Tokyo!

Which is in Japan, in case you're confused.

I hate goodbyes and had to do a lot of goodbye-ing the whole week. Monday I had lunch with my boss. Tuesday was an office going away party. Wednesday was the going away happy hour. Thursday I ran around to find my birth control before our trip, and Friday I had to officially say goodbye to my coworkers.

One of them surprised me with this picture frame! It's hard to tell but it's the entire ACS Staff with RBG! I think I'll use it as a way to humble brag in my new apartment. "Oh yes...in the course of my nonprofit work I got to meet two Supreme Court Justices...social justice is just soooOOOooooOO rewarding...blah blah blah."


Also on my last day we got burritos at my favorite burrito place in DC! I can't think of a better way to go out than that! Then walked to the White house and ate lunch there. Later my coworkers brought out wine, cheese, grapes and crackers and we had another little mini party. I was actually pretty busy though helping tie up loose ends, but that was a welcome distraction from all the people trying to hug and cry over me.

This is how goodbyes make me feel.

After work I went to CVS, went to Walmart, went to CVS again to get my birth control and finished packing. It was a pretty unceremonious exit to DC, but in the morning when I woke up, there were prostitutes outside! I'd never seen them before. And it was warm and raining so they were kind of like splashing around in the puddles in between trying to entice people. It could've been a lot sadder.

I flew to Toronto, met up with Zack and then we flew to Tokyo! It was a pretty uneventful flight and Zack even managed to sleep a little--good work Zack!

Zack wearing a bib to prove to the waitress we
understood her instructions

Then we had to make our way to our hotel, which, according to google maps, looked really difficult. It wasn't that difficult, but it did involved three separate trains. Also, I  asked for instructions to Yotsuya and it turns out we wanted to go to Yotsuya Sanchome. They're only about 3/4 of a mile apart, but we had all of our luggage, so we asked a police officer how to get to the right place and he showed us. But, in the course of asking him, I left my directions with him! It was a only a little bit of a bummer though because we knew we were close and the map kind of sucked anyway. BUT, when we got off the train at the right stop, the police officer was there on his bike and gave me back the directions! He biked to the next stop just to return basically useless directions. Very Japan.

 Then we got to the hotel, showered and went out to dinner. we were so tired we just stopped at the first restaurant that advertised an English menu. It turned out to be sukiyaki, which is sort of like what they do at Benihana, but smaller. The waitress made us wear bibs. At first I was not about that life, but it turned out to be a good plan because a lot of the fat/grease popped up and would've gotten on our clothes otherwise. It was really good and there was a group of families getting absolutely wasted next to us. They gave us some of their fried rice, and probably would've given us some shots, but we were too tired to stick around.

 We struggled to make it to 8:30pm before going to sleep, and ended up waking up at 5:45 and leaving by 6:15 the next morning. we were too early for Starbucks and had to walk around a little bit to find somewhere selling coffee. In the end it turned out to be okay that we woke up so early because we walked around this shrine in the middle of Tokyo called Meiji Jingu that's really beautiful, but would've been way too hot later in the day.

After walking around there we walked around Harajuku, which you might remember from Gwen Stefani. It was full of a lot of cool shops that were closed. We're probably going to go back when we're in Tokyo at the end of our trip.

After that we went to the Tokyo Metropolitan Building, which is really tall so you can get a good view of the city. And, unlike the Tokyo Tower and Tokyo Skytree, it's free! And, we were also super into that it was air conditioned. It was also really nice because they labeled all the buildings we were looking at. This is a picture of the Tokyo Metropolitan Building Number 2. And if you follow we on snapchat, which I mean, everyone should, you got to see a video from the top as well.

not Niagara at all

After that we walked around another park, which advertised "Niagara Falls Tokyo." We thought that was hilarious, and we were correct in expecting it to be underwhelming. It was. It's a fountain. A pretty decent fountain, but definitely just a fountain. Then we went and got lunch. It was actually a Chinese restaurant, which made it super difficult to order, because it's like Japanese translations of words I don't know. Finally the waitress just asked us "chicken or pork?" and brought us what she thought we wanted. It worked out.

Then we walked around Shinjuku and the department stores. There was even a Krispy Kreme. After that we were pretty much dying so we went back to the hotel and took a two hour nap. Then we woke up, went to Ginza, and had some pretty mediocre Thai food. We managed to stay up til 11, but that was only because of the nap.


Tuesday we went to the Edo Tokyo Museum to learn about earlyish Japanese history. I used my excellent Japanese skills to lie and say I'm a college student so I could get a 120 yen discount. I mean...I will be a student in like a month. So it's not really a lie. This is a part of Japan's history that I'm not sure familiar with. I've never really committed to keeping my Shogunates separate--I only know about the last one that collapse and made things change. The museum was interesting, but I still haven't really internalized the history at all. Oh well. I'll just watch the Last Samurai a few more times and hope that straightens me out.

