Stunning Japan, May-June 2026

INTRODUCTION

The year is 2026. The month is January. Exact date not known, or to be more exact, has been forgotten. Our children are visiting us for Shabbat lunch, Keren with her husband Sagi, and the children Shalev and Sol, and Shai with his wife Tal.

As usual, the conversation flows through a number of subjects, and at some point it arrives to the subject of a trip to Japan. Lili asks about the best times to visit Japan, trying to catch a little from the experience of Tal and Shai, who have already been there twice. Shai answers that April is the time of the cherry blossom, and the autumn is the time of the fall of the leaves, the best known times to visit, if we don’t care to find the country full of tourists. Lili asks if the beginning of May is also good, and then he throws: “Why don’t you go at the end of May? We are also going at this time…”.

Thirty minutes after that we already had the flight tickets and were fully at the job of reserving the hotels according to their recommendations.

That day, after they went home, Tal began working on a plan for us that would let us see the most important parts of Japan, while being there for 22 days, staying with them in Tokyo in the beginning and the end of the trip, and meeting them for two days in the middle of it.

At the end, for personal reasons, Tal and Shai had to cancel their trip, and we decided to continue and follow Tal’s plan as it was made, doing it by ourselves. Twenty-two days in Japan using only public transportation, and passing through Tokyo, Kanazawa, Shirakawa-go, Takayama, Kamikochi, Matsumoto, Nagoya, Osaka, Himeji, Kurashiki, Hiroshima, Kyoto, Nara, Arashiyama, and back to Tokyo.

This is the way our adventure began.

The days before the trip

Some days before the trip, Lufthansa made contact with us and told us that our flight from Tel Aviv to Munich was cancelled due to the war with Iran. We called them and they suggested they would move us to an El Al flight leaving Tel Aviv to Munich, and the continuation would be with Lufthansa instead of the Japanese company ANA. Only that, for that purpose, we needed to advance our trip, leaving Israel and arriving to Tokyo one day earlier. We accepted the deal, and gained an additional day in Tokyo, for which we had to book another hotel there, since our hotel was too expensive for a last minute booking.

And the trip begins!



On May 21^st, 2026, we left home at 02:15 AM to the Ben Gurion Airport, to catch our El Al plane to Munich. The plane left at 6 AM, landed in Munich at 9:05 AM in German time, and the next flight left at 12:30 PM, arriving in Japan in the next morning at 7:05 AM. 

(the landing in Japan from the plane's camera - recorded in the entertainment screen)

There, we had detailed instructions given by Tal and Shai: buy the tourist SUICA card for public transport for each one of us, fill the cards with some money (3,000 yen each), and then buy a ticket to the shuttle bus to our hotel. The SUICA card was bought on a machine, the process was very easy. The shuttle ticket process was impressive. There are buses that leave every 15 minutes if I am not wrong. They put the people that go to the same hotels in the same buses and transmit to the buses in which hotels they will stop. So, buses from the same line may stop in different hotels, and it is important that you go on the bus that was assigned to you.

After one more hour in the bus, we arrived in our hotel. We rested a little bit and went out for our first Tokyo adventure: the observatory at the Shinjuku Local Government Building, which not only shows a beautiful view of Tokyo, but also does lights projections at the side of the building that one can admire. It was a beautiful evening. After that, on our way to the hotel, and too tired to be looking for a restaurant, we stopped at a 7eleven shop for a simple dinner. Tal and Shai told us that the simple food they sell there is good and it is an interesting experience. They were on spot. We bought some egg sandwiches, some kind of sushi and some smoked meat that were really very good.

We decided to take some food for our breakfast at the room at the hotel. This is recommended. Breakfast at the hotel is very expensive, but you can either eat at convenience stores like 7elevan or Family Mart, or go to a café nearby – they exist around every hotel. Doing this, instead of paying 3,000 yen per person for a hotel breakfast (that is very good, but not needed), you can have the whole breakfast for 800 yen per person.

In the pictures below you can see some views that can be seen from the Shinjuku Local Government Building. Click on the pictures to enlarge them.

Day 1: First full day in Tokyo



First thing when waking up, we took our things and moved to the hotel we had originally reserved for the next four days. It was only a 10-minute walk, so we did it on foot. We were happy to see we were not the only ones pushing suitcases in the streets of Shinjuku.

After that, we began the day visiting Ginza, a high-level shopping neighborhood where you can find all the international brands and some important Japanese ones. Prices are high, yet incredibly low comparing the prices of the same products in Israel, our home. We did find some things to buy, but the most important thing was a Citizen Promaster watch with which I had been flirting for 5 years at home but wouldn’t buy it because of the price. I found it at half the price, so bought it. Lili also saw some sunglasses at the Jimmy Choo shop but refrained from buying it saying that it was still the first day of the trip and she didn’t know if she really wants to have it.

