Kanazawa City Tour
Wednesday, April 3, 2019, was a really busy day. There was a lot on the itinerary and the weather was still cold (you can tell by how we are all bundled up. Our guide Yoshi provided us with daily diaries of the previous days events so todays post will be mostly in...
Shinkansen Ride
Today we left Hakone by motor coach and travelled to Odawara station. On our travels we saw Odawara Castle from a distance and the bus driver kindly stopped so we could all take some photos. From there we said good bye to the driver and headed into the station to...
Hakone Japan
Hakone (箱根) is part of the Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park, less than one hundred kilometres from Tokyo. Famous for hot springs, natural beauty and the view across Lake Ashinoko of nearby Mount Fuji, Hakone is one of the most popular destinations among Japanese and...
Let’s Head to Hakone!
Well, I was hoping to be a little further along with these posts than I am. I got interrupted as Mom and I ended up going down to Seattle to visit my cousin for a very sad event. I think I posted earlier that my cousin's wife was diagnosed with a brain tumour and...
Last Day in Tokyo Asakusa District
Well, we have come to the last day in Tokyo before heading to our next destination. For this day the weather had turned colder and although it didn’t rain, the sun was in short supply. Taiko Drum Museum Our first stop of the day was to a Taiko Drum Museum where we got...
Meiji Shrine and Sumu Wrestling
Yup, you saw that right! Sumo Wrestling! I wasn’t too sure about this part of the tour but I actually found it fascinating. Not the best picture of me either, a little blurry but that's what happens when others take the photo for you. Nothing like posing for pictures...
Last Day of Japan Pre-Trip
Kiyosumi Garden On March 28, 2019, the last day of our pre-trip, we boarded a coach that took us to the beautiful Kiyosumi Garden. On this occasion, Yoshi had asked us if his wife could accompany him as it was the last day of this small group and of course, we said...
Kamakura Japan
The next day in our pre-trip was an optional trip to Kamakura Japan. Of the six people in our little group, only 4 of us opted to take this trip. Warning this post will be photo heavy! Remember to click on the arrows to see more photos sometimes the arrows are hard to...
Pre-Trip Tokyo
Sounds weird, doesn’t it. Karen and I had actually already had a pre-trip trip and now onto another one. What this actually is, is an optional 3 day guided tour with your tour guide that happens before the “official” trip starts. Sometimes OAT (overseas adventure...
The First Days in Japan
Karen and I arrived at Ueno Station at around 5:00 pm Japan time, Saturday, March 23/19 after being up for well over 24 hours and now we had to navigate out of the train station and find our hotel. We had picked up the Wi-Fi hotspot device and I had made use of our...