Monday (May 1), I went home from work early with a fever. I stayed home on Tuesday because my temperature was still too high (38.9 degrees Celcius!). Olivia and I had been planning a Golden Week adventure for months and I would be devastated to back out due to a silly sickness. Luckily, my fever was gone by Tuesday evening, and I was just stuck with severe congestion and body aches. Bet you can’t guess how many cups of tea I drank in the span of these two days…
Day 1: Road Trip to Fukushima and Nikko
Golden week fell on a Wednesday, Thursday, Friday this year, so the kindergarten team took a road trip. We packed a rental car with our bags, snacks, a box of crayons, two boxes of tissues, three ukekeleles, and a keyboard. First stop, Hanamiyama park in Fukushima for a picnic. After snacking on rice balls and fruit sandwiches, we continued on to Nikko. It was about 9:30pm when we arrived at our airBnb and I was exhausted. Not only was I sick and sleep deprived, but I developed some sort of eye infection during the day and had to buy eyedrops at the store. My eyes were happy to close that night.
Day 2: Tochigi and Ashikaga Flower Park
After a slow morning of journaling, tea, yogurt, and granola, we set out towards Tochigi to visit the blooming wisteria trees. I had seen a taco truck on Google Maps while researching for our trip, so we stopped at Kenny’s Tacos and it was well worth it. Super yum! Well, that’s what my friends told me at least. I couldn’t taste much with the density of congestion in my head. It took a long time to find parking at this popular flower park, but we finally made it to the gate and indulged in floral surroundings. Wisteria-flavored ice cream! For dinner, we found a restaurant near our AirBnb that featured a yuba set. Olivia said it was delicious but I’m going to be honest: the texture of yuba isn’t pleasant when your taste buds are failing. At least it was pretty. I painted my nails blue while Katelyn and Olivia sang to the tunes of their ukeleles.
Day 3: Nasu and Road Trip to Sendai
After checking out of our AirBnb, we drove just down the road to a small cafe for breakfast. They seemed to have just four things on the menu: toast, cake, coffee, and tea. So we ordered pancakes and I ordered matcha. It was so good. We started driving north and stopped in Nasu for the Animal Kingdom to see red pandas, capybaras, warthogs, tigers, toucans, lemurs, leopards, and many other animals. Capybaras feel like bristly brooms. For our last stop, we found a hidden koinobori field which was breathtaking. They were going to take the carp streamers down shortly after we parked, so we arrived just in time. We walked through a sea of yellow flowers before heading back to the car. I drove the rest of the way home and we arrived safely at our apartment around 9pm. We spent the remaining two days of the weekend resting and recovering. It was a beautiful trip with beautiful friends <3
