I didn’t know what route I was going to take when I visited Japan. All I knew was my journey in Japan would begin on May 13, 2018 in Tokyo.
I had planned to catch several sporting events in the country (baseball and soccer especially but I was lucky enough to be in Tokyo when a major sumo tournament was going on), eat a lot of different Japanese food (e.g. try Kobe beef in Kobe, more varieties of ramen, okonomiyaki etc), see more of its historical structures (castles and temples, especially Himeji Castle), learn more about the culture and people there especially with regards to its history (the Shogunate, samurais, World War 2, ninjas perhaps…).
In the end, my journey through Japan took me through the following cities:
- Tokyo – Attended 2 baseball games, a major sumo tournament, watched a kabuki theatre performance
- Kawagoe – Little Edo (which is what people imagine an old Japanese town to look like 100 years ago)
- Yokohama – J-League soccer game
- Takayama – Saw faceless Sarubobo dolls, ate A5 grade Hida beef (the best beef I’ve ever had!)
- Kanazawa – Uneventful mostly
- Osaka – Learned about the philosophy of “Kuidaore”
- Nara – Deer everywhere!
- Kobe – Ate pricey A5 grade Kobe beef (not as good as Hida beef imho)
- Himeji – Himeji Castle (It’s just like the postcards)
- Hiroshima – Visited ground zero where A-bomb “Little Boy” detonated
- Shimonoseki – Ate fugu (puffer fish) and did not die
- Fukuoka – Ate kurume, nagahama, tonkotsu, yatai ramen
- Nagasaki – Visited ground zero where A-bomb “Fat Man” detonated
- Beppu – Spent time in an onsen and being buried under hot black sand
In the coming weeks, I will probably write more about specific highlights of my time spent in Japan. Meanwhile, I have uploaded pictures of my Japan 2018 trip which can be viewed at: