Reset search
Japan 2023Japan 2023
SatelliteEdit route

Japan 2023

September - November 2023
A 60-day adventure by Alan Read more
  • 67footprints
  • 1countries
  • 60days
  • 409photos
  • 0videos
  • 2.9kmiles
Follow Calendar Share Bucket list
Date ascending
  • TravelerJapan 2023
    Day 12

    Hiroshima

    September 20, 2023 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C

    We went to the Hiroshima Peace Park and Museum, the latter detailing the build-up to the explosion of the atomic bomb over Hiroshima in August 1945, and the aftermath in terms of the short-term and long-term damage to the population, the damage to property, and the rescue efforts immediately after the explosion. There was a group of schoolchildren at the Youth Monument in the Park.Read more

  • TravelerJapan 2023
    Day 12

    Miyajima

    September 20, 2023 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 30 °C

    The tram to the ferry port took an hour, and then we caught a ferry, together with lots of schoolchildren, for the 10 minute ride to the island of Miyaajima.
    Passing a deer, and after eating oyster croquettes for lunch, I visited the Itsukushima Shrine with its red torri gate appearing to float in the sea. Then I walked uphill through a forest to the first of two ropeways which reached a viewpoint at 1400ft. overlooking the Inland Sea and its many islands. I didn't continue to the top of the mountain because of the time it might take plus it was a hot and sticky day. It would have been good to spend a night on the island at a ryokan, and get up early to go to the top of the mountain for sunrise.
    After descending on the ropeways, I visited the 616 year-old five-storied pagoda next to the 434 year-old Hokoku Shriine.
    I bought a mano sundae before catching the return ferry and then the tram back to our hotel.
    I spent time on my iPad researching researching holdalls and finding Osprey dealerships in Kyoto and Osaka.
    We returned to the okonomiyaki cafe for dinner.    Read more

  • TravelerJapan 2023
    Day 13

    Himeji and Kyoto

    September 21, 2023 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 31 °C

    After taking a tram to Hiroshima Train Station, we took a Shinkansen for the two-hour ride to Himeji. The train was pink, and one of the carriages was the Hello Kitty carriage where I had my photo taken and bought a Shinkansen model.
    Leaving the train at Himeji, we walked to the beautiful castle, and I walked around the bailey and up to the sixth floor of the keep.
    After lunch, we caught a Shinkansen to Kyoto, and went on the Metro to the Agora Hotel which was near the long, main shopping street with covered pavements to protect you from the sun and rain and many top-brand shops.
    In the evening, we got soaked walking to the Kyoto Traditional Musical Art Foundation in Gion. The one-hour performance consisted of the Chanoyu ritual tea ceremony, flower-arranging, 650 year-old Noh theatre, Koto music, Kyogan comedy, and a Bugaku and Kyomai dance.
    There were no wheeled holdalls at the first osprey dealership.
    I had my only burger of the trip for dinner washed down with a beer which was the usual drink at dinner, either draft craft beer or a bottle.
    Schoolchildren were usually in uniform with the girls sometimes having tartan skirts, and the boys wearing black trousers and white shirts, a combination continued by many office-workers.    Read more

  • TravelerJapan 2023
    Day 14

    Kyoto

    September 22, 2023 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C

    We took a city bus to Arashiyama Kinkaku-ji. the golden Zen temple, plus its garden.
    We walked through a pachinko parlour where there were dozens of vertical pinball machines being played. We weren't allowed to take photos.
    Another bus took us to the Sagano Bamboo Forest, a lookout over a gorge with a tourist train passing through, and down to the Kano River and a good restaurant for lunch.    Read more

  • TravelerJapan 2023
    Day 14

    Kyoto

    September 22, 2023 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 29 °C

    After lunch, we walked to the Tenryu-ji Zen temple and its garden dating from the 14th century.
    A bus took us back to the hotel for a one-hour break which I used to check out unsuccessfully a branch of Patagonia and another shop for wheeled holdalls.
    At 16.30, we took the metro and then a local train to Fushimi Inari, a shrine with its hundreds of red torri gates to walk through. We didn't have time with evening drawing-in to go through all of them which were spread up a hillside. Some of the gates are sponsored.
    We returned to Tokyo Central Station which, although seeming to be very modern, had been designed and built 30 years before, There was a multi-coloured stairway leading to the 10th floor square overlooking the city and the Kyoto Tower. There were illuminated walkways leading down to the ground-level.
    Whilst the rest of the group had dinner in the Porta shop and restaurant complex under the station, Seiji took me a massive 4-storey shop under or next to the Kyoto Tower which appeared to stock everything. It had a camping section with rucksacks and holdalls. I bought a 97L North Face wheeled holdall which was more expensive than in London but on which I got 10% tax relief because, fortunately, I was carrying my passport with its stamp of Mount Fuji and a QR code. I returned to the hotel with Seiji and bought salads, pear-in-jelly and creme caramel parfait for dinner in the bedroom.
    There was a noticeable lack of vegetables and fruit on menus, the latter being expensive apparently.
    There were few black faces in Japan, the few being tourists or maybe students. The population is very homogenous.
    Japanese started at traffic-lights on side streets, even when there was no traffic and it was raining in Kyoto.    Read more

