Ainokura to Takayama, Thursday 10-Nov
/After leaving Ainokura, we went to another village with gassho-zukuri houses. And then it was on to Takayama.
Read MoreAfter leaving Ainokura, we went to another village with gassho-zukuri houses. And then it was on to Takayama.
Read MoreAfter a few days on the west coast of Japan, it was time to head to the mountains. Instead of a hostel or a business hotel, this time we were spending the night in a farmhouse in the mountains.
Read MoreWe spanned the years from the time of the samurai to art from the 21st century. And what some would think is from the far future, Japanese toilets.
Read MoreFor the first of two full days in Kanazawa, we saw one of the Great Gardens of Japan, walked through one of Kanazawa's geisha districts, and tried to finalize the rest of our transportation between cities.
Read MoreA day of travel and little sightseeing, but we did manage to get from Hiroshima to Kanazawa. What would have been a 7½ our drive took us a little over 6 hours by train. And yes, we hung out at Starbucks for a bit.
Read MoreHaving done a day and a half in Miyajima, it was time to spend some time in Hiroshima. Since our plans were for only one night, we knew we would be doing all of our sightseeing after we arrived in the morning. Everything we went to centered around the Hiroshima Memorial Peace Park.
Read MoreHaving already seen a major shrine and a major temple on Miyajima, we decided to go up to the top. We later returned, not only to sea level but below it so we could walk close to the floating torii.
Read MoreWith our last night in Kyoto behind us, the rest of the trip will be more moving from city to city. First up is Miyajima, the island which is the home of the floating torii. We did a few things on the island, then went back by ferry to be foiled by a train crossing.
Read MoreWe had one last full day in Kyoto and decided to not pack it too tightly. We did make it to a castle, a garden, and had some really good tempura for dinner.
Read MoreStarting the second half of our trip, we went to even more temples. We got more familiar with yatsuhashi. And we saw kids taking field trips. Lots of kids, all around.
Read MoreHaving been to the current capital (Tokyo) and the former capital (Kyoto), it was time to visit an even earlier capital of Japan (most of the 8th century, known as the Nara period) and frolic with the deer. Well, we didn't actually frolic.
Read MoreThis month's photos are a study in halves. Half of the month has been spent in Japan, and we're halfway through our trip. Here are my favorite photos for October. The rest of the photos from this month are on the October page.
Read MoreYes, we visited another temple today. It had aspects of several others we've seen; built on a mountain like Kiyomizu, took a while to walk through like Kinkaku, and had a long tunnel of torii like Nezu. It was, however, more so for each of those aspects. We also went through another shopping street, Nishiki Market.
Read MoreAnother day of temples for us, in addition to getting more familiar with the Kyoto bus system. And even though we were there when we arrived in the city, we went back to Kyoto station to check out the architecture.
Read MoreThe plan for the day was to do things which would work in the rain since that was the forecast. We continued our walk around Higashiyama and ended up our evening at a demonstration of several forms of Japanese performance art.
Read MoreTime to go back to a big city. We left the quaintness of Hakone for Kyoto and had time to visit a temple, a mausoleum, and a shrine before settling in for the evening.
Read MoreOur last full day in Hakone was spent along the Old Tokaido Road and the south end of Lake Ashi. Rain from the previous day was nowhere to be seen, so we held out hope that we would see Mt. Fuji. Spoiler: we got a great view.
Read MoreFor a day in which we really only did one thing, it was plenty. That wasn't unexpected since we like having a “down” day every now and then. We also got our first rain of the trip; good thing we were prepared for it to start.
Read MoreIt was time to leave busy, urban Tokyo for quiet, rural Hakone. Sounds simple, but we took subways, a bullet train, local trains, a funicular, a gondola, a pirate ship, and a bus. We sometimes opt for as many different transit methods as we can get.
Read MoreKids these days. We got to see a lot of Japanese youth hanging out in Harajuku, then went upscale walking through Aoyama. Then stayed upscale by dining in Ginza. It's probably stereotypical Tokyo, but still a fun experience.
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