Japan 2025 | FindPenguins

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Trip start
October 1, 2025
Japan 2025 Traveler
Japan fall 2025
September 30, 2025 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C
At Dulles Airport. Ready to go!
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Japan 2025 Traveler
Days one and two in 東京
October 2, 2025 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 26 °C
Interestingly, the app seams to regard my trip as starting today on October 2 because I could not get anything uploaded yesterday on the 1st. I will just combine both days into today. Yesterday was the nearly 14 hour flight out of Washington Dulles to Tokyo Haneda. Exiting Haneda airport is relatively uncomplicated. I recommend the Tokyo monorail to the terminal station at Hamamatsucho, and then taking a Japan Rail (JR) train to wherever one wants to go. I went to Tokyo Station, and it being well after dark, elected to taxi to my hotel, the Nishitetsu Inn Nihonbashi. By the way, “bashi” means bridge. The Nihon Bridge is at the center of Nihonbashi, hence the name. Regrettably, I was too far from my favorite Yurakucho restaurant, Roboto, and I was definitely dragging from the trip, so I did not make it to the restaurant. Instead, of course, right around the corner, there is an excellent grilled eel shop, where one can grab a very nice quick dinner, provided one enjoys, eel, cucumbers, and draft beer.

This morning on October 2, I set out to explore the route to Tokyo Station by foot. This involved, a quite enjoyable conversation with members of the hotel’s front desk crew to explain how to walk there. No problem. I went beyond the office where I was slated to go around noon today and proceeded on to walk around a part of the imperial palace. Returned to the hotel, got dressed in formal looking clothes and proceeded to the Tokyo office of the SOEI Patent firm. Japan has gone less formal in office stress over the years, especially in the summer months. I brought a rather old Hagar (is that brand still in existence) summer cotton suit for my office visits. If I were riding horseback at midnight, no one would have any idea that it was a Hagar. At SOEI, I met a longtime colleague-client, Yoshiki Kuroki, and another colleague of his. We visited the office of the firm founder, Yoshiki Hasegawa to discuss his upcoming retirement after 40 years with the firm, this coming December. Kuroki and the other two vice presidents all have agreed to step back from their managerial responsibilities this year to let younger people step up to the plate. So this is a time of great change for their firm. The place that.Kuroki chose for lunch was outstanding. Japanese and French fusion, wow does that lead to both beautiful and wonderful dishes. All three of us stopped to snap photos of some of the several courses. I’m not sure how these guys could go back to work after that meal! Tonight it is off to dinner with Sachiko Okunuki and Koji Kazuno of Atago IP. I wonder if I can update this footprint later tonight to include pictures of them along with those that I am attaching now. We’ll see.Read more
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Japan 2025 Traveler
Days two and three 東京
October 3, 2025 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C
Dinner with the principles of Atago was very nice. They treated me to dinner at a Korean barbecue. We tried some, in my mind, unique, different pieces of beef. Not what one would ordinarily order, for example, diaphragm and small intestine. Of course, there is the traditional way of making sausage so the intestine idea really doesn’t seem so strange. Rather chewy though. We gabbed for at least two straight hours, and I completely forgot to take any pictures. Rats!

Today, shortly before noon, I will be heading over to Kyowa’s Office near Tokyo Station to meet with Hiroshi Nagai, Mori-san, and Hotta-san. we will do lunch after a short meeting. After lunch, I need to hightail it to a coffee shop where I will meet with my Japanese teacher, Hisami Kimoto, and another of the students in her class, Ian Rodenhouse. After that, I will need to move quickly again to head down to Kamakura where I will jump off the train and walk down to the seaside to my bed-and-breakfast, Good Morning Zaimokuza, while they’re still is a person at the desk for check-in. hopefully I will remember to take some pictures today, unlike botching it last night..Read more
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Japan 2025 Traveler
Days three and four, 東京 to Kamakura 鎌倉
October 3, 2025 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C
Very active day yesterday. I don’t usually, but this time I did the hotel breakfast buffet, and I’m glad that I did. After breakfast, I left to scope out the meeting place scheduled by our Japanese teacher for me and Ian. The. Yaechika Underground, I had never noticed it before, but there it was right off of Tokyo Station., probably the area of 10 football fields. Then, it was time to get dressed in business clothes again, and head to the offices of Kyowa to meet with Nagai-san, Mori-san, and Hotta-san. It was time for some reminiscing. I also heard more about the firm’s history and also that several of the principles of other firms that I know started out as colleagues with Nagai at Kyowa. After the meeting, another Japanese-French fusion lunch. Again, just excellent. Then, they walked me directly to the café for the face-to-face Japanese school meeting. That was very nice. Our sensei showed up in full traditional Japanese kimono and shoes. I don’t know whether she did this for us, or that’s just the way she goes out. She often conducts class in kimono as well. Then, it was time to navigate Tokyo station to find the train to, Kamakura. After a bit of consternation, that exercise was was successful. My plan upon arrival at Kamakura Station, of course, was to walk to Good Morning Zaimakazu but, that assumed I would have two working shoulders rather than one broken down. As such, I jumped a taxi to the inn. It is right on the Pacific ocean, rather cool to see the Pacific from the opposite side. dinner at the restaurant next-door, and then up early the next day to walk the beach and have breakfast at the inn. after checkout, I returned to.Kamakura Station to meet Nagai and Hotta again. we had a great day together, despite some drizzly weather. we visited the.Daibutsu, a giant statue of Buddha, large enough for a dozen people to enter into the structure. It dates back to the 1100 and and was constructed from melted down coins donated to the local Buddhist priests. after that, we visited another shrine that at least one reader of this footprint will recognize from uploaded photos. We finished our sightseeing trip at. Enoshima Island. then, due to the condition of my shoulder, Hotta-san accompanied me all the way back to my hotel next to Haneda airport. What a guy! He was a great help.Read more
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Japan 2025 Traveler
Day five Fukuoka 福岡
October 5, 2025 in Japan ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C
I flew down from Tokyo to Fukuoka, almost didn’t😳. I confirmed with no less than five people that all ANA flights depart from terminal 2 of Haneda airport. apparently, that does not hold true for any small partner airline of ANA. Where did I need to be, terminal 1. with only one operative shoulder, I dragged the backpack 400 m through the tunnel, joining terminal one and two. Big fun. After that, things got much better.

