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This year we are off to Japan for 19 days. It is a place i have wanted to go to for many years, even going to Japanese classes many years ago. I've forgotten everything i learnt so here we go on a fun adventure.
Day 1 : Its early morning when we arrive in Tokyo. We are staying at an AirBnB residence in Shibuya, one of the main districts in Tokyo and just 5 minutes walk to the station. We had pre-booked a 1hour MariCar (Go-Kart) drive around the main streets of Shibuya (we required an International Drivers License before we left Australia). We all dress up as characters , i'm Bowser, wife is Toadette. Also in the group is Mario, Pokemon. We reached speeds up to 35kms/hour which is about the speed limit but seems much faster but is so much fun and a great way to start our holiday. (If you follow the guide and the rules you will be safe, if you don't there have been accidents).
Driving around Tokyo, a lot of the locals and tourists take pictures of us which is quite funny.
We spend the rest of the day looking around Shibuya. We have hired a Pocket Wi-Fi, which will become a god-send, as i can use google to work out where we need to go. You can find Free Wi-Fi in most of the cities we went to but good to have it. We have also got a Suica card for each of us, which we can use on the trains and buses (i believe 7-Eleven accepts it for payment for groceries but didn't try) all over Japan (not including Shinkansen - Bullet Trains).
Below is Shibuya crossing, the crossing i guess you always see on TV or in movies with hundreds of people crossing the road all at once.
Day 2 : Today we are to enjoy our third Disneyland (been to Hong Kong and California), this time in Tokyo who are celebrating 35 years. With the kids getting older now the rides aren't that spectacular. But always a beautiful place and we did enjoy our time. Next time we will visit the DisneySea which is next door to Disneyland.
From Disneyland to the train station their are a number of restaurants. We went to Bubba Gump, but others include TGIFridays, Starbucks, Pie Face and many more.
Day 3 : The kids have had their fun, now its time for my wife to enjoy her day.
We are visiting Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden, 15 minute walk from Shinjuku station (5 minute train ride from Shibuya to Shinjuku).
It is 144 acres of Japanese perfection as you would expect.
The Sakura (Cherry Blossoms) are near the end of their season. There were still a few trees out in bloom for us to take some beautiful pictures.
Below is the Taiwan Pavillion (Kyu-Goryo-Tei) in the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden.
It's night time and my daughter wants to visit the Harajuku Hedgehog Cafe, one stop from Shinjuku station.
Must say they are the cutest little things and certainly look forward to being fed.
They just lay back without too much issue.
Day 4 : Our first shrine of our trip is to Meiji Shrine, a Shinto shrine that is dedicated to the deified spirits of Emperor Meiji and his wife. Meiji Shrine is located in a forest covering 170 acres.
Performing a purification ritual before entering the shrine.
We were lucky enough to see a wedding procession taking place.
For my souvenir of our trip i have bought a Goshuinchou, a Japanese Temple Stamp book. Each shrine has there own unique stamp which is a memento of the visit.
You may find lots of Barrels of Sake wrapped in straw near shrines and temples. These are usually from sake brewing companies who have donated there sake for shrine ceremonies and festivals. To me it looks like a large Mahjong game.
Day 5 : Today we are packing up and heading to Kanazawa. Kanazawa is located in the central part of mainland Japan.
We are on a 3 hour Shinkansen trip. The Shinkansen is very comfortable and you would not realise you are going at 300km/h, it is so steady. Each set of seats have apower point and/or usb port. So very handy for travelling. The trolley girl brings around food/drink every 30mins or so. Most storage is on above racks, but some room behind the last seats for larger suitcases. Be first in. If you can buy your Shinkansen train tickets the day before your departure if you want to reserve a seat and time you want. Otherwise you can try for an unreserved seat.
We are staying at the Daiwa Roynet Hotel, just 5 minute walk from the train station which also has the loop bus stop. If you have a JR pass they have there own loop bus which goes around the main sight-seeing stops, including Omichi Market, Kenrokuen Garden, Kanazawa Castle, Hashiba-cho, 21st Century Museumand Oyama Jinja Shrine. There are also local buses doing the loop providing a one day pass. At the train station get your map of where all the bus stops are.
Day 6 : The wife is off to Omichi Market which provides fresh produce. If you want to find some eccentric food this is the place to go. Here she is eating fresh Sea Urchin. Surprisingly she liked it.
