Our next day in Japan involved getting up early (again)
We knocked out early the day before so we were ready to wake up and get going! We packed up and checked out, but had the hotel hold on to our luggage. We walked next door to the pastry shop and got a pan au chocolat, melonpan, and a jam roll! All were excellent. We also grabbed a chocolate drink which was SO delicious, and walked to the train station.
We got on a train to Nara and passed through some more beautiful Japanese towns and cities. The girls on the train were practicing their English and Randy and I were dying with laughter, they were so cute!
When we got off the train there was an English speaking station so Randy and I went up there to talk to them, and give them a chance to talk to someone! They were SO happy we had come to speak English to them! We got on a bus to the Nara deer park and BAM. Deer were EVERYWHERE!
We ran off the bus and went to buy the little biscuit cracker pancake things everyone was selling for us to feed to the deer. We started feeding the deer and honestly had SO much fun feeding them. There were SO many so if a few were sleeping or weren’t hungry, there were dozens more that were starving. Once you fed one it would follow you around and four or five others would join until you had a swarm. Deer would cross the streets when the lights changed and many deer would bow to us before we fed them. We fed the deer for ages, then decided to walk around Nara more. We went to the Todaiji temple, which is the largest wooden structure still standing, and it was UNREAL. We saw the giant Buddha in the Buddha hall, saw tons of statues and a beautiful grounds. In all the shrines and temples there is an area for you to cleanse your hands before you go in which is beautiful and fun. The stairs at the temple were INSANELY steep, we were practically doing high-knees to get up there. We walked around the Todaiji temple grounds and then kept walking around the rest of Nara park.
My mom was asking me to write down what all the shrines and temples mean or were used for, so Todaiji was one of the Seven Great Temples of Japan, and was a place for Buddhist worship, and still is today.
As we were walking through the park we came upon a little home ramen shop, and decided to head in! It was delicious food, great ramen and rice and randy had this weird mochi and sesame jello thing. We ordered a combo which we didn’t realize came with tea! Randy was worried it would be rude to just leave the tea, so after we finished our ramen, we poured the tea into the broth, we were giggling the whole way out! We saw these giant bells, and kept walking and saw a bunch more shrines. We even saw a family doing a baby blessing type thing in one of them. There were just a bunch of places for Buddhist worship and they were all beautiful.
We ended up spending more money on the crackers for the deer (we may have spent like $30 on crackers alone.) but it was too fun not to!
After we’d been in Nara for hours we decided to get back on the train and head back to Kyoto. We grabbed our luggage, said goodbye to Inari, and then got on another train back to Tokyo!
We loved our time in Kyoto and were sad we couldn’t stay for longer.
We got back to the hotel near Bakurocho station, grabbed some curry for dinner, and went to sleep!
Our second full day in Japan was SO fun! It started by waking up early (4 AM) to get check out of our hotel and get to the Tokyo station. From there we got on the Shinkansen (bullet train) and were off to Kyoto. At the station we bought a bento box with rice and katsu pork, and some chocolate treats. We ate those on the train and we were off. The Shinkansen is one of the fastest trains in the world and it was amazing to see so much of Japan. We passed Nagoya, Mt. Fuji, rural farm areas, the ocean, bays, mountains, and more. We saw rice fields and apartment buildings, big and small cities, it was all so wonderful.
We got to Kyoto about 9:00 AM and the second we got off the train WHAM it was packed. We got on another train to Inari, and we stood the way there. We got off the station at Inari and it was even MORE packed. We literally couldn’t walk because there were so many people. We got a bit lost and walked and walked and walked to our hotel, finally got there and dropped off our stuff, then headed back to the Inari Shrine.
On our way to the shrine, we passed a cool parade with drummers and horses and all kinds of things, all for Golden Week. It was really awesome, I loved it! There were tons and tons of people there for Golden Week, but a bit of hiking and we were pretty alone. The shrine is absolutely amazing, I was astounded by it. So many tori (or gates) all going up the mountain for miles and miles. It’s beautiful and peaceful and it took my breath away.
We passed little shrine areas with incense and prayers tied to trees. We bought some souvenirs and chatted with family, then hiked allll the way back down.
We saw tons of kimonos and spent SO much time trying to get good pictures, and just had a blast at the shrine.
We stopped and got some ice cream bars from the convenience store, then hopped back on a train to Kyoto. At the station we switched from a train to a bus which drove us around the city of Kyoto on the way to Kinkaku-ji. We saw all these beautiful thousand year old houses, shrines, temples, and castles. So much of Kyoto is preserved and it’s just beautiful to see some new buildings right next door to a thousand year old house and garden. I wish we’d had a little bit more time in Kyoto, it was just amazing!