Kiyoshi Natori picked me up at Fukuoka Airport whereupon we drove to his house, albeit with a couple of detours, one being for me to buy a roller bag because the shoulder still would not permit me to wear the backpack. so much for planned hiking in the Tango Hanto the following week. we had tea and sweets with his wife at their house. Very enjoyable, great conversation. The three of us left for lunch at a resort where Kiyoshi had driven a tour bus, for a time, after his retirement as a patent attorney for the parent company of Subaru. we returned to the house and dropped off his wife, and then the two of us went off for a sightseeing excursion. We spent the afternoon at Dazaifu Tenmangu shrine. Thereafter, we left to check in at my hotel, where he also booked a room for the first night that I would be there. That was cool! We explored Hakata Station where he showed me how I would board the Shinkansen a couple of days later to head to the Tango Peninsula north of Kyoto on the Sea of Japan. we wandered the town a bit, stopped into and informal tempura shop for dinner, and called it a night.Read more
TravelerThat tempura que rico!!
10/7/25Reply
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Japan 2025 Traveler
Day six 福岡
October 6, 2025 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 26 °C
Kiyoshi is an early riser, in bed by nine each night and up by 4 AM. he set our departure time from the hotel, Duke’s hotel by the way, at 8:30 sharp. We took a car tour, he did the driving (no way I was going to). so if we were in the morning to the Kanmon Bridge and surrounding area. it is the bridge between the western most part of Honshu and Kyushu, northern Kyushu. we parked on the 九州 side and took a ferry across to the 本州 side..(I’m done with the inability of the dictation app to correctly, print the names of the four main islands of Japan.) We walked around a bit, and then proceeded to the entrance of a pedestrian tunnel that runs underneath the highway tunnel underneath the bridge. It was about a kilometer. It felt like we were about a kilometer down, under the sea. with us again, reached the.九州 side, and explored Moji Retro, which is a now very popular shopping and restaurants spot. It is also the terminal point of the ferry. After a quick lunch of, for me, vegetable curry rice (very strong curry), we visited the train museum that is famous in the area. One exhibit is “you drive the train“ which Kiyoshi had me try and at which I failed miserably. Of course, having only one operating arm didn’t help much. we left the area for a park that Kiyoshi had been wanting to visit for some time, but had never found the opportunity to go, “Sola Land HIRAODAI “. The park was a six or 7 km drive basically straight up. Again, we walked around a bit and, let’s say, signed ourselves in. Kiyoshi cleverly pointed out that today, we climbed from well under the sea to the top of a mountain. We did an informal udon dinner before he dropped me off at the hotel and returned home. I didn’t feel so bad that his wife did not join us that day because she was working, and then had plans with a friend for a Beatles retro concert. So she was busy too.Read more
TravelerLooks fun!
10/8/25Reply
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Japan 2025 Traveler
Day seven Amanohashidate 天橋立
October 7, 2025 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C
Up early and easy Peezy out of Hakata station to Kyoto. In Kyoto, I had to switch trains from the comfortable Shinkansen 🚅 to a regular express train. Now consider this, you have found the correct track, you know the exact time of your train’s departure, a train shows up and sits there until two or three minutes until the time of your trains departure. You see that the destination of this train is exactly where you want to go, but somehow it just doesn’t look right. It seems like from a different railroad company. Well, I sure wasn’t gonna miss my train so I jumped a board. Of course, it was some special tourist train that indeed brought me to where I wanted to go, basically, albeit to a station on the wrong side of a small bay from my ryokan here. that meant pulling my roller bag 5 km through a skinny park that divides the bay. Not surprisingly, that worked up a good sweat.😎 But now I have landed, chatted with the proprietor, and had dinner at and excellent sushi and sashimi shop just across the street. Not to mention a great shot of the October full moon taken in front of the restaurant. With that I turned to catching up on the penguins reports…Read more
