In the last two weeks of February I decided to embark on my first vacation trip to Japan!
Read more: Trip to Japan!We stayed in a BnB in Nishi Waseda on the top floor of a 7 floor apartment block. We didn’t see or hear anyone else in the building, but sometimes the elevator was on a different level so we assume someone else was around.
We stayed in Japan for 10 days and visited Hokkaido, Osaka and Kyoto from this BnB base.
The second day we went to the top of Tokyo Tower and did the Diamond tour, which was a lot of fun.
Later that day we went to a Ninja & Kabuki show in Kabukicho. We had lots of fun and I got to go up on stage with the actors!
I picked up a few souvenirs. The little wooden boxes were from the Ninja and Kabuki show!
The next day was a trip to teamLabs Borderless.
We ate in a darkened room. The projectors above drew butterflies on the food. If you moved the bowls the butterflies would fly to the new location.
We also got to make our own Chopsticks in Shinjuku.
On the 4th day we flew to Hokkaido. We’d never been somewhere it was actually snowing at the time so it was quite fun!
We stayed in a Ryokan and had a good time relaxing in the onsens!
I got a mini wooden sword, similar to the one Gintoki uses in the show Gintama. My daughter got a full-sized one!
There was a 100 year anniversary at Lake Toya.
After returning to Tokyo we next headed out to Osaka on the Shinkansen. We passed by Mount Fuji in the distance:
We went to a Tea Ceremony, Samurai & Kimono clothing and Calligraphy place in Osaka:
We got a short lesson on how to play the Shamisen and they brought out two more for us to play along!
We stayed overnight in Osaka then got up early the next morning to go on a day trip on a bus to Kyoto.
We also went to teamLabs Biovortex.
I liked it better than the Borderless one.
I certainly picked up a lot of souvenirs! 😀
So since I did this trip I learned a lot about Japan and customs, etc. I thought I’d put together a little Mini Guide to Japan which you can download for free right here! It talks about Currency, Customs, Word pronounciation, Terms for certain words, eSIM’s, Transport, Things to do, Passports, Food, Useful words and phrases and — of course — Useful apps for your phone to help you on your trip!