We got to Kinkaku-ji and it was also insanely busy! It was also SO HOT there, so everyone seemed to be eating green tea ice cream which made me laugh. We got into the Golden Temple area and it blew me away! It’s crazy how old it is, and how beautiful the gold on the building is. I was just blown away with how long it’s been there and how beautiful it still looks! The temple sites on the most beautiful “pure” land which just adds to how amazing it is there.
We spent some time there taking pictures and marveling, then it was back on the bus to pass some more castles, shrines, and homes.
We got back to the station and were starving, so we decided to find a place for lunch. Randy spotted a place that had okonomiyaki, and we had to stop! It’s like a veggie and meat pancake which sounds gross, but it was SO good. The sauce is SO amazing and I was just obsessed with it. We also got a yakisoba which was amazing, and it was all cooked on this grill right in our table.
We got back on a train for Inari and walked around the city, and happened to catch another parade with the CUTEST little kids chanting and amazing drums!
We checked into our hotel and said we’d rest for a bit, it was about 5:00 so we watched a little Netflix and then somehow, we fell asleep. We didn’t wake back up until 8:00 when we debated going to get dinner. While we were talking about it…we fell back asleep! We woke up again at 9:30 just barely, and managed to brush our teeth and crawl back into bed! The jet lag had caught up with us and we were DYING! I was a little sad we slept so long, but it was SO worth it the next day because we were so rested.
You’re probably insanely sick of alllll of our posts about Japan, but friends we are just getting started! We have finally edited some photos and are ready to start posting the nitty, gritty details. We took some video and will have a couple vlogs as well. I just really wanted to document this trip and even though I always wish I had done more, I’m pretty happy with what we’ve got.
I decided not to try and post blogs or vlogs while we were there, because I wanted to go late into the night and wake up early just experiencing Japan, and I didn’t want to waste time blogging or editing photos while I was in that amazing country! So hopefully over the next week or two I’ll get everything posted, but bear with me if I don’t!
So, let’s get to it.
Randy and I woke up at about 4:00 AM on Tuesday, May 2nd to go to the airport. We packed our last few things, took out the trash, and loaded into the car. We got to the Salt Lake airport and left our car for our parents to come pick up later. We got through security in about 12 seconds, so we had some time to kill (better to be wayyy early and wait, than to be running through the airport. but more on that later.)
We went and grabbed a hot chocolate and some Starbucks sandwiches and then we were off!
We booked a Sky Miles flight to LA and then booked our flights to Japan out of LAX, since it’s cheaper (we will do a whole post on the best tips for traveling to Japan later!)
When we got to LA we were already past security so we didn’t have to do anything else! We grabbed some food (a last minute burger before we were far away from American food) and boarded our plane.
We flew Air China, and as you’ll understand through these blog posts, we absolutely HATED it. We will NEVER fly Air China again. The flights were a lot cheaper (we saved about $400) but it was NOT worth it.
On our flight to LA we had a few movies to choose from which was nice, but there was no air conditioning on the plane and the plane was really old, and the seats were incredibly uncomfortable. I slept for about 4 hours of the 12 hour flight, and Randy only slept for about an hour. The food was also absolutely horrible, chicken in sauce over rice or noodles with wilted salad and frozen rolls. At “dinner” I almost sobbed when I saw Milano cookies because I was so happy to have some food I knew would be edible. I try really hard not to be picky, but Air China was a disaster.
We landed in Beijing after 12 hours and we were a wreck. The Beijing airport is also terrifying. Everyone was pretty rude, there were people in military uniforms circling and hovering and yelling at us in Chinese, and even the other passengers were pretty rude and unhelpful. In security everyone had to get patted down and that was scary, our stuff got all rifled through and we were just pretty upset with the whole experience. Needless to say, after we got on our last plane from Beijing to Japan, we were in tears just hoping to get there. Luckily, this plane was smaller and more comfortable, so we slept from Beijing to Japan.
We landed in Tokyo and instantly felt SO much better. The airport was lovely and everyone was SO amazingly nice. Randy was able to go up and ask some people where to get our Pocket WiFi (another thing I HIGHLY recommend. We’ll get into details on how to get it in our tips post). We figured out how to get on the free shuttle to our hotel. We got there and checked in, everyone was SO helpful and kind, and we got to our room. It was TINY but all Japanese hotel rooms are tiny, and it ended up being the largest one we had on our whole trip. But really, there’s barely room to turn around, but we didn’t even care. We crashed on the bed and tried to catch up on some missed sleep! In the plane we passed over the date-line, so it was Wednesday night at about 9:30 when we actually got to Japan.
