My Tips for Touring Japan

Buy a JR Pass before you leave for Japan, avaiable for 7, 14, or 21 days
Reserve your seats as much as possible
Most hostels supply you with shampoo and shower gel
Towels can be hired
Public toilets don't have driers so bring a flannel to dry your hands
When looking for accommodation do check local hotels as they can be as cheap
Always choose accommodation close to station
Most food stores have free samples so tuck in

Sleep in a pod for one night but mainly they are for men
Check out tourist centres as some give you free wi-fi cards that last 14 days
Get the ULMON pro citymaps2go app where you can view maps off line

Itinerary for Japan

Although this trip started off without an itinerary we quickly made one as we were finding accommodation harder to find at short notice.

Tokyo 4 nights

Khaosan Tokyo Ninja

Nagoya 3 nights

Ohsu Plaza Hotel

Nagasaki 2 nights 

International Hostel Akari

Hiroshima 2 nights Ferry to Miyajima 

Hana's Hostel

Kyoto 4 nights Train to Nara and Sara-Arashiyama 

Santiago Guesthouse

Mt.Fuji 2 nights

Mt.Fuji Hostel Michael's

Nagano 2 nights

Moritomiza Backpackers

Sapporo 3 nights

Best Western

Aomori 1 night

The Art Aomori Colour Hotel

Tokyo 3 nights Train to Nikko

Kinuya Honkan Hotel

Narita 1 night 

Nine Hours Capsule Hotel 

Tokyo Revisited

Our last bullet train journey to Tokyo, but we are here now and still lots to do. At our hotel which is more like a hostel where we have a lovely room but share the bathroom. The Kinuya Honkan Hotel was easy to find in the center of Ueno district in between the station and the park.

Bags in the room and we're off again to the Ginza shopping area where I wanted to see the Sony building and play with the new gadgets on the market, well recommended. From here we headed to the Shinjuka Station which happens to be the busiest in the world and if you want to see how many people can fit into a train carriage ride a train from this station. Walking around the Shinjuka area you realise it has the most sky scrapers in any one area and the metro government building has a viewing floor free of charge where I'm told you can see Mt.Fuji from. We were there at night so didn't.

Still wanting to get the most out of our JR Pass we headed for Nikko which was about 90 minutes from Ueno. It was a very cold day and kind of dead place with nothing open apart from all the shrines which all seemed very expensive to visit. There was even a charge to cross Shinkyo Bridge so we walked around to avoid paying. Once walking around the park area, which was quite nice we were cold and hungry so decided to leave and hopefully try and find a coffee shop. Found a great little cafe that did bottomless coffee refills and chips to die for. Once back in Ueno to the heavy rain we headed for some dinner and decided to splash out at TGI's, very nice.

We woke to a lovely sunny day and decided the park and zoo would be a good choice. Ueno Zoo is the oldest in Japan and some of the enclosures looked original. I don't like zoo's much as the animals are in such small cages and when you have seen them in the wild it's sad to see them locked up. It has a save the panda campaign going but not sure it's working as they only had two. The saddest animals there were the rhinos, hippos, elephants and polar bear all in pens far too small for their large size. That night we eat in a street market cafe and had chicken on a stick washed down with some beer. Very lively place and got chatting to some locals who couldn't speak any English.

Our last day in Japan was at the shops buying last minute gifts and items for ourselves, decided a new iPad was needed and with a £100 cheaper than the UK my mind was made up.

Now on the night train for the airport as we are booked into Nine Hours Capsule Hotel for the night ready for our flight home tomorrow. 

Well I highly recommend spending a night in a pod, can be a little noisey when guests arrive but on the whole a must for any visit to Japan.

Ueno Zoo

Ueno Zoo

Ueno Zoo

Ueno Temple

Street meal

Sexy

9hrs capsule bed

Aomori

Woke up to it snowing and sad to leave Sapporo as I liked it here, but our 6 hours on the train is booked. Decided to spend the night in Aomori which is a costal town and it's where the bullet trains start which we will be catching the next day straight to Tokyo.

Horrible journey by train to Aomori seemed to take forever but we are here now and have a really nice hotel 10 minute walk from the station called Art Aomori Colour Hotel. As it was dark now we just went for a walk to the park and looked at the luminated bridge but it was nice just to get some fresh air. Had a nice meal of chichen and rice mmmmmmm my favourite washed down with a local beer. 

