It’s hard to believe we returned from Japan three months ago. We departed at the very end of February and returned in the third week of March, and for the reminder of the month I traveled in the US for work. We took Japan in breadth and depth, from the northern snows of Hokkaido to the beautiful waters of Hiroshima Bay; from a jazz bar in Osaka to a digitally animated cat in Tokyo.
This was my second trip to Japan and the first for David – whom I will forthwith refer to as Anjin-san, owing to him being a licensed pilot and fan of James Clavell’s Shogun. Japan is a beautiful country, and the people are friendly. The landscapes are primarily mountains and seas, and the culture is a fusion of tradition and modernity.
It was a complicated trip with complicated trip complications. While we flew in and out of Tokyo, we also few domestically in and out of Sapporo, took express buses, took trains large and small, and took a ferry to and from the island of Miyajima. We rented a car and drove in the mountains; got turned around on foot, on the road, and in train stations. We shuffled through a variety of train passes, tickets, and both digital and physical transit cards.
We did some things that I did in the previous trip with my nieces, but we also did things that were new to me. Hokkaido was an entirely new experience, as were Kobe and Amanohashidate. I hate to say it but I feel I’ve given Osaka short shrift twice now, and our time in Tokyo was nearly an afterthought compared to the rest of the trip.
I highly, highly recommend visiting Japan and giving it at least two weeks. It’s a beautiful country and has so much to offer: whether you want nightclubs & excellent food, traditional culture or J-pop and anime, natural beauty or amazing architecture and engineering, Japan has everything. The people are wonderful, and while there are concerns about tourism saturation, they are welcoming to visitors.
Follow our trail, starting in Hokkaido, followed by Miyajima and Hiroshima, Kyoto and Amanohashidate, Kobe and Osaka, finishing in Tokyo.