We woke up on Thursday morning pretty early, packed up and checked out of our hotel (I’ll talk about how we packed and our FAVORITE SUITCASES EVERRRR on our tips blog)
We walked across the street to Sukiya, one of Randy’s favorite restaurants. Apparently it’s more of a “fast food” type of place in Japan, but it was out of this world amazing! I order a bowl of raw tuna and rice, with miso soup and Randy got guydon (beef, egg and rice) and both were SO good! I was in awe of how fresh this “fast food” tuna was, it was better than any sushi I’d had in Utah! We walked to the Family Mart convenience store down the street and grabbed some mints and chapstick, and then walked back to our hotel. We hopped on the free shuttle and went back to the airport to pick up our Japan Rail Passes. Everything in Japan is accessible by train, and as a tourist we could get basically an “all access” train pass during our stay. But we had to pick up these passes from the airport, and it had been closed when we got in.
We got our passes with the help of a really nice lady who spoke a little English, hopped on a monorail and were off to Tokyo station! The trains are all SO insanely clean, always on time, and the great thing is that everything in Tokyo and the major cities is in Japanese and in English.
We changed trains in the Tokyo station and went two stops further, to Bakurocho Station. We quickly walked to our hotel and dropped off our stuff. It was so nice, we got to most of our hotels before we could check in and they would let us drop our stuff off so we didn’t have to carry it around. The city was SO quiet even though it was huge, it surprised me throughout our entire trip!
We quickly called our families and grabbed some drinks from a store, then back on the train and into downtown Tokyo!
At Tokyo station we had to go get reservations for our Shinkansen (bullet train) the next day. After we got all that figured out, we walked out and were in the heart of Tokyo! We saw the old Tokyo station that was being renovated which was beautiful. We then climbed onto the roof of this building and oversaw the city, which was insanely awesome.
We walked through the city into Ginza which was SO busy. We went during Golden Week which is a HUGE holiday in Japan. Most people are out of school and some are off of work, so they were all in the city and at some of the sites hanging out.
We walked down to a neighborhood called Ginza, checked out the Mitsubishi Museum (which had a current exhibition of Impressionist works from the Musee d’Orsay, SAWOON)
We walked past the most beautiful Tiffany and Company, so we had to walk in. The cute saleslady was SO nice and wanted to practice her English with us. She was telling us all about how she learned English watching Desperate Housewives and she was just too nice.
We went shopping a bit and just took in Ginza, and then we were STARVING but everywhere had long lines outside because it was so packed in Ginza.
We finally decided just to go to this downstairs restaurant we happened upon that had a good looking menu, and it was the BEST DECISION. We had tempura and sashimi and soba, and it was SO fresh and delicious. One thing I love about Japan is how they welcome you in and how everyone in the restaurant greets you when you walk in. It’s so fun and exciting.
I was still getting used to mugi-cha which they serve to you more often than water. It’s a barley drink that tastes a little strange, and I’m still not totally used to it!
After lunch we walked through Ginza a bit more, saw a very terrifying recital hall which was silent, but had about 10 people in it smiling at you and handing out fliers. Pretty weird. We saw Shake Shack which we thought was hilarious, and it had about an hour long line out front which we also thought was super funny.
We walked to the Edo Imperial castle where the Imperial family lives, and it was amazing. So beautiful and with the traditional structure, right in the middle of the city. We were obsessed with it!
We had to go check into our hotel, so we walked back to Tokyo station and went to Backurocho. We checked in and rested for about 10 minutes, then it was back to Tokyo station and on to Shibuya. We got off the train and the stations in both Tokyo and Shibuya are absolutely insane. SO many people and it is SO easy to get lost. I was super overwhelmed but it was so cool at the same time. We got out of the station and into downtown just as the sun was going down and all the lights were turning on. We crossed the busiest crosswalk in the world which is absolute madness, and saw the “Times Square” of Japan. It was SO amazing and unreal! We wandered the streets taking pictures and trying things out, just having the best time in the world.
We went to kaiten sushi, or conveyor belt sushi for dinner, and it was SO fun! We ordered things on the screen and a conveyor belt brought our orders out for us (see the video) I loved it and the sushi was SO good I thought I would die!
We spent more time in Shibuya checking out the streets and vendors until we could barely walk. Then it was back on the train, and then to our hotel. We fell into bed and crashed, knowing we were waking up SUPER early the next morning again!
