On our first day in Kyoto Aaron was craving Katsu Curry so the hostel recommended a chain restaurant nearby (there are so many different chains in Japan and they are nothing like McDonald’s – thankfully). As soon as we walked in, the amazing smell of Japanese curry hit us. It was very delicious and the next [...]

To welcome in spring, Kyoto had a special lantern festival which lit up a number of temples and artworks around the Gion area. Tonight was the last night of the festival and when we got there we were amazed at how beautiful it was. We were actually a little bit disappointed that we didn’t go [...]

Today was the last day of our Sanyo pass which gave us unlimited travel on the Shinkansen between Osaka and Fukuoka. Purely for the novelty factor we decided to jump on the Shinkansen and take it as far as we possibly could, have some lunch and then return to Kyoto (a short regular train trip [...]

Kyoto is the home of temples and shrines in Japan. There are so many beautiful gardens, walks and temples to see. I knew that Aaron wasn’t going to want to see all of them – and I don’t think I could take that much temple hopping either. So I got a map and marked my [...]

While there wasn’t a lot to see and do in Okayama, the Shinkansen station was close by which meant the Himiji Castle was only a half an hour trip away. It is meant to be Japanese finest castle however it is currently undergoing restoration so the main keep was completely covered by scaffolding. We could [...]

Today we started our trip back to the Kansai region (Osaka and Kyoto) via Okayama. It was quite a big city which is predominately for business travellers rather than sightseers so we couldn’t find any hostels only business hotels. We stayed in a great little business hotel with the most excitable manager. We arrived after [...]

In our very short time on Miyajima we managed to see the shrine in three very different lights. We arrived onto Miyajima in the early afternoon during high tide. This meant we could walk out and around the shrine along with the hundreds of other people who were also visiting the shrine. The ferries stop [...]

We were seated in a private booth with food which looked like a piece of artwork. Before I could eat a thing, I darted back to the room to grab my camera. We were both quite blown away with how tasty everything was and also how impressive everything looked. The best way to describe it [...]

Tonight was our last night in Hiroshima and also the night Aaron made himself a new friend. As we walked into the common room there was a Japanese guy speaking to a girl. The guy quickly turned around and started chatting to us. He spoke very little English so between his English and Aaron’s Japanese, [...]

After the Mazda museum, the day ended on a much more somber note. We visited the A-bomb site, Peace Memorial Park and the Peace Museum. The whole thing has been done in a very respectful and proactive way. Instead of placing any blame, they spoke about the facts and also took a very strong stance on ending [...]