Market & Temple Hopping in Tokyo

And let the trip photos begin! If you love following along with lots of travel posts, then these next few weeks are for you. I am finally home from my month-long adventure through Asia and the South Pacific and I have a million photos to prove it! The trip was part of my parents school, Ohana Institute, and since it’s my sister’s senior trip, I got to tag along!

Our first stop was Tokyo, Japan.

We began the day walking through the Hamarikyu Gardens. After flying a 13 hour flight over from Seattle, it was nice to start the day and deal with the pesky jet lag under the bright sun and beautiful air. Japan is clean, clean, clean and it really showed while walking through this beautiful garden.

We were also extra lucky because the cherry blossoms were blooming much earlier than usual, so we got to see them! Cherry blossoms are my favorite flower/tree, so I was beside myself with excitement and they did not disappoint.

After the gardens, the guided tour continued to a popular outdoor market that leads directly to the Sensoji Temple.

We also made a pit stop for some ice cream! Unfortunately I couldn’t have any, but the displays were so cute that I just enjoyed taking cute pastel photos!

We eventually made it to the beautiful Buddhist temple, where we were able to see the amazing artwork that adorns the building both inside and out, and my mom and I both participated in the cleansing rituals that are outside. It was such a cool experience to have while being in the heart of Tokyo at a gorgeous temple.

We ended the day by visiting the Meiji Shrine on the outskirts of Tokyo. We had to walk up to the entrance through this enormous altar type thing (excuse the inaccuracy of my name calling!) where we ended up having the school blessed in a beautiful ceremony.

They had this amazing wall of empty sake bottles lining the entrance!

Say hey to the group! There were almost 30 of us total!

I couldn’t take pictures inside the shrine and during the blessing, but it was a cool experience and something that we’ve all never done before!

We spent the night in Tokyo and the next morning before catching our flight to Singapore! The morning before our flight was spent at the fish market, but it wasn’t something I felt comfortable with supporting or taking pictures of.

After that, we headed to an authentic sushi lunch.

Then we said our goodbyes to our amazing tour guide and hopped on a plane to Singapore.