“It was my little girl dream and it was worth every dollar I had saved for it. I have been and I plan on going back. It reminded me a little bit of home with an Asian flare.”

 My visit to Japan was done with Nexus Holidays – a company we sell that’s mainly all-inclusive.  I visited Japan during April/May towards the end of Cherry Blossom season. 

Day 1 – Osaka – First day in Japan, we visited Osaka Castle, one of Osaka’s most famous landmarks with artwork of white, blue and gold, it was a sight to see.

~~TIP: This is where you start with the summer clothes as this was the warmest area – between Osaka and Kyoto as weather ranged here for me about 23°.

Day 2 – Nara and Kyoto – We visited Todaji Temple located in Nara Park where deer fawn freely, this was the first temple I had come across the traditional Fortune telling. We then travelled to the Nishijin Textile Centre where we saw a kimono fashion show. Located near a fair few little shops up on a mountain, Kiyomizu-dera Temple is where you drank luck from the Otowa Waterfall.

**MUST DO: Feed the dear… But make sure you don’t feed them in herds otherwise they’ll all come after you as my tour group learnt very quickly**

Day 3 – Kyoto – We ventured from Nijo Castle – the acclaimed castle with the nightingale sound from the old floor to the Golden Pavilion, with 2 floors completely covered in gold. Togetsu Bridge is located in a little town called Arashiyama. We then took the bullet train at 400km from Kyoto to Mt Fuji.

**MUST DO: Step carefully at Nijo Castle to hear the nightingale that back when the Emperor lived there, made his staff aware of an intruder**

Day 4 – Mount Fuji, Hakone, Izu – We started the day with a 4am sunset overlooking the biggest lake off Mt Fuji and what a spectacular sight it was. By 6am, the double reflection of Mt Fuji was present and it will be something I will never forget. First stop, we visited Hakone Peace Park and then followed by Hakone Shrine, it was definitely a place of peace and tranquillity. We then went and visited Owakudani Valley, a volcanic valley that smells like sulphur all the time. Late afternoon we took a cruise on Lake Ashi, which happened to have been a funky looking pirate ship.

**MUST DO: At Owakudani Valley, try the “black egg” that sits in the hot springs of the valley for 40 m inutes. They actually taste good.**

~~TIP: This is where you start bringing out the winter woolies as this is the furthest point I reached in Japan and temperatures were within the 15° mark until you got into Tokyo.

Day 5 – Izu, Kamakura, Yokohama and Tokyo – We visited Odawara Castle, yes another castle and then ventured to Daibutsu, The Great Buddha. In Yokohama –being the main cruise terminal for Tokyo, has the acclaimed Chinatown where you can buy local trinkets and food. This night we stayed at the traditional ryokan housing, with straw beds and tatamis – it was an experience I will never forget.

**MUST DO: Please don’t go to Japan and not stay in a Ryokan style house. That is the heart and essence of Japan and is an experience. I would definitely recommend Itoen Hotel Izu, as seen below, we had ocean views for our 2 nights**

Day 6 – Tokyo – This day was a free day on my tour, so we decided to go and hit Tokyo DisneyLand.

~~TIP: Bring lots of spending money in general, you will need it. People who had said they didn’t shop, shopped.

Day 7 – Tokyo – To start the morning, we went and visited Japan’s most talked about shrine, Meiji Shrine, only the rich and elite can be married in this shrine and of course, we saw a fair few Japanese brides. We then ventured to Asakusa Kannon Temple, connected to Nakamise Shopping Street, it is one of the most colourful temples I had seen along with the shopping street having colour at every corner. A cruise on the Sumida River lead us to the acclaimed Tokyo Tower, where surprisingly you can’t see all of Tokyo on the observation deck compared to being on the Eiffel Tower and see all of Paris.

Day 8 – Tokyo – We stayed an extra 3 nights to explore, now this part of the blog might get boring because I was on a mission of my own, to hunt down hobbies I liked that could only be found in Japan. The train system is amazing in Japan, so navigating our next 3 days was really easy.

**MUST DO: Take a ride on the JR Line. The maps were so easy to read, one in English and one in Japanese. All you do is find the station you need to go to, pay the applicable fare next to the station and get the ticket and find the coloured line to find the correct station. Train tickets generally start from $1.25**

Day 9 – Tokyo – In the morning we visited a city called Nakano, very well known for anything anime with eateries lined up, of course. Late night we visited the biggest and busiest intersection in the world, Shibuya Crossing Intersection. Shibuya boasts shops open till late, bright lights and eateries at every corner.

