Travel Journal 2018

Japan again? Absolutely! 😁 This time we’re going to let ourselves be enchanted by the country in late autumn.

We will (hopefully) see the autumn colours of the maple trees, the second most important natural spectacle of the year after the cherry blossoms. Also on the plan are winter light decorations in the big cities. And - no joke - we’ll be visiting a few German Christmas markets.

Our trip starts this time in Tōkyō. From there we’ll work our way west to Kagoshima on the main island of Kyūshū, where we’ll take a look at the smoking volcano Sakurajima. With a detour to Shikoku, we’ll then head back to Tōkyō. This time we’ve also planned a stay in Ōsaka. The city has always been on our list, but we haven’t managed to visit it until now.

It starts soon! We’re already pretty excited.

Map: Natural Earth, Public Domain

The first few kilometres are already behind us. We’ve arrived at our stopover in Helsinki and are now waiting for our night flight to Tokyo Narita to be called.

After a long flight, we’ve finally arrived. First thing we did was grab the Rail Pass for our train journeys and the SIM card for mobile internet. We’re good to go!

Our first stop and base for the next two day trips is Yokohama. The hotel has a fantastic view of the bay. Festively lit streets and massive Christmas trees in the hotel lobbies are already getting us in the Christmas spirit. A boat dock blasting Christmas music across the bay does the rest. 🎄

But right now, early in the evening, the jet lag is hitting us hard. We can barely keep our eyes open. Tomorrow we’re off to Kamakura.

Kamakura, 29°C, perfect beach weather… 😎

The coastal town of Kamakura is a must-visit for travellers to Japan. Most guided tours, however, just cart their visitors off to the Hasedera Temple and the Great Buddha. We’ve already seen them twice and gave them a miss today. The place has so much more to offer!

We visited the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu shrine and the Kenchoji temple with its Hanso-bo observation deck, from where you get a lovely view of Japan’s landmark, Fuji-san, when the weather’s nice. On top of that, we got the chance to try homemade matcha ice cream at Kamakura Chacha, which comes in intensity levels from 1 (mild) to 5 (for matcha connoisseurs).

After a long break on the sandy beach, we headed over to the neighbouring town of Ōfuna, where you can spot the giant head of the Ōfuna Kannon from miles away.