Peter Pladman's Visit

We had our first visitor! Peter was in Hawaii for a family wedding and made the trek over to Japan following the wedding.

We did a ton of things including: checking out tons of shrines and temples in Nagoya (and Kyoto), eating delicious Japanese cuisine, exploring Kyoto (including the Golden Pavilion & the Fushimi Inari Shrine), played pachinko (Japanese gambling), checked out themed cafes (owl cafe with live animals & a penguin cafe which did not have live animals), and we also checked out illuminated autumn leaves.

Another thing that was super special was that Peter was here on Thanksgiving and he made us a delicious traditional Thanksgiving meal (minus the turkey because you can't find that in Japan). It may not sound like a big deal, but finding many of the things needed for this meal was not easy. We started planning and hunting in October. Some things that were needed for the meal were an hour away, one direction. While it was difficult tracking down everything we needed, it was well worth it. It was very special for Peter to cook for us, and

special to have been able to celebrate the holiday with him!

Just a heads up-- Kyoto is an absolutely magnificent city. However, if you plan to visit, it may be wise to stay away during many of the autumn leave illuminations. It is true that viewing autumn leaves pretty much anyway is beautiful, but viewing autumn leaves in Japan is a HUUUUGE deal... Especially in Kyoto. People from all over Japan come to Kyoto during this time to see the leaves. What makes Japan so special are the Japanese Maples. When they change color they turn to a deep, beautiful hue of red. It really is gorgeous. And, many parks, shrines, temples, etc., that have a lot of Japanese maples, have night time illuminations which also draw huge crowds. While these leaves are truly stunning, it does make Kyoto much more crowded.

Check out some of the photos that capture just a handful of the fun things we did together! :)