We are taking the JR Loop Bus, first stop is Kenrokuen Garden. Kenrokuen Garden is one of the Three Great Gardens of Japan. And from the pictures below you can see why.
Across the road from Kenrokuen Garden is Kanazawa Castle.
Along the street between Kanazawa Castle and Kenrokuen Garden there are many souvenir shops and my wifes favourite - Maccha Sweets. Maccha is fine ground powder of special green tea leaves. You can also pick up a gold-leaf ice-cream.
Late afternoon we catch the bus to Hashiba-cho (Higashi-Kazue-machi) Chaya District. A Chaya is an exclusive restaurant where guests are entertained by geisha who perform song and dance. Higashi is the largest and most entertaining of the disctricts in Kanazawa.
One thing we love about Kanazawa is the ladies dressing up in their Kimono's. We saw more Kimono's in Kanazawa then any other area of Japan.
There's quite a few shops around the area, including a chopstick shop.
Day 7 : we have an afternoon train ride to Takayama, so to fill in the time we are going to Oyama Shrine and Nomura Samurai House. Both of which we can walk from the bus stop on the Kanazawa Loop Bus or JR Pass Bus.
First stop is Oyama Shrine. Oyama Shrine is dedicated to Maeda Toshiie, the first lord of the powerful, local Maeda clan. The shrine was constructed in 1599 on Mount Utatsu, and moved to its current location in 1873.
Best time to arrive is early morning to catch the sun shining through an impressive garden.
Next stop is to the Nomura Samurai House, a 15 minute walk from Oyama. There is a small entrance fee. This is a traditional Japanese home, complete with tea-ceremony room, a small enchanting garden and artifacts from the Edo period.
It's the afternoon and we catch the Shinkansen to Toyama and change trains onto the Hida 8 express. The total trip is about 2 hours from Kanazawa to Takayama. Next to Takayama trainstation is the bus station where you can catch your bus trips. Here we have booked bus tickets to Shirakawago for the following day (we have not booked a tour).
Again we are staying in an Air-BnB accommodation called the Big 8, just 5-10min walk from the train station for 2 nights.
We are very impressed with the accommodation and highly recommend it.
Day 8 : 5 minute walk is the Bus Depot. You can go on a tour which generally are only half-day tours. We inside are catching the bus to Shirakawa-go which is about a 1 hour trip and also allows us unlimited timeframe to visit the village.
Shirakawa-Go is a small traditional village showcasing a building style known as gassho-zukuri and is one of UNESCO's world heritage sites. The day started with some low cloud.
Which turned into a beautiful sunny day.
Tasting our first Hida Beef. The most tender meat i have ever tasted. The kids loved it.
What a beautiful photo if i do say so myself.
Night time has come and the kids are wanting more Hida Beef. So we head into the town and find -
We cook our own beef on the BBQ. The beef just melts in your mouth.
Day 9 : Last day in Takayama and once again we have a late train trip to our next stop Kyoto. In the meantime we are making a quick stop to Hida Folk Village. The village is an open-air museum characterised with buildings from the Hida region. It is very similar to Shirakawa-Go, so if you have been there you may want to give the Hida Folk village a miss. The only addition that the village has is that you can actually go into some traditoinal houses and see how the people lived and the layout of the rooms. For example, having open fire under the house roof for cooking and keeping warm.
Kyoto is a 3 hour trip from Takayama, changing trains at Nagoya onto the Shinkansen.
Our accomodation is an AirBNB house called Samurai & Game House, a 7 minute walk from JR Inari station (which is 3 stops from Kyoto station). If your not using JR Pass you can get off at Fushimi-Inari station. The house is called Samurai & Game house because in the top floor bedroom there is a Samurai suit.
Sadly the kids and wife felt scared of the Samurai in the bedroom, so we all ended up sleeping on the lounge room floor. The house was quite large with a small toilet. For the kids there were was a Wii, Nintendo be, Nintendo 64 and PS1. Most of the games were in Japanese, so mainly played Mario Kart.
During the day time the area is very busy with locals and tourists visiting the Fushimi-Inari Taisha. After about 8pm it is very quiet with very few places open to eat. About the the only thing open is Lawsons convenience store.