It's very cold here but no snow but I do recommend if you are travelling down from Sapporo do your stop over at Shin-Aomori as this is where the Shinkansen trains leave from.

Our last train journey

How beautiful is this

Sapporo

Our day started early as our first train out of Nagano was at 08.26, I started to notice how much colder it was getting and that it was now snowing. The first two trains were bullet trains so we covered a lot of ground but our third train is a local slow train but the most exciting as this one goes under the Tsugaru Straits. The Seikan Tunnel stretches 53.85km and its deepest is 240 meters an amazing tunnel but the picture on the back of the seat doesn't show any emergency escape tunnels. This is also the longest and deepest tunnel in the world.

Arrived at Sapporo Station dead on time and I think this is the biggest of them all with a massive underground network of shops and trains. Found our Best Western hotel easily as it was right outside the North exit of the station and very nice too. Lovely room, proper bed with real pillows and my own toilet and shower, what luxuries we get used to in life.

First full day here we headed for the Sapporo Brewery for a free tour all in Japanese of course but we understood when they offered us free samples of beer. I recommend Sapporo Black, it's lovely beer. After finishing our free beers we headed for the Sapporo Muesum for yet more beer but this time we had to pay 200 yen for a glass which is half the price than anywhere else. 

The Japanese love to shop and every street seems to have a complex of shops and places to eat, talk about shop until you drop here.

Day two here we went to Odori Park where the TV Tower is situated at one end, this is a replica of the Eiffel Tower in France. The tower stands at 90 meters with viewing deck to view all of Sapporo.

From there we walked to The Clock Tower which is the oldest standing building in Sapporo and it's been voted the biggest let down for tourist. I thought it was ok.

Some retail therpy and back to the hotel to do some washing and pack for another long train journey in the morning. We found a huge pet store just for cats and dogs but mainly dogs, they are all so cute and I wanted them all. Japanese dogs are so spoilt, they want for nothing in their pampered lives.  

Longest and deepest tunnel in the world

Sapporo Brewery

Sapporo Factory Shopping Center

Sapporo Beer Museum

TV Tower

View from tower

Clock Tower oldest building in Sapporo

Clock Tower

Well looked after puppies for sale

Please give me a loving home

Nagano

It took us 6 hours to get here at 7.30pm we arrived with 4 different trains but it's our own fault due to spending more time at Mt.Fuji. Found the hostel as it was 5 minutes from the station but it's abit of a dump and bloody freezing in the room with no heating, suppose you get what you pay for......

Up early for a hot shower thank god for that, we went back to the station to get the bus to Kanbayashi where we wanted to see the Jigokudani snow monkeys. Well worth the 2km walk to see them, it's the only place in the world to see monkeys in hot springs. I could stand and watch them all day, they are funny little things and didn't care that we were there. Until you watch monkeys for awhile you don't realise how many human mannerisms they have. Reluctantly we left to catch the bus back to Nagano where we are going the explore the city. 

Didn't have much time so went to the biggest tourist attraction they have and yes it's a temple. The Zenkoji Temple is huge and covers alot of ground with shrines everywhere. The same little shops and stalls line the street up to the temple with lots of samples of the food they sell.

Booked our tickets for our 10hr, 4 different trains up to Sapporo in the morning so a long day ahead. As we have roughed it lately we have booked 3 nights in a 4* hotel when we get to Sapporo, looking forward to that.

Baby snow monkey

Olympic City

Bathing in a hot spa on a very cold day

Mt.Fuji

What a terrific couple of days we had at Mt Fuji. We got there late afternoon in very low cloud and wasn't even sure if we would see this iconic mountain. What made us laugh was the last part of this long journey was by the Thomas Train, great fun. That evening we wondered around this dormant town called Gekkoji and wondered what we were doing here, but we brought a beer and some food and headed back to the hostel. Micheal's hostel is straight down from the station so real easy to find with basic facilities.