  • TravelerJapan 2023
    Day 15

    Kyoto

    September 23, 2023 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C

    After breakfast at a nearby cafe, we went to a Tea Ceremony, dressing up in kimonos and drinking matcha tea with a couple of sweets to take away the bitter taste.
    I walked across the river to the Gion district which had lots of old houses converted into restaurants and shops where one might hope to see geisha girls but none were to be seen. The roads were also private with guards directing the traffic. Photos weren't permitted.
    I continued through the Kennin-ji Zen Buddhist temple, the oldest in Kyoto., and then up a pedestrianised uphill road with lots of tourists, many in kimonos. I passed a few shrines and the five-storied Yasaka pagoda on the way to the Kiyomizu-dera Temple with a great view over the city. I walked down Goya-dori which had a number of kimono hire shops, crossed the river, and had a vegetable noodle soup and a beer for lunch whilst planning the afternoon's walk.
    This may have been the cafe where someone was making a terrible noise performing the Japanese. slurp. Perhaps there should a competition on TV. Fortunately, I was given a spoon whenever having soup, but you wonder why chopsticks are still preferred to knives and forks generally.    Read more

  • TravelerJapan 2023
    Day 15

    Kyoto

    September 23, 2023 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C

    After lunch, I walked to the Higashi and Nishi Honganji Temples. There was a service in the latter which I sat and listened to. In bewteen these visits, I went up to the Observation Deck 100m up the Kyoto Tower at a cost of Y980.
    I had an ice-cream sandwich back at the hotel. In the evening, half the group went out or a farewell meal with Seiji using the tablet to order lots of dishes.    Read more

  • TravelerJapan 2023
    Day 16

    Osaka

    September 24, 2023 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    Seiji took the five of us who were continuing on the next leg of the Intrepid trip to Osaka by local train; James, Lai, Tracey, Jason and myself. After a metro ride, we arrived at the Bridge Hotel, Shinsaibashi.
    Seiji took us to see Pokemon and other attractions in a large department store and then said goodbye. We walked down a long shopping arcade to the centre of Dotombori with lots of neon lights and crowds of people.
    We ate octopus balls for lunch alongside the canal, and crab ticks and cheese tarts later in the arcade. Shake Shack was another stop.
    At 18.00, there was a joining meeting for the next leg of the trip. We were joined by Paul and Annette from Christchurch, NZ; Jim and Mary who lived on a milking cows farm on North Island, NZ, and Yuko Oi, our guide who spoke excellent English. We went to a pancake restaurant for dinner.
    It was noticeable how many more men than women frequented the bars and restaurants, especially after work midweek. Apparently, this reflected the male-dominated workplace.
    It was also noticeable how few black faces there were although the complexion of the Japanese varied from white to light brown, the latter more likely to look Mongolic, the Japanese having come from China originally. Some ladies applied lotion, powder or something else to make their faces, arms and legs look very white,    Read more

  • TravelerJapan 2023
    Day 17

    Takamatsu

    September 25, 2023 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    I forwarded my large holdall to Matsuyama and just took the small holdall and backpack to Takamatsu.
    Leaving the hotel at 10.50, we took the metro to Shin Osaka Station. "Shin" means "new". When the Shinkansen was being built, there wasn't room for the rail tracks to go into the centre of some cities so stations, such as Shin Osaka, were built on the outskirts.
    We took the Shinkansen for an hour hour to Otayama, and then the bottom tier of a two-tier local train to Takamatsu for one hour, crossing the Seto Inland Sea, dotted with small islands, on a spectacular bridge from Honshu to Shikoku. We went to the Tokyu Rei Hotel by taxi.
    We went by taxi to the Ritsurin Garden which is a "strolling" garden with viewpoints to see the landscaped gardens and ponds with carp and turtles. There were pines and bonsai trees with Mt. Shiun as a backdrop.
    We returned to the hotel by local bus, and then went t a chicken restaurant for dinner, O ordered the mature chicken whilst the others had the young chicken.    Read more

  • TravelerJapan 2023
    Day 18

    Naoshima

    September 26, 2023 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    On a sunny and hot day, we left the hotel at 07.30 by taxi for the ferry port to catch the 08.00 ferry for the hour's ride to the island of Naoshima. Some of the group hired bikes but I walked around the island, visiting various art installations. The first was the Ando Museum and the Community Centre in the Honmura District with their distinctive architecture.
    The Benesse House Museum adjoining a hotel was on a cliff with some Hockneys amongst the paintings, and art objects on the ground near the landing stage.
    The Lee Ufan Museum and Valley Gallery had 88 buddhas in a field plus reflective silver balls in the Narcissus Garden, both very attractive.
    The Chichu Art Museum, in a brutalist style with lots of concrete, had Monets plus the illusion of an infinite staircase.
    There were public sculptures dotted around the island such as the Pumpkin.
    The quiet walk took me past deserted beaches and probably a warm sea.
    The island had been dedicated to art, partly to give it a purpose, with young people leaving for the greater opportunities in the cities.
    With time to spare before the next ferry, I went to the Public Bath which was itself a work of art.
    The 17.00 ferry took us back to Takamatsu. We went to a sushi and fish restaurant for dinner.    Read more

  • 2024© FindPenguins
  • Home
  • About us
  • Blog
  • Group Tracking
  • Press
  • Terms
  • Privacy Policy & Cookies
  • Support
  • Legal notice
  • English