We went to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point last weekend and it was a BLAST! We went as a pre-Mother’s Day celebration because all of our family is traveling during most of May! It was so fun to be there running around, laughing and chatting with family.
We played giant chess, a shuffleboard type game, giant Scrabble, took lots and lots of pictures, went to the Dinosaur Museum (always a blast), played in the sand, ate a delicious lunch where we laughed our heads off and caused a bit of a scene, and just had a really awesome time. My family has LOVED Thanksgiving Point for years and it’s always so fun to go and remember being younger.
I woke up early to go have my fiance snap a million pictures in front of all my favorite buildings and in all my favorite places. I’m an incredibly nostalgic person, so this was an extra important day. I had so many days and weeks and months of memories all built up to think about and reflect on.
I had a plan. I had started my new full-time job a few weeks earlier, just being trained until I was done with school. I was getting married in a month, and everything was going according to my schedule and timetable.
I rambled aimlessly around the campus after we’d gotten all the pictures, trying to feel like something big and life-changing was ahead. I didn’t need to try as hard as I did, but it feel nice to be a bit dramatic. I swear there were songs ringing through my head about graduation and moving forward. That’s just who I am 99% of the time.
When my parents arrived, we all met at the building where the commencement would happen. I joined my friends backstage. We snapped photos and talked about how crazy it was that we were graduating, nervously laughing and talking too loudly.
We walked to the stage and listened to speakers, who I didn’t pay attention to or recognize at all. There had been another event the previous night with a more well-known speaker for all the students, but I had just wanted to do the walk, get my diploma, and not spend any more time in long, boring events. Classy, huh?
The lights were bright but I could still identify my fiance in the crowd, sitting with my parents and beaming. It was because he was proud of me, but I joked in my head that maybe he was so happy because now he had a “sugar-mama” to get him through college.
The walk across the stage was short. I was wearing heels, but I’d mastered the art of walking in heels in the 7th grade, so I had nothing to worry about. When you’re just over 5 feet tall, you get used to wearing tall shoes early in life, because you’re always fighting to be recognized and seen.
I reminded myself to smile and glance into the audience when my name was called, I shook hands with some of my favorite professors and with some that I had never met, and then it was over.
But that walk changed everything.
Graduating from college is a huge step. It’s the end of something so incredibly significant, it’s an achievement that is insanely valuable and can only help you get where you want to go.
That walk was the end of my life as I knew it.
It was maybe 30 steps.
They were all more impactful on who I was going to become than I could have ever guessed.
That walk was the beginning of a new me, a new purpose, new types of learning.
2 years has shifted my perspective on so many things, but probably more than anything, it’s shifted what I believe about myself and what I’m capable of.
I wish I could go up to that girl who walked across the stage 2 years ago and tell her she’s about to gain confidence she didn’t realize she was missing, that she’s going to let go of caring so much what other people think, she’s going to lose friends and learn how to be OK with that, she’s going to have her plans and timetables and schedules all ruined and not have any idea what’s next, that she’s going to learn how strong she really is, and that she is about to realize who she really wants to be.
There were flowers and more pictures after The Walk. There was dinner at a fancy restaurant and more nostalgia and relief and sleeping in the next morning.
I will forever be grateful for what that walk signified, the days and months and years of hard work and exhaustion, laughter and learning.
Hi, I’m Maddy and I’m OBSESSED with H&M. It’s one of my favorite places to shop, by far. Cute clothes, inexpensive prices, and even though they don’t cost an arm and a leg, they still last pretty well! I’m so excited for spring, and I found some of my favorite things from H&M that I can’t wait to get my hands on.
I’ve spent some time lately thinking about Mary Magdalene.
Each of my siblings and I have a name that is *somewhat* tied to someone in the scriptures. My brother Benson is Ben, like Benjamin. My sister is Olivia like the olive branch. Bethany is Bethany the town, and my name Madeleine is close to Magdalene.
So Mary Magdalene has always been someone I have thought about, looked up to, and been interested in.
My favorite thing about Mary Magdalene is when she came to the empty tomb of Christ. She couldn’t find the body of the Lord, and she wept. He wasn’t alive as far as she knew, yet she wept.
I want to weep when I’m at a party, and can’t feel the Spirit of Christ there.
I want to weep in prayer as I’m searching for Him in the scriptures and in prayer.
I want to weep at any moment when I can’t find Him. And always be searching for Him.
Later, she supposes the gardener is talking to her. But once Christ says her name, she instantly knows it is Him.
He has said my name so many times. I want to always be able to recognize when it is Him calling me. Not wonder, not be unsure, but know without a doubt that that is Christ calling my name.
I think how beautiful it would feel to hear the Savior say my name.
