Leaving Seattle, Monday 17-Oct: We're setting out today on a month-long trip to Japan. This day will be quite short for us; our trans-Pacific flight took off at about 1:30pm, so we set our watches ahead to 5:30am Tuesday. It's like living in the future.
Arriving in Tokyo, Tuesday 18-Oct: Just as Monday was a short day, so was Tuesday. We landed at Narita International Airport around 3pm, and it took us almost a couple hours before we were on the train to the city.
Tokyo, Wednesday 19-Oct: We decided to not do too much on our first full day in Tokyo, so we started at the Hamarikyu Gardens, took a ferry up to Asakusa, wandered around the Sensoji temple area, then walked around Asakusa. The evening's excursion was to Tokyo Tower.
Tokyo, Thursday 20-Oct: On this day we a more successful shot at seeing the Tsukiji market, looked through some of the Tokyo National Museum, went through a lot of Ueno Park, and not much else after that.
Tokyo and Nikko, Friday 21-Oct: We spent most of the day out of Tokyo, going to Nikko to visit Nikko National Park, which houses several prominent shrines and temples. We went to Toshogu Shrine and Taiyuinbyo.
Tokyo, Saturday 22-Oct: It may sound like we've already been to a lot of temples and shrines, but we took quick peeks at more of them today. But first was a visit to Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden, both the grounds and its greenhouse.
Tokyo, Sunday 23-Oct: Kids 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.
Tokyo to Hakone, Monday 24-Oct: It 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.
Hakone, Tuesday 25-Oct: For 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.
Hakone, Wednesday 26-Oct: Our 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.
Hakone to Kyoto, Thursday 27-Oct: Time 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.
Kyoto, Friday 28-Oct: The 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.
Kyoto, Saturday 29-Oct: Another 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.
Kyoto, Sunday 30-Oct: Yes, 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 arcade, Nishiki Market.
Kyoto and Nara, Monday 31-Oct: Having 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.
Kyoto, Tuesday 1-Nov: Starting 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.
Kyoto, Wednesday 2-Nov: We 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.
Kyoto to Miyajima, Thursday 3-Nov: With 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.
Miyajima, Friday 4-Nov: Having 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.
Miyajima to Hiroshima, Saturday 5-Nov: Having 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.
Hiroshima to Kanazawa, Sunday 6-Nov: A 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.
Kanazawa, Monday 7-Nov: For 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.
Kanazawa, Tuesday 8-Nov: We 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.
Kanazawa to Ainokura, Wednesday 9-Nov: After 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.
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.
Takayama, Friday 11-Nov: We had two major sights planned for the day. The museum was about a half hour walk to the west of the hostel, and the walking course was about 20 minutes to the east. So we knew we had quite a bit of walking ahead of us, but we were able to break it up into different segments.
Takayama, Saturday 12-Nov: We're heading into the last stretch of our trip, with this day being the last without travel (we travel to Tokyo the next day, then fly home the day after that). We spent it visiting the old Takayama government building followed by another walking course which went by several temples and shrines. It then went uphill to a park with the ruins of Takayama Castle.
Takayama to Tokyo, Sunday 13-Nov: It's come down to this. One more full day in Japan, and about six hours of that going from our Takayama hostel to our Tokyo hotel. We got some great views from the trains, and even managed to get a little sightseeing in.
Tokyo to Seattle, 14-Nov: We had two short days on the way to Japan, and we make up for it with a 41-hour day on the way back. We did manage to sneak in an art museum before heading to the airport.
After Japan: It's taken me quite a while to put this last post together. Part of it is trying to get back into things here, part wanting for the experience to sink in a bit before reflecting. Instead of a regular blog post, I decided to summarize odds and ends our trip in a series of bullet points, with some final thoughts at the end.
