This trip to Japan was a masterpiece of an itinerary which provided something that blew me away every single day. Seeing all the flashy signs in Shinjuku at night was a visual spectacle!
Those two dinners with locals in Kinosaki Onsen were my absolute favorite aspect of the trip and created two of the best nights of my life.
Just the context of going to Japan's oldest tea house which was located in the birth place of matcha and that it had stayed family owned for 16 generations was already enough! Beyond that I greatly enjoyed the museum and seeing the model of people carrying tea all the way from Kyoto to Tokyo by foot. The demonstration, doing some grinding and participating in a true Japanese tea ceremony made it beyond belief.
I have also felt deeply accepted and appreciated by all of you. Thank you so much for taking me places far greater and more exotic than anywhere I have ever seen. Thanks to all of you for caring about me as a person, putting your best foot forward to insure my happiness and giving me experiences unlike anything else that I had ever seen or done. Having adults in my life who I can look up to, learn from, have as people who will share the best things about the world with me and who will never express authority as being guides over travelers and only treat us as equals (even though we aren’t) is heroic.