The next day we caught the train up to Kawaguchiko where we should see fantastic views over the lakes but no we didn't. We got the two day ticket for the sight seeing bus so we could easily hop on and off as we liked. The bus went firstly around Lake Kawaguchiko which is the largest and below Mt.Fuji. We then got off at Fugaku Fuketsu the lava cave which was interesting but only took 5 minutes to walk around. Next was the Narusawa ice cave which was as boring as the lava cave but we are on the tourist bus so let's be tourists. We boarded the bus again for a few more stops then got off to walk for abit around Lake Saiko. While walking the sun started to shine and the low cloud started to move away so we got back onto the next bus and headed back to Lake Kawaguchiko where we would be able to see Mt.Fuji.

And yes what a sight it was to see this stand alone perfect cone shaped mountain, we remained until the sun set and headed back to the hostel with smiles on our faces. We decided that if it was nice the next day we would catch a later train for Nagano. The next day brought a beautiful blue sky with no sight of any clouds in the sky so we packed our bags and left them at the hostel to pick up later.

Before we headed back to the lakes we went to see the Yamanokami-Jinja Temple and I'm glad we did. It was a very peaceful place in amongst the massive tall pine trees and not a tourist stall or food stand insight. If you only visit one temple in Japan it has to be this one.

Back on the Thomas train to Mt.Fuji for a few more photos of this mountain that I will one day return and climb.

Thomas brought us to Mt.Fuji

It`s there really

Our tour bus

Narusawa Ice Cave

Every type of drink hot or cold

Lake Saiko

We are happy bunnies

Mt.Fuji

Mt.Fuji

Kyoto cont.

Up bright and early as wanted to get to Arashiyama to walk through the bamboo forest and visit the monkey's in Monkey Park. It was a very nice day weather wise and the walk in the bamboo forest was interesting but very busy. The place has lots of gardens and shrines to visit and we saw another geisha girl but yet again no photos to be taken. The river Hozu runs right through the city and we enjoyed a lovely walk along its banks watching the boats glide pass. After our walk we tried the local soya ice cream and very nice it was too, maybe not as fattening as our ice cream due to being made from soya.

Finding the monkey park I realised it was another climb up to the top of Mt.Iwatayama at 133 meters but the route is lined with the monkeys. At the top they have a feeding station and amazing views over the city below. The monkeys roam freely and it was lovely to watch them in their natural habitat as these monkeys are only found in Japan.

Bamboo Forest

Bamboo Forest

Bamboo Forest

Gardens at Arashiyama

Japanese Macaque or Snow Monkey

I`m watching you

That`s nice

Overlooking the city

Nara

Todaiji Temple

We took an local train from Kyoto station and headed for the city of Nara. After an hour we were there in this vast park full of deer eager to be fed. The center piece of the park is the Todaiji Temple which is home to The Big Buddha. the temple is the largest wooden structure in the world today. The seated Buddha is 15 meters tall and is flanked by 2 Bodhisattvas. This was a great day out and well worth the slow journey to get there, and to get away from the hustle of Kyoto.

Nara Park deer

The Big Buddha

The Big Buddha

For Molly and Matt

Kyoto

Arrived to yet another hectic station with too many exits and off course we choose the wrong one to get to the bus terminal. Finally on a hot and over packed bus we made it to the hostel and dumped our bags as we were too early to check in.
We decided to follow the hundreds of people heading up a slight hill as we guessed that meant another temple or shrine. After walking through the usual shops and food stalls we came to the Kiyomizu-dera temple. This is one of the most popular in Japan as if you go to the top you get great views of the blossom and of the city below. Many ladies are dressed in their kimono`s which seems to be the norm when visiting these places. After visiting this area we went back and checked into our hostel where another bunk bed in a 12 bed dorm awaited us. That evening we went to the Gion area where old city meets new, interesting place.

Kiyomizu-dera at the bottom

Kiyomiza-dera at the top

Ladies in their kimono`s

Fushimo-Inari Shrine

After a heavy day of walking and my ankles killing me we thought we would take it easy after our visit to Nara. So as it was raining when we got up we stayed local and went for a walk to the Imperial Palace not realising its not open to the public but the gardens were lovely to visit. It had stopped raining so we jumped on a train and went looking for the Fushimo-Inari Shrine. 

Made it to the top of Mt.Inari

Fushimo-Inari Shrine

Imperial Palace

Little did I realise that you had to walk to the top of Mt.Inari, the route is lined with Torii which are the red arches. The summit is 233 meters and is covered with 32,000 sub shrines and I think we saw 31,000 of them. It was a great climb and very pretty even with the low cloud and damp drizzle.

Geisha Girl