Week 12: Tokyo (Posted by Megan)

 On Tuesday afternoon, we arrived in Tokyo. Our trip from Lima involved four days of travel: departure from Lima on Saturday, arrival in LA (via Miami) on Sunday, departure from LA on Monday, and arrival in Tokyo on Tuesday.  Whew!  

We successfully navigated our first trip on the amazing Tokyo subway system, and walked through the incredibly quiet streets of Yanaka (our neighborhood for our two weeks here, near Ueno Park) to get to our house. Yanaka is known for having strong vintage Tokyo vibes, and still has lots of single family homes (tightly packed in) and historic shrines.  We grabbed our first of many bowls of ramen at a cozy local restaurant, and then crashed for the night.

The next two days were a great change of pace: we got to hang out with friends!  Seeing Jay, Lauren, Charlie, Lucy Rae, and Mignon was a great start to our time here.  Since they'd already been in Tokyo for a bit, we let them lead us around as they wrapped up their trip in Tokyo.  We started by eating our way through the Tsukiji Fish Market, then paid our respects at the Namiyoke Shrine before letting the kids burn off some energy at Akatsuki Park - a cool park we stumbled on earlier that morning.

Our afternoon continued with the fun sensory overload of Harajuku - viral food treats, capsule toy dispenser stores, and a puppy cafe on Takeshita Street - and then a palate cleanser with time in Yoyogi Park and the Meiji Shrine. Wrapped up our day with a visit to Ramen Street in Tokyo Station - our second delicious ramen meal in as many days. 

The next day, we wandered the cooking-focused shops of Kappabashi Street ("Restaurant Street"), before grabbing a gyoza lunch and heading to enjoy the interactive art displays at TeamLab Planets. After a last sushi dinner together, we said goodbye to the Holders and Mignon.

On Friday, we let ourselves have a chill morning after our busy first few days here; Wade helped Jane and Annie start to research their Japan projects, and Eliza managed to sleep until 11 a.m.  We wandered over to the nearby Tokyo National Museum for an afternoon of art appreciation, and then finally made it to a grocery store to get our kitchen equipped for our time here. 

We've just had a few days here, but it's easy to see why people fall in love with visiting Japan.  We're only going to scratch the surface of Tokyo during our two weeks, but we're going to have a great time walking and eating our way through the city.

Week 11, continued: Lima (posted by Wade)

Our time in Latin America ended this week with four days in Lima. The highlights included lots of ceviche, the Pucllana ruins, exploring the Miraflores neighborhood, paying our respects to Pizarro who is entombed in Lima's Cathedral, and admiring the collection of ancient artifacts at the Larco Museum.

We were even lucky enough to reconnect with our new British friends, who we got to know during our time in the Amazon.

Above all, though, we enjoyed eating dinner with our old friends: Laura and Simon! They are teaching at one of Lima's best international schools and loving their time in Peru.

We are now Los Angeles for an extended, 18-hour layover, en route to Tokyo. The girls enjoyed California's famed In-N-Out Burger, probably the best taste of home that they've had in quite a while.