A Two Week Odyssey

After spending two weeks with my dad in Kanagawa and three days with my aunts and cousins in Tokyo, I met up with my favorite dude and his family for the second half of my Japan trip. I’m calling it a two week odyssey because it was one jam-packed schedule. A brief overview of our itinerary:

Tokyo – 1 night. (I’ll put our hotel pick in parentheses: Ryokan Asakusa Shigetsu)

We stayed in a ryokan in Asakusa, and met up with Mrs. Hiroko Fujita, a storyteller and overall wonderful human. We walked around Ueno park, which was packed with a bunch of locals and tourists. Lots of street stalls for the sakura festival.

Kawaguchiko – 2 nights. (Sunnide Resort Hotel (Sunnide = Sunny Day))

We got to stay in a really charming town that had a magnificent view of Fuji (see the featured image of this post). The people were so nice and the food was amazing.

Hiroshima – 2 nights. (Hotel Hokke Club Hiroshima)

We walked around the Peace Park, visited Itsukushima/Miyajima and ate Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki.

Nagasaki – 1 night. (Washington Hotel)

We visited the Atomic Bomb Memorial and their Peace Park. Also encountered some cats looking miserable in the drizzly weather. Ate chanpon.

Fukuoka – 1 night. (Dormy Inn Premium Canal City)

Shopping + Ramen Stadium.

Osaka (and Kyoto) – 3 nights, Kyoto was a day trip. (AirBNB)

Ate a ton of okonomiyaki, visited a wonderful master woodblock printer and battled the chaos of Dotonbori – a foodie street that is packed full of tourists.

Kanazawa – 1 night. (AirBNB)

Free entry into what is considered one of the most beautifully constructed gardens in Japan: Kenrokuen. Ate Yakitori.

Wajima  – 1 night. (Kaiyu Notonosho)

Kanazawa – 1 night. (AirBNB)

We met up with Kenji’s distant relatives and had a marvelous time laughing, eating, translating/interpreting, and reminiscing about family members that have passed away.

Tokyo (again) – 2 nights. (Maihama Club Resort – An official Tokyo Disney/Sea hotel, which basically means that they sell authentic Disney goods and have a free Mickey-fied shuttle to the Disney line.)

And for the end of a two week odyssey, we went to Disney Sea!! 🙂

Were we overly ambitious with our itinerary? Perhaps. But it was one heck of an amazing trip! We ate a ton, visited a bunch of temples, rode many trains. And thanks to Kenji’s mom for having me along 🙂 🙂

Stay tuned for more detailed posts! And as always, happy travels!