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Japan 2026!
  • Shalee Gherbaz
  • Shalee Gherbaz

Japan 2026!

One month in Japan doing Shalee's customised "Golden Figure 8 Loop" Japan itinerary of the central island of Japan. Read more
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  • Shalee GherbazJapan 2026!Traveler

    Tmark Kanazawa Hotel

    February 25 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 9 °C

    We are very happy with our lodgings for the next three nights. Booking twin rooms once again proves to be smart, with our room being very comfortable, spacious and with lots of little smart design elements. Also, I wish we had Japanese showers in Australia. Their showers are the best! They're massive because it's almost like a full room plus you get a big bath!!! I have loved using them whilst here.Read more

  • Shalee GherbazJapan 2026!Traveler

    Dinner at Ron Ron Tei

    February 25 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 8 °C

    It took a little while to work out exactly where this place was, but we found it eventually. It was a small space and run again by an elderly couple. We got a range of Asian tapas nibbles. It was so funny because this restaurant is flagged as Malaysian, and yet it is a complete Hodge podge of Asian cuisines. So we had Malaysian chicken satay skewers, Chinese meat and sticky rice balls, Chinese prawn dumplings, Taiwanese Xia long baos, and Vietnamese chicken and prawn rice paper rolls. All was tasty, just a tad expensive for the sizing. We've noticed that food wise, Kanazawa does seem to sit a bit higher than the likes of Tokyo and Nagano.

    We've also noticed that we are located smack bang in what would being a Japanese red light district. There are working girls, clubs, spas, and maid cafes everywhere. And a lot of the restaurants are open until 1-3am in the morning. Not that we can hear any of it from our room given we are on the 11th floor all the way up the top, but it's interesting none the less.    Read more

  • Shalee GherbazJapan 2026!Traveler

    Dai's Photos part 1: Snow Monkey Park

    February 25 in Japan ⋅ 🌫 5 °C

    We got back the photos taken by our tour guide Dai from our private tour of the Snow Monkey Park and Togakushi Shrine. These are the ones from the Snow Monkey Park plus a couple from our amazing soba noodles lunch. He got so many amazing snaps!!! It is so nice to get pics with Michael as well as some great candids!Read more

  • Shalee GherbazJapan 2026!Traveler

    Inari Woodcrafting Village and Temple

    February 26 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 8 °C

    Today is our other tour guided day trip of our holiday, with us heading back out into the snowy mountains to go to three different villages: Inami, Gokayama and Shirakawa-Go! Our guide is an Aussie, and the only other person that's part of our tour is also an Aussie, with all of the east coast states represented, which we found pretty funny!

    This is our first stop of the day, and already we know we are in for an absolute treat.

    The scenery whilst driving is so gorgeous. It's very reminiscent of the farmlands of the eastern coast of Taiwan that had enormous Japanese influence due to the Japanese takeover of the country for a period of time. Except, this time, instead of being surrounded by green mountains, we are surrounded by snowy ones!

    Inami Village itself is a gorgeous, remote village that specialises in woodcarving, and has the 5th and 6th largest temples in all of Japan. There wasn't another tourist in sight! We had the entire town to ourselves.

    As part of the tour, we got to go into a woodcarving workshop to see a bunch of woodcarvings and the tools used. We then explored the temple grounds and various quarters (no pics allowed inside the temples but the inside was absolutely lovely and with a LOT of gold) before having free time to explore the village ourselves and do a fun little activity I will explain in the next post!    Read more

  • Shalee GherbazJapan 2026!Traveler

    Inami: The Cat Hunt!!!

    February 26 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 8 °C

    Inami is not only a woodcarving village... It's a cat village. Cats of the wood carved variety!

    The village has 30 speciality cats hidden around the village, and visitors use a map guide to try and find all 30 of them! It was a load of fun hunting around for all the cute cat carvings. We didn't find them all, but we did find 22 of them, so it wasn't a bad effort!

    Plus, the village has the cutest vending machine ever (not part of the cat map, but still, we had to take some snaps!)

    Also, we went to the sweets shop... And bought cat sweets (as well as a few other treats). Overall, we had a great time in this tiny village.    Read more

  • Shalee GherbazJapan 2026!Traveler

    Gokoyama. Speechless.

