Category — My Travel Journal

Miyajima Island, Hiroshima, Himeji

We are finally at the last part of this Japan Trip series. This really turned out much longer than I thought it would. On the trip I was planning for just three short posts. But when I got home it was so hard to choose which pictures to share!

Without anymore delay, here we go…above were some pastry selections from one of those service areas that I told you about. This one was a restroom/snack/lunch stop. Free green tea as usual at these nicer rest stops.
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Are you ready for more? Here we go…. After visiting a sake brewery museum in the morning, we headed off to Awaji Island to enjoy a Japanese puppet play. We learned about how it takes three people to control one puppet (one for the head and arm, another for the other arm, and the last person for the legs). The play is in Japanese but if you read the summary before hand you can understand what’s going on. The gidayu narration and shamisen accompaniment to the puppet play also add a great element making the whole experience very enjoyable.
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Part 3: Nagoya, Kyoto, Nara

While waiting for our bullet train at Nagoya station we had some time to check out a department store called JR Nagoya Takashimaya. This was a pretty typical Japanese department store. Located within the station, it offered 15 floors of shopping and food! The floor plan went something like this:
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Part 2: Hakone, Mt. Fuji, Shizuoka, Nagoya

I hope you guys have a good Internet connection cause this post has a lot of pictures! First off on our way from Tokyo to Hakone we made a rest stop at one of the many service areas along the way. Normally when I think rest stop, it’s kind of like ewww. But the ones that we went to in Japan have nice bathrooms, free green tea, good food, and lots of snacks! It was pretty cold over at this place so we first tried a taiyaki. This was a nice and warm slightly sweet pancake type exterior filled with custard. Here’s what it looks like up close and on the inside…
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Part 1: Tokyo - Ikebukuro, Ueno, Asakusa, Ginza, Tsukiji

Aloha everyone, I’m back! Recipes will be returning here soon I promise. But first, here is part 1 of my trip pics that many of you have been asking about.
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