He has, He does. I want to recognize it more quickly, more sincerely.
I want to be more like Mary Magdalene.
Easter is the most beautiful time for thinking, remembering, and growing closer to Christ.
Easter was absolutely wonderful! We drove up to Kaysville on Saturday to attend a funeral for our good friend’s step-father, which was so sad and hard. But also it was wonderful to be reminded on Easter weekend that death is not the end. How beautiful!
We spent the day playing frisbee and basketball, going shopping, and coloring Easter eggs! Randy was SO excited about his Toy Story Alien Easter egg, I have to say I was incredibly impressed. My eggs turned out interesting, but pretty just the same!!
Easter morning we had a great egg hunt, the candy exchange, and got some AMAZING Stadium of Fire tickets from the Easter bunny! We are super lucky!
We went to church, had great lessons and learning about the Atonement, ate an AMAZING meal, played more games, and then headed off to Randy’s parents or another amazing meal, more games and more fun!
We are so lucky to have amazing family and that we got the chance to have a great Easter celebration!
So, we drove home from Disneyland on Saturday, and then Sunday at 6:50 AM I got to the airport to head off to New York.
I went for work and it was SO insanely hard to be away from Randy. To be honest, we both absolutely hated it. But it was still really cool to be in New York and my company had a great event, so it was all OK in the end!
The flight to New York was uneventful, it was cool to come in over the city and see everything. I landed and grabbed a taxi, and then spent an hour and a half in traffic trying to get to Manhattan. When I finally got to the hotel, I was already late to the first event! So I just threw my stuff upstairs and dashed around the street to Grand Central Station, where we had our opening reception.
Grand Central Station was BEAUTIFUL and it was so awesome to see all the people and be in the middle of things.
Our opening reception went well, I helped clean up and then dashed downstairs for a Magnolia cupcake which was TO DIE FOR. I was utterly exhausted so I just went right to bed.
Monday started early and was an entire day full of the conference my company was putting on. I did interviews, checked in guests, met with the Keynote speaker, worked with vendors on their workshops, and barely had time to eat the whole day!
After our closing reception in the lobby of the hotel, I figured I had to get out and see the city before I left the next morning.
I walked a few blocks up to Times Square and was in awe of everything! It was so amazing and I had the best time strolling the city.
I grabbed some soup for dinner from the Yankee’s Official soup restaurant, and was so tired I fell asleep!
Tuesday again was early morning meetings, and then it was time to go!
My time in New York was quick, but I was SO happy to get home and be with Randy again! Boy, that husband of mine is fantastic. It’s nice to have someone to miss.
Hopefully Randy and I can both get back to New York sometime, I’m crossing my fingers!
After Conference weekend, Randy and I had a two day week!
On Wednesday, we hopped on a plane to LA! We had some Starbucks, a great flight, got on a shuttle with a bunch of crazy characters including a 72 year old Canadian who looked like he was 50, a driver who wasn’t afraid of riding tails, and a man who would not stop coughing.
We got to Anaheim and went to dinner with my family, who had already been there for a few days!
We crashed, and woke up early to go to DISNEYLAND!
My parents have a little tradition of going to Disneyland with the family during each kids junior year. Since my sister is the youngest and didn’t have the rest of the siblings to go with her, Randy and I figured out a way that we could go with her and my parents!
We hit all our favorite rides on day 1, Space Mountain, Indiana Jones, Buzz Blasters, Jungle Cruise, Haunted Mansion, and more! We ate lunch at Randy’s favorite place, Rancho del Zocala, enjoyed some Disney churros and Dole whips, and just had a blast. We finished out the night with a turkey leg, a parade, hot cocoa, the fireworks show, and I may have gotten so excited on the Carousel that I ripped my pants and had to go buy some Disney sweats. So embarrassing.
The next day was another early morning in California Adventure where we went to Radiator Springs, Toy Story Mania, the new Soarin’ Around The World, and all of our other favorites. We enjoyed the bakery tour and some Ghirardelli ice cream for a late breakfast. We then headed back to Disney to catch the few rides we hadn’t gotten to the day before, like Peter Pan and Splash Mountain (which left us soaked!) We ran back and forth between parks for the rest of the day, eating clam chowder, corn dogs, spying characters and seeing half of parades here and there.
We had such a blast taking pictures and laughing, telling stories and talking about our lives.
Saturday we spent the day driving home with the family, listening to music and having a blast talking and joking around!
We had a fantastic vacation and it’s all thanks to my awesome parents and sister!! They made the trip possible and helped us have a great time.
Here Is The Low Down 
