{"id":1730,"date":"2026-10-11T06:29:43","date_gmt":"2026-10-11T13:29:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beyond-the-maps.com\/?p=1730"},"modified":"2026-10-11T06:39:16","modified_gmt":"2026-10-11T13:39:16","slug":"konnichiwa-nihon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beyond-the-maps.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/11\/konnichiwa-nihon\/","title":{"rendered":"Konnichiwa Nihon!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Thank you to everyone joining us in another one of our adventures! We are so excited to share our experiences with you. Today we completed our second trip across the international dateline this year as we flew over the Bearing Sea on our way to Japan, complete with a snack of &#8220;Udon of the Sky&#8221;!  This vacation also equalized the continent count with both Jay and Stephanie having visited five of the seven large landmasses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/beyond-the-maps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG_0537-1024x768.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1733\" srcset=\"https:\/\/beyond-the-maps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG_0537-1024x768.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/beyond-the-maps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG_0537-300x225.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/beyond-the-maps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG_0537-768x576.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/beyond-the-maps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG_0537-1536x1152.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/beyond-the-maps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG_0537-2048x1536.jpeg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After clearing immigration and customs we jumped right into the Japanese rail system as we traveled between terminals to pick up our pocket Wi-Fi and then onto an express train into Tokyo.  The train system here is an overwhelming maze (of which I am sure our future blog posts will feature). Lucky our suica cards (the go-to payment method for public transportation and many local shops and eateries) worked like a charm and we were able to navigate the terminals with only minor hiccups.  The two times we made a mistake a very helpful attendant was able to point us in the right direction.  To which we gave a quick response of &#8216;arigato gozaimasu&#8217; (thank you very much).  By the time we ascended to our fifth floor apartment we were ready for dinner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/beyond-the-maps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG_0540-768x1024.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1735\" srcset=\"https:\/\/beyond-the-maps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG_0540-768x1024.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/beyond-the-maps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG_0540-225x300.jpeg 225w, https:\/\/beyond-the-maps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG_0540-1152x1536.jpeg 1152w, https:\/\/beyond-the-maps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG_0540-1536x2048.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/beyond-the-maps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG_0540-scaled.jpeg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We went on a quick stroll along the quiet streets of the neighborhood we will call home for the next four days.  We are staying in the neighborhood of Komagome. After checking out a few konbinis (convenience stores) and vending machines &#8211; which are everywhere &#8211; we eventually ended up at a local ramen \/ soba house for dinner.  Our apartment is outside of the core tourist areas so the people we see on the streets are largely locals.  It gets dark early here &#8211; around 5:30 p.m., so tonight is an early bed time as we prepare for an early start tomorrow in order to maximize the day light hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/beyond-the-maps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG_5537-1024x768.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1732\" srcset=\"https:\/\/beyond-the-maps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG_5537-1024x768.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/beyond-the-maps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG_5537-300x225.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/beyond-the-maps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG_5537-768x576.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/beyond-the-maps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG_5537-1536x1152.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/beyond-the-maps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG_5537-2048x1536.jpeg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thank you to everyone joining us in another one of our adventures! We are so excited to share our experiences with you. Today we completed our second trip across the international dateline this year as we flew over the Bearing Sea on our way to Japan, complete with a snack of &#8220;Udon of the Sky&#8221;! [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1733,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pgc_sgb_lightbox_settings":"","iawp_total_views":35,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-japan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/beyond-the-maps.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/beyond-the-maps.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/beyond-the-maps.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beyond-the-maps.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beyond-the-maps.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1730"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/beyond-the-maps.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1730\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1738,"href":"https:\/\/beyond-the-maps.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1730\/revisions\/1738"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beyond-the-maps.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/beyond-the-maps.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beyond-the-maps.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beyond-the-maps.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}