    February 26 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 10 °C

    The drive through the snowy mountains just got prettier and prettier. It was so hard to capture, so our eyes did most of the memory making. But when we got to Gokayama... My goodness.

    We were in awe. It's a tiny village with traditional hut houses... In the snow. Surrounded by mountains. It was ethereal. We wandered around, did a hike up to the lookup of the whole village (crampons save the day again, making our lives easier and allowing us to traverse snowy terrains with ease), and took a bunch of gorgeous snaps.

    It really felt like we had stepped into another time. Just stunning.    Read more

  • Shalee GherbazJapan 2026!Traveler

    Lunch at Gokayama

    February 26 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 10 °C

    Even our lunch building was so cute 🥰🥰🥰 we had very limited options in this village, but we made it work, with Michael having herring Udon and with me having tempura soba. It ended up being really delicious, and was super cheap, costing about $11 each.Read more

  • Shalee GherbazJapan 2026!Traveler

    Washi Paper Making Class

    February 26 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 9 °C

    After our trip to Gokayama Village, we went to a World Heritage listed Washi Paper Workshop where we learnt the full process of making washi paper, getting to design a small piece of paper along the way. The souvenir shop was gorgeous! Saw more frogs for my aunty (apparently in Japan you get frogs for "change", so you rub the frogs head and change will come- you just won't know what way the change will go!), and bought myself a washi hairclip and a toothpick holder.Read more

  • Shalee GherbazJapan 2026!Traveler

    Spontaneous shots from the drive today

    February 26 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 10 °C

    Despite it being super tough to get snaps due to windows and driving and what not, I did try to capture the essence of what the scenery was like between locations today. So enjoy some snaps from my phone from the back seat of the bus, plus a video of a very pretty spot.Read more

  • Shalee GherbazJapan 2026!Traveler

    Shirakawa-Go: Michaels Snaps

    February 26 in Japan ⋅ ☀️ 12 °C

    We arrived into Shirakawa-Go and the sky decided to clear into the brightest blue, AND the moon decided to make an appearance. So we had both the sun and the moon in the sky, and I spent a huge chunk of my time wandering around the snow and thatch houses in a polo shirt. It really is way warmer than we were expecting... By a lot!

    This village is a lot more tourist centric, but with good reason. It's stunning. ESPECIALLY with the snow. And the drive to get here... My god. I was picking my jaw off the floor the entire time.

    We had a guided tour around the village, as well as went into one of the thatch houses to explore the architecture. It was super cool. We finished the guided part by having some refreshing drinks and sweet bread at our guides favourite cafe.

    These are Michaels snaps. I ventured off on my own during my free time and got some super cool snaps that I will need a whole post for. Still can't get over how otherworldly this day was across the board.    Read more

  • Shalee GherbazJapan 2026!Traveler

    Shirakawa-Go: Shalee's snaps

    February 26 in Japan ⋅ ☀️ 11 °C

    During our free time, I went for a wander about to snoop out spaces we hadn't looked at, and took a bunch of SNPs in the process. Some silly, some fun, some very beautiful.

    After we finished up, we drove back to Kanazawa station to say goodbye to our guides!!! What an amazing day of sightseeing! One of my personal faves to date!Read more

  • Shalee GherbazJapan 2026!Traveler

    Amazing dinner at Nyumba

    February 26 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 10 °C

    To finish up a fabulous day required a fabulous dinner, and dinner definitely delivered! We headed to Nyumba, which was a short walk from the train station we were dropped off at after our tour.

    Everything we had was delicious. Michael had a mango smoothie, and I had a virgin Shirley Temple. Food wise, we shared a ginger pork with veg, sous vide beef, and a Chicago style deep dish pizza. Seriously good stuff! What a day!    Read more

  • Shalee GherbazJapan 2026!Traveler

    Laid back day in Kanazawa

    February 27 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C

    Today we are having a more laid back day in Kanazawa. We shipped our luggage off from our hotel here to our hotel in Kyoto, which should arrive by tomorrow afternoon as we arrive. We have relaxed in the hotel for the morning, and then headed for a nice walk along the main strip up to the fish market to have a wander about. We weren't vibing the fish, so we ducked upstairs and got chicken rice bowls instead. Michael added a pork skewer and I got a chicken wing. It was apparently award winning, and I have to say, I get why. Tastiest chicken wing I've ever eaten. The seasoning was to die for, and it was so well cooked. And the food was pretty decently priced as well, so overall it was a score!