Day 10 : Another sunny day in Japan. Today we are going to Arashiyama Bamboo Grove via a river boat tour down the Hozugawa river. We take the train from Fushimi-Inari station to Kyoto, and transfer there take the trainto Torokko-Saga Station. A short 5 minute walk to the river tour boarding site.
We all had a great ride going through the rapids and beautfiul country side. Plenty of birds along the way and the occasional otter on the banks. The rapids were relative easy/beginner size but the wife who doesn't like rides was a bit nervous some times. The traditional flat bottomed boat is piloted by boatmen using oars and bamboo poles. The 16km ride took about 2 hours and finished at Arashiyama.
Some boats pull up offering freshley cooked squid.
At the landing site of the boat ride, a short 10minute stroll through some gardens, you arrive at Arashiyama Bamboo Grove.
At the exit to the grove is the town centre where you can find plenty of small food stalls.
Day 11 : It's an early start for the wife and myself. Its 6am and we want to beat the crowd at Fushimi Inari-Taisha Shrine. This is one of the main attractions in Kyoto and as such gets busy with people very quickly. Fushimi Inari-Taishi is the head shrine of the god Inari (god of rice). The shrine sits on a mountain called Inari and incljudes a walking track through the mountain which is 4lms long and takes about 2 hours. You must be fit for this as it is steep in some places and many hundres or thousand of stairs for the complete circuit. The rows of Torii gates is called Senbon torii. The torii gates are donated by people/businesses as a form of good luck. There is around are 10,000 tore gates.
The writing on the torii gates are the names of the people/businesses that have donated the torri.
Some of the many shrines around the trail.
View from the top of Inari mountain.
Next stop for the day is Kinkaju-ji also known as the Golden Pavilion, is a Zen temple whose top two floors are covered in gold leaf. Surrounding the temple is a large pond and gardens. From Kyoto station we catch the traing to Emmachi Station and then a bus to Kinkaju-ji (thanks Google maps)
At night time we visited the Gion district for shopping and dinner.
Day 12 : Today is going to be a relaxing day. Kids are staying in the AirBnB and playing games.
It's a Sunday and i've arrived at the Imperial Palace to find out its closed on Sunday's. Damn.
The wife is getting a Maiko makeover for a photoshoot.
My wife tonight is meeting a real Maiko, with a performance and dinner.
While me and the kids are wondering around Kyoto for dinner. We stumble upon a food court underneath Kyoto Tower which contains lots of small restaurants and bars.
We found Gotties' Beef and had yummy Steak and Rice.
And for dessert, icecream at Rolly's.
Day 13 : Last day in Kyoto and today we will be catching the train to Osaka which takes about 30minutes. Before then the kids want to go to the Cat Cafe which is right next to Inari Station.
We've arrived at Osaka. We are staying in an AirBnB in Dotonbori. The residence is about a 5 minute walk to the Dotonbori restaurant district.
The famous Dotonbori Glico Sign. If you haven't of Glico (Japanese Food Company), you may have heard of some of there products but in particular Pocky (chocolate-coated pretzel sticks). Although in my travels in Japan, we have seen so many different pocky flavours - including Macha, Strawberry, Almond Crush and giant Rainbow Pocky.
For dinner we are trying A5 Rank Kobe Beef. We all loved it. It is so tender, but kids say Hida Beef was still the best.
Day 14 : It's gonna be a fun day at Universal Studios (USJ). Me and the kids love roller coasters so we will be fun for us but not the wife.
Its about a 35 minute train ride. We change at Osaka station and catch the Universal Studio train.
Thomas! Don't put your finger up the Great White Sharks nose.
One of the best rides to go on - Jurassic Park water ride and The Flying Dinosaur roller coaster.
Harry Potter World.
It turned into a wet day, the majority of rides were still running, so by the end of it we were all soaking.
Best rides Jurassic Park, Flying Dinosaur, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, Hollywood Dream and Spider-Man ride.
Around the train station at Universal Studios, there are plenty of restaurants, including Hard Rock cafe, Bubba Gump, Starbucks and TGIF to name a few. We ended up eating at Bubba Gump.
Day 15 : Trip to Nara Park
Nara Park is a public park and one of the oldest in Japan. Over 1200 wild Sika Deer roam the streets and parks of Nara. Sika Deer were considered sacred but now are protected and considered a national treasure.
