Our trip on the shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto began with a sighting of some sumo wrestlers! Dressed is airy summer yukata they waited for a train on the other side of our platform! As always when travelling between Tokyo and Kyoto make sure to sit in seats D & E to try and get … Continue reading Japan 2010: Day 8 Kyoto- Kinkakuji and Gion
For our day in Kyoto we picked two of the main tourist attractions to visit; Kiyomizu dera temple and Fushimi Inari shrine, both situated on the eastern edge of the city. It was another hot, humid and overcast day as we made our way to one of the most famous temples in Kyoto. As many … Continue reading Japan 2013: Day 10- Kiyomizu dera & Fushimi Inari Shrine
In most countries great tourist attractions or areas of great beauty close at 5pm, tourism is over for the night and everything is barred shut, this is especially true in the UK where I live. So with this mentality I traveled to Japan, visiting the tourist destinations during the day and used the evenings for … Continue reading Exploring Japan after dark
When you think of Japan a few images may come to mind, towering sky scrapers, robot waiters, sushi, or the bright vermillion gates of shinto shrines. One place in Japan is especially famous for these gates in Fushimi Inari Taisha which is for the shinto shrine of Inari, goddess of the harvest, situated in Kyoto. … Continue reading Fushimi Inari Taisha: The never ending gates
On day 5 we awoke in the beautiful ancient capital of Kyoto. As we have traveled to Kyoto before we weren't planning on spending much of our time in the city itself, rather using this as a base in central Japan to travel around. Today we wanted to visit another castle, after being so impressed … Continue reading Japan 2017: Day 5 – Hikone castle
On our fourth day in Japan we left the capital to continue our journey across Japan. Unfortunately we left it until the late afternoon to book our shinkansen tickets (using our JR pass) and so all the trains before 10 were fully booked! We did manage to get seats D and E as this is … Continue reading Japan 2017: Day 4 – Kyoto
My Nihon 