From Ginza we continued to the Shibuya neighborhood, where we had reserved a go-karting tour of Shibuya and Shinjuku. Lili couldn’t go in the tour because her driving license was temporary (in process of renewal), so she accompanied us in the sweeper’s van. At the end, it was good for her, first because she would have frozen out there, and secondly because she received very good explanations about all the area from the driver of the van, information that was very useful in the continuation of the trip.

At the end of the tour, we took the train back to the Shinjuku neighborhood, where our hotel was located, ate a light dinner, and went to sleep.

Here are some pictures of the day and one short video of the karting tour.

Second day in Tokyo

This was another interesting day. We began by travelling to another experience which we had reserved already from abroad, the Teamlabs Borderless. The place is quite far away, we had to travel by metro for around 30 minutes until we got there. It is in a building that looks like a shopping center, but is more than that, it is a kind of a building of art museums, with just a few shops and restaurants.

Teamlabs Borderless is a special experience. We spent around 2.5 hours there. It is an exposition which is all made of lights, movies, sounds and scents. You use all your senses there.

Here are some  videos of the experience. For viewing them in full size, click the Youtube logo at the bottom.

Leaving Teamlabs Borderless, we ate at a restaurant at the same building, and began our way to Odaiba Island. The long way to Odaiba… we began with a half-hour walk until the bus stop for the bus that would take us near the island. Waited another 20 minutes for the bus, and the bus took us to the station of the monorail train that arrives to the island. It was an interesting ride at the monorail, seeing from above all that area of Tokyo which was quite far and different from the region we were staying at.

Odaiba is an artificial island, which is a kind of a business district. For tourists, there is a tower from which they can see the whole area, and the Odaiba Bridge, with the Statue of Liberty (similar to the one in NY, but smaller) on one side of the bridge, and the Unicorn Gundam on the other side. In between, three shopping malls where you can find whatever you want, at very good prices.

We stayed at Odaiba until the evening fell, and then made our way back to our hotel, had dinner, and went to sleep. It was the only time that we ate dinner at the hotel, we ate some excellent pizzas. They were really very good, but very expensive - they costed about as much as a wagyu meat dinner outside the hotel.

Here are some pictures of Odaiba.

At Odaiba we found also an artificial Geiser (or more simply said a fountain), which sent pressured water at a very big height. It was interesting to see, and worked every 15 minutes. Here is a video:

Third day in Tokyo

As usual, we woke up around 8:00, had breakfast, and went out. The plan for this day was a visit and shopping day at Shibuya and Harajuku.

We began at the Shibuya Train Station at the Hachiko exit, where one can find the Hachiko Statue. Hachiko is an internationally known dog with a sad story. The dog adopted a professor at one of Tokyo’s universities, and used to go with him to the Tokyo Station, return home, and then in the afternoon return to the station to wait for his master. He did that for around 2 years, and one day for some reason didn’t want his master to go. But the professor took the train. At the university, the professor died from a heart attack. Heartbroken, Hachiko continued to go to the station to wait for him every afternoon for 9 years, until he died. Workers of the train station would provide him food and water, and even found a host family for him that took him home, but he continued coming every day.

The dog is still a legend for the Japanese, and has a special place in Tokyo's history.

As every tourist, we crossed the Shibuya crossing, the most busy street crossing in the world, visited some shopping centers like the Shibuya 109 (which did not impress us much), and after walking around, we went for lunch at a Wagyu restaurant which was recommended by our son Shai. The restaurant was heaven! Lili took cutlets of Wagyu meat in Milanese style (covered with Tempura and Breadcrumbs), while I took the Wagyu rare meat - in both cases the meat came rare and we were supposed to place at a table grill (called shichirin) until it is grilled to our taste. While I like my meat medium-well done, Lili eats very well done, and not once did she get comments from the cook at the place like “you spoil the meat like this” or “careful, you will burn my restaurant” (this last in another restaurant), always said with a nice joking smile.

After lunch, we went to visit the Shibuya Sky. The Shibuya Sky is a 360° open-air observation deck located on the roof of the Shibuya Scramble Square skyscraper, which, if I am not wrong, is the highest building in Shibuya. The experience already begins with the elevator that takes us to the 45th floor of the building. The Shibuya Sky takes the 45th and 46th floors. It is said to be the best overview of Tokyo, and it proved itself as such. There is also an exposition of art in the 45th floor that is worth seeing. You should buy tickets in advance, because there are a lot of people there, but they open tickets for purchase only with 1 month of advance, if I am not wrong.

We stayed about two hours at the Shibuya Sky, and then walked in the direction of Harajuku. We began walking the area by Takeshita Street, a nice and very busy shopping street with small and simple shops. From there, we continued to Omotesando Boulevard, which looks like a branch of Ginza, with all the Big Brands present there. Lili, who was already regretting the decision not to buy the Jimmy Choo glasses in the first day, found another Jimmy Choo shop there, and went in to ask about the glasses. There, she discovered that there are only four of those in Japan. The shop manager promised to bring one of them to her shop, something that would take some days, and have it ready for Lili when we return to Tokyo at the end of the trip.

We had dinner there at the Omotesando area, and returned in the evening to the hotel to sleep.

Here are some pictures of our afternoon.

