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The original was posted on /r/japantravel by /u/Bregolas42 on 2024-12-01 12:43:48+00:00.
Japan trip november 2024 ( 3 weeks)
Hi all! Just wanted to share my journey that me and my wife have had the past 3 weeks.
I am on my phone, in the lobby of the last hotel waiting for my taxi to take me back to Haneda airport, and won't be able to edit this for some time. Sorry for All the mistakes and miss punctuation..
Before I start I have to tell you a bit about ourselves, we are a couple in our 30s, come from the Netherlands and both of us wanted to go to Japan since ever we were old enough to know what travel is haha. We are both anime and rpg game junkies, love food and could not be more happy then to be inside a 500 year old building.
My wife grew up in a medium income household and I grew up in a pretty poor household. Due to a string of bad things happening and some lucky things happinging ( both my parents passed away last year and my wife's dad passed away a few years ago, but the housing market being the way it is and both our dad's owning small houses.. We suddenly have had a big increase in finances)
So we really wanted to make this a “once In a lifetime” trip and the budget was about 10k in euro. This is life changing amount of money.. But it was worth every penny.
Here we go!
Travel. Friday 8 Nov - Day 0
KYOTO
9 Nov - Sat Day 1: landing in Tokyo at 1:45pm, used Yamato transport to send out luggage to the hotel and then travel to Kyoto, with the shinkansen.
Hotel KABIN Kyoto: Amazing hotel! I highly recommend it! The room we had was fitted with a rain shower and the bed was big and clean.
10 Nov - Sun Day 2: , kiyomizu-dera temple eat in the streets of ninenzaka and sannenzaka yasaka shrine and next to it maruyama park explore gion district, ended the day with a visit to the Kyoto Pokemon Center ( a total let down to be honest and the worst pokecenter we went to) dinner was a high class unagi place that was super tasty!
11 Nov - Mon Day 3: Daytrip to Nara.Visit the Great Buddha at Todai-ji Nigatsu-do and Sangatsu-do (February and March Hall) Nandaimon (Great South Gate) Stroll around Nara Deer Park, Kasuga Taisha Shrine on way back to station go to Naramachi (Nara town) and here is omogi mochi pounding at Nakatanidou!
Thoughts on Nara : one of the highlights of our trip! Nara is great! The deer where sweet and loved the senbei, you do need to handle the deer with care.. We saw a lot of stupid people making huge mistakes and getting attacked, but this was 100 procent there own fault. If you have any basic animal handeling skills you will see that the Nara deer are the sweetest wild animals you wil ever get the pleasure to meet.
The temples and shrines were amazing! There was a little bakery next to the station that sold me the best melon pan I had all holidays.
The day ended with us going to a chicken place in Kyoto near our hotel that served some special kinda chicken.. It was amazing! Best chicken I ever had.
Nov 12 - Tuesday day 4:
early to Arashiyama Bamboo Forest then had an pleasent walk trough a movie stars garden, walking back we took a little boat trip on the river that took about 45 min. After we jumped In a taxi to kinkakuji temple (golden temple).
After the temple we jumped into a taxi to nishiki Market.. And this was not that good.. Certainly not compared to the other markets we went to later in the trip! It's still fun! Just don't expect to much.
That night we met up with a friend who was in Kyoto by pure luck! And had yakitori dinner In a super small local mom and pop shop.
Nov 13 - Wed Day 5:
Bit of an off day, my wife was overwhelmed and we had underestimated the amount of walking we were doing. So we took the morning off.
Around noon we went to the big tori gate shrine at fushimi Inari, and that was a bigger hike than we thought! But it was beautiful! Everything we read about it was true, at the bottom a boatload of people! Going up 30 minutes and you get space. Get to the big lookout point and you are basically with 10 others.
Getting back at the hotel and sending our luggage to Hiroshima trough an 7/11 close to our hotel.
Had some sushi for dinner, that was at the time amazing.. But thinking back on it., actually pretty mid haha ( it would be world class in the Netherlands.. But it turns out we where not ready for the real deal a week later).
Closing thought on Kyoto :
Wow! Just wow! Kyoto is amazing, it's the old capital of Japan and littered with the most beautiful temples and shrines, the people we met where a bit more stiff/rude then the rest of the country. ( my wife was called names for being big a few times by people/teenage girls who thought we could not understand Japanese).
