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Published: October 19th 2017
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Hello my fellow travellers!
I arrived back in Japan this afternoon after a long flight from Doha. I'm tired and jet-lagged, but happy, and even though the flight was a long one it was a good one because Qatar Airways holds a very high level of service. There was plenty of good entertainment on the flight and the crew brought me as much snacks and drinks as I could handle. They even served Japanese meals on the flight which I think was a really nice touch and a good way to get into the proper setting for a visit back to my favourite country.
The flight also gave me a good opportunity to brush up on my Japanese as the man seated next to me didn't speak English and the stewardess that waited on our section didn't speak Japanese. I translated as well as I could between them but I was really rusty after having been away from Japan for almost a year and a half. I really do need to step up my Japanese studies when I return to Sweden because Japanese is a language that I'm really struggling to learn.
After I landed the first thing
I did was to go to the JR office at the airport to pick up my 14-day JR Pass. It might have been a bit of an overkill since I'm only in Japan for 11 days this time and I wouldn't be travelling around as much as I did last year. However, considering how comfortable the shinkansen is it's always nice to be able to take it without giving it to much thought.
Once I had my pass I picked up my seat reservation for the express train and made my way to the Shinagawa area of Tokyo to go to my first host of this trip, Ichiro. He came and met me at a point we had agreed upon close to the train station. After that we went to his home where we spent the remainder of the evening just relaxing, drinking beer and talking about our experiences with couchsurfing. He is one of the most experienced hosts I've ever stayed with, having hosted well over 300 people.
Tomorrow I will go to Nikkō, a town located about two hours by train to the north of Tokyo. I'm going to Nikkō primarily to visit the Nikkō Tōshō-gū Shrine where Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543–1616) is buried. He was (allegedly) moved there from his original burial site at the Kunōzan Tōshō-gū Shrine in Shizuoka which I visited last year. It will be interesting to see how what the similarities and differences between the two shrines are. I've heard that the Nikkō Tōshō-gū Shrine is more lavishly decorated so it should be quite spectacular.
Until tomorrow I wish you all peace and happy travels!
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Ake Och Emma
Ake Dahllof and Emma Holmbro
Loved Tokyo
Emma and went to Tokyo a few years ago. We loved it there and we are thinking about going there again next year. I look forward to read about what you have to say about Tokyo because I guess there are more blogs coming :-) /Ake