2025-10 Japan

After our travels around the outback we flew to Japan for round 2 of our extended trip with Chris and Sara. We visited quite a few places as can be seen on the following map.

Our trip was to start in Sapporo, the largest city on Hokkaido, the most northerly of Japan’s large islands. Annoyingly, super typhoon Ragasa reduced Rob and Hazel’s time there to just one day but we were able to head to the top of the JR tower to gain an overview of the city. There was also an Autumn festival with lots of food a drink.

After Sapporo we flew to Tokyo. Wow, what a contrast to the outback where there is nobody. In Tokyo, there is everybody. Finding one’s way around Tokyo is tricky, it is a truly 3D city and maps don’t work well. We visited the Mejii Shrine, the imperial palace, Asakusa, the Skytree tower and Rikugien gardens.

From Tokyo we all took a coach trip to Mount Fuji and Hakone which is a tourist town close to Mount Fuji.

After Tokyo, we took the Shinkansen to Kyoto, city of Shrines and Temples and the capital of Japan before Tokyo. There we visited 2 temples, Nijo castle and the Kyoto imperial palace.

Whilst in Kyoto, we took a coach trip to Nara which was the capital of Japan before Kyoto and has Kasugataishi Shrine and the temple of the great Buddha, Todai-ji

From Kyoto we took the Shinkansen for Himeji to meet up our friends Noriko and Naoto Yagi. We visited Engyoji temple with Naoto and that evening Noriko cooked us a fantastic meal, complete with a short tea ceremony. The next day we visited the splendid Himeji castle and the adjoining Koko-en gardens.

After Himeji we took the Shinkansen to Okayama from where we visited Kurashiki Bikan an historic village.

Okayama also has a splendid Japanese garden, Korakuen, one of the 3 great gardens of Japan.

From Okayama, we took our final Shinkansen trip of the holiday to Hiroshima. On our first day there we took a coach trip to Itsukushima Island to visit the Itsukushima shrine and its iconic Torii gate.

After Itsukushima, we visited the centre of Hiroshima to see the atomic bomb dome, the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. It was truly shocking and sobering to gain an insight into what actually happened.

Our final full day in Japan was spent mostly at the Shukkeien garden in Hiroshima.