Nakasendo from Magome to Tsumago
19. Juli 2018 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 34 °C
Amazing experience walking an ancient postal route between Japanese villages. Of course it was over 95 degrees so we all looked like death at the end
Ryokan Fujioto
19. Juli 2018 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 32 °C
This ryokan (traditional Japanese inn) is beautiful, with wood everywhere and a gorgeous common garden. We immediately took showers in the singke bathroom for the whole inn. It's a huge room that youWeiterlesen
Nakasendo (Magome to Tsumago)
19. Juli 2018 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C
Took an hour long train to Nagatsugawa and a 15 minute taxi in Megome. After dropping the bags for transport to the town we will stay at for the night, we started on the 6 mile hike through theWeiterlesen
Dinner at Ryokan Fujioto
19. Juli 2018 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C
Dinner was fantastic - 9 different local dishes introduced by our sweet Japanese server with a lot of smiling, bowing and some follow-up questions from us.
When we were planning this trip, I was aWeiterlesen
Nakasendo route
19. Juli 2018 in den USA ⋅ ☀️ 36 °C
Nagoya castle
20. Juli 2018 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C
We had a quiet final morning in Tsumago with a walk in town after breakfast, then took the train to Nagoya.
Nagoya Castle was badly damaged in WWII and is being restored, so it's not open. But a 17thWeiterlesen
Grand Sumo in Nagoya
20. Juli 2018 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C
After the castle we made our way over to the Dolphin Stadium for the quarterly Sumo competition. It goes on all day for two weeks, we caught it on day 13. The matches are in order of rank, from theWeiterlesen
Shinkansen (bullet train)
21. Juli 2018 in Japan ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C
Nagoya to Kyoto. 65 miles in 30 minutes.
Kyoto day 1
21. Juli 2018 in Japan ⋅ ☀️ 34 °C
It doesn’t take long to see what the fuss is about Kyoto
Kyoto - Southern Higashiyama
21. Juli 2018 in Japan ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C
After dropping our bags at the hotel, we headed out to explore. A taxi dropped us off to walk up the Gojo-zaka road to the Kiyomizu-dera Temple. Along the way we saw tons of Japanese tourists trickedWeiterlesen
Gion - Okonomiyaki & Maiko
21. Juli 2018 in Japan ⋅ 🌙 29 °C
After a short rest we took the Kyoto subway to the Gion district, where after a few false starts (restaurants are busy and tiny) we wound up at an okonomiyaki/teppanyaki restaurant that was great. OfWeiterlesen
Kyoto - Fushimi-Inari-Taisha Shrine
22. Juli 2018 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 34 °C
Headed out today anticipating another long walk. This shrine is one of the ones we were most excited about. The walk up the forested mountain is shaded by a series of 10,000 orange tori gates. AtWeiterlesen
Fushimi Inari
22. Juli 2018 in Japan ⋅ ☀️ 34 °C
Daimaru department store food court
22. Juli 2018 in Japan ⋅ ☀️ 34 °C
After lunch we took a taxi to the Daimaru department store pretty much exclusively to see the food department. It was fantastic, with loads of prepared foods, high end grocery items and quite a fewWeiterlesen
Arashiyama Monkey Park
23. Juli 2018 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 34 °C
Tenryu-ji Temple & Bamboo Forest
23. Juli 2018 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 35 °C
Kinkaku-ji
23. Juli 2018 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 35 °C
This was the most common site on the trip
Daitoku-ji
23. Juli 2018 in Japan ⋅ ☀️ 36 °C
Toby and Alex getting their zen going
Kinkaku-ji Temple
23. Juli 2018 in Japan ⋅ ☀️ 35 °C
So. Many. People.
But it's really beautiful.
Daitoku-ji Temple
23. Juli 2018 in Japan ⋅ ☀️ 35 °C
We have been surrounded by masses of people all day, and it's been sweltering. But we saw some really, really great stuff so we weren't really annoyed.
Then we get to this complex of many small zenWeiterlesen
Last night in Kyoto
23. Juli 2018 in Japan ⋅ 🌙 31 °C
Gion for dinner, we will miss Kyoto but I know we will be back someday!
Kyoto - Gion Matsuri festival parade
24. Juli 2018 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 33 °C
Kit Kat tasting
24. Juli 2018 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C
Top - raspberry & goji/almond
Middle - cherry cheesecake, dark green tea & sake
Bottom - light green tea & cookies/cream
Suginami Animation Museum & Monster Cafe
25. Juli 2018 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C
Very cool museum about 45 minutes from anything else, which was kind of a pain. But it was worth it, there were a lot of great exhibits about how to make anime including some hands-onWeiterlesen
Picture is worth a thousand words
25. Juli 2018 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C



























































































































