Conclusions of our first period in Tokyo (more to come at the end of the trip)

Tokyo is an exciting city. The 4 days we had here were not enough to see it all, and I doubt if the overall 9 days of Tokyo we will have in this trip will be enough.

Every quarter in the city is different from the others. Every place has what to see. And the kind people of the city don’t remind me of any urban population of cities with 14 million people that I have seen in my whole life. They are always there trying to help.

One thing that impressed me are the train stations. Let’s begin by our neighbour Shinjuku Station. I expected it to be big, knowing that it is a train, metro and bus station. But the place is a full city. It has 3 shopping malls inside, a full shopping area for food to take in your train or bus long trips, and also underground passages in all directions full of shops. It is hard to get orientation in there. We knew that our hotel was nearest to the West exit, because we always entered the station through it. Exiting was a different story; we would follow the signs to the West exit, and at the end always find ourselves at the East Exit.

The big surprise was getting at the other stations – all other stations in Tokyo are subterranean cities with all you may need. Restaurants, bars, shops, pharmacies, etc. We never found a small station there. This was really impressive.

Another impressive service is the baggage sending service. But I will leave this only as a teaser and will comment better at the end of this article.

The Shinkansen to Kanazawa

A new day, and here we are, at the train station to take the train to Kanazawa. When we bought the tickets, the clerk told us that the Shinkansen to Kanazawa leaves from the Tokyo station and gave us also tickets from Shinjuku station to Tokyo station. So, here we were waiting for our train to Kanazawa.

From our previous days, and from information that our son and his wife gave us, we already knew that, while it is not acceptable in Japan to eat at the metro trains, in the intermunicipal trains it is more than accepted, and everybody does full picnics there. So, before entering the platform, we did a check at the food houses in the station, chose a bakery and bought some products to eat in the train. Our trip was supposed to take 2 hours and 20 minutes, because we chose the fastest train, the Kagayaki.

As expected, the train arrived and left the station at exact times. As the train moved from the station, also as expected, everyone opened their bags and took from there the food they have brought, and the feast began.

The Shinkansen is impressive. The technology began to work in Japan in 1964, and the trains are impressively fast (running at more than 280 Km/h, and some of the lines can also get to 600 Km/h) and soft. You have no idea of how fast you are travelling; it is like the train is floating its way to the end of the line. At the beginning we tried to compare the prices to trains at our country (“100 USD for a 2-hour train ride??? Are they crazy???”), but then we understood that on those 2 hours we did almost 600 Km in distance, so things got different.

Here is a short movie of our train arriving at the station for us to get in.

Kanazawa

We arrived at Kanazawa around 1 PM. We bought our tickets for the next day, left our luggage at the hotel’s reception and went out to see as much as we could of the city, since we knew we only had until the next morning to sightsee there.

We visited the Samurai Old District, Kanazawa Castle and its gardens, Omicho Market, and Kenrokuen garden, considered one of the 3 most beautiful gardens in Japan. We finished the day with a great Wagyu meal in a small restaurant near the hotel.

Kanazawa is a beautiful small town, and the places we visited are a MUST for everyone that lands there. It was nice that it was our first stop, since the place is nice and beautiful, and it is very calm. We had plenty of time to see everything that was in our plan.

Bus trip to Shirakawa-go and Takayama

This trip was done by bus, because we wanted to stop in Shirakawa-go, which is a gorgeous village on the way, and no trains passed through there. As you will see in the small chapter about Takayama, we would do this part of the trip a little differently.

Shirakawa-go

Shirakawa-go is a magic enclave in the middle of a completely agricultural area. It is a village that is made for seeing and dreaming. The place is covered with snow in the winter, so it is better visited in the spring and summer, or, if you really want to see snow, in autumn. After we leave the bus station, the closest place to walk to is the mountain from which you can see the whole village. You go there, take pictures and videos, and then go down to the village to walk around the wooden houses with thatched roofs and the rice plantations. The main road is full of shops and restaurants. We spent around 3.5 hours visiting this beautiful village, ate there, and then continued with the bus to Takayama.

Takayama

We arrived to Takayama around 5 PM, and went to our hotel. The hotel was a kind of a small resort hotel, which had private onsens available for the guests at a first-come-first-use mode. After the onsen, we had a shower and the receptionist at the hotel booked for us a dinner at a very nice restaurant in the city. We had some trouble for having the restaurant owner finding our reservation, until we said that it was the hotel clerk who booked it, then they found it according to the hotel. We found out that the problem was that the hotel clerk said Helio, and the guy at the restaurant understood Eddion. That much for Japanese accent... :-D

In the morning we went to visit a little of the city before taking the bus to Matsumoto in the afternoon. We visited the Jinya morning market, which had no movement at all, the museum of the local Shogun government, and then walked the old city of Takayama, which is very lively.

All in all, if we had to give up on some visit to make the trip shorter, this place should be Takayama. From Shirakawa-go we would have taken the bus directly to Matsumoto and save one night. But, all in all, I was happy that we had the time to keep Takayama in the plan.

