Japan
Country: Japan
Highlights: Gastronomy ★★★★★, Art / Museums ★★, Historical sites ★★★, Natural Beauty ★, Shopping ★★; Sports/Adventure ★, Geographic extremes 0 , Glamour ★★;
When to go: Spring
Where to go: Tokyo, Kyoto, Mt Fuji and Nagano
Downside: The crowds and the heavy traffic.
Our Experiences: Tokyo is the biggest human concentration on Earth with 37 million people living in it. Going from one place to the other may be sometimes a hard whole-day task. But there are some nice attractions such as the Imperial Palace, The Ginza district for shopping and the Ueno Park. But, the best of Japan is the city of Kyoto. The temples and palaces are divine and the gastronomy is the best in the whole country. We could spend a week just eating the same dish without getting enough of it. We drove a car half the way up tp Mount Fuji, but the best views we had of the Volcano was from the city of Kawaguchiko, some miles away .The city of Nagano in the mountains was also interesting and something very unique happened to us. We went to visit one important temple called Zenko-Ji. But the traffic was so bad that we couldn´t find any parking place even 1 km away. After we parked the car and walked a few minutes through the heavy crowd, one lady in uniform came to us asking if we wanted some help for that “special day”. We thought everything was so strange . Then we found out that 1 in every 7 years there was a celebration called Gokaicho where people are allowed to see one famous Buddha image. And this super rare party was happening exactly on that week!. But we have never heard about of all this stuff. How could it be? The helpful lady made a tour ( for free ) through the temple complex, not believing we were there just by accident. So incredible!
Hotels we love and recommend: –
Gokaicho, Japan: surprises
Here is a podcast with a record of our trip to Japan.The tour was a surprise, addition to the culture, customs and people around us, how can realize.
You can find this story at SoundCloud too in English.
Ouça esta história também no SoundCloud em Português!
