Kimono

This was such a fun thing to do with my daughter, who loved the well-oiled machine of ‘getting dressed in a Kimono’ in Kyoto. These type of shops are found all over Japan, as locals also use them for weddings and other ceremonies. Here are some photos of us picking our kimonos – we were […]

Kyoto – Nara

This one turned out more adventurous than we anticipated, as we got mugged and laughed as other got mugged in turn. Yip, folk, you can get mugged in Japan by deer. Makes for a nice change 😉 Here some photos of an epic day, which the children loved. Needless to say, the deer got their […]

Kyoto – Arashiyama

It seems to me as we’ve slowly slipped down a steep slope to tourist mania. Somehow in Tokyo, I got the feeling that the city just absorbed everybody, with tourists melting in with the rest. In Kyoto, things were different – there were rivers of crowds at some of the sites, and at others, there […]

Takayama

The quickest way to avoid a crowd is to go up a mountain. This seems to be true in Japan, where the tourist season, although running thin now, is a bit robust for us, who are used to 3rd world tourism. Read: sparse with loads of space. In Takayama, we ditched the crowds around the […]

Ryokan

Staying in a traditional Japanese inn – ryokan – must be the epitome of the Japanese experience. I’m yet to get into a kimono and walk the streets of Kyoto or participate in the formal tea ceremony, but I somehow sense that staying in a ryokan could be, by far, the most authentic. We stayed […]

Shirakawa-go: finally feeling like a tourist.

We descended on this little mountain village with round about 5000 (?) other tourists for the day. Let’s just say it got a bit crowded at times, as both morning and afternoon tours flooded in by the busload. Well, couldn’t blame them. You get very trigger-happy in a place like this, with such a gorgeous […]

Kanazawa Castle and Kenrokuen Garden

Capturing a thousand colors of autumn in one of the most beautiful Japanese gardens is a privilege. As the city prepares for winter, the trees in Kenrokuen Garden are propped up by yukizuri, a network of ropes and stilts, to help them carry the weight of the snow through the winter months. From Kenrokuen Garden […]

Kanazawa Fish Market Fun

Situated on the west coast of Japan, Kanazawa turned out to be a little culinary hotspot. We’ve heard about the legendary Kanazawa snow crab from our Japanese friends, but you need to see it to believe it. Well, here you go. Some photos for all those crab lovers! As usual, the Japanese do seasonal things […]

OBUSE

The little town of Obuse was such a surprise. After our visit to the Snow Monkey Park in Yudanaka on the afternoon of our arrival, we had a whole day to do…we were not sure what. The weather wasn’t great and all the summer activities in the area had already closed as snow might set […]

Japanese Macaques – aka Snow Monkeys

After spending a week in Tokyo – of which I will have to write later because it was just so busy and I’m herding my thoughts on that one – we activated our Japanese Rail passes and left for Yudanaka, on the east side of Honshu island. This area is best known for its onsen (hot […]