Matsumoto



Matsumoto is a lively city, very interesting, in which we stayed only because it was the closest place in order to be the base for our visit to Kamikochi.

If we had the experience we have now, we would give up the night in Takayama, travel directly to Matsumoto, and stay one more night here.

We travelled from Takayama to Matsumoto by bus, and the views we could see from our window were simply stunning.

At the same evening that we arrived, we went to see the Matsumoto Castle, which is considered to be one of the most beautiful Edo era castles in Japan, The castle stood to its fame, it is really beautiful. We did not go in because it was already closed, but sitting there at the castle park and watching the castle and the sunset in the background was one of the most beautiful and romantic experience of this trip.

Kamikochi

Kamikochi is the Natural Park which is called “The Japanese Alps”. The travel from Matsumoto to there includes around 30-minutes by train to Shin-Shimashima, and from there around two hours by bus to the natural park.

We stayed at the park for around 4.5 hours from the moment we got down from the bus and until we got up into the return bus. During this time we did a 3.5 hours walking trek at the park, an easy trek of around 7.5 Km.

This park is THE PLACE for whoever likes walking in nature. They have treks from 2 hours and up to full days. There are hotels nearby, fit for anyone that intends to spend more than a day there, but one has to be ready for high prices.

One of the interesting things in the Kamikochi Bus Station (which is the start point for all treks) is the fact that they have some water points with brushes for people who are finishing their trails to clean their shoes and refrain from spreading dirt in the buses. The discipline of the people is stunning - everybody steps there and brushes all the dirt and mud off the shoes, and goes to the bus lines with clean shoes.

We arrived back to Matsumoto in the evening, ate a hamburger at a restaurant nearby the hotel, and went to sleep.

Nagoya



It’s a new day and we travelled by Shinkansen to Nagoya.

In Nagoya, we were at the Nagoya Castle, at the Sakae modern commercial area, which resembles NYC, and at the OSU traditional commercial area.

We had only one day there, and this day was very well used, despite the incredible heat wave that we had there.

At the hotel, we received the first trolley that we sent from Tokyo, with clothes for the next 5 days. We took the things out, took out everything from the backpacks, and switched - the trolley content to the backpacks, the backpacks content to the trolleys. Then I went to the reception and sent the trolley back to Tokyo.

After that, dinner and sleep. We had a busy day ahead.

Osaka

Osaka is a place for fun. We had two days in Osaka. In the first day, we visited the Osaka Castle and the Dotonbori street market, staying there until the evening.

On the second day, we visited the Umeda district, where we walked the streets and went to the Hep Five Ferris Wheel, a giant wheel from which one can see a big part of the city.

We continued to Yodobashi Umeda, a giant camera shop (8 floors), branch of the Tokyo Akihabara's Yodobashi. It's paradise. They sell from children's toys to cars and motorcycles, with some 6 floors of electronics. From there, we continued to Namba Parks and to Dotonbori, where we had dinner.

For me, the high part of Osaka is the Dotonbori market, there we had the fun of our lives. The market is covered, and it includes almost all the streets along the Dotonbori River. Looking at the river, there are boats, each one with its own theme, that go around carrying tourists. Some boats are with explanations, some have parties, some make the tourists sing, and some have jazz groups playing inside. The boats I liked most was the Freaks Boat, the one that is themed as crazy and a little of horror, and the Jazz boat.

At Dotonbori, you can find whatever you want to eat. We ate the two typical plates from Osaka, having for lunch the Takoyaki (which comes so HOT that it burns not only your mouth, but all the way to the stomach – it is extremely tasty, but just wait a little for it to cool down) and the Okonomiyaki for dinner, which is also very good. We finished the day with a tasty bowl of frozen yogurt. I don’t remember what exactly we had at the second day, but if I am not wrong, it was something more Western.

In summary, Osaka is a place to go to have fun and to do shopping. We enjoyed much the two days we had here.

Himeji and Kurashiki



Our plan for this day was travelling by train to Hiroshima, but stopping at two very nice small towns called Himeji and Kurashiki. At Himeji, the most important point to see was the Himeji Castle, and at Kurashiki, the Old Bikan Quarter which is called “The Japanese Venice” due to the river that cuts the streets in the area and the many bridges over it.

Unfortunately, the weather did not help us a lot, it rained the full day, but we managed to walk through both our destinations and enjoy them.

But the weather also brought us an interesting experience in Himeji: we came out of the train station through the Himeji Castle exit. We could see the castle in front of us, around 1.5 kilometers ahead. So we opened the umbrellas and began walking at the big avenue that lead us to there. After some 5 steps, an old Japanese guy who is coming in the opposite direction turns to us, full of smiles, and says: 

• "Are you going to the castle?"
• "Yes", we answered
• "So turn back to the station and at the corner here turn left and left again. It will lead you to a shopping street parallel to this avenue which is covered, so you will get to the same place without getting wet."

Japanese kindness at its best.

