On our last day in Japan we traveled from Kyoto to Fukuoka where we caught the ferry to Busan, South Korea. When looking at the map, we realized Hiroshima was pretty much on the way so we stopped there for the day to learn more about the city’s history and see the site of the world’s first atomic bomb drop. Getting There and Around We used our JR pass to take the shinkansen (bullet train) directly from Kyoto to Hiroshima….
Kyoto is a charming city with a great public transportation system and we had a great time exploring in the 3 days we were there. What stood out to us the most were the amazing temples and the delicious food. Here are some of our favorites: Our Favorite Kyoto Temples Kiyomizu-dera Temple was a short walk from our Airbnb and offered some of the best views of the city. The fall foliage was especially vibrant here which made for an extra special…
Hakone is a region about an hour and a half southwest of Tokyo that is perhaps best known for it’s spectacular views of Mt. Fiji. We added it to our itinerary to catch a glimpse of the mountain and see some of Japan’s famed fall foliage. Getting to Hakone Getting to Hakone is relatively easy from Tokyo. We used our Japan Rail pass to take the shinkansen (bullet train) to Odawara. From Odawara, we took a regional train to Hakone-Yumoto. From…
The “glass half full” observation of the morning we planned to hike to see the famous snow monkeys at Jigokudani Snow Money Park was that we got to see Japanese rain for the first time in our lives. Luckily, after a couple of rounds of Phase 10 under our heated table, the rain let up enough for us to begin the walk to the monkey park. Shortly into our 30 minute walk the rain stopped completely for what ended up…
After our whirlwind day in Tokyo and our previous urban stops to begin our adventure we were ready to get out of the city and see a little bit of countryside. We took a Japanese Rail (JR) Shinkansen Train, or “bullet train”, to Nagano before transferring to a local train to Yudanaka. From there it was a quick bus ride that got us within a 5 minute walk of our accommodations for the next 2 nights, Nozaru Hostel. Luckily, there are…
We arrived in Japan after a longer than expected travel day. We had imagined arriving at the airport and quickly getting into the city before grabbing some sushi for dinner. As it turned out we landed around 9:30 and we still had a journey of just over two hours including walking to the train station from our terminal, buying tickets, asking for help since we didn’t understand our tickets, and transferring before getting to our stop. We finally got to…