**MUST DO: Shibuya Intersection, it is the biggest and busiest intersection in the world**

Day 10 – Tokyo – Last day in Japan, we visited a fair few random places trying to hunt down our hobbies like Kabuki-cho, streets and streets of restaurants, eateries and shopping! Honestly my favourite place I had visited in Tokyo was the thriving Akihabara where we got the opportunity to have dessert in a maid café, sounds strange but it was an experience of a lifetime! Lots of shopping and eating was done! We then set off for out last night to Hamamatsucho where the Rainbow Bridge is located, although it wasn’t rainbow as we weren’t there in the right season, it was still illuminated and was nice to finish of our time in Japan.

EXTRA INFO:

I would recommend visiting Japan late March/early April if you want to see the Cherry Blossoms in full bloom OR late September/early October for fall season.  In this time period I would advise to bring a mix of winter and summer clothes as temperatures vary from morning to night.

Japan in relation to pricing in Australia is very similar.  Accommodation can range from very cheap, to very dear.

Japan is one of the easiest countries to get around, so I would suggest, unless you want to do a whole lot of Japan, independent is the best way and is cheap to do when you are there. Apart from Disneyland, I rarely saw queues throughout my trip.

The currency in Japan is the Japanese Yen. 1AUD=84JPY, so a Big Mac meal would cost roughly the same as you would pay in Australia. I ate out at some Italian restaurants in Shinjuku and pasta dishes worked out about $12.00, so some things are cheaper than others.  Shopping is great if you are an anime enthusiast, wanting little souvenirs or want to spend up on designer bags/clothes etc. You will find the occasional Uniqlo, H&M, Forever 21 and Zara.

If you would like to know any information on Japan as a country or are considering visiting this vibrant country, feel free to leave an email at info@travelbugonline.com, call or pop into shop to speak to myself!

Talia 🙂

Day 1 – 3 in China consisted of many things including the Terracotta Warrior and Horses Museum, Big Wild Goose Pagoda, Bell Tower, Xi’an city wall and city centre of Xi’an.

The Terracotta Warrior and Horse Museum, five pits of history encased in stone. Three pits held over 8,000+ soldiers and two pits of 600+ horses and chariots. It was most definitely a sight to see.

The Big Wild Goose Pagoda and Bell Tower has it’s only little myth to the story, every step climbed added a year to your life, but every step down you lost a year of your life – kind of pointless hey.

The city centre of Xi’an was something to die for, with light shows on the main fountains every night, the friendly locals are always willing to help and the opportunity to ride a bike on the ancient city wall was an experience I will never forget.

*Be sure when you’re in Xi’an to try the dumpling banquet with over 30 types of dumplings.*

 Day 4 – 6 in Beijing consisted of The Great Wall, Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City.

The Great Wall is exquisite just to look at and definitely takes your breath away (literally.) Climbing the Great Wall is definitely a must do because once you reach the first tower, you can see a view of the whole valley of where it is situated and it is a stunning view. Local markets are also held on the wall and you can buy local made souvenirs.

Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City are a must see. Tiananmen Square is the main square of Beijing and separates the Forbidden City and the Tiananmen Square Gate. The Forbidden City takes roughly around 2 hours to walk and it looks like the movies, the intricate designs on the roof, the colour scheme that represented the Dynasty it was built in and the feel of royalty, had me thrilled.

*A MUST is to see the Golden Mask Dynasty show, it was and still remains to be my favourite Chinese musical to date.*

 Day 7 – 9 in Shanghai consisted of the Shanghai Museum, Huangpu River cruise, and lots of gardens and shopping.

The Shanghai Museum gives you an overview of China’s whole history through the Dynasty’s.

The Huangpu River Cruise at night is a spectacular way to see Shanghai at night. With a full course dinner on board and then free reign of the ship for a couple of hours to take amazing photos, I would not have wanted to see Shanghai any other way.

Shopping and gardens are a big thing in Shanghai! You won’t exactly find malls as such, but long roads of shops with knock-off bags etc. and you can usually barter for the price you want. The gardens in Shanghai are absolutely spectacular, they take pride in keeping their gardens as pristine as possible and love when tourists admire their gardens. 

*Visit Nanjing Road for lots of shopping both bartered and not.*

Day 10 – 12 was spent in Chongqing, the most heavily populated city in all of China.

Chongqing Zoo boasted the cuddliest White and Red Pandas I have ever seen. Going through the city you can tell how densely populated it is, with housing everywhere and the only greenery you were seeing was at the Zoo.

Day 13 – 16 was on board a river cruise liner scaling the Yangtze River from Chongqing to Yichang.

The Yangtze River cruise is by far the lush part of China, all scenic with minimal stops. The major highlight of this trip is going through the three different gorges which then connect to the Three Gorges Dam being the largest river in Asia.