewhere in the middle. In the end, we decided to visit the island nation of Japan. Among the five of us, CK's Mom was the only one who had set foot on Japan. She visited there with a tour group from Hong Kong. Unfortunately, while her interest was mainly on the historical architectures (like temples and shrines), the tour guide was more interested in bringing the group to shopping (probably because the temples, unlike the shops, were unlikely to give the tour guide commissions.) So the trip has left her less than completely satisfied, and we decided this time we would do it right: all sightseeing and no shopping (except for food).
As usual, Emily was responsible for learning the local langauge. She attacked the assignment with gusto: she spent every evening on cramming countless number of Japanese learning books, CDs and web sites. (CK repeatedly suggested her taking it easy, with no avail; it might had some effect if he had been able to make the suggestion in Japanese.) Moreover, since she could read the Japanese web sites better than CK, she had taken over most of the hotel-booking responsibilities. On the other hand, CK consulted the tour books and created an itinerary. Since the parents might not feel like being on the road for too long, the trip was limited to one and a half week. Anchoring the trip were the two great cities, Tokyo and Kyoto. Visiting these two cities and their surrounding attractions would easily take weeks, so we reluctantly kept the itinerary focused on these two areas. We were proud that the parents trusted our ability to get around in a foreign land; we could not let them down. Hopefully our travel instinct would not fail us ... |
|
|
Created on 9th Jun 2009. Last updated on 5th Aug 2009. |