TRG
Tanya Joined: July 16th 2009
Logged in: September 21st 2011
Logged in: September 21st 2011
This blog will follow me on my adventures around Japan! Although I may not always post lengthy written parts (sometimes that's a good thing right?) I will do my best to have lots of photos up. Because like they say, a photo's worth a 1000 words! Enjoy!
Oh and just to note: Please don't use any of my photos without my permission. If you would like to use them, please email me and ask first.
Travel Blog Posts
Sight #1 :)
So it's taken me over a year to update this, but I will finish! After we left Yokkaichi, we made our way to Kyoto, with a stop in Shiga prefecture for some lunch. (We didn't get to see much, but from what we saw, it is a beautiful prefecture!) We arrived at our hostel in Kyoto in the afternoon. It was a huge dorm style room, and I was uncertain how that would go over with everyone, but for the most part it was nice and no one minded it much. After checking in, we headed back out to see some sights! We wandered around and found ourselves a temple (which was closed for the day) and a beautiful open park to relax in and enjoy some ice cream. We spent the remainder of the evening ... read more
Ninja Train
I woke up still sick, and was in no rush to get up. Two of my friends had already left to get breakfast at a beef bowl shop, so while they were out I took my sweet time getting ready (and enjoyed a bit of Sunday morning cartoons). By around 10am we checked out of our amazing hostel and headed to Mie on what was a beautiful warm, sunny day. From Nara, we took the train to Iga-Ueno station and from there we jumped on a private train line to go to Iga City. The train going to the city was decorated like a ninja, which made it obvious we were heading in the right direction! (We were a bit concern with the lack of civilization around.) It didn't take long to get to our station, ... read more
The entrance to the palace grounds
We arrived in Nara late in the afternoon and immediately checked into our hostel (which is the best hotel I have ever seen!! It was more like 4 star hotel!). After sitting around relaxing (I was very tired again thanks to the medicine so it was at this point I decided to cut my medicine from 3 a day to 2...) we eventually went out in search of dinner. As we were just about to stop in at a restaurant my (3rd) friend called me to say she had arrived in Nara so I left my 2 other friends to go pick up the 3rd friend. Once I met her, we went out for a simple beef bowl dinner and then went back to the hostel to relax. Pretty uneventful first night in Nara, but we ... read more
Entrance to the Castle Grounds
Day 2 of my Golden Week trip was spent in Wakayama City, Wakayama Prefecture. We arrived around 9:30 in the morning and had soon after run into our first dilemma: no available lockers to put our suitcases in. So, we had to pull our suitcases along with us everywhere we went... which caused us a bigger problem once we got to Wakayama Castle. First off, the castle was about 20 minutes (walking) from the train station, and it was hot, and we had our luggage... but when we got to the castle ground we discovered that the paths weren't paved! They were gravel (problem #1). The castle was on top of a huge hill in the middle of the grounds, and to get to it you had to walk up about 100, uneven stone steps, then ... read more
Lunch in Osaka
Golden Week is a series of national holidays that occur within a week. April 29th is Showa Day (Thurs), May 3rd is Constitutional Memorial Day (Mon), May 4th is Green Day (Tues), and May 5th is Children's Day (Wed). So with all those holidays, I just had to take the Friday off of work and got 7 days to travel around! The original plan was to visit Wakayama Prefecture, Nara Prefecture, and Mie Prefecture, however, due to lack of accommodations and other issues my trip turned into a One-Prefecture-A-Day-For-Six-Day! The first day, my friends and I travelled to Osaka. The only reason we spent the day in Osaka was because we couldn't find any accommodations in Wakayama and a friend of mine had kindly offered up his place for the night. So we arrived in Osaka ... read more
The sign for Tokyo Big Sight
Most of you that know me are probably not surprised to see that I made it to an Anime Fair/Convention here in Japan. With it being so close by (well a few hours close) how could I NOT go?! And this trip was definitely an adventure... that started VERY early in the morning....... I went with two friends, and we decided that it would be best to get there as early as possible on Saturday to beat as much of the crowd/lines as possible. Unfortunately, that meant leaving the house at 5:30 to catch a 6am shinkansen. From Tokyo Station we made our way to the Tokyo Big Sight in Odaiba (getting there around 8). We saw about 100-200 people in line outside (the fair opened at 10) but we were so hungry we decided to ... read more
An old shop
Having bought a do-nichi kippu (Sat-Sun Ticket), I was determined to get the most use out of it! So although I was tired from a long day in Mito the day before, I woke up reasonable early on Sunday too to prepare for another day trip! After a little research I discovered Kawagoe in the Saitama Prefecture. About a 20 to 30-minute train ride away from the capital of Saitama (also named Saitama) is Kawagoe, a city that blends modern and historical worlds. The part of the city I was interested was, obviously, the historical (which I will talk about in a moment). My shinkansen train was set to leave at 9:26 so I caught an 8:45 train, which should have gotten me to Sendai by 9, giving me plenty of time to eat breakfast. (Keyword ... read more
Plum Blossom
From late February to the end of March, when the plum blossoms are in bloom, the capital of the Ibaraki prefecture, Mito, has a festival to celebrate plums. From my city to Mito, it takes about 3 hours by the limited express train. When they say "limited express" they really mean it's limited, as it stopped quite frequently. We arrived in Mito around 10:30 in the morning, and instead of taking the train over one stop to the Kairakuen (the large garden in Mito) we decided to walk along the lake. It was quite a nice walk, with various flowers in bloom, and swans swimming in the lake. As we approached the garden we could see the Plum blossom trees and regained our excitement(the long train ride drained us of most of out excitement). This garden ... read more
Sapporo
On the last day of Sapporo trip I woke around 9am (I got to sleep in!). After grabbing a quick bite to eat, a friend and I made our way to the JR Tower. On the 38th floor of the tower is 360 degree view of Sapporo! Viewing conditions the night before were not very good, but in the morning they were perfect! It was unbelievable looking down at the city. I never knew it was so massive (and so flat!!). The city stretched as far as the eye could see, and out of that city grew a large chain of mountains in the South. We spent about an hour there, and decided to leave at the perfect time because at that point it started to snow. From the tower we made our way to the ... read more
The Chocolate Factory!
I woke up at 9am and met up with my friend (and his friends) from another prefecture to go to the Chocolate factory at Shiroi Koibito Park. So we jumped on the subway and headed to Miyanosawa, and from that station is was a 7 minute walk. It was snowing in the morning but not as much as it had the day before, and no where near as cold, so we had a bit of a snowball fight on the way there. It was 600 yen to enter and we received a koibito cookie (very good) and a "passport" guidebook. The tour started a room of paintings of the nearby mountains, and a small model of the park grounds. The next room had a really cool fountain and the following rooms had old cups dating back ... read more
