Having been in Tokyo on 4 separate trips before, I have already visited most of the main tourist spots. I wanted to visit some less well known places in our one full Tokyo day, starting in Nezu. Nezu is north of Ueno park, and is one of the only areas in the whole of Tokyo … Continue reading Japan 2019 Day 14: Tokyo's Cat Temple Gotokuji
It was our last day in Tohoku before heading back to Tokyo and we needed to return the hire car back to Fukushima station by 2pm and watch the Shinkansen we had booked while in Mito station. We spent the morning exploring central Aizuwakamatsu by foot, going into tourist stores and getting some gifts for … Continue reading Japan 2019 Day 13: Back to Tokyo for a gluten free feast
As we didn't do enough driving the day before, we decided another 117 miles was in order. We were driving from Fukushima down to Ibaraki prefecture, outside of Tohoku. We had some stops planned on the way, and didn't need to get to Mito in Ibaraki during day light, so we could take our time. … Continue reading Japan 2019 Day 11: Shirakawa & Ibaraki
On Friday the 11th of March 2011 an magnitude 9 earthquake occurred off the coast of Tohoku, it was the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in Japan. This triggered a tsunami which hit the Tohoku coastline killing thousands. The tsunami also hit the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant setting off 7 nuclear meltdowns. Thousands of … Continue reading Japan 2019 Day 10: Visiting the Fukushima nuclear exclusion zone
We started the day with a bit of a lie in and weren't on the road until 7am. We were heading up into the mountains to explore Goshiki-numa (Five coloured marshes), a collection of strange coloured ponds in the mountains north of Aizuwakamatsu, in Bandai-Asahi National Park. It was quite a fun drive going up … Continue reading Japan 2019 Day 9: Goshiki-numa and Aizu’s history
Driving 150 miles across Iwate to find the prefectures natural beauty spots!
A spectacular 100 mile road trip up the coast of Iwate
Visiting Iwate's natural beauty and seeing the scars of the 2011 Great Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami
After a freezing and almost completely sleepless night courtesy of Towadako Hostel we headed out to the lake side for sunrise. Our first stop after parking up was Towadako shrine, which is accessed by a short hike through the forest (beware of bears!). The shrine was really beautiful, nothing but trees surrounding the shrine buildings. … Continue reading Japan 2019 Day 4: Aomori road trip part 2
Another early start (a theme on this trip again) saw us back on the Tohoku shinkansen heading from Sendai up to Shin-Aomori station in Aomori prefecture, the most northern prefecture in Honshu. As soon as we got off the shinkansen at Shin-Aomori station we walked across the road and picked up our first rental car … Continue reading Japan 2019 Day 3: Exploring Aomori by car
My Nihon 