Japan

#MalougoesJapan

While travelling through Japan, I will have some time to write down

my experiences and impressions of my journey.

I tried to write down the places I have been, but there where too many or with names I cannot write / speak - haha

So please see below I think my biggest post, but Japan this wonderful country is amazing and fascinating me since I have been.

I am looking forward to go soon again.

Tokyo

Walking over Shibuya-Crossing, stroll through Shinjuku and Harajuku

and feel glamorous in Ginza.

I was in London, I was in New York, but no city is as big as Tokyo.

With 23 districts and 13 million inhabitants Tokyo is unbelievable huge.

Visit:

Tokyo Tower - Gives you an amazing view (& cheaper than the Skytree)

Harry Hedgehog Cafe - Cuddle Hedgehogs and Chinchillas

Odaiba - with the monorail over the rainbow bridge for shopping

Tsukiji Fish market - Early in the morning, but Best Sushi I ever had

Ginza Quartier - go there for luxury things you can't afford

Shibuya - stand by the crossing at rush hour and be amazed

Akihabara - street full of electronics, go at night to see the lights

Sensiô-Ji Temple - a typical shrine

Imperial Palace - fancy place but not visit able

Food:

Go out for try Japanese dishes: Tonkatsu, Okonomiyaki, Ramen, Sushi, Udon Noodles, Gyozas and so many more amazing dishes...

Drinks:

3 cool bars with cool drinks: The Trench & Bar Tram & Triad

Osaka

After a few days in Tokyo we took the Shinkansen highspeed-train to Osaka.

The trains are super comfortable and it's such a easy way to travel.

To Osaka, it's a little bit smaller than Tokyo but still huge.

When I think back to Osaka, the first thing that pops up in my mind are the restaurant-, gambling- and shopping-passages.

Osaka-Castle is a very beautiful place to visit.

It is also interesting to walk through those knife & pottery passages and see where the Japanese people go shopping.

Osaka was something different but still cool.

Hiroshima

On the way to Hiroshima, we stopped for a day at Kobe for eating Kobe-Beef.

Also there's an Otter-Café, but unfortunately it was too crowded :(

Hiroshima is a impressive city, particularly how they build this city after the bombing.

Which brings us to the main attraction the Peace Memorial Park and the Historical Museum. Also, worth to go and in walking distance the Hiroshima Castle.

Totally worth to spend the time and the money for a trip to the island Miyajima.

It's a 45 min boat tour to a lovely island of free living deer’s, shrines and beaches.

An escape from all the towns, where we also find the cute coffee shop: Itsuki Coffee

Hiroshima is a wonderful city and I can highly recommend it.

One reason is because you must try the different types of the Okonomiyaki (kind of noodle-pancake).

Go to one of the restaurants where you have Nomihodai (All-you-can-drink-Menus) and afterwards for Karaoke.

In Hiroshima I also discovered plum wine, which I drank nearly every evening.

Kyoto

Firstly let me write about the weather, our average temperature for our whole holidays were around 27° - to 31° degree. Kyoto offered beside of those temperatures a high level of humidity.

To get first the negative things done, so the nice and beautiful things come in the end.

Kyoto was the city where we saw the biggest crowd of tourists, mostly Chinese, which I have to say are quite annoying, sorry for that.

What I can highly recommend is joining a traditional tea ceremony.

- Link -

Kyoto offers I think the most temples and shrines in Japan.

The one I liked the most but is also very touristy is the Fushimi-Inari-Taisha Shrine.

As you see below, a part of the whole shrine park is a way through, maybe around thousand of the known red-black Tori-Shrines.

Kyoto is a really beautiful city and was kind of the cultural center of our journey.

Hakone

We've searched for a small place between Kyoto and Tokyo and randomly we found the City of Hakone. There we booked a lovely Ryokan (traditional Japanese guest house).

Included in the room rate were traditional Japanese dinner und breakfast.

Hakone is a town in the outer part of Toyko and also at the foot of highest mountain of Japan, the Mount Fuji. That is another reason why we went there, we already catched a glimpse of the peak from the airplane and rushed by it on our way to Osaka. But we wanted to go to a little less crowded place and get a better look at the gigantic mountain.

When we arrived in Hakone a brochure told us, that this town is a very popular town for tourists, haha not what we expected.

The weather was not that grateful with us, as it was in the last two weeks :(

it was foggy and strongly clouded.

Due to bad weather it was not worth for us to go to the visiting point of the Mount Fuji.

So we took the train to the Open Air Museum. Which was a nice way to spend the afternoon. After coming back to the Ryokan we wrapped ourselves in the given Kimonos and went for a Onsen-visit before dinner-time.

Unfortunately, traditional Japanese food is so different than ours. It consists of a lot of tofu, fish, rice and other things which I really do not want to know what it is.

(See the pictures below).

Hopefully I never have to eat that again.

Beside of the untypically food we had, Hakone is a quite nice town. We only spent there 1 night, because of our limited time. But we would have stayed longer, especially for going to visiting the Fuji.