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Day eight Amanohashidate 天橋立
October 8, 2025 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C
I had three basic reasons for traveling up here in the northernmost region of Kyoto, prefecture. First, I was looking for an off the beaten path place to visit, second to scope out a potential destination, for part of a family trip, and third, to get a sense of living in Japan, given that I am the only student in my Japanese language class that hasn’t lived in Japan. The day began with about an hour of air squats and other leg exercises, and abs on the beach at dawn. then, after a traditional Japanese bath and breakfast, it was a walk back into the main part of town, on the other side of the bay. without dragging luggage, it is a very pleasant walk. I did some travel consulting, and then hopped the local bus headed for the.Ine fishing village. It is still a very active fishing town. It is famous for the “funeya” that are both boat houses and residences. The first floor, on the water, is dedicated to the boat and the second floor serves as home. Some of the.funeya our rentable, but I don’t see much chance of convincing and to stay in one. The buildings are best seen from the water, and there is a 45 minutes tour cruise in the area to see them. I did this in the afternoon, after lunch there. Lunch was an issue. The bus stop is in a section of the village with nothing but a few residences, abandoned small factories, and the dock for the cruise. “Fishing, fishing everywhere, but not a bit to eat“ except at the shop at the dock. The cruise was cool, great views, a bit drizzly. Several people on board actually bought food for the seagulls to throw out of the boat while we were underway. Why would you do that?? I tried to ignore the flock around my head until a couple of ospreys swooped in among the gulls. Picture an osprey gliding 4 feet in front of your eyes. That was a unique experience. Returned from Ine and did a long walk on the beach. Dinner, and then back here at the room to call it a day. I did what Japanese tourist do, so I believe I can conclude that today was a living in Japan experience.Read more
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Day nine, still in 天橋立
October 9, 2025 in Japan ⋅ 🌙 21 °C
Spent the day on a mountain. I did not clime it just because it was there, but rather to see Nariaiji Temple and surrounding area. 2 km of flat walking and then at least 2 km that seemed straight up. Got a good workout this morning. The founding date of the temple is unknown, but it already was active in the year 704 for imperial family prayer. where written history fails, legend fills the gap. It is said that a Buddhist monk in training was dying from starvation after snow cut off traffic between his location and the village below. He prayed to Kannon for food to survive the day. Half conscious, he saw an injured deer in the temple building, and despite the band on eating meat, sliced a part of the deer‘s thigh, cooked, and ate it. The next day, the snow melted, and the villagers found him next to statue of Kannon, the thigh of which had been sliced. The villagers found wooden chips in his cooking pan. Given the villagers report, the monk concluded that Kannon had sacrificed himself to save the monk. Since then, the temple was called Naraiji from the word “naraiau” to be fulfilled.

