Travel plans....

Our big trip this summer is a short tour of Asia. My cousin is getting married and his fiancee is Japanese, so they are having receptions in both Japan and Taipei.

FI has never been to Asia and we all haven't been to Japan, so this should be an exciting trip!

We will be traveling to both Japan and Taiwan over a 12-day period. The wedding in Japan is in Kyoto, so we'll be there and we also will stop over in Tokyo. Then we'll head to Taipei.

Mom actually wanted to also go to Osaka and Malaysia as well! I managed to talk her out of that otherwise we'd be flying/training every 2 days and basically have only 1 full day in each city.

Our itenary will be:

- 7/18 - leave US for Japan
- 7/19 - arrive in Tokyo, head to Kyoto
- 7/20 - wedding in Kyoto
-7/21, 22 - sightsee in Kyoto
-7/22 - travel to Tokyo
-7/23, 24 - sightsee in Tokyo
- 7/25 - fly to Taiwan
- 7/26 - wedding in Taipei
-7/27,28,29 - sightsee in Taipei
-7/30 - leave for US

We have a hotel in Kyoto and will stay with family in Taipei. However we still need to figure out where we're staying in Tokyo.

I've been assigned the trip coordinator for Japan since I didn't want to go on a guided tour and Mom isn't good with this whole internet research thing and Stephen is too busy to help out. Thank goodness FI has stepped in and offered to help plan. He's already found the nature-related sightseeing places he wants to go to near Tokyo so that's 1 day planned already.

For Taipei, I'm already thinking of the fun things and places I want to show FI. I actually totally want to get cheesy glamour-shot style engagement photos done! It's much less expensive and they have so many options and great packages. So that will be 1 day covered.

For the other 2 days, I'm thinking....
- get yummy egg pancakes for 30NT (about $1US)
- get hair washed for 90NT
- go to Shi Lin Night Market
- go to Gu Gong National Museum
- wander around Xi Men Ding
- go to Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial
- take the supremely clean and awesome subway system
- check out one of the giant department stores (which is basically a multi-story mall all contained under 1 storefront)
- wander around and eat random food

That should be enough to get us through Taipei...