Here are some pictures:

Hiroshima

Next on our plans was Hiroshima. We had two nights planned here, arriving in the evening after the visits to Himeji and Kurashiki, visiting the city for one full day, and leaving in the next morning. Our hotel was a kind of an annex building to the main Hiroshima Train Station, so getting from the train to the hotel and from the hotel to the train was very fast.

Hiroshima is the place to go if the subject of the Atomic Bomb interests you. However, interestingly, the subject does not control the whole city. The city is lively and happy, and the Japanese really live to that saying that “starting a war and losing it doesn’t make you a victim”. At the area where the bomb was dropped there are some ruins, a park and a museum, but the whole rest of the city lives a normal life.

We began the day by visiting the place where the bomb fell. Surprisingly, it is called “The Peace Park”. The point where the bus leaves you is near the ruins of Hiroshima's Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall, which was completely burnt and destroyed when the bomb fell only 160 meters from it. After walking around the ruins, we walked the park in the direction of the Peace Museum, which is a very interesting visit, telling the story of the mentioned event. From the museum, we returned to the park and took at the river there the boat to Miyajima Island. Getting there took approximately 40 minutes.

Miyajima is a beautiful island near Hiroshima. The first thing that strikes you at the moment you step on the island is the number of deer that live there among the tourists, completely used to the presence of humans, asking them for food (they block the entrance to restaurants to get food), and getting to almost every place in the island. We walked around for some hours visiting the main streets, the Tori Gate on the water (which gets out of the water when the waters retreat) and the temple. After that, we took the cable car to Mount Misen to see the island and Hiroshima from above. We were in Miyajima for around 4 hours and returned to the mainland with a different boat which takes around 10 minutes to get to the land, and then took a tram back to the area of Hondori Shopping Street, which is very near the Peace Park.

We finished the day at Hondori Shopping Street for a stunning Hiroshima-style Okonomiyaki and Lemon Beer at Nagata-ya restaurant. Personally, despite the fact that the Okonomiyaki is said to be invented in Osaka, I liked the Hiroshima Okonomiyaki more than the Osaka one. BTW, the Nagata-ya restaurant is very recommended, if you are ever there.

And here is a short video of the process of the Nagata-ya team preparing the Hiroshima Okonomiyaki.

Kyoto

Kyoto was our next stop. We had 5 nights to be there, but two days were to be taken with visits to Nara Park and to Arashiyama with its Arashiyama Bamboo Forest.

Our hotel was in the middle of the Shopping Market of Kyoto, the Teramachi-dori (Japanese for Teramachi Shopping Arcade). This proved to be very useful every evening when we wanted to eat and did not know exactly where. There were always good places.

On the first day, we visited the Kyoto Imperial Palace and the Nijo Castle. At the Imperial Palace we only saw the gardens around it, at the Nijo Castle we went in and saw the place where the Edo era of the Shoguns government began and ended, and learnt a little about the history of the shoguns. The gardens around it are also very beautiful.

After that, we went back to the area of the hotel, which was, as said, strategically placed in the middle of a street shopping area full of restaurants and shops, to end the day. We still had much to see in the next days and needed to be strong and awake. After checking in and taking our luggage to the room, we went out to eat. We began roaming the streets around the hotel, in the market area, for a good place. Suddenly we saw a small restaurant at a side street with some combo dinners that looked good and were very cheap. We knew it would not look like in the picture when we get to the restaurant, but checking Google Maps, the rating of the restaurant was very high (4.8 out of 5.0, if I am not wrong). So we decided to go in.

We were right. It didn’t look like in the picture, it was a lot better. One of the best meals we had in all the trip. Unfortunately I haven’t saved the name of the restaurant (it was written in Japanese), but if you look at the pictures of the combos and walk at Rokkaku-dori you will find the banner with those pictures.

We began the second day by visiting the Nishiki market, which is very near the hotel. Continued by bus to Kinkaku-ji, the Golden Monastery. From there , quite a long trip by one bus and two trains to Fushimi Inari, a beautiful monastery with its walkways of red Tori gates in the middle of a forest. In the evening, for the first time in two weeks, Lili and I broke apart for dinner: she went to have a hamburger while I went for a running sushi, which is something she doesn’t eat (doesn’t like raw fish).

On the third day, we visited Nara Park and the Todaiji monastery (or shrine). The monastery is very impressive, inside Nara Park, and being in the park with hundreds of free deer who are not afraid of humans and interact freely with them is something impressive. Most funny is that, in respect to the Japanese costume, the deer bow to ask for food and bow again to thank you for giving them food. "Food" are actually some specific crackers that are good for their health and can be bought anywhere around.

We also saw the process of a deer mother teaching her calf the way to choose the right path to go up from inside a stream to higher shore by climbing the rocks. Some people wanted to help the calf, but were warned not to touch it. The end of the story, when the calf finally learns to choose his path and manages to go up the border of the river, is documented in my second or third video of the trip. The links for the three videos are at the end of this article.