    After lunch, we wandered through some bookstores, stationary shops, anime stores, and other various shopping complexes. It was during this time that got a beautiful iced matcha that was so well balanced and flavoursome whilst Michael explored a camera store. Overall, the food continues to hit!    Read more

  • Shalee GherbazJapan 2026!Traveler

    Samurai Village Museum

    February 27 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C

    On our way back to the hotel, we ducked into the Samurai Village area that's about 500m away from our accommodations.

    We headed into a samurai house that had been converted into a small museum. This was super cool, with some awesome swords, gardens, and just a generally intriguing vibe. At $5 per entry, this was totally worth it!Read more

  • Shalee GherbazJapan 2026!Traveler
    1

    Samurai Village Street Wanders

    February 27 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C

    After the museum, we wandered the streets of the old Samurai district area. There were a wide range of little cute shops, gardens, and eateries hidden about. It was much nicer and a way better vibe than the other district that had been revamped into an influencer hotspot.

    The main highlight of the village was running into an old Japanese local woman who was rocking an awesome warm toned colour combo. I just had to tell her, because basically everyone here in Kanazawa wears black, white and grey, and her and I were matching in a way in our sense of style. Like, I wanna dress like her when I'm old!

    She could barely speak English, I could barely speak Japanese, but we did our best with google translate, and she ended up getting a snap of Michael and I, and then Michael got a snap of her and I. Her granddaughter is apparently in Australia attending university. She was super lovely though, and it was just a nice interaction to have 🥰🥰🥰    Read more

  • Shalee GherbazJapan 2026!Traveler

    Incredible dinner at Canteen Izakaya

    February 27 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 10 °C

    Michael and I decided to finally give an Izakaya a go, and this one had solid reviews, food we liked the look of, and was only 220m away from the hotel. We got seated up at the head kitchen bar so that we could watch the chef's all in action. The place was basically completely full of Japanese locals, including a pair of elderly women who we were seated next to. We ended up using translation apps to have a full conversation with the women, as they thought we were a very sweet couple and that Michael was very, very handsome, and they liked very much that we were married. It was so funny. Plus, they wanted to give us recommendations to do in Kanazawa, so because we actually leave tomorrow I just showed them this blog and they loved what we have been up to and said we had nailed it hahaha.

    Not only was the atmosphere and company good, the food itself was the best we've had in Japan. It was simple food, but it was a cut above.

    We started with fried horse mackerel with a ponzo sauce. Absolutely delicious. Then I was served my tempura sweet potato. Divine. So sweet, fluffy and crunchy on the outside. Then our king potato croquette came out. We died. It was beyond. How mash potato fried in crumbs with some sweet sauce could taste so good and so deeply flavoured, we do not know. All we know is we saw the light. After that was the Wagyu beef. Gobsmackingly good. Then tempura prawns in spicy mayo. I hate mayo normally. This was heavenly. So yum. And finally we finished it off with karaage chicken that was the softest, juiciest fried chicken we have ever eaten.

    We watched the chefs in action, and it was obvious that they were in absolute lockstep and loved what they do. As we left, the oldest chef (he would have been in his seventies or eighties) came up to thank us, and the youngest (who could speak English really well and was our translator and cracking up about the cute elderly ladies thirsting over Michael), walked us out the door to thank us for coming to visit their izakaya.

    It was just awesome. Loved every bit of the experience. Relaxed, slow eating of perfectly cooked food in perfect portion sizes to have a variety and feel completely satiated without feeling stuffed. Kanazawa truly had phenomenal food!    Read more

  • Shalee GherbazJapan 2026!Traveler
    1

    Ramen in Kyoto!

    February 28 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C

    We successfully made the three train commute from Kanazawa to Kyoto this morning without issue. The only exception being that the zip on Michael's carry on bag has completely busted, so we are going to slightly alter today's planning to include shopping for a new carry on bag.

    The train rides were lovely, it's a much foggier, rainier day today so the cloud cover was quite low as we were travelling mountainside, but we did also have a little bit of the ocean towards the end of the second train which was cool. The second train also had really nice seats, including the one person seats that swivelled, which was cool.

