Back from Japan!!!
 

We just got back from 2 weeks in Japan. What a wonderful trip it was. We spent 2 days (3 nights) in Tokyo, 4 days (5 nights) in Kyoto and 3 days (4 nights) in Saijo which is 30 minutes from Hiroshima.
Thanks for all the travel tips - I received numerous kudos from my husband. He kept asking me, "How do you know this stuff?" You guys all made me look good.
On your advice I also badgered him into packing light and boy was he glad. We didn't even do any laundry, although several of our hotels had readily available facilities.
I really needed the silk long underwear in Kyoto - it snowed 1 day (sideways) and rained 2 days.
I will post a trip report some time next week after I find my desk under all these piles of paper.

That is great! That's right, you jumped on those low spring airfares. I am glad you took the silk long underwear. I am leaving a week from today and have ours ready to pack too. It sleeted and snowed for us one day the last week of March in Kyoto last year also.

The 2nd trip is more relaxed since you know the drills, isn't it.

I am curious about Saijo/Hiroshima and what you did there for 3 days. We are going back to Tokyo and Kyoto but also going to Hakone and Shikoku (Takamatsu) this time. Try to post something in the next week if you can, so I can see it before we leave next Friday morning.

Did you catch any cherry blossoms?

We stayed in Saijo because that is where the University of Hiroshima actually is located.
We stayed at the Green Morris Hotel (a room with 2 twin beds was 113 yen a night and a double as 103 yen a night). It was a really nice hotel. They had a beer vending machine in the lobby. They accomodated us even though we didn't have a reservation.
We went to Miyajima one day and the A-bomb dome and Peace park the next.
Evan had a family that he stayed with for a weekend (we refer to them as his host family - even though he sees them only every couple of months) and they picked us up on our last day. They took us to a temple, a ramen lunch and then we had a Japanese barbeque at their house. They were so great, and we're keeping contact with them via email.
It's about 30 minutes by train to Hiroshima from Saijo.
We saw very few cherry blossoms. On the way from Hiroshima back to Tokyo (the 26th) we did see quite a few more than we had a week and a half before. I'll bet they're just perfect next week.

113 yen a night ! Was that a 100-yen hotel ? Kidding. 11300 yen, I guess.

You don't know how many times I had to check my math because of those pesky decimal points. At least they're both decimal systems. Converting colones two years ago was a lot harder.
Love those 100 yen shops!! I bought chopsticks for all 17 of my nieces and nephews (they don't take up much luggage space.)