After that, on our walk back to the train station, we stopped at the Nakatanidou Mochi shop, watched them making the traditional mochi, and also bought some to try. First time for me eating sweet red beans. I must say that I was used already to eat the fruit mochi, called mochi in the streets incorrectly (it’s correct name is Daifuku). After tasting the traditional mochi there, I came to the conclusion that I prefer the Daifuku, specially in its three most common flavors strawberry (Ichigo Daifuku), peach, pear and green grapes, for which I don’t know their Japanese names. Anyway, when you see them, you can call them Mochi and they will understand. You can see in the picture how it looks like.

In the next day, the rain came back.

We had to change the plans of visiting the Arashiyama bamboo forest to something closer, so we reverted the plans with the plans we had for today and went to visit the temples and shrines in Kyoto. It still included a lot of walking in the rain, so umbrellas and raincoats were of a lot of use. We visited 3 shrines, the Gion Geisha District and the Pontocho Food Alley. Around 4 PM we were back to the hotel after walking 12 Km under non-stop rain. After resting for two hours or so, we went out for dinner.

A challenging day, but we made it.

Then came our last day in Kyoto, the sun came back, and we could take the bus to Arashiyama.

Arriving there, we moved directly to the Arashiyama Bamboo Forest. From there we entered the Tenryu-ji shrine and visited it. We continued along the Katsura river and Arashiyama park, and finished walking through the town.

When the sky began to turn grey, we took the bus back to Kyoto. Until we arrived back, around 4:30 PM, it was already raining again. So we went to have some dinner and to sleep, knowing that in the next morning we would be at the Shinkansen to Tokyo.

The return to Tokyo

We spent the morning at the Shinkansen bullet train to Tokyo. We also said goodbye to the Shinkansen, since it was the last time we used it before going back home. I will talk about the Shinkansen later in the conclusions.

In the afternoon we went to see the Imperial Palace gardens and ruins of the old Imperial Palace. The current Imperial Palace, the place where the current emperor lives, could not be seen, it is hidden at the side of the site by dense vegetation.

After that, we returned to Omotesandu Boulevard and Harajuku Boulevard to see them in the evening, where we had a delicious hamburger for dinner, and then back to Shinjuku and to our hotel.

At Omotesandu Boulevard, Lili entered again the Jimmy Choo shop, and, as promised, the sunglasses were waiting there for her. I must say that I was impressed, the store manager wrote down her phone when we were there for the first time, and during all our trip she updated Lili on the status of the task of bringing the glasses to the shop. When we got there, she still gave Lili the option, after she tried them, NOT to buy. But Lili loved the glasses, and bought them, and still bought together a bottle of a great parfum.

Despite the fact that we were in a train part of the day, this was the day we walked most: 29000 steps (our average is 24000), which means around 18 Km. We did a lot of walking during the day.

The following five days were dedicated to visiting parts of Tokyo we did not see in our first period, and for two days of travel to places around one-and-a-half hours from Tokyo, the town of Nikko and Kawaguchi-ko, which I will describe below.

Nikko

Nikko... What a beautiful place!

There, I learned the difference between a temple and a shrine - because what they had there were real temples.

Nikko has enough for spending two days there. But we had only 4.5 hours to be there. So we had to do some choices. We decided to visit the temples (there are three of those) and the Kanmangafuchi Abyss, which also included a 3 Km walk in the local nature. These were definitely beautiful and worth the time. But we were sad that we didn’t have one day more to stay and visit the Nikko National Park, with the waterfalls, lakes and mountains, the cable car, etc. After that we walked around the town for one hour more, until the time to get our train back arrived.

One nice thing happened there: while we were walking to the Kanmangafuchi Abyss a very strange micro-bus with 8 wheels passed through, coming from our back. We continued walking, and after some 10 minutes, the same bus appears in front of us on its way back. Lili immediately pulled the camera to take a picture of the bus. When the driver saw that, he immediately stopped the bus for her to be able to take a good picture. The bus was empty, and it was a very small street with no traffic, so nobody got bothered. When she lowered the camera, he started driving again and waved at us.

We saw a lot, but it was just a small percentage of what Nikko has to offer. If you plan going there, plan spending at least one night there for visiting the other places.

The National Park is at a distance of around 23 Km from the center of Nikko. It was a pity that we didn't plan the time to do it.

Kawaguchi-ko

Kawaguchi-ko is the place you go to see Lake Kawaguchi and Mount Fuji.

As instructed, we followed the forecast of the visibility of Mount Fuji the whole week for deciding when to go there, and this day was the best.

During the night the forecast changed a little and was not so favourable anymore, but although it was a little cloudy, we managed to see the Japanese giant and enjoy Kawaguchi-ko very much.

We began, from the bus station, by taking the bus to the lake and then taking the cruise on Lake Kawaguchi, from where we were supposed to have the best possible view of Mount Fuji. The cruise was very nice, but Mount Fuji was a little shy and hid most of itself behind some clouds.

After that, we began walking around the lake, in the direction of Oishi Park for seeing the gardens there. Immediately after exiting the cruise, we saw the entrance for the Kachi Kachi Ropeway, another thing we wanted to do, but with a sign that it was closed for maintenance until the middle of August. So we understood we wouldn’t do it this time and continued walking.

