ようこそ！ Welcome to Quer durch Japan (All Over Japan)!
This private travel blog has been around since 2017, but it was only available in German. Until now…
We have now switched to a different blog software that supports multiple languages. This means Quer durch Japan is finally bilingual, available in both German and English.
And I’m sure a few bugs are still hiding here and there, too.
Have fun browsing!
The Ritsurin-kōen landscape park is in the city of Takamatsu on the island of Shikoku. It is one of Japan’s designated places of scenic beauty and, at nearly 75 hectares, it’s also the largest of its kind.
You’ll be impressed right at the entrance. The greenery of the garden blends seamlessly into the densely wooded Mount Shiun. This “borrowed scenery” (shakkei) gives visitors the impression that the park stretches all the way to the horizon.
There are several ponds where you can take a stroll along the banks, or even explore some of them by boat. You can order a tea in the teahouses and enjoy it in peace with a fantastic view of the garden. And of course, there are plenty of photo ops waiting to be discovered.
You can easily reach Ritsurin-kōen on foot in about 20 minutes from Takamatsu Station. On the way, you’ll pass the ruins of Takamatsu Castle and the city’s shopping street. Alternatively, you can take the Tokushima Line from the station to Ritsurin-Kōen-Kitaguchi (栗林公園北口駅) station. Entry costs 410¥ (excluding the boat ride and teahouse visit).
One of the must-do tours in Kyoto is the Philosopher’s Path (哲学の道, Tetsugaku-no-michi). It got its name because the contemporary philosopher and professor Nishida Kitaro is said to have walked along this path on his daily commute to the university while meditating.
Right near the starting point is the Ginkaku-ji, the Silver Pavilion. It’s worth starting the tour right away with a visit. Afterwards, you can grab a snack in the adjacent shopping street to refuel before the strenuous part of the walk begins. 😉
The Philosopher’s Path starts at the lower end of the shopping street and follows the Biwa Canal in a southerly direction. A narrow path leads along the banks under romantic cherry trees. Occasionally, we’ll leave the path for detours to visit the nearby little temples and shrines called Hōnen-in, Anraku-ji, Reikan-ji and Otoyo-jinja. At the Kumano Nyakuōji, we leave the canal and walk through small streets to the Eikan-dō Zenrin-ji. Finally, we reach the Nanzen-ji, where our tour ends. What’s impressive about this temple is the massive San-mon gate, the main building with a rock garden, and various outbuildings. Right nearby, you’ll also find a structure you probably wouldn’t have expected here. The brick aqueduct Suirokaku transports water from Lake Biwa into the Philosopher’s Path canal and once fed Japan’s first hydroelectric power plant.
The path itself is obviously free, and most of the small temples and shrines don’t charge an entrance fee either. You should plan about 30 minutes for the path itself. With all the little detours and photo opportunities, time flies though, so you should add a generous time buffer.
The Ginkakuji charges an entrance fee of 500¥. At the Nanzen-ji, you pay for the individual buildings separately; climbing the San-mon, for example, costs 600¥, and visiting the main building with the rock garden is another 600¥. An extensive tour of all the stops adds up pretty quickly, both in terms of time and money.
You can get there either by bus to Ginkakuji-michi (銀閣寺道) or take a taxi straight to the Ginkaku-ji (銀閣寺). Careful with the pronunciation: The Kinkaku-ji (Golden Pavilion) sounds very similar and is more touristy, but it’s on the other side of town! From Nanzen-ji, you can head back either by bus (stop Nanzenji Sosui Kinenkan Dobutsuen Higashimon, 南禅寺・疏水記念館・動物園東門) or by the Underground (stop Keage Station 蹴上駅). Alternatively, you can also pay a visit to the nearby Heian Shrine and its garden.
The city of Kanazawa sits on the coast of the Sea of Japan and is the administrative capital of Ishikawa Prefecture. It’s way off the typical tourist track, and foreigners don’t come round here too often.
That made our visit all the more charming. At the hotel, they were really happy to have guests from Germany and the rare chance to practise their English. At Omicho Market, we had a lovely chat with a Japanese guy who came up to us and curiously asked about our home country. Generally, Japan shows a completely different side away from its big cities, which you absolutely have to experience.
Even just arriving at Kanazawa central station is pretty impressive. A huge glass dome roof welcomes visitors, who then walk into the city through the Tsuzumi-mon, a massive modern wooden torii gate.
In this article, we’ll show you a few general impressions of the city. We’ve already shown the main tourist spots in the 2017 travel diary.
You can get to Kanazawa from Tōkyō on the Hokuriku Shinkansen. From Kyōto, the Thunderbird Limited Express takes you into the city, passing the statue of Kaga Onsen along the way. Both routes are included in the Rail Pass.
We only planned one day to see the city on our trip. Looking back, we really wish we’d stayed a bit longer, so we would’ve had time for the 21st Century Museum and a guided tour of the Ninja Dera.
Japan has over 100 active volcanoes. Habitable land is pretty scarce, the island nation is about the size of Germany, but loads of steep mountains stop widespread settlement. So people also settled right next to volcanoes.
At best, this makes for spectacular photos. For Shimabara, on the other hand, its closeness to the Unzen volcano proved fatal in the 1990s. After lots of small eruptions, the volcano blew, and pyroclastic flows buried houses in the town under a thick layer of ash. Luckily, all residents could be evacuated in time. Still, 43 scientists, reporters and a taxi driver lost their lives in the disaster.
Today, a Disaster Museum serves as a reminder of the tragedy. Nearby, you can check out a few former houses that look like they’ve sunk into the ground right up to their roofs. They show just what kind of natural forces are behind a volcanic eruption.
You can get to the park of the buried houses (土石流被災家屋保存公園) from Shimabara station by taking the bus to the Mizunashihonjin Fukae (みずなし本陣ふかえ) stop. Alternatively, you can grab a taxi from the Shimabarakō train stop. Access to the houses is free.
