Where to? Japan (Winter) Diaries

Happy New Year! I took off the month of December to enjoy every free second of the holidays, so now it’s back to “Where to Wednesday’s.”

This time of year in 2017, I was in Japan again, having left December 26, 2016 and coming home two weeks later in January.

I was in Japan for 14 full days, although I arrived on December 27 (and left Japan on January 11); I left for Japan December 26 @ 8 a.m. CST from New Orleans. Japan is approximately 15 hours ahead of Louisiana (CST), so if you have done some traveling, you know how crazy hopping that many time zones can be. Leaving from New Orleans, with a connecting flight in Dallas leaving @ 10:15 a.m., I ended up arriving in Tokyo on December 27 @ 3 p.m. (1 a.m. back home!). Crazy, I know. So a day was lost, but I gained it back on return to the States. The 26th and 27th were literally spent traveling, and by the time I got out of the airport after customs, security and made my way to my hotel via an hour train ride, it was about 6 p.m.

I stayed at Flexstay Inn Higashi-Jujo, a small (incredibly small) hotel literally right next door to the train station — and a 7-Eleven, only my absolute favorite convenience store in Japan that I missed oh so much. The first thing that I did after dropping off my bags in the hotel room? Ran across the street to grab a quick and easy dinner from 7-Eleven, of course! I chose fried rice and a salmon onigiri (a rice ball with filling of countless possibilities in the middle); they are seriously my favorite snack/food, that are perfect especially for when you are on the go, and very cheap; I ate them whenever possible. 

7-Eleven is one of the things I really missed about Japan (and still miss to this day). We don't have any around us in Louisiana, and the one I visited in NYC (first one I had EVER been to in the US, btw) in November was highly disappointing.

I crashed early that night, tired after all the traveling. Lots of adventuring to do the next day!!