The museum was really good for reminding me of CART though:

Here we have Taylor teaching some young students in Edo era Tokyo

Here we have Ashely helping a woman give birth.

The last sentence of this description shows that Ashely's techniques at this time probably would've hurt about as much as they helped. Get it together, Edo era Ashely.

This is a list of epidemics that hit Edo. I can't tell what they are, but they made me think of Teeners.

This is Zack on two ridiculous bicycles. 

One woman told him he was "the coolest" while I took his picture on this bike. What. 

This is Zack as a sumo wrestler.

After the museum we went to Asakusa, which is a more old-timey part of Tokyo. Mostly it was an incredibly touristy and crowded part of Tokyo. the main attraction there is Senso-ji, a buddhist shrine, surrounded by a ton of cheap, crowded shops selling stereotypical Japanese stuff. I was too hot to care a ton about it. If you follow me on instagram, which should be everyone except Taylor, you already saw a picture of the pagoda there. We ate lunch, walked around, and then got moving onto Akihabara.

you weren't supposed to take pictures, but I did!
I'm a real rebel.

Akihabara is called the "electric city" and has a ton of video game/electronic/sex shops. Definitely a weird vibe, but worth seeing. A lot of the video game and manga stuff was lost on me, but it was all unique and would be hard to find in a different city! We went into a 6 story sex shop, but I was only allowed on the first four floors and had to send Zack up to the top two. He said there wasn't much interesting except those fleshlights and a bunch of nervous dudes. I'll pass.

Then we wandered into an arcade. I think they're too whelming. There's music from like 19 different games, lights all over, and just generally too much going on Also, probably my lack of interest in video games makes them less interesting. But, we did play air hockey though and I beat Zack! Worth it.

Zack was so into his big toast.
And it was HUGE.

 After that we went to Ginza to see the imperial palace. First we needed a snack though so we stopped at this fancy French cafe. It was overpriced, but pretty worth it since we were so hot and tired. Also this ended up being our dinner, even if that wasn't the plan.

 Then we walked to the imperial palace and managed to find like five exits, and not a single entrance. I guess that makes sense. You don't want a bunch of ways to get into the castle?

Then we went home, collapsed and rested out feet. Tuesday we ended up walking around 32,000 steps. Which is like 14.5 miles. Props to Fitbit for keeping those stats. It takes an hour and a half to get to the airport so we had to wake up pretty early the next day anyway to get ready to come to Osaka.

While we were at the airport this absolutely wasted man walked up to us and tried starting up a conversation. He told us how we used to live in Finland with his wife. But that was too cold. So they moved to Japan. But then he decided to move to Melbourne for three months, and his wife wasn't happy with that. But then he came back after 10 days and was going to surprise her. But she said she wanted a divorce and that he friend was staying at their house so he shouldn't come back. Then he passed out on the seats and almost missed the flight.

Then when we landed we heard him yelling into his phone that he was going to "fuck someone up." So yeah, he's really our new best friend and it's sad we didn't get to know him well.

Now we're in Osaka with my grandparents and things will probably move a little slower. And that's not necessarily a bad thing!

Vacation with a side of Engaging!

SPOILER ALERT: I'M ENGAGED!!!

Just thought I'd throw that out there so you didn't have to wait in suspense for too long.  Anywho, this is the story of BobShley's adventures through the southeast. Enjoy!

Stop 1: Nashville, TN

On Friday, we managed to get our butts out of bed and out the door by 6:20am.  We journeyed to the faraway land of Nashville for the sole purpose of experiencing the WORLD'S GREATEST BISCUITS.  Loveless Cafe is a motel-turned-restaurant that is known for its homemade biscuits and jams/jellies.  As Teeners knows, I could probably win an eating contest involving these biscuits, so I had warned Bobby that I planned to eat 17 of them.  He didn't believe me, but I did it!....almost...I ate 4, which is essentially a synonym for 17.  Then we drove home.

Just kidding. We headed to downtown Nashville for CMA Fest.  For those of you who are not country savvy, this is a four day long country music festival where there's pretty much live country music everywhere all the time.  We wandered Broadway (the main drag) for a while and then made our way to the riverfront stage where we first saw some old dude singer and later Eric Paslay and Chase Rice (I know them so this was exciting!).

Listening to good music and getting burnt

Other things we did included getting free samples of scented wet-naps, having a margarita flight at Margaritaville, and playing cornhole with our new friends!  We played against this guy and girl, and while the boys took the game very seriously, the girl and I were busy talking and I discovered that she's a nurse practitioner who works in labor and delivery and is applying to midwifery school! So we're basically best friends.  Also, don't worry, team BobShley won.

