12 Day Japan Trip

As a sample of what I've been doing lately, I introduce to you a sample trip I have planned. A 12 day Japanese Holiday during Sakura Matsuri (Cherry Blossom Festival). This holiday knocks out several bucket list items including kiss under Tokyo Tower and See the Cherry Blossoms in Japan. The total for this trip is surprisingly inexpensive, or rather less expensive than I thought it would be. The Total for a 12 day trip touring my favorite places in Japan is only $7500 for 2 people. It's about the same price as a 3 day in Rome. For the sake of the itenerary I'm going to assume that Joe is the person who goes with me. (Non of these pictures are mine. I post a website where I got them)

So we fly into Tokyo late on Saturday night and crash in a Coffin Hotel. This is mainly for convenience. Also, It's kind of cool.

https://shikibook.wordpress.com/travel/hotels/

In the morning we get up and hit a convenience store for breakfast. We'll say Onigiri because it is delicious! Also Convenience stores in Japan have quality food from all the blogs I've read.

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2010/03/japanese-rice-balls-have-them-your-way/37447/

Then we head to Harajuku bridge. On Sunday all the fashionistas and cosplayers hang out on that bridge. So Joe and I would wander around taking pictures of crazy Japanese fashions.

After that we head to Tokyo Tower. This is one of my "Must Do" stops. It is featured in a lot of animes that I love. Plus I hear it's good luck to kiss under Tokyo tower. Whats more it provides a fantastic view of Mt. Fuji. So Joe and I get a picture together of us kissing under the tower, and get a couple picture with Mt. Fuji.

By No machine-readable author provided. Fg2 assumed (based on copyright claims). - No machine-readable source provided. Own work assumed (based on copyright claims)., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1684317

After a few hours at Tokyo Tower we head to Shibuya Crossing and start our shopping experience. Eventually we'll head to Akihabara street. That's where all the Anime stuff is. I will also need a photo booth picture. Purikura photo booths are The Snapchat of photo booths. The amount of filters and stickers you can use to decorate the pictures are incredible. We'll eat lunch at a Maid Cafe in Akihabara. Thats a place where the waitresses are dressed as the most adorable maids. It kinda sets off my feminist buttons, but damnit I want an adorable maid to serve me an esspresso!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photo_booth#/media/File:Purikura_Booth_2.JPG

Then for dinner we head in for the night life in Shinjuku. We play some pachinko, eat at a street vendor, and go for drinks, and if we meet some interesting locals we'll go out for karaoke. After a night of drinking and gambling we head towards our Air BNB to crash.


airbnb.com

After we wake up and grab some convenience store food for both breakfast and lunch, we head to rent a Kimono and a Yukata, traditional Japanese garb. It's a bit pricey, but I want the full Cherry Blossom viewing experience. Speaking of which, after we rent our outfits we head down to Shinjuku Gyoen. One of the better parks to view cherry blossoms.


We eat lunch there and mill around looking at cherry blossoms. Then we return our outfits and head to a sushi restaurant for dinner. Why? Because Shushi is delicious and getting it straight from Japan is a keen thing to do!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sushi#/media/File:Norwegia_Roll_Salmon_Sushi.jpg

Then we head to our Air BNB for some quiet time and uploading of pictures/blogging.

Day 3 in Japan and we hit two museums: National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation and the Studio Gibli Museum. I have no idea what's in either of them, but I have a feeling they will be interesting. Breakfast and Lunch are street food, and dinner is at a sit down restaurant.

The next morning we get on the train and head to Kyoto. It's only a few hours so Well have plenty of time to walk the Arashiyama Bamboo grove.

https://www.lonelyplanet.com/a/japan/kyoto/arashiyama-bamboo-grove/pois/sights/1364517/places/1323332

Then we head over to our hotel at Togetsutei Onsen/Ryokan. Onsen means hotspring and Ryokan is a traditional guesthouse that has a traditional breakfast and dinner included. It's not an outdoor hotspring, but I imagine it'll be relaxing anyway.

https://japaneseguesthouses.com/ryokan-single/?ryokan=Togetsutei

On Thursday, day 5, we have a tea ceremony at Koto Tea Garden and those take an hour or so. After the tea ceremony we head over to the Kinkaku-ji, or Golden Pavilion. This is an ancient Buddhist temple with lots of architectural interest. There is also a garden surrounding it. After we are done viewing we pop on back to our hotel for dinner and blogging time.


By Jaycangel - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=33554210

The next day we head over to an outdoor onsen at Kurama Onsen. There we experiance outdoor hot springs, eat lunch there, then explore the city. Then we'll eat dinner downtown. After dinner we head out and explore the city proper some more. When we are good and tired we'll head to our Air BnB (Ryokans are silly expensive.)

After we wake up on the 7th day, we will bemoan the fact the trip is more than half over. Then we'll head to the Fushimi Inari Shrine to explore the beauty and perhaps leave an offering.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Torii_gates%E2%80%94Fushimi_Inari_Shrine_(9977683204).jpg

Then we head to Nijo-jo castle which, like the Golden Pavilion is a castle with a beutiful garden. This one was supposed to be silver, but it never was painted.


After all that we hop on a train heading to Nara, My most anticipated place. We'll check into our hotel at Shojoshin-in which is an active Buddhist monastery. Like a Ryokan, it serves breakfast and dinner. However, since they are Buddhist the meals are all vegetarian.

Thje next day we'll visit Nara park where lots of wild deer roam free. We'll pet deer, take pictures of deer, and hold hands commenting on how cute the deer are. Then we visit Todaiji Temple. This is an incredible Buddhist temple that has many works of art and a deep history. After we go to Wakakusayama. It is a park on a mountain. It'll take a bit of climbing, but I hear the view is fabulous.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Q8BvqvxD08

We'll head back to the temple for dinner. The next day,we'll pop by Horyoji Temple which is the world's oldest wooden building. It's another temple that is historically relevant. After we visit the temple we take the train to Hiroshima. We'll sign into our Air BnB and rest as well as blog.

The next morning we'll visit the Hiroshima Peace Park and Hiroshima castle.

http://aichaobang.blogspot.com/2012/01/hiroshima-price-of-peace.html

After we're done we'll hop on a train to Tokyo and fly home.