There’s another legend, and indeed, hopefully this is only a legend. A short distance from the temple stands a building housing the “Un-rung Bell”. As the story is told, an affluent young woman refused to join in donating for a new bell for the temple. She nonetheless attended the casting of the new bell, while holding an infant. She dropped the child into the melted copper. It cooled and hardened, and was said to produce the sound of a crying child. From then on, no one rang the bell so that the child’s spirit could remain at rest.

There were wonderful viewpoints overlooking the town and the bay from the top. Some shots of those are included. I took a different path down along a small trail. By chance, the trail led me to a place that I had explored the first night here. Tonight is probably a simple dinner, and then I am going to try to connect with my Japanese class. If successful, I will give them a short description of activities north on the sea of Japan.

Wow, almost forgot something important, finding lizards. But not just lizards, a turtle, and a snake. Nancy will have no trouble seeing them.Read more
Traveler I see the lizard
10/13/25Reply
Traveler I see the turtle
10/13/25Reply
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Japan 2025 Traveler
Day 10 on the road
October 9, 2025 in Japan ⋅ 🌙 21 °C
Today was boats and trains. I collected a number of QR quote codes by reserving special express trains and the Shinkansen before leaving for Japan. The trick is, how do you actually claim your ticket with the QR code? At each station, it seems that something a little different occurs, but the last time I tried to watch very closely and I think I have it for the ride to Yokohama. Anyway, yesterday‘s travel took me from my side of Amanohashidate by ferry to the small train train station on the other side of the bay. There, I boarded a single car train that was operated without a conductor. This plotted along to Maizuru where I caught a JR special express to Kyoto. In Kyoto was the last. change.”norikai” for a successful trip to where I am now, at the Inaokas in Akashi, just west of Osaka. As always, they are taking excellent care of me. We took a walk last evening to stretch out the kinks in the legs from travel, and then sat down to a wonderful sukiyaki dinner prepared by Yoko-san.Read more
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Day 13 Akashi 明石 to Yokohama 横浜
October 13, 2025 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C
I am jumping to day 13 because the penguins app will not show me where it is storing days 11 and 12. Had a very nice breakfast again with the Inaokas at their house, and then we went out to an agricultural preserve and winery near Kobe. Had a nice little walk and then lunch at the winery. After that, it was time to finish packing. Kosaku dropped me off at the train station and it was straight Shinkansen here to Yokohama. Talked to Anne last night and told her that she would love this hotel, the Mitsui Garden Yokohama. Certainly much different from some of the other places I booked. Quiet dinner at their bar last night on the 20th floor, great view. A nightcap glass of red wine in my room closed the day.Read more
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Japan 2025 Traveler
Days 11 Akashi 明石 to 湯モール温泉
October 13, 2025 in Japan ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C
Great day with the Inaokas! Did breakfast at the house and then left to drive north toward the Sea of Japan. I didn’t anticipate this, but with the three previous days I spent there, it turned out I would be on the sea north of Kyoto for about five days. We drove perhaps two hours to reach a 100+ year-old theater, Izushi Eirakukan, for Kabuki. Before visiting the theater, we did a quick lunch at a Ramen restaurant who’s style is to serve tapas size plates of noodles were upon the patrons. Choose their own toppings and sauces. This style seems unique to the area. Then to the theater, it remained in a period of disuse for 40 years but since has been restored to show movies as well as plays. In addition to seeing the main stage and seating, we also were able to go under stage where we saw most of the original mechanism for rotating the wooden stage above. Of course it was done by hand, and is still in use. Also open were the actors’ rooms for costuming, and an ancient iron hot bathtub where the actors removed makeup after performances.

Back in the car, we continued our drive to the Yumura onsen area. We made another sightseeing stop at Kami-Kasumikuamurabe. This was noteworthy because here a Japanese architect constructed an iron bridge, despite the knowledge that the assault water and wind wood quickly corrode the metal. Before construction, the architect had planned to construct the bridge from concrete and traveled to the US to see a concrete bridge, but none had yet been constructed in the States. Without such guidance, he proceeded with the iron bridge. It did indeed rust, and eventually required replacement by the concrete train bridge, which stands here now.

Next stop was our ryokan, Izutsuya. This place was beautiful, inside and out in the garden. After check-in, it was time to hit the baths, both outside and inside. Dressed in yukata, the three of us having a wonderful dinner together in a private room. After dinner, we did an evening stroll in the garden, lit by ancient- looking fire lanterns. We retired rather early to bed, because the next morning would be an early start.Read more
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Day 14 Yokohama 横浜
October 14, 2025 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C
Met up with and spent the day with Yoshimichi Hasegawa. He was the manager in chief for many years at Sumitomo Electric Industries (SEI) that was my major client over my last 15 years at the firm. we got an early start and headed out, and for me back, to Kamakura 鎌倉. no redundancy from the previous weekend there, we visited different places. It would be easy to spend two full days there to cover all the temples and other interesting sites. upon arriving, we headed to the Hokokuji Temple, the first Buddhist site in Kamakura that dates back to 734. we also visited the oldest temple in Kamakura, that unfortunately, the name of which, I missed. we did a nice, informal lunch, and even some shopping before heading back to Yokohama. Back in Yokohama, we toured the Yokohama Museum of art that so conveniently, happened to be right across the street from my hotel. Hasegawa-san made reservations at a very old style restaurant featuring chicken. This was a first experience for me, interesting and very enjoyable. He left to return home to Kushi and I returned to the hotel to pack and prepare for the long ride back tomorrow afternoon.

Still no idea where the penguins app is holding my drafts for two earlier days so this one is going up now .Read more
Traveler Inspiration!
10/14/25Reply
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Day 14, leaving出発する Japan 日本
October 15, 2025 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C
The Mitsui Garden Hotel may have been very inconvenient from Shin Yokohama Station, but is very convenient from the older, Yokohama station. No problem getting to Haneda. last surprise of the trip (I think) was stuffed cabbage as a feature on the menu of the ANA Club. ANA is a partner of United so that provided my admission ticket. Flight’s on time, on the way home! it was a good trip.Read more
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Day 12 – to be continued
October 15, 2025 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C
To be continued
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Trip end
October 15, 2025