To get to Nara we took the train to Tsuruhashi Station from Osaka Station, and then catch the Kintetsu-Nara line train to Nara. The train ride took about 1hour. From there we walked for about 10mins to Nara Park. Along the way you see deer wandering around the streets and footpaths. You can buy some crackers to feed the deer. Best to hide the crackers in your pocket so the deer dont see them. Otherwise the deer will come around and start biting your pants and getting rather pushy in wanting to be fed.
The most amazing thing about the deer is that they will bow to you when they want to be fed. You can even bow back to them and they will reciprocate.
Deer bowing to my son.
Not quite The Beatles walking across Abbey Road, but deer crossing at Nara Park.
Nearby to Nara Park is Nandaimon Gate of Todaiji. This leads to the Buddhist Temple of Todai-ji.
There are lots of souvenir shops around the area where you can find some good bargains.
For dinner, me and the wife are going to try some of the famous crab in Dotonbori. Didn't quite turn out to be as good as we thought and for the price you paid. Will give it a miss next time. I'll stick with the Beef next time.
Day 16 : Today we are leaving Osaka and heading for Hiroshima for 1 night stay.
We are staying at the Grand Prince Hotel about 30min bus trip from Hiroshima station. After quickly checking in, we take a bus from the hotel into the heart of Hiroshima.
Day 17 : we have a few hours before our train to Mt Fuji. We have taken the ferry from just outside the Grand Prince Hotel to Miyajima Island. The island is known for its forests, ancient temples and just offshore, the giant, orange Great Torii Gate. Depending on the tide, you can actually walk up to the Torii Gate, but i think it is more impressive when it is slightly submerged as it is below.
Now we off on our next Shinkansen train to Mt Fuji for 3 nights. This part is a long trip, catching the train to Mishima Station and then catching a bus toFujikyu Highland station. Total trip was around 10 hours.
Here we are staying in a Capsule Hotel called Cabin & Lounge Highland Station Inn. Being in a capsule was a different experience for sure. The actual bed space was quite reasonable with light, power socket, a safe, toothbrush and paste, and your own robe and slippers. You could not take any food or luggages in with you. They had to be stored in lockers outside. The shower room had hairdryers for your needs. The hotel was very clean and reasonably quiet. No snorers!
Day 18 : My wife found an American guy Chris (click here for TripAdvisor review), who is married to a local Japanese lady who provides quided tours around the region. After a quick stop at Starbucks we head to Mt Fuji. Even from a distance it looks impressive.
Start of the Yoshidauchi Climbing Trail, which is the original trek to Mt Fuji.
We've reached the 5th Station - Subaru Line. 2300 metres above sea level, the Subaru station is the most popular of the station on Mt Fuji and is the best developed and easiest to access by public transportation. But like most things in Japan, get in early.
Next stop on our tour today is the Wind Cave. Although there is also an Ice Cave, supposedly the Wind Cave has more ice.
We have stopped at Saiko Lake to get some great photos of Mt Fuji.
Day 19 : Before we head back to Tokyo in the afternoon, me and the kids are going to Fuji-Q Highland. Some of the biggest and steepest roller-coasters i have ever seen. We made it on the Fujiyama rollercoaster. So damn good. They have some great rides, but on busy days can take 2 hours to queue before getting on the ride. So once again, the earlier the better and first ride should be the one you most want to go on.
While the wife heads to the Fuji Shibasakura Festival. The contrast of the bright pinks to the Mt Fuji, makes it an awe inspiring photo place.
In the afternoon we catch a bus to Tokyo which takes a few hours.
Day 20: Our last day in Tokyo, gonna catch up on some things we didn't have time to do previously. Off to Harajuku Takeshita St, which is crowded due to Golden Week. Visited Harry's Hedgehog Cafe, which had Hedgehogs, Chinchillas and Otters.
Visited Harry's Hedgehog Cafe, which had Hedgehogs, Chinchillas and Otters.
Some last minute shopping at the Kit Kat store.
We've come to the end of our Japan holiday. It is one of the best holidays we have had. The people have been very friendly. The place clean, the food great and the country GREAT!
The whole family recommend JAPAN as a must see holiday destination and we look forward to coming back in Winter, to see the ocuntry in a totally different view.
Please remember to respect their culture and way of life, so visitors are always welcome, and you will also have a much happier and greater trip.
For accomodation deals in Osaka and Kyoto click here