    We dropped off our carry on bags at the hotel, which is literally across the road from the Nijo train station, and wandered 200m up to a local ramen joint. The ramen was delish, and the gyozas were also delish, so much so that I forgot to take a snap hahaha! Michael had the traditional pork based broth, and I had a chicken and onion broth. Super tasty!    Read more

  • Shalee GherbazJapan 2026!Traveler

    Nijo Castle

    February 28 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    Our first stop today is exploring Nijo castle, which is quite literally up the road from our hotel.

    It's a lovely castle with some gorgeous gardens and plum groves. Fully moated like the other castle, and luckily for us the rain held off and only lightly spat here and there, making it easy for Michael to still take some lovely photos of the grounds!Read more

  • Shalee GherbazJapan 2026!Traveler

    Kyoto Samurai Museum Guided Tour

    February 28 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C

    Our second stop today was the Kyoto Samurai Museum. This is an interactive museum where you go through in groups with a guide as you explore the history of samurai in Japan. It included a range of original artifacts and replications of various weaponry and armour, plus a shuriken throwing activity at the end.

    I loved seeing the different kinds of armour, and Michael thoroughly enjoyed exploring the various swords and weaponry! It was a 45 minute tour which was the perfect amount of time to absorb the information, explore the items, and head off to our next destination!,    Read more

  • Shalee GherbazJapan 2026!Traveler

    Op shopping in the sticks for a bag!

    February 28 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 10 °C

    We went out into the sticks of Kyoto to an area with some hard offs and other second hand shops spread out across around 2km walking here and there. It took a few good shops, but we finally found what we were looking for: Kyoto Recycle Kingdom.

    This place had everything. Michael was spoilt for choice, landing on a navy duffle and also picking up a spring shorter wool jacket in the process that looked super sharp on him. The jacket was $20 AUD and the bag was originally $16 AUD, but Michael noticed a cheaper price tag on it for $10 AUD (1000 yen), and so they dropped the price to $6 (600 yen) score! It will at least get him through the rest of the trip!    Read more

  • Shalee GherbazJapan 2026!Traveler

    Royal Park Nijo

    February 28 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 9 °C

    Our hotel for the next three days. Another great room in an awesome location right across from the train station. No complaints from us!

  • Shalee GherbazJapan 2026!Traveler

    Italian next door for dinner

    February 28 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C

    We quite literally have ducked next door to have some pasta for dinner. Michaels had carbonara and I've had Bolognese. It's lovely. I also got a gorgeous blood orange juice, and they serve you bread and quiche as part of the cover charge per person.

    Tonight's just a chill one as we've smashed through a lot today!    Read more

  • Shalee GherbazJapan 2026!Traveler

    Arashiyama Bamboo Grove and surrounds

    March 1 in Japan ⋅ ☀️ 12 °C

    We had a nice big sleep-in this morning before heading off on the train to Arashiyama. We will be exploring the Arashiyama Bamboo Grove and surrounding areas as well as Gioji Temple before having our professional photoshoot kimono this afternoon.

    It was a very easy commute as our local train station goes straight out to this area, and everything else is super accessible via foot. The bamboo groves were lovely. It's a beautiful, 15 degree day today, and the wind was gliding through the bamboo to keep us nice and cool. Yes, there were tourists, but it wasn't anything outrageous. I've seen way more touristy stuff before, and the second you got out of the main kind of pathway, it was very calm and relaxed.

    Overall, a really pleasant walk amongst a tree that Michael has never wandered through, so he really enjoyed spending time here!    Read more

  • Shalee GherbazJapan 2026!Traveler

    Gioji Ji Temple and gardens

    March 1 in Japan ⋅ ☀️ 13 °C

    Our next stop was to wander through the residential areas up to Gioji Temple and Gardens. I wanted to go and see the beautiful moss gardens here, and they didn't disappoint! It was beautiful. So many colours and types of moss, and everything was kept so pretty. Plus, they had a mini bamboo forrest area that was being hit by the sunlight in a new way, making the colours really pop. It was also so quiet and peaceful here, and it is definitely worth visiting when coming out to this area!Read more

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