My sweet little girl is home in time for Japan

Violet has been traveling for about two months, and yesterday she arrived home! I am thrilled, because she is just in time for our trip to Japan.

She even has her own kimono!
Our Japan plans have firmed up in the last week. I have never been this so last minute about travel plans in my life, there are just a few other things on my plate (house, job, car, and about everything else major seems to be disrupted right now). Anyway, we finally have a hotel for all the nights that we will be in Japan, and we also were able to get a bullet train pass that is only available to non-Japanese citizens, so we had to get it Fed-Exed to our US address. I bought this at the last possible moment, not good planning on my part.

Our plan now is to spend a few days in Tokyo, we are going to visit a few temples, gardens and shrines. Possibly do some shopping, but E and I aren't much shoppers. Then we'll take the train to the Five Lakes District near Mt. Fuji. Here we'll stay in a traditional Japanese hotel where we'll eat and sleep on the floor. I'm so excited! Then, we'll get on the train again and head to Kyoto. In Kyoto we'll stay in another traditional hotel, this one even neater than the last (here is there website). We'll explore Kyoto as much as we can and try to visit a few of the 500 temples and shrines Kyoto has to offer. Then we'll hop back on the bullet train and return to Tokyo for one last day in the city before I leave.

I am quite excited.