Margarita flight, best flight

We had planned to spend the night somewhere around Nashville, but by late afternoon we were super sweaty (which became a major theme of the trip) and ready to move on so we got back in the car for another four hours and headed to Atlanta.  But before we left, we were lucky enough to run into Blaine and have southern style fried chicken with our friend Emily.

Mini-Stop: Atlanta, GA

We spent the night with my aunt and uncle in Atlanta, and then got up in the morning to go see one of my favorite things.......babyyyyyyyyy!  My cousin Garrett just had his first baby a couple weeks ago (well his wife Ava did the actual baby-having), and it worked out perfectly that we got to stop and see her!  Her name is Leighton.  

Baby Leighton!

Stop 2: Savannah, GA

On Saturday afternoon, we arrived in Savannah aka our new favorite place.  The weird thing was that when we checked into our hotel, there was a bucket with champagne sitting in our room.  After much investigation, we learned that it was free (remember this detail....it will come up later in the story). Savannah is pretty cool because it's super easy to walk around and it's known for its 22 squares.  Each square has lots of pretty trees and places to sit with a statue commemorating someone in the middle.  Someone we got to know really well was James Oglethorpe.  Not only did he found the city of Savannah, he also fought lots of battles and did many positive things for the city.  He even has his own road!

They're basically the same person

We spent a lot of the day wandering into cute shops.  One store we really like is the Savannah Bee Company.  They make every honey and honey-based product you can imagine.  They also have lots of taste testers (another theme of the trip), and Bobby may or may not have tried all 20 flavors at all three of their stores.  Another food we got to sample lots was pralines.  These are pecans coated in a sugary, carmely substance.  Every candy store gives out free samples, which tend to be the size of a full cookie, so that counted as our lunch several days along with a side of ice cream/gelato.

Honey everywhere!

Desserts everywhere!

At night, we went to the city market, which is just a little strip of shops, bars and restaurants at the city center.  We ate outside and listened to live music/stared at all the adorable dressed up babies.  ALSO, we saw someone walking a cat! And it was actually successful!

Savannah City Market

On Sunday, we did some more explorin'.  We wandered through some of the squares and saw more trees and statues.  Our ultimate destination was Forsyth Park, which is the most awesome place in Savannah.  The park is pretty big with lots of room for activities, but the main feature is the fountain in the middle.  The fountain was built in 1858 and resembles this fountain in Paris.

Fountain at Place de la Concorde in Paris

Forsyth Park- maybe this is the true Paris of America

 Later, we walked along the river and stopped in some of the little gift shops.  Mostly we just wanted to steal their air conditioning.  One cool thing about this area though was that you're allowed to drink on the streets, so we got to refresh ourselves with some beers as we strolled.

He could get used to this

**If you're only reading this post for the engagement story, here is where you should start paying attention**

We had dinner reservations at a place called the Olde Pink House.  It is the oldest mansion in Savannah dating back to 1771.  Not only is it beautiful, it's also really a unique building.  The outside stucco is pink (hence the name) and it still kind of looks like a mansion inside with several different dining rooms decorated with paintings, mirrors, and chandeliers.  Our food was amazing and the wait staff was fantastic!  The weird thing was that multiple waiters/managers came up to us and asked if we were celebrating a special occasion, and we just kept saying no just vacation, so I think they might be psychic.  It is a stop on the ghost tour after all.

Bobby got chicken, sweet potatoes (which I
discovered I like), and collard greens (which
we discovered we hate)

I got filet mignon, asparagus, and a twice baked
potato. We like all those things.

After 700 attempts, we finally got a decent picture in front
of the Olde Pink House

After dinner, we headed to Forsyth Park again because we wanted to see it lit up at night.  We walked around a little and then made our way towards the fountain.  Bobby started to tell me that he knew where the mystery champagne had come from (I told you it would come up again).  He said that my dad must have sent it because he was the only one that knew where we were staying and he was the only person who knew....I never really got to hear the other half because at this point I was balling my eyes out (in a happy way, duh).  Bobby managed to get out "Will you marry me?" and pulled out the most gorgeous ring I can imagine!  I obviously said "yes" and I'll spare you the rest of the details because it gets pretty sappy from there.  But we did top off the night with a stop at Lulu's Chocolate Bar.  This place is known for its desserts and dessert flavored martinis.  It was the perfect end to the perfect night <3.

First photo as an engaged couple!  One thing
we've had to get used to is having me stand on
Bobby's left side because notice in all previous
pictures I'm on the right. #engagedwomanproblems

Lulu's.  Get used to seeing this hand.  It made
many appearances for the rest of the trip.

Celebrating with our champagne!  Side note:
My dad actually did not send the champagne,so it
will always be a mystery as to where it came from.

