My family traveled to Japan with the main objective of hiking the Kumano Kodo trail. We also spent a brief time in Kyoto where we stayed in a authentic Ryokan hotel. Surprisingly, it was relatively easy adjusting to sleeping on the floor, and any inconvenience was offset by the rewarding feeling of being immersed in a different culture. Japanese cities are very clean and sophisticated. Kyoto was the only city I’ve ever visited that likely surpassed a typical city in the US in terms of development and technology. The people of Japan also seemed to be the nicest and most polite of any place I’ve ever been. I did learn that it is worth packing ample supplies of non-perishable food, since it can be hard to adapt to the local cuisine.  Kyoto contains many shrines, a few of which we were able to visit. My personal favorite was the Fushimi Inari shrine which had stone trails that wound up a hillside and led to small shops and the striking orange Torii gates. Another impressive shrine was Saihō-ji which had moss covered landscaping with tranquil ponds and stone walkways. We also very much enjoyed hiking the Kumano Kodo trail. It was different than most hikes we were used to, such as those in parks, as it did not have the most impressive scenic views, but was fun traveling from town to town and staying in small, unique, lodgings.