Public transport was a bit confusing at first but Google maps will get you all the way where you need to go. Kyoto was the only city where we felt the “need” to take a taxi, because the stuff we wanted to see and do did not line up with public transport all that well. Taxi was not cheap, but compared to Dutch prices, very well worth it!
Trip to Hiroshima / Osaka
14 Nov - Thu Day 6:
Daytrip Osaka, Den Den Town shopping, Ghibli store, eating okonomiyaki in Dotonbori, and visit the monster hunter Cafe. sleep in osaka hotel Sosetsu Grand Fresa Namba.
hotel was fine, a typical “Asian” hotel. Clean room and nice bed,but small bathroom ( for me not enough room to comfortably shower). Right next to the famous street and 5 mins walk form the big running man sing.
Closing thoughts on Osaka:
40 min away and a completely different vibe from Kyoto! Kyoto was all culture, Osaka is where my gaming and Otaku heart started to bloom.
15Nov - Fri Day 7:
Getting on a train from Osaka to Himeji Castle, and here is the first small letdown of the trip.. Don't get me wrong, the catzke looks amazing, I can totally see why people are proud of it. But.. There is littery nothing inside.
I might be way to European for this.. But I would not go again.
Then a shinkansen to Hiroshima, hotel Kuretakeso Hiroshima Otemachi.
Dinner at an really nice tempura place.
Hotel in Hiroshima was almost a carbon copy of the one from Osaka, although there where 2 major diffrances.
1: the people, I have never met such nice staff in my life,big shout out to the staff of this place!
2: here we booked breakfast, and there was a option for unagi breakfast! On my best Japanese ( which is to say almost none haha) i told the old lady I loved eel and thought his eel was also very good! She now knew I liked eel. And.. Kept bringing me extra pieces! ( there was a limit of 3 pieces per person) bless this old lady's heart!
Hiroshima time:
16 Nov - Sat Day 8: breakfast at hotel, Hiroshima peace monument an museum.
Friend we met in Kyoto was also in Hiroshima to visit her parents. Lucky us! Her parents took us out to an okonomiyaki place to proof Hiroshima okonomiyaki was better then the Osaka one. Wel I can say there right! The dinner was amazing!
Back the hotel the misses was poofed and went to sleep early, I went out to get a drink and found this amazing bar! It was a great night and highly recommend anyone to venture out into Hiroshima and have sole fun with the locals!
17 Nov - Sun Day 9: breakfast at hotel, Hiroshima Day trip to Miyajima. Going to the island was breeze because the hotel staff booked a boat ride for us that started in the peace park ( 10 min walk from the hotel).
This island is not to be missed! It has deer again! ( also friendly, although you can't feed them and I think these deer where a bit more used to being petted then the Nara deer). We had some really good cakes/cookies the island is known for.
After that adventure we went out and got some dinner, sushi this time again and bam! When you don't expect it you run into the best places! Super cheap super fresh and delicious sushi!
Closing thought on Hiroshima: Before the trip my wife was a bit low on this city, it was far and she did jot really know what to do except see the peace museum.
Turns out it was one of the best things we did, the people where great, the food was somehow even better and the peace museum and park where made with such reverence and thought that it made me burst into tears. ( this is the only museum in the world where I have cried..)
18 Nov - Mon Day 10: breakfast at hotel, check out and from Hiroshima to Kanazawa by shinkansen to The Hotel Sanraku ( spoiler alert, best hotel of the trip!)
Dinner at a local izakaya that was again, amazing ( it's a theme.. Japan has great food)
Kanazawa 19 Nov - Tue Day 11: explore Kanazawa, Omochi market for breakfast, and this was by far the best market we have been to! 20 times better then those of Kyoto!
kanazawa castle. And kenrokuen garden, the garden is absolutely stunning! Done some shopping and ended the day with an meat restaurant that was oke. For the price we expected a little bit more.
Closing thoughts on Kanazawa:
Kanazawa is a gem! I wish I could have spend more time here. It's everything you will ever want from an Japanese city, amazing market, castle, gardens, food. I could heva spend my whole 3 weeks here and be happy.
Road trip to Tokyo 20 Nov - Wed Day 12: check out and Rent a car at kanazawa station (Toyota rent a car place behind the station)
Kanazawa to Takayama. In Takayama we visit Mura Folk Village and Sanmachi and eat hida beef for lunch.
Another hour's drive to sleep at hotel Kazeya in Kamikochi. Our first real ryokan!
Ryokan was great! Huge room (could say appartement) and had th...
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