We walked about one quarter of the lake, until the heat became too strong, then we took the bus to Oishi Park to complete our way to there.

Oishi Park has a beautiful garden, direct access to the lake (one can go into the water there), two restaurants and a big souvenir shop. We ate lunch there, walked the gardens, had a nice Cremia Ice-Cream at the Ice-cream shop, bought some boxes of Mochis to take home, and began our way back, on foot, since it was already after the hours of the highest temperatures.

At a certain point of the walk, we see a bridge, not exactly on our way, but Lili wants to take a picture there. When she gets there she calls me, and then we see Mount Fuji on all its splendour. Most of the clouds went down to the base of the mountain, and the visibility was the best we had that day.

Happy with the pictures, we walked until the Kawaguchi-ko Music Forest, another garden with loudspeakers all over it playing classical music. It was a beautiful visit. They also have a music museum, but the entrance is paid, so, despite it was really very cheap, we decided to give up on it.

From there, we took the bus back to the central bus station, and waited for our bus to Tokyo.

Visits during the days in Tokyo

During the days that we had in Tokyo, we did some nice visits, so here are some notes about them, without a defined timeline.

Ueno Park - we visited the park, saw the lake which is covered with lotus plants ready to flourish in some weeks, and the shrines.

Ueno (Ameyoko) Market -  a market mostly selling shoes and spices, and some kinds of Japanese food.

Akihabara Electric Town - we visited Yodobashi and BIC Camera shops, and walked around the area to feel the energy of the place. If you haven’t been at Yodobashi in Osaka (actually also if you have been, because this one is even bigger), plan some 2-3 hours to be there. This place is awesome, the Paradise for electronics/gadgets geeks. Walking around in Akihabara is by itself very nice.

Asakusa and the Senso-ji temple - One beautiful old area of Tokyo, but FULL of tourists. It was quite difficult to walk there with a continuous flow of people that not always are at the same direction you are. The temple is gorgeous.

Meeting a long-lost friend

Well, not really lost, because we kept contact at Facebook.

While I was at medium and high-school, there was a Japanese girl in our year called Tei. I won’t mention her last name for keeping her privacy. She was not in my class, but kept excellent relationships with many people from the class. At the end of high-school, every one of us followed his/her path to university, I came after two years to finish university in Israel (and at the end got married and stayed), while Tei emigrated back to Japan. The last time I saw her personally was in 1977.

Well, Tei was in contact with me via Facebook from the beginning of the trip, giving me some ideas, and we set to meet on the last day for walking Shinjuku together, since it was near where she lived. So after 49 years, we met again. She and Lili had immediate chemistry, and we spent a GREAT afternoon together, walking, sitting in a coffee shop where she took us to see, and in the end, Lili managed even to drag her into a 7Eleven store to help her choose special snacks to take home and finish with the amount we had in our two SUICA cards.

It was one of the most pleasant things in the trip to meet her again after almost 50 years. I hope we don’t need to wait another 50 for the next meeting... 😊

CONCLUSIONS

This ends my description of this trip. But I have some conclusions to mention.

First things first, I need to thank our son Shai and especially his wife Tal for the help in putting this plan together. Tal has worked a second shift for preparing the plan, doing research, and seeing that everything falls in place. They two also gave us detailed instructions on how to proceed with all the technical things there, the SUICA cards, when to buy tickets for every train trip, etc. If it wasn’t enough, during the trip, every evening we were in WhatsApp talks with them, in which they refreshed the things to do in the next day. We probably wouldn’t be able to do it without their help, or at least, not be able to do it that well and see so much. So, a big “Thank you”, Tal and Shai.

Japan’s Public Transportation System: during all my years of international work and private trips, I have visited around 70 different countries. I am not afraid to say that the Japanese public transport system is THE BEST I have ever seen. Metro, regular trains, buses, Shinkansen, they can take you anywhere you want, easily, comfortably and quickly. The Red SUICA cards (a special SUICA card for tourists which is valid for 3 months and can be recharged as much as you want within this time) is excellent — we used it for everything except the intermunicipal trains, which we would pay by credit card since we were anyway in a ticket office.

The Shinkansen (bullet train) had a very special place in the success of this trip. They took us very far away. If I had decided to do the trip with a rental car or motorcycle, the radius of the trip would be a lot smaller. We certainly wouldn’t arrive to Hiroshima, for example. Building this trip only on public transportation was challenging, but the right decision. Maybe in the next trip we will rent a motorcycle and then do a smaller radius trip visiting more things that are closer to Tokyo or to our landing point.