On Monday, my fiancé and I drove to Tybee Island, which is a beach town just outside Savannah.  We spent the morning laying on the beach and playing in the water.  Oh, I also made Bobby take really cheesy photos like this one:

Whoever wrote that did a really good job

At night, we wandered around and got some sweet daiquiris.  There's a chain in the region called Wet Willie's and they have about 20 daiquiri flavors that you can mix and match together.  Yum! Also, this happened.  Some guy just backed into it....casual.

Normal

And the night ended with some fascinating people-watching on the pier. It was a combo of adorable babies chasing doggies and fishermen with very unique clothing styles.  More lovey-dovey and ring pics were taken of course. 

We're really good at sunset pictures

How did that hand get in there? My bad...

Mini-Stop: Beaufort, SC

On Tuesday, we ventured to Beaufort in the morning.  This is another historic town along the coast.  We had lunch at a restaurant called Plums and then strolled down the main street with shops.  After getting nice and sweaty, we got back in the car and headed to Charleston.

Two of my favorite things!

And the heat index was 111 

Are we in love or what?

Stop 3: Charleston, SC

We arrived in Charleston in the afternoon, so we did some window shopping at the high-end stores.  Then we got cleaned up and ready for our dinner cruise through the harbor.  We were seated with another couple for dinner, who we liked but probably wouldn't be friends with because they said things like "the Mason-Dixie Line".  Our food was pretty good...mostly we liked the bread they served beforehand.  We also saw lots of cool things from the boat including a sailboat race, Fort Sumter, and water.

Go sailboats! 

Fort Sumter

Another very successful sunset pic

On Wednesday, our tourist game was strong.  We took our pal, Fodor's, and followed its walking tour through Charleston.  We saw lots of churches, government buildings, and famous hotels.

St. Philip's Church

I fit right in with the locals

The guard at the custom house wasn't very social 

St. Michael's Church and the Post Office. Rachael,
you would like this intersection because it's called
the "Four Corners of Law".  There's also a city hall
and courthouse right there.

Pineapple Fountain! Ahh I'm sorry, I really
don't know how that hand keeps getting in
the way

After our walking tour, we went through the city market, which looks kind of like a flea market but much classier!  There are lots of handmade things to buy and it is also surrounded by more stores (another theme).

City Market

In case you didn't know

In the afternoon, we went to Folly Beach for a couple hours.  It had really nice sand, and the waves were fun!  The only thing I disliked about it was that I had to take my ring off for this adventure.

Watch for us on the cover of SI July 2015

Our evening activities started with walking to the Battery, an area with cannon replicas, a park, and lots of HUGE mansions.  Then we strolled by Rainbow Row...no explanation needed, just see below for picture.

My future home. Yes, this is someone's house. 

Rainbow Row!

We had dinner at a southern BBQ place.  So much good food! Then we went to a rooftop bar called the Pavilion.  I had a mango mojito, and now I've decided I need more of that in my diet.  Even though we like being super classy, we were getting antsy, so we looked for a more chill bar.  And we found a Big Ten one! We watched the basketball game, and then played some darts.  I lost, but it was still pretty fun! I even got a bulls-eye once!

View from the Pavilion Bar

My view of the basketball game

Go Blue!

 Stop 4: Gatlinburg, TN

While we loved Charleston, we were very happy to get out of there, as the church shooting happened about 5 miles away from us while we were out that night.  It was pretty scary that such a horrific event was going on so close to us.  So we hopped in the car and drove to Gatlinburg, which is in the Smoky Mountains.  One exciting thing that happened was that when we were about an hour out, we got hit with golf ball sized hail for 20 minutes.  That was a new experience for both of us.

We first had to stop in Pigeon Forge to check into our cabin.  Since I can't do the awfulness of Pigeon Forge justice, I'll just say imagine all the things you hate and that's exactly what this city is.  Luckily, Gatlinburg was way less gross and over the top.  Our cabin was called "Cuddly Bears' Lair" and had a hot tub, sauna, and awesome mountain view.  We went grocery shopping and then made a honey themed dinner with the honey we bought in Savannah.  The rest of the night we just relaxed, hot tubbed, sauna-ed, and started to wedding plan!

Honey grilled carrots, honey soaked fruit salad, honey fried
chiken, and honey beer!

On Friday, we biked the 11-mile Cade's Cove Loop.  The scenery was beautiful with the mountains in the background, and there were several stops to see old churches and houses.  The unfortunate thing was that we had to share the road with cars, so that made it kind of stressful.  But we survived!  And almost saw a bear!

Professional bikers

Since we're so athletic and fit, we decided to take a hike to Laurel Falls after our bike trip.  It was all uphill on the way there, but it was ok because we saw lots of babies and even one Michigan one!  The waterfall was pretty too, and then we got to go downhill all the way back.

Professional hikers

After a long day of strenuous activities, we had a relaxing night in the cabin and drove home the next morning.  And I think it's only right to end this post with one last picture of the lovely Smoky Mountains :)

Thank you for reading!