Oh, what a day this has been! 

The day starts off at 5am (as per usual apparently), where I realized I apparently had forgotten my satchel in the food court we had eaten at last night. Frantically asking staff in the hotel lobby in both English, English translations, and even rough Japanese, I tried to see if anyone had found it or had seen it, but to no avail. I even opened my Find My Devices app to see if my Airpods (which had been in my stachel) were nearby and could be located, and by proxy my bag, but still no luck as they were “Unable to be located.” Saddened that I may have lost some valuables, I returned to my room defeated, and along with Pavel stepped out to find some breakfast.

Just as we did, however, Pavel’s maps app was sort of freaking out, so I opened my phone to get directions to our destiantion, which opened to Find My Devices, and which now displayed my Airpods as being 0.1 miles away. Startled, I followed the app to the East Tower front desk of the hotel, and after explaining my situation to the concierge, he made some calls and was able to find my bag! He reutned it to me, and I couldn’t have been happier! 

After that whole fiasco, Pavel and I were starving, and so we went to a nearby café to have breakfast, and I was able to speak with the cashier in Japanese and order our food, which was a great feeling! 

After enjoying a filling meal, we wandered around Shinagawa city for a little while, finding a shopping center inside a large building, and a small park with a shrine inside. Then, it was time to meet back up with the group and go to board the Shinkansen for Kyoto!

The Shinkansen was a great experience, and I saw lots of smaller local towns as we zipped past them. It was really interesting seeing the different home architecture and land layouts!

Once we arrived in Kyoto, we met with KCG staff who were so welcoming and kind, and made us feel right at home as guests! They took us to a restaurant that was full of traditional Japanese cuisine, and my mouth was in its happy place the entire time! We were served ten courses, and each was a new food I hadn’t really tried before. There was small squid, soups, vegetables, and even sashimi prepared by the head sushi chef, who let us try rolling our own, which was an amazing experience. After dinner I was extremely full, but so glad I had the chance to experience so much wonderful food!

And so our first official day came to a close. I can’t wait to see what the next day has in store for us!