The Japanese Luggage Sending system is fantastic. It is easy to use, efficient and fast, and most important, you don't need to go anywhere, you send the bags from the reception of your hotel. Every hotel has it. Lili and I travelled all the time only with a small backpack each, carrying what we needed for the next days. I will tell you how we proceeded in order to explain how it works: first, we took to Japan only thin closes (mainly those active - dry-fit clothes). Then, in our hotel in Tokyo, we separated clothes for two set of 5 days and placed them in two different trolley cabin bags. Another set of clothes and things for 5 days went into our two backpacks. When leaving the hotel, I went to the reception, and said to them: “the two big suitcases are to stay here at the hotel and wait for our return in the beginning of next month. This first trolley needs to be sent to Nagoya, to our hotel there, to arrive at the date xxxxx, and gave them the date and the name of the hotel. The second trolley needs to be sent to Kyoto, to our hotel there, to arrive on xxxxx”. The receptionist tagged the bags that had to stay in the hotel and put them in the saved baggage room, then measured the trolleys and filled a form. He then called both the hotels in Nagoya and Kyoto to verify that I do have reservations there and he is sending the bags to the right places. After that, he put the forms with a nylon cover on the bags, charged me around 20 USD for both trolleys together, and we went on our way. Every hotel that we arrived, in Nagoya or Kyoto, the trolleys were waiting there for us. Then we would take out all the clothes from the trolley, throw all the used clothes from those days in the trolley,  and put the fresh clothes in the backpacks. The trolley with the used clothes we would send back to the hotel in Tokyo, for around 10 USD. We did that both in Nagoya and in Kyoto.

In Osaka, we came into a problem: we did a lot of purchases at Yodobashi there and had no place for them in the backpacks. But the next trolley would come only in Kyoto, and we still had Hiroshima before that. We consulted the receptionist at the hotel, and she said: “No problem, just a minute”, and then went inside and came back with two different brand new carton boxes, telling us to choose by the size we need, the small one costing 1 USD and the bigger one around 1.5 USD. We chose the small box, filled it, then she sealed it and filled the form for the hotel in Tokyo, and for 8 USD + 1USD for the box, all we needed was sent to our hotel in Tokyo. When we arrived at the hotel, both the two trolleys and the box were there, quietly waiting for us. Fantastic!!!

Our trip plan was very thorough. The main thing I would change in our trip plan was to add one night in Nikko to see the National Park. If, for this purpose, I would need to give up one of the visits, that would be the night in Takayama. But I would prefer only to add the night in Nikko and make the trip one night longer. Another thing that could be done to reduce one night in the trip (without cancelling Takayama) was to spend the last day of Kyoto and then take one of the evening trains to Tokyo, instead of sleeping in Kyoto and taking the morning train.

A little about my impressions of Japan:

As you have possibly already understood from my impressions of the Public Transport and the Luggage sending systems, in my view, Japan is the country where everything works and works as expected. Lili and me are already over 60, and we had no problem at all dealing with everything there. Most people that deal with service for people also speak English.

The only time we had some problem (😊) with the technology there was when we arrived back to Tokyo and wanted to refill (for the 3rd time) the SUICA cards. We decided to refill with 3,000 yen. Lili, being Lili, ran in front of me, got to a machine, saw the button for 3000 yen, pressed it and inserted the card and the money. Only then she noticed that she forgot to change the machine to English in the first screen. Everything on the screen was in Japanese... Now we had no idea on how to continue or to go back, and there was no way to switch to English after the first screen. At the end, I managed to find the BACK button using Google Translate camera and pointing to the screen... but then the SUICA card was returned, but the 10000 yen note she had put in the machine refused to come out – I assume that the note was a little wet because of a water bottle in Lili’s purse that leaked a little that day. In less than 30 seconds there were two security technicians there, asked what happened, checked that the card was not recharged, and then returned the money to us. We went to the next machine, and while recharging the cards, saw them putting an Out-of-Order sign on that one. So, we managed to put one of their machines out of order! 😊

Conclusion: even when one specific machine didn’t work for us (probably we are to blame for that), the system worked.

Additionally to the efficiency, there are the people. This is what I have to say:

“THE JAPANESE ARE THE NICEST AND MOST SYMPATHETIC PEOPLE IN THIS WORLD”

Why do I say this? Because, at least by my perception, everyone there goes out to the streets ready to help anyone that needs. Remember the story of the bus in Nikko? Would never happen today in any other country that I know. There was also one case in which we were struggling to find the entrance to a Metro line in Shinjuku and asked a girl who was in the line to a cafe there. She asked the girl after her if she was willing to keep her place in the line (the answer was yes, for sure), left the line and took us to the entrance of the station. Then she went back to the line where she was. These are the kind of things that you don’t see anymore in today’s world, and it’s a pity that it is so.

They are always smiling, and always take a lot of care to respect the rights of the other people around them. Once I said to Lili that it seems to me that every Japanese, when they go out to the street, they leave their ego at home, and are always ready not only to respect the others, but also to help those in need.

In summary: I loved this country and was very happy to have visited it. Lili even more than me; if she could, she would be back there tomorrow. I also intend to go back, but there are some other things that I intend to do before that. So let’s see when it happens.

Below you can see the three videos that I have made from the trip to Japan, with chosen representative parts of the trip. Again, I recommend you see them in full screen, pressing the Youtube logo at the bottom of the video.