We were getting to the northern-most section of our Northeast Japan trip. Osorezan (恐山) (literally: fear mountain) was our first destination. It is one of the “top three spiritual sites” (三大霊場) in Japan, but no worry if you’re not into […]
The seafood barbecue was the main event for the day. Then it was a 1.5 hour train ride from Hachinohe (八戸) to Aomori City (青森市), where we would be staying tonight. With some free time to spend, we paid a […]
From Iwate (岩手県) we moved on to the next prefecture, Aomori (青森県). On the northern end of Honshu (Japan’s mainland) surrounded by the sea on three sides, Aomori is a major producer of seafood. While the food was a bit […]
Going further north, we spent one day in Iwate prefecture (岩手県). Including transport this was a short time, but weather forecast for the day was rainy, which made it not such a good idea to go to one of the […]
Matsushima (松島) is known as one of the “best three views of Japan” (日本三景). Literally it means “pine island”, and indeed just off the coast there are dozens of islands or various sizes, interestingly all covered with pine trees. From […]
Our destination for the first half of today was Yamadera (山寺). This means returning to Yamagata prefecture (山形県), but it’s actually just one hour by train from Sendai (仙台). Yamadera actually is just a common name for the temple complex Risshakuji […]
Japan has all sorts of animal places – rabbit island, cat islands (multiple of them), town where deer roam free. And near Zao there is a “fox village”. OK, it’s not a village where people live, but more like a […]
Our sightseeing began today – from Yamaga City we headed towards the prefecture border of Miyagi (宮城県) for Mount Zao (蔵王). Zao is a popular ski resort and its winter “ice monster” is a famous sight, but it’s summer now […]
Today was just to get to our starting point of this Northeast Japan / Tohoku (東北) trip – Yamagata City (山形市). Weather forecast was accurate on it being a rainy day and I didn’t plan for any sightseeing. We could […]
The 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear incident occurred in the region of Northeast Japan, or Tohoku (東北) in Japanese. The region covers a large swath of northern Honshu (the main island of Japan), spanning 6 prefectures, facing the Pacific Ocean […]
The “Golden Week” vacation this year was all for flower-viewing! After seeing the amazing Nemophila (“baby blue eyes”) fields 2 days ago (), we’re off again for another day trip, this time to see the “miraculous” Wisteria (藤), in the […]
Hitachi Seaside Park (ひたち海浜公園) I was captivated when I first saw a photo of this – an endless carpet of blue flowers as if a extension of the sky. It’s actually a large field of Nemophila (or commonly called “baby […]
We wanted to try out strawberry-picking in Japan, and although there are plenty of strawberry farms in the nearby prefectures of Tokyo, it would be best if we could do some other activity before stuffing ourselves in an “all you […]
Perhaps travelling in the cold weather the last few days had taken its toll, I started to feel some symptoms of a cold (pun intended). After breakfast, I took a good soak in the indoor bath to warm up, and […]
Due to the slight mishap yesterday, we ended up with a bit of extra time to spend in Kanazawa, before our bus around 1 pm to Shirakawago. At a leisurely pace we had breakfast and then checked out from the […]
Kanazawa City (金沢市) To maximise the amount of sight-seeing time (and to save on expensive train fare), we took an overnight bus from Tokyo, reaching Kanazawa city just before 8 am. This is the second time we took overnight bus […]
I had been waiting for winter time for this trip! 2 things on my list: World heritage site Shirakawago – famous for its historical village houses, best seen when they are covered in snow – the area is one of […]
Last day of the trip we had a break from temples and shrines. We continued the cycling theme and went for a slightly longer ride near Lake Biwa (琵琶湖), the largest lake in Japan. The itinerary was pretty relaxed for […]
For a bit of change we’d be travelling by bicycles. I found a rental place on the web beforehand which was not far from Kyoto Station, but turned out to be a bit hard to find as it’s in some […]
We began our travel in Kyoto today, focusing on the north-west / western area. With yesterday’s rain receded and replaced by a bright blue sky, it’s good time to visit the shiny “Gold Pavilion” temple, Kinkaku-Ji (金閣寺), and Ryoan-Ji (龍安寺), […]